Beer, ale, and porter are excellent, mulled in the same way.
½ Teaspoon of Dutch cocoa. Some boiling water. 2 Blocks of loaf-sugar. 2 Tablespoons of port wine.
Put the cocoa and sugar into a china cup, and pour directly upon them some boiling water, then add the wine, making in all the usual amount called a cupful. Serve at once. This is an excellent drink for those who are chilled or exhausted, or to take after a bath.
Gelatin is always of animal origin. The gelatinous substance obtained from apples, grapes, cranberries, and other fruits is not gelatin; it is a different material, derived by the action of heat from pectose, a substance which occurs in plants and is closely associated with cellulose. Unprepared _gelatin_ is sometimes distinguished in writing from the _gelatine_ of commerce by the difference of an _e_ in spelling.
Gelatin enters into the composition of all, or nearly all, the tissues of the body. The walls of the microscopic cells of flesh are composed of it. It is found also in cartilage, tendons, connective tissue, bone, and in the larynx and joints. Spiders' webs and the thread of silkworms are gelatin in a liquid state, which solidifies upon exposure to the air. Another kind of gelatin forms the framework of insects, such as the locusts on which John the Baptist fed. It also forms the true skeleton of lobsters, crabs, and shrimps. The edible birds' nests of the Chinese are a delicate kind of gelatin more digestible than some other kinds, for it is made from the saliva of a swallow, and probably contains pepsin. (M. Williams.)
The part which gelatin plays as a food is not well understood. Many experiments have recently been made by scientists on dogs and other animals, to test the value of gelatin in this respect. From these experiments the following conclusions have been drawn: 1. That gelatin alone is not sufficient as a food. 2. That although insufficient it is not worthless. 3. That gelatin is sufficient to sustain life when combined with other substances which would themselves be wholly insufficient if given alone. 4. That gelatin must always be flavored to render it digestible and nutritious.
Mattieu Williams says: "It would seem that gelatin alone, although containing the elements required for nutrition, needs something more to render it digestible. We shall probably not be far from the truth if we picture it to the mind as something too smooth, too neutral, too inert, to set the digestive organs at work, and that therefore it requires the addition of a decidedly sapid something that shall make these organs act."