GORGING AND GORGING AND GOUT GOUT

Health and the Disposable Income Waterford County Archivist Joanne Rothwell

Disposable Income Disposable Income Increase in cash paymentsAll levels of society – weekly tenancies,

yearly tenancies, terms of leaseCredit – shops supplied credit to good

customers and to “powerful” customers Pawnbrokers – William Burke,

Cappoquin was appointed Appraiser and Auctioneer of Pawned Goods in Pawn Offices by the Grand Jury in 1854

Tallymen – goods supplied for payment in instalments

DISPOSING OF INCOMEDISPOSING OF INCOME

Food – meat, new foods

Drink – alcoholFashion and Fads Health

GORGING : 18GORGING : 18thth Century Century Rev. Nicholas Herbert, Carrick-on-Suir took his family to

their seaside cottage in Bonmahon in 1793. His daugther Dorothea and her friends celebrated with a feast

…we set all Hands to work, got our Pastry and Music from Carrick with every Rarity the Season afforded in Meats, Fruits or Vegetables –The two Blundons got us all manner of fish and wildfowl – Miss Butler, Miss Blunden and Fanny manufactured the Whipps, Jellies and Creams and I made a Central Arch of Pasteboard and Wild Heath with various other Ornaments and Devices

Aonach Bhearna na Gaoithe – Tomas Ó Moráin (Tomás na mbodharán)c.1770 Sliabh gCua lists food of the fair (raisins, honeycomb, chicken, meat, crubeens, leek, onions, cheese, carrots, turnips, parsnips, hakes, crabs, herrings, shellfish, salmon, fraughan, gooseberries, apples, gingerbread, plums and cherries…)

Plúr na nDeise, arán sinséir…Bradán is bric-gheala ón tSiúir ann”

GORGING 19GORGING 19THTH CENTURY CENTURYFirst Course: Soup, Fish Dish “It is

customary to eat fish only at the commencement of the dinner” Miss Leslie’s Directions for Cookery, 1851. Sherry

Second Course: Joint or Roast – mutton, goose, duck. Game pies. Champagne with roast, Claret with mutton, beef or venison

Third Course: Pastry, Creams, JelliesDessert: Iced puddings, trifle, cakes,

tarts. Liqueur served after ice, madeira, sherry or port after dessert

GORGING: MEAT GORGING: MEAT

Increase in meat consumption in the diet – beef and mutton (boiled), lamb only if a lamb died

Pig rearing was very common in Ireland – one for the table and one for market among poorer families but more in other families. Hand cured at home and slaughtered late Autumn/early Winter.

John Risbal, Dungarvan That Deft committed a nuisance by allowing 3 pigs in his dwelling house situate in Borheenatra in the Town of Dungarvan on Monday 4th March 1867. Nicholas Riordan and Johanna Whelan – same complaint

GORGING – NEW FOODSGORGING – NEW FOODS Bought bread – more finely milled, alum added to make dark

bread look lighter and to weigh heavier Butter and Milk – water, starch, carbonate of water, sugar Tea and Coffee – used tea leaves were boiled with copperas

(ferrous sulphate) and sheep's dung, then coloured with prussian blue (ferric ferrocyanide), verdigris (basic copper acetate), logwood, tannin or carbon black, before being resold. Some varieties of cheap teas contained or were made entirely from the dried leaves of other plants

Tinned Food – bole armenian added to colour potted fish and meat

1754 1st patent in England for the manufacture of gelatin, unflavoured dried gelatin, 1842

Corn syrup invented 1811 Corn starch – custard Alfred Bird 1837 Margarine – 1870 Sweets – turkish delight (1777), boiled sweets, toffee, chocolate

bar (1847), milk chocolate (1875)liquorice allsorts (1899),

TEA AND SUGARTEA AND SUGARPer capita consumption rose .5lb to 2.2lbs

between late 1830s-early 1860s and grew further as the 19th century progressed

High quality tea was purchased Tea was stewed and consumed with lots

of sugar and even more sugar if no milk was to be had

Surveys 1859-1904 indicate a tenfold increase in sugar consumption

Coffee was a middle and upper class drink

Workhouses dramatically increased their tea and sugar purchases

SUGAR BEETSUGAR BEETSugar Cane sole source of sugarDuring the mid-1700’s, the German chemist

Andreas Margraff discovered that both white and the red beetroot contained sucrose, which was indistinguishable from that produced from cane

One of Margraff’s students, Franz Karl Achard, conducted research in this area and built the first sugar factory at Cunern in lower Silesia (modern day Poland), and developed effective processing methods

Napoleonic Wars – more research due to English blockade of West Indies

Decline in slavery – increase in sugar beet production

1850s – widespread sugar beet production

WORKHOUSE DIETWORKHOUSE DIETIn August 1869 390lbs of meat was

purchased with 320 inmates in the Workhouse in Dungarvan 2780lbs of bread were purchased

Oxheads, beef and mutton from local suppliers

Best 2nd Bread – all supplies put out to local tender

More eggs purchasedMore Wine, Porter, Beer and Whiskey

purchasedMore Sugar

CHEAP DRINK CHEAP DRINK

Expansion in distilling industry in 18th century – corn surplus, technological advances

Duty paid on gin was 2 pence a gallon, as opposed to 4 shillings and nine pence on strong beer.

Consequently gin was dirt cheap Breweries concentrated on the production of porter - became

popular from the 18th century. The dark coloured beer was favoured by the market porters in London, hence its name.

Watered Beer - 'bittern' sold to brewers of bitter beer in large quantities. It contained copperas (ferrous sulphate), extracts of Cocculus indicus, quassia and liquorice juice. There was also a preparation of ground coriander seeds, with Nux vomica and quassia, again to impart bitterness to the brew.

Rum and brandy were gradually displaced by whiskey in the late 18th century in Ireland

ILLEGAL DISTILLINGILLEGAL DISTILLINGUnlicensed distilling illegal from 1667 Increase in tax on spirits – increase in illegal distillingReport from the Select Committee of the House of

Lords appointed to consider the consequences of extending the functions of the constabulary in Ireland to the suppression or prevention of illicit distillation… 1854

Difficult “to enforce a law which was not directed against a moral offence”

1860 police complained about the lack of assistance from the coast guards and the lords commissioners replied that they believe the coast guards were “lowered in the estimation of the country people and the service injured by employment of their boats on the duty referred to”

Father Mathew and Temperance Movement

GOUT GOUT Form of arthritis, joint inflammation

due to uric acid in the bloodRich food produces uric acid in

abundance and alcohol, by drying out the body, discourages it from leaving. The best prevention, is sensible food and lots of water.

Lord Chesterfield “the gout is the distemper of a gentleman; whereas the rheumatism is the distemper of a hackney coachman.”

FASHION AND FADS FASHION AND FADS Corsets –health risks (women and men) In 1878 Dr Gustave Jaeger argued that woollen clothing

promoted better health. He stated that wearing natural, undyed wool next to the skin was a healthy alternative to silk or cotton as it allowed perspiration to pass freely away, leaving the skin dry and warm. By the 1890s Jaeger was marketing a range of woollen underwear including 'Sanitary Woollen Corsets' for women.

Less wealthy wore more comfortable clothes Smoking – pipe, snuff, cigarettes, cigars 1791: London

physician John Hill reports cases in which use of snuff caused nasal cancers.

Ireland and Scotland were the primary exporters of pipes in the 19th Century

COSMETICSCOSMETICS Lead Face Powder

several thin plates of leada big pot of vinegara bed of horse manurewaterperfume & tinting agent

Steep the lead in the pot of vinegar, and rest it in a bed of manure for at least three weeks. When the lead finally softens to the point where it can pounded into a flaky white powder (chemical reaction between vinegar and lead causes lead to turn white), grind to a fine powder. Mix with water, and let dry in the sun. After the powder is dry, mix with the appropriate amount of perfume and tinting dye.

MEDICINE AND DOCTORSMEDICINE AND DOCTORSConnection between germs and disease

not widely accepted even by 1860s – doctors often spread disease by contaminating patients with unwashed hands and instruments

Mercury Pills were used to treat gout (also used as a cure for syphilis)

Caryocostin (costus root, scammony, cloves)

Opium – widely used in medicines Bloodletting – still widely practised in the

19th century

CONCLUSIONCONCLUSIONMore money – more consumptionThe cure was often worse than

the diseaseNext week – Dis-ease and

Disease