rails, teal, woodcocks, snipes, &c. which can scarcely be numbered
among the _small birds_ mentioned 19. 62. 154. [55]. So as to fish,
many species appear at our tables which are not found in the Roll,
trouts, flounders, herrings, &c. [56]. It were easy and obvious to
dilate here on the variations of taste at different periods of time,
and the reader would probably not dislike it; but so many other
particulars demand our attention, that I shall content myself with
observing in general, that whereas a very able _Italian_ critic,
_Latinus Latinius_, passed a sinister and unfavourable censure on
certain seemingly strange medlies, disgusting and preposterous messes,
which we meet with in _Apicius_; Dr. _Lister_ very sensibly replies
to his strictures on that head, 'That these messes are not
immediately to be rejected, because they may be displeasing to some.
_Plutarch_ testifies, that the ancients disliked _pepper_ and the
sour juice of lemons, insomuch that for a long time they only used
these in their wardrobes for the sake of their agreeable scent, and
yet they are the most wholesome of all fruits. The natives of the
_West Indies_ were no less averse to _salt_; and who would believe
that _hops_ should ever have a place in our common beverage [57], and
that we should ever think of qualifying the sweetness of malt,
through good housewifry, by mixing with it a substance so egregiously
bitter? Most of the _American_ fruits are exceedingly odoriferous,
and therefore are very disgusting at first to us _Europeans_: on the
contrary, our fruits appear insipid to them, for want of odour. There
are a thousand instances of things, would we recollect them all,
which though disagreeable to taste are commonly assumed into our
viands; indeed, _custom_ alone reconciles and adopts sauces which are
even nauseous to the palate. _Latinus Latinius_ therefore very
rashly and absurdly blames _Apicius_, on account of certain
preparations which to him, forsooth, were disrelishing.' [58] In