To a thoroughly normal and unperverted taste, irritating condiments of all sorts are very obnoxious.  It is true that Nature accommodates herself to their use with food to such a degree that they may be employed for years without apparently producing very grave results; but this very condition is a source of injury, since it is nothing more nor less than the going to sleep of the sentinels which nature has posted at the portal of the body, for the purpose of giving warning of danger.  The nerves of sensibility have become benumbed to such a degree that they no longer offer remonstrance against irritating substances, and allow the enemy to enter into the citadel of life.  The mischievous work is thus insidiously carried on year after year until by and by the individual breaks down with some chronic disorder of the liver, kidneys, or some other important internal organ.  Physicians have long observed that in tropical countries where curry powder and other condiments are very extensively used, diseases of the liver, especially acute congestion and inflammation, are exceedingly common, much more so that in countries and among nations where condiments are less freely used.  A traveler in Mexico, some time ago, described a favorite Mexican dish as composed of layers of the following ingredients:  “Pepper, mustard, ginger, pepper, potato, ginger; mustard, pepper, potato, mustard, ginger, pepper.”  The common use of such a dish is sufficient cause for the great frequency of diseases of the liver among the Mexicans, noted by physicians traveling in that country.  That the use of condiments is wholly a matter of habit is evident from the fact that different nations employ as condiments articles which would be in the highest degree obnoxious to people of other countries.  For example, the garlic so freely used in Russian cookery, would be considered by Americans no addition to the natural flavors of food; and still more distasteful would be the asafetida frequently used as a seasoning in the cuisine of Persia and other Asiatic countries.

The use of condiments is unquestionably a strong auxiliary to the formation of a habit of using intoxicating drinks.  Persons addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors are, as a rule, fond of stimulating and highly seasoned foods; and although the converse is not always true, yet it is apparent to every thoughtful person, that the use of a diet composed of highly seasoned and irritating food, institutes the conditions necessary for the acquirement of a taste for intoxicating liquors.  The false appetite aroused by the use of food that “burns and stings,” craves something less insipid than pure cold water to keep up the fever the food has excited.  Again, condiments, like all other stimulants, must be continually increased in quantity, or their effect becomes diminished; and this leads directly to a demand for stronger stimulants, both in eating and drinking, until the probable tendency is toward the dram-shop.