Are truffles INDIGESTIBLES?

We have only to ascertain if the truffle be indigestible or not.

We say no.

This decision is ex cathedra, and well sustained.

1.  By the nature of the substance.  The truffle is easily masticated, is light, and has nothing hard nor cartilaginous in its composition.

2.  During our observations for fifty years, we have never known any indigestion to result from truffles. [Footnote:  The translator has known several such indigestions.  He once nearly became a martyr to a galatine de Perdrix truffee, at the restaurant of the late M. Dandurand.]

3.  The attestation of the most eminent of the faculty of Paris, a city eminently gourmande and trufflivorous, sustains this idea.

4.  From the daily conduct of the doctors of the law, who, caeteris paribus, consume more truffles than any other class of citizens.  Doctor Malonet used to eat enough to give an elephant the indigestion.  He however lived to be eighty-six.

We may therefore look on it as certain, that the truffle is a food healthy as it is agreeable, and that when taken in moderation it passes through the system as a letter does through the post office.

One may easily be indisposed after a great dinner, where other things than truffles have been eaten; such accidents, however, only happen to those who, after the first service, were already stuffed like canons, and who failed in the second, leaving the luxuries offered them untouched.

This is not then the fault of truffles, and we may be sure they had swallowed so many glasses of pure water or eaten the same number of potatoes.

Let us conclude by a circumstance which shows how easily we may be mistaken without careful observation.

One day I invited Mr. S—­, a very pleasant old man, to dine with me.  He was also a gourmand of the highest grade.  Either because I knew his tastes, or to satisfy all my guests that I wished to make them happy, I was not sparing in truffles, and they appeared under the egis of young turkeys most carefully stuffed.

Mr. S—­ate with energy, and as I knew he could not injure himself I left him alone, persuading him not to hurry himself because no one would attack the property he had acquired.

All passed off very well, and we separated at a very late hour.  When we reached home, however, Mr. S—­ was attacked by a violent cholic, a disposition to vomit, convulsive cramp, and general indisposition.

This state of things lasted some time, and all said he suffered from the indigestion caused by truffles; at last nature came to the patient’s aid, and Mr. S—­ opened his mouth and threw up a single truffle, which struck the wall and rebounded, luckily without injury to the by-standers.

All unpleasant symptoms at once disappeared, tranquility was restored, digestion recommenced its course, the patient went to sleep and awoke in the morning perfectly well.