A way to health, long life and happiness, or, A discourse of temperance and the particular nature of all things requisite for the life of man as all sorts of meats, drinks, air, exercise &c., with special directions how to use each of them to the best advantage of the body and mind : shewing from the true ground of nature whence most diseases proceed and how to prevent them : to which is added a treatise of most sorts of English herbs ... the whole treatise displaying the most hidden secrets of philosophy ... / communicated to the world for the general good by Thomas Tryon.

Of Food fit for Children, and the contrary: Also of Quantity and Quality.

The best Food for young Children, next their Mo∣thers Milk, is good Cows Milk raw, with some crumbs of Bread in it, always observing that it first stand till it be cold, after 'tis milkt, before you give it them: For 'tis a great Error in Physicians and others, to ad∣vise consumptive People to drink Milk hot from the Cow, for that Heat is of a Windy Quality that swells the Body, and sends Fumes into the Head, and is harder of concoction than the same Milk is, when 'tis cold. Touching which, I desire not that any Body should take my bare Word in opposition to the Learned, but it being so easie and familiar a thing, let them try, and then they shall know by Experience.

Therefore I say, in Summer your Children may eat it Cold, but in the Winter you may warm it as hot as your Blood, or if you have a desire to alter it, the best way is to boyl it, adding some Water to it with a little Flour, and sometimes Oat-meal; but re∣member that it do not boyl too long, nor too thick, for that makes it of a grosser Nature and harder of Digestion, and breeds thicker Blood, which is of ill consequence to Children.

I know Mistress Nurse will be offended that I talk of giving Children Raw Milk: But I must tell her, that properly the same ought not to be called Raw, be∣cause it hath passed through several Digestions and Fermentations, even to the highest degree, so that it is not inferior to Womens Milk, and much better than most of theirs, because of their Infirmities and impro∣per Foods and Drinks. And Womens Milk may as properly be counted Raw as the Cows, to whom I know no Creature comparable for Sweetness, Clean∣ness and Wholsomness; their breathing is an excellent Perfume, and their very Excrement is little less, and yet our good Dames would think it a sad business, if

they should give their Children unboyled Milk; where∣as the boyling thereof destroys the wheyey part of it, and fixes it, and makes it thicker and harder of Con∣coction; but on the contrary, Raw Milk, as they call it, that is, unboyled, is of a cleansing Quality, easie of Digestion, carries away downwards all windy mat∣ter out of the Stomach and Vessels, and causeth it to pass away freely, there being no sort of Food or Phy∣sick like it, so that 'tis an excellent Remedy to prevent all Convulsions and griping Pains of the Stomach, at∣tending windy Diseases in Children.

And when Children begin to be capable to eat harder Food, then Bread and Butter, and Bread and Cheese will be good Food for them; (provided that the Cheese be not too old, nor too stale and strong, for such Cheese is very injurious to Children, heating the Blood, and causing too great a Drought.) But most Foods that are in use in this wanton superfluous Age, are improper for Children, one of which is much in use among the richest sort, and indeed most People now-a-days feed their Children with it, viz. Water-Pap, that is, Bread and Water, supposing that sort of Food to be light of Concoction, which is a great mistake; for Bread, the chief Ingredient therein, has already passed through the highest Preparation it is capable of; for the first pre∣paration in all sorts of Food does digest and destroy the crude Body of Phlegm, and sets the spirituous parts at liberty, which by a second Preparation must be de∣stroyed; and then such Foods and Drinks become dull and heavy, and lie hard upon the Stomach, yielding but a bad Nourishment, breeding thick gross Blood, whence proceed Stoppages, and many Infirmities of the Breast; and are so contrary to Nature, that those that do prepare any sort of Food a second time, are forced to add some predominating strong Ingredients that are rich, as Sugar, Spice, and Spanish Fruits to hide the Qualities of the first and grand Ingredients; for who could indure to eat Bread and Water boyled

together alone, or Bread and Ale, or Bread and Wine? And yet all these in themselves, and without any alte∣ration, are very pleasant and wholsom.

Furthermore, all fat Flesh is very hurtful to Child∣ren, for it furs and oyls the Stomach and Passages, and in some Children, whose retentive and digestive Facul∣ties are weak, and the Expulsive strong, it quickly slips out of the Stomach into the Bowels, and loosens the Belly too violently, causing griping Pains, espe∣cially when Flesh is not good, and at some certain sea∣sons of the Year.

Likewise, all kinds of strong Drinks are Abomination unto the Natures of Children, it drys and heats them, infects the Blood with sharp mangy Humours and Dis∣eases, evaporates the pure volatile Spirits, &c. But of all sorts of Drinks, the most fit and proper for Chil∣dren is Water; the next is small Beer that is well brewed.

All kind of melted Butter and fryed Food, be they what they will, are hurtful to the Health of all Peo∣ple, if not very sparingly taken, but more especially to Children; for Butter has passed through several Digesti∣ons and Fermentations that have opened the gross body, and made the spirituous parts flying or volatile, and therefore if Butter stand open a little while in the Air, it destroys the goodness and pure brisk taste of it; but if it be committed to the Fire, then the pure Vertue is immediately suffocated or evaporated, and then it turns into a gross strong Oyl, which is very offensive to Na∣ture; but many to prevent its running into Oyl, will add Water to it, and keep it in motion, and so by the help of the Water, the motion and the Air, the Spi∣rituous parts are kept living, which indeed is the best way of melting of Butter: Nevertheless, even this is grosser on the Stomach, and oyls, furs and obstructs the Passages more than Butter eaten on Bread, which is the best and most natural way of using it.

The truth hereof is further manifested by this; take Butter, Flour and Water, and make it into Paste, as they

do for Pies, and then bake it, and let any of those which love such things best, be confined to live on it for two or three Weeks, and confine another to Bread and But∣ter, and see which will be tired first; 'tis certain he that eats the baked Bread and Butter shall presently loath it, but he that lives on the common Bread and But∣ter may continue to live thereon, and be well sustained, without being weary of it for many Years, and yet all is but Bread and Butter, only the preparation makes the difference. For you may observe, that all kinds of Food made of fine Flour and Butter, and baked, is of a close heavy substance, hard of Digestion, that fouls and makes the Blood thick and gross, and being first invented for Wantonness and State, are continued to gratifie the same Properties, and therefore ought to be banished