Fruits, which are so salutary in acute and inflammatory distempers, in obstructions, especially those of the liver, and in several other disorders, are never proper in this case; they weaken, relax, and enervate the strength of the stomach; they augment the attenuation of the blood, already too aqueous; and ill digested, they ferment in the stomach and intestines, and this fermentation sets free an astonishing quantity of air, which produces enormous distensions, that absolutely disturb the course of the circulation. I have, in a woman, seen this effect: so considerable, for her having eaten too many cherries and currants, four and twenty hours after a very easy delivery, that her belly was stretched to such a degree as to become livid; she appeared lethargically dozing, and her pulse was almost imperceptible. Fruits also leave, in the first passages, a principle of acidity, apt to occasion several dangerous symptoms, so that it is necessary to abstain almost totally from them. Crude garden-stuff, vinegar, verjuice, have the like inconveniences, and deserve the like exclusion.
But though the catalogue of prohibited articles of food be a long one, that of the allowable ones is still longer. It comprehends the flesh of all young animals, fed in healthy places, and wholesomely fed; such especially is that of veal, lamb, or young mutton, young beef, fowl, pigeon, turkey, partridge. Lark, thrushes, quails, and other wild fowl, without being absolutely forbidden, are, however, attended with such inconveniences, as not to allow of their entering into daily food. Fish is under the same restriction.
But it is not enough only to chuse your flesh-meats with due discernment, but they must also be properly prepared. The best way is to roast them by a gentle fire, so as to preserve their gravy, and not dry them up too much; or to stew them slowly in their own juices. The flesh-meats that are boiled in too much water, give out to it all that they have of juiciness, and remain incapable of nourishing: thus they often become nothing but fleshy fibres deprived of their nutritious juice, and equally insipid to the taste, and indigestible to the stomach. It is common for weak persons, and even for such of them as are above all suspicions of being too nice, not to be able to eat of them without their stomach being disordered by them. The more tender flesh meats are, the less they can bear this preparation, which, in the case of sick people, ought to be reserved for extracting by it from hard or tough meats whatever nourishment they may contain.