renewing contains about eighty per cent of water, some of it combined, and some of it uncombined, has a notable bearing on the question. We may yet learn that hydration and dehydration have more to do with the vital functions than has hitherto been supposed.
The following are the ingredients used by Rumford in "Soup No. 1":
| Weight, avoirdupois. |
Cost. | ||||
| lbs. | ozs. | £ | s. | d. | |
| 4 viertels of pearl-barley, equal to about 2018 gallons. | 141 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 712 |
| 4 viertels of peas | 131 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 314 |
| Cuttings of fine wheaten bread, Salt | 69 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 214 |
| 24 maass, very weak beer, vinegar, or rather small beer turned sour—about 24 quarts | 46 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 212 |
| Water about 560 quarts | 1,077 | 0 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . | ||
| 1,485 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 9 | |
| Fuel, 88 pounds of dry pine-wood | 0 | 0 | 214 | ||
| Wages of three cook-maids, at 20 florins a year each | 0 | 0 | 323 | ||
| Daily expense of feeding the three cook-maids, at 10 kreutzers (3 pence 2/3 sterling) each, according to agreement | 0 | 0 | 11 | ||
| Daily wages of two men-servants | 0 | 1 | 714 | ||
| Repairs of kitchen furniture (90 florins per annum) daily | 0 | 0 | 513 | ||
| Total daily expenses when dinner is provided for 1,200 persons | 1 | 15 | 223 | ||
This amounts to 4221200, or a trifle more than one third, of a penny for each dinner of this No. 1 soup. The cost was still further reduced by the use of the potato, then a novelty, concerning which Rumford makes the following remarks, now very curious: "So strong was the aversion of the public, particularly the poor, against them at the time when we began to make use of them in the public kitchen of the House of Industry in Munich, that we were absolutely obliged, at first, to introduce them by stealth. A private room in a retired corner was fitted up as a kitchen for cooking them; and it was necessary to disguise them, by boiling them down entirely, and destroying their form and texture, to prevent their being detected." The following are the ingredients of "Soup No. 2," with potatoes:
| Weight, avoirdupois. |
Cost. | |||||
| lbs. | ozs. | £ | s. | d. | ||
| 2 viertels of pearl-barley | 70 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 912 | 32 |
| 2 viertels of peas | 65 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 758 | |
| 8 viertels of potatoes | 230 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 9911 | |
| Cuttings of bread | 69 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 2411 | |
| Salt | 19 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 212 | |
| Vinegar | 46 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 512 | |
| Water | 982 | 15 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | |||
| Fuel, servants, repairs, etc., as before, | . . . . . . . . . . | 0 | 3 | 5512 | ||
| Total daily cost of 1,200 dinners | 1 | 7 | 238 | |||
