_"We could live without poets, we could live without books,
But how in the world could we live without cooks."_




PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION.


Still the Food Reform movement goes on and expresses itself in many ways.
New developments and enterprises on the part of those engaged in the
manufacture and distribution of pure foods are in evidence in all
directions. Not only have a number of new "Reform" restaurants and depots
been opened, but vegetarian dishes are now provided at many ordinary
restaurants, while the general grocer is usually willing to stock the more
important health foods.

Then the interest in, and relish for a non-flesh dietary has, during the
past year, got a tremendous impetus from the splendid catering at the
Exhibitions, both of Edinburgh and London. The restaurant in Edinburgh,
under the auspices of the Vegetarian Society, gave a magnificent object
lesson in the possibility of a dietary excluding fish, flesh, and fowl. The
sixpenny dinners, as also the plain and "high" teas, were truly a marvel of
excellence, daintiness, and economy, and the queue of the patient "waiters,"
sometimes 40 yards long, amply testified to their popularity.

One is glad also to see that "Health Foods" manufacturers are, one after
another, putting into practice the principle that sound health-giving
conditions are a prime essential in the production of what is pure and