" Far more than fish--for it is watery diet--eggs
are the scholar's fare. They contain phosphorus, which is brain food,
and sulphur, which performs a variety of functions in the economy. And
they are the best of nutriment for children, for, in a compact form,
they contain everything that is necessary for the growth of the
youthful frame. Eggs are, however, not only food--they are medicine
also. The white is the most efficacious of remedies for burns, and the
oil extractable from the yolk is regarded by the Russians as an
almost miraculous salve for cuts, bruises and scratches. A raw egg, if
swallowed in time, will effectually detach a fish bone fastened in
the throat, and the white of two eggs will render the deadly corrosive
sublimate as harmless as a dose of calomel. They strengthen the
consumptive, invigorate the feeble, and render the most susceptible
all but proof against jaundice in its more malignant phase. They
can also be drunk in the shape of that "egg flip" which sustains the
oratorical efforts of modern statesmen. The merits of eggs do not even
end here. In France alone the wine clarifiers use more than 80,000,000
a year, and the Alsatians consume fully 38,000,000 in calico printing
and for dressing the leather used in making the finest of French kid
gloves. Finally, not to mention various other employments for eggs in
the arts, they may, of course, almost without trouble on the farmer's
part, be converted in fowls, which, in any shape, are profitable to
the seller and welcome to the buyer.
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