Project Gutenberg's The History of a Mouthful of Bread, by Jean MaceCopyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloadingor redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do notchange or edit the header without written permission.Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of thisfile. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can alsofind out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971*******These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****Title: The History of a Mouthful of Bread And its effect on the organization of men and animalsAuthor: Jean MaceRelease Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6970] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was firstposted on February 18, 2003]Edition: 10Language: English*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF A MOUTHFUL OF BREAD ***Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.THE HISTORY OF A MOUTHFUL OF BREAD:And Its Effect on the Organization of Men and Animals.BY JEAN ...
Project Gutenberg's The History of a Mouthful of Bread, by Jean Mace
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**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: The History of a Mouthful of Bread And its effect on the organization of men and animals
Author: Jean Mace
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6970] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first
posted on February 18, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF A MOUTHFUL OF BREAD ***
Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE HISTORY OF A MOUTHFUL OF BREAD:
And Its Effect on the Organization of Men and Animals.
BY JEAN MACÉ.
Translated Prom the Eighth French Edition, By Mrs. Alfred Gatty.EXTRACTS FROM THE PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
The volume of which the following pages are a translation, has been adopted by the University Commission at Paris
among their prize books, and has reached an eighth edition. Perhaps these facts speak sufficiently in its favor; but as
translator, and to some extent editor, I wish to add my testimony to the great charm as well as merit of the little work. I sat
down to it, I must own, with no special predilection in favor of the subject as a suitable one for young people; but in the
course of the labor have become a thorough convert to the author's views that such a study—perhaps I ought to add, so
pursued as he has enabled it to be—is likely to prove a most useful and most desirable one.
The precise age at which the interest of a young mind can be turned towards this practical branch of natural history is an
open question, and not worth disputing about. It may vary even in different individuals. The letters are addressed to a
child—in the original even to a little girl—and most undoubtedly, as the book stands, it is fit for any child's perusal who
can find amusement in its pages: while to the rather older readers, of whom I trust there will be a great many, I will venture
to say that the advantage they will gain in the subject having been so treated as to be brought within the comprehension
and adapted to the tastes of a child, is pretty nearly incalculable. The quaintness and drollery of the illustrations with which
difficult scientific facts are set forth will provoke many a smile, no doubt, and in some young people perhaps a tendency
to feel themselves treated babyishly; but if in the course of the babyish treatment they find themselves almost
unexpectedly becoming masters of an amount of valuable information on very difficult subjects, they will have nothing to
complain of. Let such young readers refer to even a popular Encyclopaedia for an insight into any of the subjects of the
twenty-eight chapters of this volume—"The Heart," "The Lungs," "The Stomach," "Atmospheric Pressure,"—no matter
which, and see how much they can understand of it without an amount of preliminary instruction which would require half-
a-year's study, and they will then thoroughly appreciate the quite marvellous ingenuity and beautiful skill with which M.
Macé has brought the great leading anatomical and physical facts of life out of the depths of scientific learning, and
made them literally comprehensible by a child.
* * * * *
There is one point (independent of the scientific teaching) and that, happily, the only really important one, in which the
English translator has had no change to make or desire. The religious teaching of the book is unexceptionable. There is
no strained introduction of the subject, but there is throughout the volume an acknowledgment of the Great Creator of this
marvellous work of the human frame, of the daily and hourly gratitude we owe to Him, and of the utter impossibility of our
tracing out half his wonders, even in the things nearest to our senses, and most constantly subject to observation. M.
Macé will help, and not hinder the humility with which the Christian naturalist lifts one veil only to recognise another
beyond.
It will be satisfactory to any one who may be inclined to wonder how a lady can feel sure of having correctly translated the
various scientific and anatomical statements contained in the volume, to know that the whole has been submitted to the
careful revision of a medical friend, to whom I have reason to be very grateful for valuable explanations and corrections
whenever they were necessary. In the same way the chapter on "Atmospheric Pressure," where, owing to the difference
between French and English weights and measures, several alterations of illustrations, etc., had to be made, has
received similar kind offices from the hands of a competent mathematician.
* * * * *
MARGARET GATTY.
Ecclesfield, June, 1864.NOTE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.
In May '66, the seventeenth edition of this work was on sale in Paris. The date of Mrs. Gatty's preface, it will be observed,
is June '64, and at that time, the eighth French edition only had been reached. That it should be a popular book and
command large sale wherever it is known, will not surprise any one who reads it: the only remarkable circumstance about
it is, that it should not have been republished here long ere this. Even this may probably be accounted for, on the
supposition that the title under which the translation was published in England, was so unmeaning—conveying not the
slightest idea of the contents of the book—that none of our publishers even ventured to hand it over to their "readers" to
examine.
The author's title, The History of a Mouthful of Bread, while falling far short of giving a clear notion of the entire scope of
the work, is shockingly diluted and meaningless, when translated The History of a Bit of Bread!
To the translation of Mrs. Gatty, which is in the main an excellent one, for she has generally seized upon the idea of the
author and rendered it with singular felicity, it may be very properly objected that she has taken some liberties with the
text when there was any conflict of opinion between herself and her author, and has given her own ideas