In seasons, when fruit cannot be procured in great variety, the bill of fare may be greatly and elegantly extended, by a judicious selection of articles of confectionary and sweetmeats, occasionally interspersed, not too closely or profusely introduced, but with a tasty sparingness, which will assist even to give effect to the whole, in the absence of more desirable plates of natural productions.

DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING DISHES ON THE TABLE.

Soup, broth, or fish, should always be set at the head of the table; if none of these, a boiled dish goes to the head; where there is both boiled and roasted.

If but one principal dish, it goes to the head of the table. If three, the principal one to the head, and the two smallest to stand opposite each other, near the foot.

If four, the biggest to the head, and the next biggest to the foot, and the two smallest dishes on the sides.

If five, you are to put the smallest in the middle, the other four opposite.

If six, you are to put the top and bottom as before, the two small ones opposite for side dishes.

If seven, put three dishes down the middle of the table, and four others opposite to each other round the centre dish.

If eight, put four dishes down the middle, and the remaining four two on each side, at equal distances.

If nine dishes, put them in three equal lines, observing to put the proper dishes at the head and bottom of the table.

If ten dishes, put four down the centre, one at each corner, and one on each side, opposite to the vacancy between the two central dishes; or four down the middle, and three on each side; each opposite to the vacancy of the middle dishes.

If twelve dishes, place them in three rows of four each ; or six down the middle, and three at equal distances on each side. Note. If more than the above number of dishes are required, the manner of laying them on the table must in a great measure depend on the taste of the dresser.

CULINARY POISONS.

Observations on Culinary Poisons.

THOUGH we have already, in different parts of this work, occasionally reminded the housekeeper and cook of the fatal consequences attending coppers and sauce-pans not being properly tinned, yet we shall here enter on a particular inquiry into the nature and property of culinary poisons, for the information and satisfaction of those who may wish to have a more perfect knowledge of such important matters.

By the use of copper vessels for dressing our food, we are daily exposed to the danger of poison; and even the very air of a kitchen, abounding with oleaginous and saline particles, disposes those vessels to solution before they are used. Copper, when handled, yields an offensive smell; and, if touched with the tongue, has a sharp pungent taste, and even excites a nausea. Verdigrease is nothing but a solution of this metal by vegetable acids; and it is well known, that a very small quantity of this solution will produce colics, vomitings, intolerable thirst, universal convulsions, and other dangerous symptoms. If these effects, and the prodigious divisibility of this metal, be considered, there can be no doubt of its being a violent and subtle poison. Water, by standing some time in a copper vessel, becomes impregnated with verdigrease, as may be demonstrated by throwing into it a small quantity of any volatile alkali, which will immediately tinge it with a paler or deeper blue, in proportion to the rust contained in the water. Vinegar, apple-sauce, greens, oil, grease, butter, and almost every other kind of food, will extract the verdigrease in a great degree. Some people imagine, that the ill effects of copper are prevented by its being tinned, which indeed is the only preventative in that case; but the tin, which adheres to the copper, is so extremely thin, that it is soon penetrated by the verdigrease, which insinuates itself through the pores of that metal, and appears green upon the surface.

Verdigrease is one of the most violent poisons in nature; and yet, rather than quit an old custom, the greater part of mankind are content to swallow some of this poison every day. Our food receives its quantity of poison in the kitchen, by the use of copper pans and dishes; the brewer mingles poison in your beer, by boiling it in copper; salt is distributed to the people from copper scales covered with verdigrease; our pickles are rendered green by infusion of copper; the pastry-cook bakes our tarts in copper pattepans; but confections and syrups have greater powers of destruction, as they are set over a fire in copper vessels which have not been tinned, and the verdigrease is plentifully extracted by the acidity of the composition. After all, though we do not swallow death in a single dose, yet it is certain that a quantity of poison, however small, which is repeated with every meal, must produce more fatal effects than is generally believed.

Bell-metal kettles are frequently used in boiling cucumbers for pickling, in order to make them green; but this is a prac tice as absurd as it is dangerous. If the cucumbers acquire any additional greenness by the use of these kettles, they can only derive it from the copper, of which they are made; and this very reason ought to be sufficient to overturn so dangerous a practice.

According to some writers, bell-metal is a composition of tin and copper, or pewter and copper, in the proportion of twenty pounds of pewter, or twenty-three pounds of tin, to one hundred weight of copper. According to others, this metal is made in the proportion of one thousand pounds of copper to two or three hundred pounds of tin, and one hundred and fifty pounds of brass. Spoons and other kitchen utensils are frequently made of a mixed metal, called alchemy, or, as it is vulgarly pronounced, ochimy. The rust of this metal, as well as that of the former, is highly pernicious.

The author of a tract entitled, Serious Reflections attending the Use of Copper Vessels, published in London in 1755, asserts, that the great frequency of palsies, apoplexies, madness, and all the frightful train of nervous disorders which suddenly attack us, without our being able to account for the cause, or which gradually weaken our vital faculties, are the pernicious effects of this poisonous matter, taken into the

body insensibly with our victuals, and thereby intermixed with our blood and juices.

this rust.

However this may be, certain it is, that there have been innumerable instances of the pernicious consequences of eating food dressed in copper vessels not sufficiently cleaned from On this account the senate of Sweden, about the year 1753, prohibited copper vessels, and ordered that no vessels, except such as were made of iron, should be used in their fleets and armies. But if copper vessels must be still continued, every cook and good housewife should be particularly careful in keeping them clean and well tinned, and should suffer nothing to remain in them longer than is absolutely necessary for the purposes of cookery.

Lead is a metal easily corroded, especially by the warm steams of acids, such as vinegar, cider, lemon-juice, Rhenish wine, &c. and this solution, or salt of lead, is a slow and insidious, though certain poison. The glazing of all our common brown pottery ware is either lead or lead ore; if black, it is a lead ore, with a small proportion of manganese, which is a species of iron ore; if yellow, the glazing is lead ore, and appears yellowish by having some pipe or white clay under it. The colour of the common pottery ware is red, as the vessels are made of the same clay as common bricks. These vessels are so porous, that they are penetrated by all salts, acid or alkaline, and are unfit for retaining any saline substances. They are improper, though too often used, for preserving sour fruits or pickles. The glazing of such vessels is corroded by the vinegar for, upon evaporating the liquor, a quantity of the salt of lead will be found at the bottom. A sure way of judging whether the vinegar or other acid have dissolved part of the glazing, is by their becoming vapid, or losing their sharpness, and acquiring a sweetish taste by standing in them for some time; in which case the contents must be thrown away as pernicious.

The substance of the pottery ware, commonly called Delft, the best being made at Delft in Holland, is a whitish clay when baked, and soft, as not having endured a great heat in baking. The glazing is a composition of calcined lead, calcined tin, sand, some coarse alkaline salt, and sandiver; which being run into a white glass, the white colour being owing to

the tin, is afterwards ground in a mill, then mixed with water, and the vessels, after being baked in the furnace, are dipped into it, and put again into the furnace; by which means, with a small degree of heat, the white glass runs upon the vessels. This glazing is exceedingly soft, and easily cracks. What effects acids will have upon it, the writer of these observations cannot say; but they seem to be improper for inspissating the juice of lemons, oranges, or any other acid fruits.

The most proper vessels for these purposes are porcelain or China ware, the substances of them being of so close a texture, that no saline or other liquor can penetrate them. The glazing, which is likewise made of the substance of the china, is so firm and close, that no salt or saline substance can have the least effect upon it. It must, however, be observed, that this remark is applicable only to the porcelain made in China; for some species of the European manufactory are certainly glazed with a fine glass of lead, &c.

Their

The stone ware, commonly called Staffordshire ware, is the next to china. The substance of these vessels is a composition of black flint, and a strong clay, that bakes white. outsides are glazed, by throwing into the furnace, when well heated, common or sea salt decripitated, the steam or acid of which flying among the vessels, vitrifies the outsides of them, and gives them the glaaing. This stone ware does not appear to be injured or affected by any kinds of salts, either acid or alkaline, or by any liquors, hot or cold. These are therefore extremely proper for all common uses; but they require a careful management, as they are more apt to crack with any sudden heat, than china.

Having thus considered the nature of copper and earthen utensils for the use of the kitchen, we shall proceed to make some few remarks on the poisonous qualities of mushrooms, hemlock, and laurel.

Mushrooms have been long used in sauces, in catsup, and other forms of cookery; they were highly esteemed by the Romans, as they are at present by the French, Italians, and other nations. Pliny exclaims against the luxury of his countrymen in this article, wonders what extraordinary pleasure there can be in eating such dangerous food. The ancient