Vegetables of all kinds are very much more used in France as dietetic agencies than they are in this country. The average British cook appears to have absolutely no conception of the method of cooking vegetables; the ordinary method of soaking them in water and boiling them for a longer or shorter period, then discarding the water and serving up the mass of fibrous tissue which is left, is simply a means of wasting the only valuable part of the vegetable.

Most people have a very fair idea that the valuable ingredient of all vegetable matter is the mineral salts which it contains. Up till quite recently the role played by these mineral salts was by no means well understood. It is now known, however, that a deficiency of mineral matter may produce the most serious disease. A century ago, when England was dependent upon sailing vessels for a means of communication with other countries, scurvy was a very well-known disease. It was known to be produced by eating salt meat, and it could be easily prevented by a daily supply of fresh vegetables. As these, however, were not forthcoming on a long voyage, lemon juice containing valuable salts of potash in a very active form was substituted, and even to-day no British ship is permitted by the Board of Trade to travel without a large supply of this substance. Another disease which is not familiar in this country, but is very common amongst sailors in the East, who subsist largely upon rice, is called beri-beri. We have already referred to the fact that it is due entirely to eating rice from which the husk has been removed, and this extra coating of the rice grain contains a kind of phosphorus which is of immense value in the human economy. It has been established by experimental feeding of fowls with the same dry polished rice that a similar disease can be originated in them, and this can be quite easily cured by the addition of yeast, or indeed by adding the husks which have been discarded in the polishing of the rice.

Table Showing The Composition Of Vegetables

These and many other facts well known to scientific men are evidence that the mineral salts contained in organic form in living vital association with vegetable material are of infinitely more value than those to be found on the druggists' shelves. Now boiling these vegetables dissolves out all those mineral salts, and the mess which is left is simply an inducement to indigestion. Hence to conserve those valuable mineral salts, vegetables should always be steamed, and as this is by no means an easy process for the ordinary cook, a special vessel consisting of one pan within another is utilised for preparing vegetables for the table. In lieu of these processes, ordinary vegetable soup is of immense value, containing as it does all the vital mineral salts so essential for the growth and repair of the body. Probably few people know that spinach is a much more valuable source of iron even than Blaud's pills, and it is a great pity that an agreeable method of preparation of this substance for the table should not be in vogue. Next to spinach the yolk of egg contains more iron than other food known.