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 the Flesh of Calves or Veal.

The Flesh of Veal is of a clean Nature, easie of Concoction, affording good Nourishment, fit both for healthy and sick People, if such may be allowed to eat flesh, which to me seems somewhat improper, especially when in their time of Health they made flesh their chief Food, it being probable that the ori∣ginal of the Disease was occasioned by the eating of much flesh, which is one reason why so many Peo∣ple in England, when sick, their Stomachs loath Flesh more than any other food; for that food which a man does eat most of when in health, that very same, when sick he will loath, especially when he feeds most on Flesh.

But if this sort of flesh be eaten too young, as too many do, at twelve or eighteen days old, then it is not so wholsom; for it being of a soft, slimy and phlegmatick Nature, it generates an unfirm Nourish∣ment, and it quickly slips out of the Stomach into the Bowels, and too often violently loosens the Belly, and causeth Griping Pains, especially in fat and phlegma∣tick People, and likewise in young Children. That Veal is best, that is five or six Weeks old, and which sucks its own Dam, and does run with her two or three days in a Week; for no flesh is so good and free from gross phlegmatick matter as those Creatures that have the benefit of Motion in the open Air: In∣deed such will not fat so soon as others that are kept up close, yet the one is much firmer and harder than the other, and affords a firmer and harder nourish∣ment; for that which is pen'd up and kept from the benefit of Motion and Air, great part of the food turns into a kind of phlegmy substance, especially in

Calves, whose Food is all of a moist Nature. What is the reason that most Veal is so unfirm and like a Jelly, and dissolves and melts away like Grease? It is because this is a tender Creature, and will not admit of driving, their Spirits being so weak and Flesh so soft, by reason (as is above-said) of their moist food, that they quickly tire, and their Flesh will alter from a white to a red colour, which all Veal naturally in∣clines to, tho' Milk is a cleanly and wholsom Food, ne∣vertheless all Creatures that live wholly on it, without the mixture of other things of a firmer substance, as the flower of Corn, or the like, their flesh and spirits are but weak, especially when such Creatures shall be hindered from motion, then their flesh becomes of a gross soft and phlegmatick nature and operation, and the frequent eating of such flesh proves too often of a bad consequence, especially to all cold, phleg ma∣tick, gross People, who have weaker heats; but to others, who have strong and hot Constitutions, this sort of flesh, if not eaten to excess, agrees well with them, and is wholsom. Indeed every one ought to know their own Constitutions, by which they shall be able to distinguish between those things that are proper for them, and their contraries; and he that is ignorant of this, is always subject to err, and to lay heavier burdens on Nature than she can bear, whence does proceed so many Diseases and Disorders, which afflicts some almost all their days.