26

BOILED GRAIN.

The opinion of oatmeal beiug heating, and occasioning skindiseases, i^ wholly without foundation. Bread made of oatmeal,when not leavened, will sometimes occasion the heart-burn ; butthis is no ¡woof of its heating quality. Unleavened bread, ofwheat or any other grain, produces the same effect on a debilitatedstomach. Oatmeal thoroughly boiled seldom gives the heart-burn.

Pr.. sons who are fed on oatmeal-bread, or hasty-pudding, arenot more subject to diseases of the skin, than those who live onwheat-meal. Cutaneous disorders proceed more from the want ofcleanliness, than from any particular aliment. The French, so farfrom thinking that oatmeal is heating, speak of it as possessed ofa cooling quality, and even the English give oatmeal, or grit-gruel,to lying-in women, and sick people of every description, whichshows that they are inconsistent with themselves, in alleging thatthe blood is fired by the use of oatmeal.

A lieutenant of the army, residing at a country-village within afew miles of Edinburgh, with a wife and ten children, having noother income than his half-pay, fed the whole of his children withhasty-pudding and butter-milk only, from a conviction that it wasthe most wholesome and full diet that fell within the reach of hi."narrow circumstances. They grew apace ; and it was the universalremark of the neighbourhood, that they were as sprightly, healthy,and robust, as other children, and at the same time perfectly freefrom all skin-diseases.

Children are seldom well, unless when their bodies are gentlyopen. But this is more likely to be the case when fed on oatmealand milk, than when their bellies are crammed with a starchysubstance made of the finest flour ; yet this in England is thecommon food of children. I have seen an infant stuffed four orfive times a-day with this kind of food. There needs no conjurerto tell the consequence.

A late author, a man of learning, but the dupe of prejudice, has,by a ridiculous definition, endeavoured to represent oats as properfood for horses only. I wish the horses in England devoured asmaller quantity of that grain, and the people more. Few thingswould Ziave a greater tendency to lessen the expense of living.The oats in North Britain are of a superior quality, and I hopethe people will long have the sense to use them as an article ofdiet.

Indian corn is likewise said to make the best food when boiled.Count Rumford observes, that of all things it makes the best pud-ding, and that he has made a hearty meal of it, sauce included, forfive farthings. What makes good puddings will make gooddumplings, and these will, at any time, supply the place of bread.The Count also remarks, that the Negroes in America preferIndian corn to rice ; and that the Bavarian peasants prefer it towheat ; that it might be imported from North America at aboutfour or five shillings per bushel ; that, when made into flour, itwould cost only one penny farthing per pound ; and that it ishighly nutritious, and the cheapest food known. During the latescarcity, a large quantity of this grain was imported ; but such isthe aversion of the common people of this country to every sort offood to which they are not accustomed, that they refused to