Many persons, but particularly Medical Practitioners, have from time immemorial been the declared enemies of Cooks and Cookery. The determination of the latter to keep mankind under their despotic dominion, has engaged them in a perpetual warfare against whatever might oppose their peculiar interests. But I dare affirm that good Cookery, so far from possessing any deleterious tendency, is, on the contrary, highly conducive to the preservation of health, inasmuch as it protects the appetite against the disadvantageous monotony of plain food. I will not, however, conceal, that, like every thing else, it must be used with discretion; but on what enjoyment, or even ordinary function of life, I would ask, is not discretion an indispensable attendant ? the mischief then lies only in the abuse. A skilful and well-directed Cookery abounds in chemical preparations highly salutary to weak stomachs. There exists a salubrity of aliment suited to every age. Infancy, youth, maturity, and old age; each has its peculiarly adapted food, and that not merely applicable to digestive powers in full vigour, but to stomachs feebly organized by nature, or to those debilitated by excess.

I am greatly concerned at being obliged to combat a still more powerful, though amiable enemy to Cookery. The Ladies of England are unfavourably disposed towards our art; yet I find no difficulty in assigning the cause of it. It is particularly the case with them (and indeed it is so in some measure with our own sex) that they are not introduced to their parents' table till their palates have been completely benumbed by the strict diet observed in the Nursery and Boarding-Schools. Here then are two antagonists to Cookery - the Ladies and the Doctors, whose empire is as extensive as the universe, and who divide the world between them. However, in spite of the envious, the Laches wilt still wield the sceptre of pleasure; while the dispensations of the Doctors will be sought for by us only when under the influence of pain.

Nature affords a simple remedy against the abuse of good cheer - Abstinence. If you have eaten too much, doubt-less you will feel inconvenienced. In that case, have immediate recourse to some weak tea *, which will speedily liberate your stomach from the superfluities winch encumber and oppress it, without leaving those intestinal pains which are rather the result of the medicine than the effect of the disorder. Numbers of persons attribute the gout to the frequent use of dishes dressed in the French way. Many years experience and observation have proved to me, that this disorder has not its origin in good cheer, but in excesses of other kinds. Have we not sera, in years past, numberless individual* who have lived entirely on French Cookery, to very advanced ages, without being afflicted with that disorder? and do we not see daily, that the greater number of those who suffer the acute agonies of it, derive it from their predecessors, rather than, from their own habits of life? A copious and sustained exercise is the surest preventive. It is true, the gout more frequently attacks the wealthy than the indigent: hence it has been attributed to their way of living; but this is an error. It is exercise only which they need; not an airing on horseback, or in a carriage, but that bodily activity which occasioning fatigue, would enable them to enjoy the sweets of repose. I do not attempt then, as empirics do, to prescribe ineffectually a remedy to cure the gout; but I have this advantage over them, that I afford a positive preventive against it; and thus withhold many a sufferer from filling under their dominion. If the Art of Cookery had been held in a little more estimation, there can be no doubt, but that among its professors many might have been found informed enough, and sufficiently devoted to the interests of the human race, to give prescriptions in Cookery as Doctors give them in medicine. We have this advantage, however, over them, that our compositions are always agreeable to the palate, while theirs are horribly dis-gusting. I therefore recommend a skilfully dressed dish, as in all respects more salubrious than simple fare, I do not mean to deny that a plainly roasted joint, well done, is food of easy digestion; but I peremptorily proscribe all salted and underdone provisions. Pork, in whatever way it may be dressed, is always unwholesome; yet if dressed in the French fashion, the stimulant of a sauce makes it aperient, and it of course is less indigestive than when dressed plainly. Our manner of dressing vegetables is more various and extensive than in England, a circumstance which embraces the double advantage, of flattering the palate and being of easier digestion.

* Galen and Hippocrates said, that they left behind them two still greater - Doctors than themselves - Water and Abstinence.

I recommend as a certain preventive against disorder, great bodily exercise - as tennis, shuttlecock, fencing, etc. for gentlemen; and for ladies, dancing, and such lively exercises as are suited to their sex: walking also, but not the grave and deliberate movements of a magistrate, but an active and accelerated pace, such as may occasion fatigue. Thus you may find health and appetite, which afford the pleasure of self-government, by keeping you from the power of Doctors and Doctor's stuff.

One more remark; and that on the disproportion of talent which exists among Cooks. A person who has never tasted made dishes, sits down for the first time, perhaps to indifferently dressed ones: hence arises at first setting out an impression, which I confess it is hardly ever possible to overcome. I myself prefer a thousand times, plain dishes, to a made dish that is badly seasoned, badly trimmed, and above all, dressed in an uncleanly manner, and served up with a disagreeable appearance. But the wealthy are able to vanquish these disadvantages, by engaging in their service persons properly qualified to be placed in the rank of Artists.