wed without much
chewing. Some grind it, and use the flour; but I cannot recommend it to
be used in this manner.

The best pudding in the world is a loaf of bread, (What!--you will
say--bread again?) three or four or five days old, boiled, or rather
_steamed_, in milk. All kinds of bread are excellent for this purpose,
but wheat and Indian are the best. They are excellent even without
milk--that is, simply steamed.

Puddings made of the flour of wheat, rye, buckwheat, &c., are less
wholesome than those which have been already mentioned. And all sorts
of puddings are less wholesome, when eaten as hot as our unreasonable
fashions require, than when their temperature is quite below that of our
bodies. I would not have them so cold as to chill us, for this would be
to go to the other, though less dangerous extreme; but they ought to be
cool. Too much heat is an unnatural stimulus, likely to leave more or
less debility behind it. In addition to this, those who eat hot food are
more exposed to take cold, in consequence of it.

With none of these puddings ought we to mix any fruits, green or
dried--not even raisins. Some of the more important properties of nearly
every kind of fruit or berry are lost by boiling, unless we eat the
water in which they are boiled, and save the vapor which would otherwise
escape. I am not in favor of boiled fruit generally, especially if
boiled in puddings.

Puddings, like most other kinds of food--even bread--may be slightly
salted: not that this is indispensable, but because the balance of human
testimony is in its favor. The argument that we evidently need salt
because the other animals require it, is without much weight. The other
animals do not _generally_ require or use it.[Footnote: Some
considerable savage nations use no salt, and a few have a strong
aversion to it.] The cases so often triumphantly mentioned, where
animals appear to thrive better from the use of it, are only exceptions
to the general rule, nor are they very numerous in comparison with the
whole race of animals. Still I have no objections to its moderate use.
It may be useful in preventing worms; though there are doubts even of
that. In large quantities, it is unquestionably hurtful.

But neither fruits nor berries--permit me to repeat the sentiment--no,
nor any such thing as cinnamon or spices, nor even sugar or molasses in
any considerable quantity, should go into the composition of any sort of
pudding. If the puddi