July 21.
About this time of year a tendency appears in many countries for people to be greatly taken up with matters of eating and king. It is not a question of gastronomics, not the refined investigations which led Suintsbury's epoch-making discovery that the bigger the bottle the better the champagne tastes, and that that truly noble wine sherry is the only one that can be drunk all through a meal, with every course, No, it question of the thermometer, of its effect on enables before and after they are eaten and of those that must never be eaten all, In Europe, of course, they do not really know what hot weather means. But they like to pretend they do, and to make a fuss over their food helps to give the delusion rea Thus the "Spectator" of the end of June starts "A Crusade for Clean Food." It tells us horrible things about the handling of bread and meat and particularly of some veritable ghouls known as "slink butchers."—Milk, of course, is a well established i channel for infections of all kinds and as for sweets and groceries it is a wonder that we ever dare touch.them, With one dictum everyone will agree, that the public "display of meat in butchers' shops tis surely a barous anachronism." Let it be out of sight in gold storage and sold only from municipal idea the "Spectator" was becoming so socialistic.
Still, there is something missing. These people, one feels, are only amateurs. It is not till one gets to the Far East that. diet and digestion begin to be treated with real science. Globe-trotters are amazed at the intimacy and understanding with which people in Shanghai discuss their insides at the dinner'
If they do not do the the reason is. population do not know that they have an inside, Some of the most interesting reading we get in the month is the Health Commissioner's report, It is to this source that we owe the immortal phrase "the pear-shaped men," with a vivid description of the peculiar tortures which they undergo in hot weather and the advisability of trying to. preserve parallel outline Which, it may be observed, is not always within the victim's power, For there are some who stay' fat however little they eat and others who remain thin however much. This month's Health Report contains many items of interest. There is a description of where and how cholera is likely to be endemic, with the statement that "cholera has not yet made its appearance in the Settlement." Eye seems to detect a tinge of disappointment in the reflection, but the writer immediately consoles himself with the thought that it is early days yet. But how times have changed. We remember a Commissioner who, with the credit of Shanghai at heart, obstinately declined to allow that cholera ever came to Shanghai, and invented a disease which he called choleraic dysentery, It seemed, however, to just as many people as cholera and made no difference to the extremely unpleasant quarantine rules which Japan enforced against us. To retura to the Health Report, it will be news to many people that mar-gonne, correctly pronounced "marge," is consumed in Shanghai. There is a prejudice against "marge" which is really not deserved. During the war it appeared on what would be called "the best tables" and plenty of people never knew the difference. Properly sampled and labelled, ax the Health Report tells us ft now is, it would certainly be no worse than some of the tinned butter that is served, Those, however, who cannot get over their prejudice, may take comfort from the fact that all the dairy cows in Shanghai have now been photographed, certified and labelled. The object, of course, is purely utilitarian, to keep a check on the dairies, But what a splendid idea for a competition. Shanghai's Biguest Baby would not be in it with Hongkew's Creamiest Cow.
With all its energy the Health Department cannot do much more than lay down certain maxims, with the uncertain hope that individuals will take warning. But do they really, for sti their frequent discussion of th: fatal effect of this or that? We all agree that it is fatal to swill down gallons of iced drinks of when we are very hot.
But we alde it. It is am axiom that we should be specially cautious about uncooked vegetables. But since a limited number of lettuces began to be brought: from California in cold storage, that the salad enough to set like Nebuchad-The earlier residents in Shanghai seem to have been much less guarded over eating of the fruits of the earth than now thought necessary. But from one generation to another the actual amount of illness does not appear to vary very greatly. We are all agreed, however, that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.