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Vinegar, Wholesomeness Of

Vinegar in small quantities is a grateful and salutary stimulus to the stomach, correcting the putrescency of animal food, and the flatulency of vegetable. Its use, however, is improper in valetudinary cases, especially for gouty persons. Pickles are merely vegetable receptacles for vinegar, but the vegetable being hardened by the acid renders it somewhat difficult of digestion, and therefore vinegar in the form of pickles is not much to be recommended. We may add on this subject the remarks of Dr. Paris in his work on "Diet." "Vinegar," he says, "in small quantities, is a grateful and wholesome stimulant; it will often check the chemical fermentation of certain substances in the stomach, and prevent vegetable matter in its raw state from inducing flatulency; but its use requires caution, and in some morbid states of the system it is obviously improper. Fatty and gelatinous substances frequently appear to be rendered more digestible in the stomach by the addition of vinegar, although it is difficult to offer either a chemical or physiological explanation of the fact. The native vegetable acids may also be occasionally substituted; the addition of lemon-juice to rich and gelatinous soups renders them less liable to disagree with the stomach; and the custom of eating apple-sauce with pork is undoubtedly indebted for its origin to the same cause."