The material of gastronomy is all that may be eaten; its object is
direct, the preservation of individuals. Its means of execution
are cultivation, which produces; commerce, which exchanges;
industry, which prepares; and experience, which teaches us to put
them to the best use.

DIFFERENT OBJECTS OF GASTRONOMY.

Gastronomy considers taste in its pleasures and in its pains. It
has discovered the gradual excitements of which it is susceptible;
it regularizes its action, and has fixed limits, which a man who
respects himself will never pass.

It also considers the action of food or aliments on the moral of
man, on his imagination, his mind, his judgment, his courage, and
his perceptions, whether he is awake, sleeps, acts, or reposes.

Gastronomy determines the degree of esculence of every alimentary
subject; all are not presentable under the same circumstances.

Some can be eaten until they are entirely developed. Such like as
capres, asparagus, sucking pigs, squabs, and other animals eaten
only when they are young.

Others, as soon as they have reached all the perfection to which
they are destined, like melons, fruit, mutton, beef, and grown
animals. Others when they begin to decompose, such as snipe, wood-
cock and pheasant. Others not until cooking has destroyed all
their injurious properties, such as the potato, manioc, and other