ABSTRACT
Great appetites are now rather uncommon and our meals have become shorter, restricted to a few courses only. Our ancestors, both in France and in England, ate remarkably well, and enormous meals were the rule in the old days. The bills of fare of Paris in the Balzac period, for instance, are illuminating on this subject. And if we go back further in history, then we have occasion to stop, stare, and breathe. Louis XIV was an amazing glutton.
