Note 76 — FUNGUSES CONSIDERED AS AN ARTICLE OF DIET.
Reading edition
That I did not always hold such an opinion as the above, to which I have since given in my adhesion, the following ode to Eupepsia, written in the days of theoretical inexperience, will sufficiently testify. I am now convinced that Hippocrates was right!—
Happy the man whose prudent care Plain boiled and roast discreetly bound; Content to feed on homely fare, On British ground! Sound sleep renounces sugared peas!— No nightmares haunt the modest ration Of tender steak, that yields with ease To mastication! From stews and steams that round them play, How many a tempting dish would floor us, Had nature made no toll to pay At the pylorus! He dines unscathed, who dines alone! Or shuns abroad those corner dishes; No Roman garlics make him groan, Nor matelotte fishes. Then let not Vérey’s treacherous skill, Nor Véfour’s, try thy peptic forces; One comes to swallow many a pill Where many a course is! With mushroomed dishes cease to strive; Nor for that truffled crime inquire, Which nails the hapless goose alive, At Strasburg’s fire.