From the fifteenth century on, however, the wave of Sulphitism rose
steadily, gradually dropping at times into little depressions of
Euphuistic manners and intervals of "sensibility" but climbing, with
the advance of science and the emancipation of thought to an ideal--the
personal, original interpretation of life. The nineteenth century
showed curiously erratic variations of the curve. From its beginning
till 1815, Sulphitism was upon the increase, while from that year till
1870 there was a sickening drop to the veriest depths of bromidic
thought. Then the Bromide infested the earth. With his black-walnut
furniture, his jig-saw and turning-lathe methods of decoration, his
lincrusta-walton and pressed terracotta, his chromos, wax flowers, hoop
skirts, chokers, side whiskers and pantalettes, went a horrific revival
of mock modesty inspired by the dying efforts of the old formulated
religious thought. And then---- when steam had had its day, impressing
its materialism upon the world; making what should be hard, easy, and
what should be easy, hard--came electricity--a new science almost
approaching a spiritual force, and, with a rush, the telephone that
made the commonplace bristle with romance! The curve of sulphitism
arose. A wave of Oriental thought lifted many to a curious
idealism--and, as so many other centuries had done before, there came
to the nineteenth a _fin de siècle_ glow that lifted up the curve
still higher. The Renaissance of thought came--came the cult of
simplicity and Mission furniture--corsets were abandoned--the automobile
freed us from the earth--the Yellow Book began, Mrs. Eddy appeared,
radium was discovered and appendicitis flourished.

* * * * *

So there are bromidic vegetables like cabbage, and sulphitic ones like