661 ff THE DIETETICS. BY E. J. DAVID • SAN FRANCISCO : luteruational Printing Co., 729 Montgomery Street 1905- <% w\ ^'b 'THE LIBRAftY C r . . I coNGRt-^8. ^ yA Two Goaios «£i»ivae i OCT, 10 1905 (ftJWS <^ Mfe. ^?rt ! ! / JL^ HoL . copy ^ ! PREFACE. Attracted toward the Cooking profession by its deep mysteries I come to understand its gigantic importance; its vast oppoirtunities and its brilliant I'uture ; I sought to demonstrate and prove these ex- traordinary importance, opportunities and future to the professional Cook and to the Public. In January 1901 I published a pamphlet, "The Chemical Cook", in which I expounded few new theories and many suggestions for the benefit of the profession and of humanity. During the intervening years from that publication and of to day, I kept busy to formulate new ideas on the Cook 'is business and advocate the foundation of a High School of Dietetics in several lengthy letters Sv^nt to the Cooks' Association of the Pacific Coast, San Francisco, California, of which I am a Member almost since its organization some years ago. That Association was fortunate to have at its head honest and good business men, fair and broad minded, intelligent and energetic, who appreciated my efforts to raise the Cook's profession. Most of the Members speak several languages, and great many of them travelled and worked all over the World, and isomo are recognized past Masters in their profession ; it is an honor for a professional Cook to belong to that organization. Before an applicant is admitted to Membership he undergoes a cnreful examination as to its capacity in Cooking, — 4 - and further, must give proof of his knowledge dur- ing a certain period called initiation. Polities are rigorously prohibited at the meetings and proceed- ings of the Association, and any Member convicted of behavior unbecoming of a gentleman is fined or expelled from the Association according to the gravity of the offense. The number of Members fluctuates slightly around five hundred, but all of them are able- intelligent, fair minded, energetic and progressive men. General meetings are held every month. The Association has a very fair financial situation and a good income. No men are better fitted than the Members of the Cooks' Association of the Pacific Coast for the foundation of the original and first High School of Dietetics of the whole World, and there is no doubt that before long the creation of such a School will become a fact. No sioience can be compared as important and useful as the Dietetics; its Masters and Pupils will share of that importance everywhere they go. Without the professional Cook high civilization can not exist ; they ought to go hand in hand in the path of advancement for still more progress. San Francisco, j\ugust, 1905. CHAPTER 1 THE DIETETICS. Dietetics, as Webster informs us, is that part of Medicine which relates to diet or food ; Webster simply took the word with his signification from the old Greek and Latin languages. Webster knew the elasticity of the same word since he gave, in his Dictionary, many oither significationis to which one more might properly be added, as its Greek and Latin roots lend themselves marvelously to that use : that little known word of Dietetics will henceforth designate a new science or rather the scientific or- ganization of the old profession of Cooking. Diete- tics is the science that comprehends the knowledge of the physical, chemical, physiological, and kineti- al properties of the foods, be these in natural state, mixed or combined ; be these prepared with the help cf a high, ordinary or low temperature; the know- ledge too of the human body to the physical, chemi- cal, physiological and kinetical point of view; in a few words, the denomination designates the trans- formation of the old Cooking into a science, — the Dietetics, — having a logical basis susceptible of gi- gantic progress. — 6 — Extracted from "The Chemical Cook". Page 6. — "No science is more singular, more attractive, more extraordinary, more marvelous tlian the Dietetieal science, though it is yet in an embryo state. It ought to be the highest of all sciences and certainly will rank first because it is the most useful and the most indispensable of all sciences. MJore than the race and heredity, foods form intelligent, strong and energetic men; make the enterprising and ruling nation®; its scientific gji'd progressive development will be the best gua- ranty against famine, and consequently against re- volts and bloody revolutions. The progress of the science ^of Dietetics will considerably decrease the multiple, painful and terTibre''maladies which have their origin in a bad feeding...." Page 14. — "To know how the phenomenon of life exists it is necessary to study the different organs during the digestion, and the role performed by the foods in the act of nutrition. It is easy to understand th great importance of these studies if we think that the four-fifths of the diseases that c-ffect humanity have no other origin than an irra- tional feeding... Page 22. — "Human life, seen from the chemical standpoint, derives from a successive serie of chemi- al actions very complicated, among which the oxyd- 8tion plays the first role. These chemical actions, to sum them up in a general way, are a dissociation of the natural organic combinations of the foods in — 7 — rheir primitive elements and the formation of new combinations. In all chemical actions a certain quantity of heat is produced or its equivalent, the electricity, manifests itself; it is to that heat and to its electrical equivalent produced by the dissocia- tion of the foods and the creation of new combina- tions that the human being owes its characteristic temperature, its life or electricity. The production of the heat or vital electricity is measured to the body by special ways and means... Page 24. — "Before to study the composition of the foods it is logical to know the chemical compo- sition of the human body : eighteen elements form- ing more than one hundred and twenty combina- tions compound the human body... Page 25. — ^"The body is formed of different chemical elements, it is indispensable that the foods contain the same elements. The importance of the knowledge of the chemical elements of the foods and of their compounds is beyond question; such knowledge is necessary for a scientific and correct preparation of the foods... Page 34. — "The aim of Cooking has been, until today, defined as an operation to make the foods more agreeable to thei eye, to the smell, to the taste, and more digestive. The explanation, logical enough in itself, is given by the cooks, gastronoms and all the learned men that busied themselves with the Dietetical science. Seen from the chemical stand- point. Cooking is the transformation of the foods, generally possessed of active or latent life, with the help of heat, into single chemical combinations easier to dissociate... Page 35. — "Cooking plays another important role by killing microbes and small organisms, by destroying living germs of the diseases which exist in the foods or have settled upon these foods and are possessed of enough strength to attack the hu- man organs coming within their range... Page 37. — "Cooking recipes are without num- ber and still less numberable are their denomina- tions. The Chef cooks the most experienced are far from to understand each other on the signification of the lormulas and on the composition of these formulas. Actual Cooking is well compared to the ancient Medicine and Alchemy... Page 42. — "Scientific men, the ablest in matters of public alimentation, agree to recognize the pre- sent state of inferiority of the culinary science com- pared to the progress m"ade in the other sciences. Nothing precise exists, everything is routine and uncertainty in the work, the use of mixtures and the combinations of the foods. Present Cooking is only a compilation of empiritic recipes. The most eminent Cooks: Careme, Dubois, Delie, Gouffe, Ran- hofer have left only culinary books full of formulas, where the fancy and imagination fill the greatest part; there exists no coordination, no indication of the reason to be of these formulas and of their che- mical and physiological properties. Some able Chemists as Dumas. L^ebig, Payen, Voit, Playfair, Ranke, Atwater have opened the practical and log- — 9 — ical side of the important question of feeding human bemgs by some analysis and conseiencious observa- tions, but they have only touched the raw foods, leaving out the prepared foods though the main point of the Dietetics. Some famous physiologists, such as: Huxley, Magendie, Beale, Brown, Dujar- din, Pavy, Bernard, studied the organs of the diges- tion and disclosed the mysterious transformations that the foods undergo until their complete assimil- ation, while the knowledge on the microbes, germs and small organisms in general, and the role they play in the human life, received a powerful stimulus through the marvelous works of Pasteur and Kock. All these effort? furnish the embryonary elements for the creation of a new science : the Dietetics. The future of the new science is full of the most brilliant promises; no famine could be possible with the Dietetics; the well being and the general health of the people will be increased in gigantic propor- tions... Page 45. — ''Against the pessimistic propheties of misanthrop learned men the centuries to come will afford to the toilers, notwithstanding their number, a life more easy and more comfortable than presently, and make the necessities of life cheaper and of a remarkable uniformity of price all over the World... Page 48. — "Scientific feeding will form the prominent natiors of the future... "Bad cooking, bad foods are the source of great many diseases... "No science merits more deep study than — ro Dietetics, because from the knowledge and applica- tion of its principles depend the health and longevi- ty, the development of the body, of the intelligen-ce and of the morality... Extracts from some letters addressed to the Cooks' Association of the Pacific Coast, San Francisco, California. San Francisco, May 15th, 1903. ' ' Gentlemen, "I have the honor to commiinicate to you a proposition for the future well-being of the Members of this Association and of the Cooks in general ; and too, as an American citizen, do my share in pushing the country ahead in the field of sciences. "My proposition is this: to spread by publicity in all forms the idea of organization of the Art of Cooking into a science as and for the reasons speci- fied hereinafter : to spread the necessity of the crea- tion of a High School of Dietetics in San Francisco... " Ideas and projects, like eggs, need a long in- cubation to hatch properly and familiarize every- body with it before they can be made realities... "Why? How? What are the new science of Dietetics and the High School of Dietetics? What do they mean, and what good they may bring to the Members of this Association, and how are they to make this country prominent in sciences? I give you hereinafter all the informations thought neces- sary... "Hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted and lost annually that could and can be saved... "The field of Dietetics is praetically unex- plored... "We need to organize the so-called Art of Cook- ing by adding the practical study of the Chemistry and of the physiological properties of the foods to that of practical cooking and preparing foods... "I understand that the Cook's profession can be elevated and made peer with all the liberal pro- fessions and enjoy their large social privileges. "What is Science but organized knowledge. The "Art of Cooking", as the profession of the Cook is sometimes called, is not an art to the strict meaning of the word, since Art possesses a recognized artis- tic standard and there is none in Cooking as in any science. True Art too is not ephemeral and vapor- ous as are the productions of the self styled "ar- tistic Cooks". Cooking is neither a science since it has no system, no scientific organization, no high school. Cooking is something indefinite that needs only a basis of some kind to step higher than any other branch of human activity. The teachings of the few schools of Cooking that are existing today are merely empiric and follow a routine almost twenty centnries old, with no hope, no desire and no means to do better. The Cook of today learns his business as did the physician-surgeon-pharmacist- barber of yore, by practice without any preliminary — 12 study of the foods he uses; his practical knowledge differs widely and no standard of this knowledge exists.,. "The history of the creation and development of any trade and of any science proves conclusively the difficulties that beset such a stupendous under- taking. Great many lives, colossal wealth and an immense amount of energy were spent to bring up to date Medicine, Chemistry, Engineering and other sciences, and yet there is much left to do... "We will have to establish a High School of Dietetics with power of granting degrees... "The aim of the High School of Dietetics is to form practical ard theoretical Cooks possessing ex- tensive knowledge of the Chemistry and Phy- siology... "I know that great many of the Cooks do not feel the want of such knowledge because they do not know of its existence and also because they do not see how it could help them in their business... "Progress is in the direction of simplification of the complex processes of labor, and the creation and skillful management of wealth to increase the resources, comforts, and happineeis of humanity. The foremost industrial prominence and great pros- perity of the United States have been attained by the constant endeavors to replace complex processes by means more simple and perfect. The wants of civilization and the effects of competition require the effective application of labor, time and mater- ials. The probable influence of the new science of Dietetics will be far reaching... — 13 — "In the present istate of tlie laws of this coun- try no School of Dietetics can be created and exist unless liberally asssisted by donations and subscrip- tions, but it is not to be believed that the American people will quietly look on and see hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products annually wasted and entirely lost and not make an effort to save a portion of it, if satisfied that the means of doing iso are within their reach... "To found the first real scientific school of Dietetics of the whole World many hard hammer- ings to drive the new idea into the heads of even the moist intelligent and progressive people are positive- ly needed. To spread the idea is the first step to materialize the idea... "California is one of the most picturesque iaiUfds in the World ; its dimiate is healthy and agree- able ; its products are earlier and excellent ; its hotels and restaurants are good, they ought to be- come the best in the World. California is a land of flowers and sunshine ; with a science enabling its Cooks to give out prepared foods to strengthen and build up mathematically strong people, to scientific- aliy prolong life, to develop gastronomy, the tour- ists and rich people of the whole World, in search cf pleasure and health, v/ill come in California in great numbers and help to build up, in exchange of health and pleasure, one of the richest States in the Union... "I do not doubt of the birth of the science of Dietetics with its own schools from the ashes of the o.ld so-called "Art of Cooking"... — 14 — "I know too much for not to add that the birth cf a science in this great country will do more than even a successful war to keep it from oblivion in the centuries to come. Eaces and nations disappear from the Earth, but Arts and Sciences never!... San Francisco, May 30th., 1903. "Gentlemen, ■ "In my letter dated 15th inst. I preconized a School of Dietetics, hinting the numerous advant- ages that might come from such School for the Cooks in general and for the whole country; 1 will clearly demonstrate in this note by a striking example taken among thousands, of the high im- portance of such a school of Dietetics and the probable value of its teachings... "To demonstrate beyond doubt to the Members of this Association the real value and vast impor- tance of a School of Dietetics I give hereinafter a common example of every day business, involving an industry whose products yearly are at least one hundred million dollars: the canning of Roast Beef... "The Chemist is not yet able with his retort and reactifs to make the difference between a wine worth four cents a bottle and a wine worth four dollars a, bottle. No rational analysis of prepared foods has ever been made. The universal "Beef a la Mode" is yet waiting for the analysis... — 15 — "Here is a peculiar bankruptcy of the s'cieaice all along the line of Dietetics; the experimental Chemist has carefully shunned the Dietetics because of its almost insurmountable difficulties and incom- prehensible mysteries; here is the opportunity of the intelligent and progressive Cook... San Francisco, March 13th., 1905. "Gentlemen, "Why should the Cooks of today not look for improvement in their splendid profession which ought to be at the very head of all the existing trades and professions? Do not they consume alone more billions of dollars worth than do all the other trades and professions gathered together? And where is the up-to-date school where they learn the proper and economical use of these billions of dol- lars worth? Merely the school of apprenticeship born with the family and several hundred thousand years old, and few schools of Cooking teaching old mouldy recipes and formulas for newly wed people... "All the trades, industries, sciences have made gigantic progress, alone Cooking has remained sta- tionary. The old times inn barely able to accom- modate few people, costing few thousand dollars, doing a business of few thousand dollars, run by the proprietor and his family, and occasionally few helps, has made place for the luxurious and splendid modern hotels and restaurants able to cater each for — i6 — several thousand people, costing several million dollars each to build, doing- a business of great many million dollars each, and having each an army of help. Times have changed so the Cooking profes- sion must go ahead for better... "There are progressive schools of Chemistry Pharmacy, Medicine, Surgery, Dentistry, Engineer- ing, Mining, Railroading, Navigating, Waring, Arts and Letters, there ought to be in Dietetics. "The Dietetics consumes yearly in the United States alone eight billion dollars of goods for the maintenance and the comfort of life, and to learn the use of these billions of dollars there exists the very discutable apprenticeship without any possible progress... ; ■ : "Times wid come when the Dietetics will be taught in every hamlet of America ; the saving in money and life will be simply enormous... "In the centuries to come the new science of Dietetics will make it possible for the Earth to be peopled like a loaf of sugar or a comb of honey would be by the flies... "But before we have yet to found, to create the first and original modern School of Dietetics. Hundreds of million dollars are spent yearly in the teaching of mere speculative theories of no practical find material value whatever to the great majority of the people in the World; I do not see why a School of Dietetics, of which the utility and ne- cessity is beyond doubt and which would benefit the whole humanity, should not be created. — 17 — "Why should America, a young country, not take the opportunity to give birth to a new science, particularly a science dealing with the very life it- self and the use oi billions of dollars, a science more important and useful than all the other hundred sciences and arts put together ; there is much moire glory, honor and profit in such a new science than even a successful war. "Why should the Cooks' Association of the Pacific Coast not be the pioneer of the creation of the new science and of the foundation of the new Institution"? Nothing would be so easy in following closely on the great lines of the school of Pharmacy, although the matters are widely different ; what has been done in the pharmaceutical field can be done in the Dietetical field, vastly more important. In the United States alone, four hundred million dol- lars represent largely the amount of the consump- tive business of the pharmacist when eight billion dollars would be a low estimate in the Dietetical consumptive business. Dietetics alone consumes yearly more value than all the other trades, pro- fessions and arts put together, the wonder is to see how such a formidable amount of wealth is used up without previous practical as well as theoretical training. "The organization of the Cooking profession into a Science — the Dietetics — and its teaching in special schools will put America far ahead in the scientifical field from all the other competitors, for there exists no science more useful and more impor- tant in the World than the Dietetics since it deals — i8 — directly with the life and health, comfort and wel- fare of the whole humanity. "America first in science, will say the future historian... San Francisco, April 17th., 1905. ..."The Dietetics being a science based on facts and experiments will surely extirpate most of the terrible diseases that decimate humanity and will scientifically build up strong men and women, and consequently will save millions of lives and vastly increase the average length of life The Dietetics as ct progressive science will, too, increase by fiftyfold the present capacity of mother Earth to feed more people than the present population... "The Dietetics will have and will find rules, methods and precise formulas, and by the use of these rules, methods and formulas decrease the enormous waste m foods and save every year several hundred million dollars in the United States alone... "To work hard and be of utmost stubborness in the pursuit of the object until accomplished is the cnly way to succeed, I know of no other... "The matters concerning the future Institution are too important for to act lightly, and to hurry we risk to make dangerous mistakes, so it is better go ahead slowly and carefully... CHAPTER II THE HiGH SCHOOL Of DSETETSCS. Inducements to Young Men. The Dietetics offers to the intelligent and energetic young men an unlimited field for original works, a fair living and chances to win fortune. Every hotel and restaurant in the World employ Cooks. There aa^e humdreds of thousaai'd Cooks hold- ing lucrative positions in the United States. There are Cooks everywhere in the World ; from a be- ginner with 600 dollars a year to those whose es- tablished reputation makes from 3,000 to 10,000 dol- lars a year. Cooks whose ability as experts in spe- cial lines is recognized obtain still greater remunera- tion. Through the new school of Dietetics good opportunity will be afforded to become a high class Cook. There will be several degrees of proficiency as the student htis completed all his courses or made only part of them. The courses will be three years with a required stage of two years more in one or more of first class hotels or restaurants. 20 Subjects to be Taught. Mathematics. — Physicsi. — Chemistry. — Physiology. — Cookery. — ^Bakery. — Pastry. — Confectionery. — Preserves. — ^Beverages. — Artistic Cookery. In fact, pupils will be taught theoretically and practically from the building up of a fire to the making of the highest artistic cookery; how to feed a man as well as how to feed a million of men ; how to produce the greatest amount of vital electricity at the lowest cost ; how to prepare foods for a baby as well as for an old man under the different climates; how to build up scientifically strong men and women. The Building. The new Institution will have its own building to be divided into: 1° School rooms; 2"" Laboratory and working rooms; 3° Up to date Library on foods and their uses; 4° Museum of foods and cooking apparatus; 5° Meeting rooms for the Founders of the Institution. Progress Made. At the meeting held, March 14th, 1905, by the Members of the Cooks' Association of the Pacific Coast, in their rooms, 11 Stockton Street, San Fran- cisco,- California, a resolution was proposed and voted to the unanimity to approve and accept the — 21 — offer of twenty-five thousand dollars made by the Author for the foundation of an up to date School of Dietetics in the City of San Francisco, as al- ready sketched. Those twenty-five thousand dollars are the amount of a prize offered by the "American Grape Acid Association" of San Francisco, California, to the inventor of a process or of a formula for the utilization of grapes for the fabrication of tartaric acid and cream of tartar which are the basis of the best baking powders of which the consumption is enormous in the United States. The Author was a participant in the solution of the problem and offered the prize, if won and given, to the Cooks' Association of the Pacific Coast for the object above specified. The process is patented (caveated). In the same meeting the Members of this Asso- ciation after further informations given on the pro- posed High School of Dietetics and on a motion made by the Author to that object, passed a resolu- tion to petition the Congress at Washington for an appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars, inde- pendently of the eventual prize above mentioned, to make sure the prompt creation of the High School of Dietetics. The Author stated that three hundred and fifty to four hundred thousand dollars were ne- cessary to put the new Institution on a solid and durable basis, but that a good and conclusive begin- ning could be made with twenty-five to forty thousand dollars, for once the iitility of the new School of Dietetics demonstrated beyond doubt to the Public at large, it will be an easy matter for the 22 — Cooks' Association of the Pacific Coast to gather all the necessary funds for the creation of similar Insti- tutions in all the great cities of the United States, and later on all over the World. Through these efforts the project of a High School of Dietetics has begun to abandon the ethereal form of the verbosity and take on a kind of material form of reality. Few Words to the Wise. Detractors may, as usual, raise lots of objections against that High School of Dietetics because of its newness or seeming complexity, but when hungry they will readily agree without any exception that a good, nicely cooked and succulent steak or its substantial equivalent is worth much more than any kind of diatrib, rethoric, music or bad cooking. Said the wisdom of nations: "Empty stomach has no ear"; or "An empty sack cannot stand up". Bad cooking poisons slowly and kills more people than wars and epidemics. When out or without work famished working- men seeing their families starving, congregate menacingly in the streets of the great cities of the World, shouting' "bread or lead", and ready for everything, it takes something more substantial than words and speeches to calm and appease them ; at that critical time few loaves of bread possess more soothing influence upon these irritated and — 23 — hungry workingmen than the most brilliant speech of a new Demosthen, People can live years without hearing a voice or music, or seeing beautiful things, but they can not live much longer than a few days without eating and drinking. Facts are facts, the stormiest social weather can not blow them away, instead the lightest breeze makes the nicest and softest words disappear like thin fogs. In this epoch Avhen the necessities of life are so dear and make material living so costly, I thought it would lighter the charges of the people in trying to organize a science that will learn how to make the best of the foods and produces that mother Earth gives us, and have that science taught in a special school, (the High School of Dietetics) of which the principles and knowledge applied to every day life will increase the average length of life and realize an appreciable economy. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 485 731 8