Facilities for distribution of food presents one of the most interesting and truly foreign spectacles which the city affords.

To the long list of needed reforms I have ventured to advocate in connection with this subject, I must add the want of ample and accessible markets in various parts of London, for what is known as country produce. I do this not only in the interest of the millions who, like myself, are compelled to seek their food within the limits of Cockayne, but also in the interest of our country gardeners and housewives, who ought to be able to supply us with poultry, vegetables, and eggs, better than the gardeners and housewives of France, on whom at present we so largely depend. We may well be grateful to these small cultivators, who by their industry and energy supply our deficiencies; but the fact that they do so does not redound to the credit of our countrymen, and, I am bound to add, countrywomen, for the bountiful supply of eggs and poultry which reach us from France is chiefly due to the untiring industry, care, and good management of the poultry-yard which the wives of the small agriculturists there bestow upon it.* Since the foregoing paragraphs were written for the first edition of this work, I am glad to note the improved facilities for obtaining country supplies which now exist, as compared with their absence at that period. Still, so rapidly do the area and population of our city increase, that the claim for more and better fresh food still increases almost in the same ratio as the improved supply.

* See p. 66 for amount imported >much wanted in London.

To be Encouraged.

Have I claimed for the consideration of my subject too great a share in the thoughts and multifarious labours of busy men? I think not. For myself, being not without serious occupations, an attentive study of it has agreeably occupied many leisure hours at home and abroad; but it has furthermore performed good service in the interest of health. And if I have been rightly understood, this imperfect attempt to popularize a few undoubted truths in relation to the selection, the cookery, and the service of food, will be regarded as a manifesto, which assuredly it is intended to be, on behalf of true temperance.

In one word let me conclude - if in professional life, for some of us, the chief power lies in a skilled right hand, and in the temperament which pertains thereto, it is no less true that a practical acquaintance with the laws of diet and digestion becomes also a power in the combat with disease, not far inferior to the other in importance.

My last word, then, no less than my first, shall testify to the value for all men of some knowledge in relation to their Food and Feeding.