three years of age, producing three others | derstanding ever clearer, nor am I apt to be during the subsequent twelve years. His drowsy, the food I take being in too small a object was to show that, with increasing quantity to send up any fumes to the brain. age and diminished powers, a correspond. Oh, how advantageous it is to an old man to ing decrease in the quantity of food must eat but little! Accordingly I, who know it, be taken in order to preserve health. He eat but just enough to keep body and soul died at Padua, "without any agony, sitting in an elbow chair, being above an hundred years old."

that in all systems of training for athletic which is simply a process of lished in Padua in 1558. In his last, a letter written to acquiring the highest degree of health Barbaro, patriarch of Aquileia, he gives a description and strength attainable, in view of great of his health and vigor when ninety-five years old. A paper in "The Spectator" was one of the first notices or prolonged exertion some loss of him in this country. See vol iii., No. 195. weight is almost invariably incurred in

Street, London, 1768. Cornaro's first work was pub-exploits

developing a perfect condition. In other twelve hours of the day at the work of a words, almost any man who sets himself navvy, as an agricultural laborer in har to acquire by every means in his power vest time, or in draining or trenching land, the best health possible for his system, as a sawyer, a railway porter, or a brickdoes in the process necessary thereto layer's laborer, or let me add that of an throw off redundant materials, the pres- ardent sportsman, as compared with the ence of which is not consistent with the expenditure of a clerk who is seated at high standard of function required. Thus the desk, of individuals engaged in liter what is sometimes called "overtraining ary and artistic pursuits, demanding a life is a condition in which the storage is re- mostly sedentary and spent indoors, with duced too much, and some weakening is no exercise but that which such persons incurred thereby; while "undertraining" voluntarily take as a homage to hygienic implies that the useless fatty and other duty, and for a short period borrowed at matters have not been sufficiently got rid some cost from engagements which claim of, so that the athlete is encumbered by most of their time and nearly all their unnecessary weight, and is liable to need- energies. While the manual laborers less embarrassments, telling against his rarely consume more food than they exchances in more ways than one. The ex- pend, and are, if not injured by drink, or act and precise balance between the two by undue exposure to the weather, mostly conditions is the aim of the judicious | hale and hearty in consequence, the latter trainer. are often martyrs to continued minor ail ments, which gradually increase, and make work difficult, and life dreary. Few peo ple will believe how easy it is in most instances to meet the difficulty by adopting appropriate food, and that such brainworkers can really enjoy a fair degree of health and comfort by living on light food, which does not require much force to digest, and much muscular activity to assimilate; a diet, moreover, which is important to some of these from another point of view the financial one—inasmuch as it is at least less costly by one half than the conventional meals which habit or custom prescribes alike to large classes of men in varied conditions of life. But there is another and more important economic gain yet to be named, as realizable through the use of a light and simple dietary. It is manifested by the fact that a greater expenditure of nerve power is demanded for the digestion of heavy meat meals, than for the lighter repasts which are suitable to the sedentary; from which fact it results of course that this precious power is reserved for more useful and more delightful pursuits than that of mere digestion, especially when this is not too well p.formed.

We are thus led to the next important consideration, namely, that altue. broad rules or principles of diet may be enunciated as applicable to different classes of people in general, no accurate adaptation to the individual is possible without a knowledge of his daily habits and life, as well as to some extent of his personal peculiarities. No man, for example, can tell another what he can or ought to eat, without knowing what are the habits of life and work-mental and bodily of the person to be advised. Notwithstanding which, no kind of counsel is more frequently tendered in common conversation by one stranger with another, than that which concerns the choice of food and drink. The adviser feels himself war ranted by the experience that some particular combination of nourishment suits his own stomach, to infer without hesitation that this dish will be therefore acceptable to the stomachs of all his neighbors. Surely the intelligence of such a man is as slender as his audacity and presumption are large. It would not be more preposterous if, having with infinite pains obtained a last representing precisely the size and the peculiarities in form of his own foot, he forthwith solemnly aajured But those who have little time for exall other persons to adopt boots made ercise, and are compelled to live chiefly upon that model, and on none other. within doors, must endeavor to secure, or Only it may be assumed that there is should have secured for them as far as probably more difference between stom- possible by employers, by way of com. achs and their needs among different pensation, a regular supply of fresh air individuals, than among the inferior ex-without draughts, an atmosphere as free tremities referred to for the purpose of illustration. Thus, in regard of expenditure of food, how great is the difference between that of a man who spends ten or

from dust and other impurities as can be obtained, with a good supply of light, and some artificial warmth when needed. These necessities granted, cereal foods,

dietary, especially of elderly persons, should be made gradually and with caution. This condition fulfilled, a considerable change may be effected with satisfactory results, when circumstances render it necessary. To revert once more to the question of flesh-eating, it should be remarked that it appears to be by no means a natural taste with the young. Few children like that part of the meal which consists of meat, but prefer the pudding, the fruit, the vegetables, if well dressed, which unhappily is not often the case. Many children manifest great repugnance to meat at first, and are coaxed and even scolded by anxious mothers until the habit of eating it is acquired. Adopting the insular creed, which regards beef and mutton as necessary to health and strength, the mother often suffers from groundless forebodings about the future of a child who rejects flesh, and manifests what is regarded as an unfortunate partiality for bread and butter and pudding. Nevertheless I am satisfied, if the chil

such as well-made bread in variety, and | ties would have become dominant, as their
vegetable produce, including fruits, should contraries are now. Alterations in the
form a great part of the diet consumed,
with a fair addition of eggs and milk if no
meat is taken, and little of other animal
food than fish. On such a dietary, and
without alcoholic stimulants, thousands of
such workers as I have briefly indicated
may enjoy with very little exercise far
better health and more strength than at
present they experience on meat and
heavy puddings, beer, baker's bread, and
cheese. Of course there are workers who
belong to neither of the two extreme
classes indicated, and whose habits can-
not be described as sedentary, but who
occupy a middle place between the two.
For such, some corresponding modifica
tion of the dietary is naturally appropri-
ate. But it is a vulgar error to regard
meat in any form as necessary to life; if
for any it is necessary, it is for the hard-
working outdoor laborers above referred
to, and for these a certain proportion is
no doubt desirable. Animal flesh is use-
ful also as a concentrated form of nutri-
ment, valuable for its portability; and for
the small space it occupies in the stom-dren followed their own instinct in that
ach, unrivalled in certain circumstances.
Like every other description of food, it is
highly useful in its place, but is by no
means necessary for a large proportion of
the population. To many it has become
partially desirable only by the force of
habit, and because their digestive organs
have thus been trained to deal with it, and A brief allusion must be made to the
at first resent a change. But this being well-known and obvious fact that the sur-
gradually made, adaptation takes place, rounding temperature influences the de-
and the individual who has consumed mand for food, which therefore should be
two or three meat meals daily with some determined as regards quantity or kind
little discomfort, chiefly from being often according to the climate inhabited, or the
indisposed to make active exertions, be- season of the year as it affects each
comes, after sufficient time has elapsed, climate. In hot weather the dietary
stronger, lighter, and happier, as well as should be lighter, in the understood sense
better tempered, and manifestly healthier, of the term, than in cold weather. The
on the more delicate dietary sketched. sultry period of our summer, although com-
People in general have very inadequate paratively slight and of short duration, is
ideas of the great power of habit alone in nevertheless felt by some persons to be
forming what they believe to be innate extremely oppressive; but this is mainly
personal peculiarities, or in creating con- due to the practice of eating much animal
ditions which are apparently part of a food or fatty matters, conjoined as it often
constitutional necessity, laws of their na- is with the habit of drinking freely of
ture and essential to their existence. fluids containing a small quantity of alco-
Many of these peculiarities are solely due hol. Living on cereals, vegetables, and
to habit, that is, to long continuance in a fruit, with some proportion of fish, and
routine of action, adopted it may be with-abstaining from alcoholic drinks, the same
out motive or design; and people are apt
to forget that if a routine of a precisely
opposite character had been adopted, pre-
cisely opposite conditions would have
been established, and opposite peculiari.

matter, the result would be a gain in more ways than one. Certainly if meat did not appear in the nursery until the children sent for it, it would be rarely seen there, and the young ones would as a rule thrive better on milk and eggs, with the varied produce of the vegetable kingdom.

persons would probable enjoy the high temperature, and be free from the thirst which is the natural result of consuming needlessly substantial and heating food.

There is a very common term, familiar

by daily use, conveying unmistakably to every one painful impressions regarding those who manifest the discomforts indicated by it — I mean the term indigestion. The first sign of what is so called may appear even in childhood; not being the consequence of any stomach disorder, but solely of some error in diet, mostly the result of eating too freely of rich compounds in which sugar and fatty matters are largely present. These elements would not be objectionable if they formed part of a regular meal, instead of being consumed as they mostly are between meals, already abounding in every necessary constituent.

Sugar and fat are elements of value in children's food, and naturally form a considerable portion of it, entering largely into the composition of milk, which nature supplies for the young and growing animal. The indigestion of the child mostly terminates rapidly by ejection of the of fending matter. But the indigestion of the adult is less acutely felt and is less readily disposed of. Uneasiness and incapacity for action, persisting for some time after an ordinary meal, indicate that the stomach is acting imperfectly on the materials which have been put into it. These signs manifest themselves frequently, and if nature's hints that the food is inappropriate are not taken, they be come more serious. Temporary relief is easily obtained by medicine; but if the unfortunate individual continues to blame his stomach, and not the dietary he se lects, the chances are that his troubles will continue, or appear in some other form. At length, if unenlightened on the subject, he becomes "a martyr to indigestion," and resigns himself to the unhappy fate, as he terms it, of "the confirmed dyspeptic."

Such a victim may perhaps be surprised to learn that nine out of ten persons so affected are probably not the subjects of any complaint whatever, and that the stomach at any rate is by no means nec essarily faulty in its action-in short, that what is popularly termed "indigestion" is rarely a disease in any sense of the word, but merely the natural result of errors in diet. For most men it is the penalty of conformity to the eating habits of the majority; and a want of disposition or of enterprise to undertake a trial of simpler foods than those around them consume, probably determines the continuance of their unhappy troubles. In many instances it must be confessed that the

complaint, if so it must be called, results from error, not in the quality of the food taken, but in the quantity. Eating is an agreeable process for most people, and under the influence of very small temptation, or through undue variety furnishing a source of provocation to the palate, a considerable proportion of nutritious material above what is required by the system is apt to be swallowed. Then it is also to be remembered that stomachs which vary greatly in their capacity and power to digest, may all nevertheless be equally healthy and competent to exercise every necessary function. In like manner we know that human brains which are equally sound and healthy, often differ vastly in power and in activity. Thus a stomach which would be slandered by a charge of incompetence to perform easily all that it is in duty bound to accomplish, may be completely incapable of digesting a small excess beyond that natural limit. Hence, with such an organ an indigestion is inevitable when this limit is only slightly exceeded. And so when temptations are considerable, and frequently complied with, the disturbance may be, as it is with some, very serious in degree. How very powerful a human stomach may sometimes be, and how large a task in the way of digestion it may sometimes perform without complaint, is known to those who have had the opportunity of observ. ing what certain persons with exceptional power are accustomed to take as food, and do take for a long time apparently with impunity. But these are stomachs endowed with extraordinary energy, and woe be to the individual with a digestive appa. ratus of moderate power who attempts to emulate the performance of a neighbor at table who perchance may be furnished with such an effective digestive apparatus.

But, after all, let not the weaker man grieve overmuch at the uneven lot which the gods seem to have provided for mortals here below in regard of this function of digestion. There is a compensation for him which he has not considered, or perhaps even heard of, although he is so moderately endowed with peptic force. A delicate stomach which can just do needful work for the system and no more, by necessity performs the function of a careful door porter at the entrance of the system, and like a jealous guardian inspects with discernment all who aspire to enter the interior, rejecting the unfit and the unbidden, and all the common herd.

On the other hand, a stomach with su

perfluous power, of whom its master boast | so complaining has not yet found his ap-
fully declaims that it can "digest tenpenny propriate diet: that he takes food unsuited
nails," and that he is unaccustomed to for him, or too much of it. The food may
consult its likes and its dislikes if it have be "wholesome enough in itself," a pop-
any, is like a careless hall porter who ular phrase permitted to appear here, first,
admits all comers, every pretender, and because it conveys a meaning perceived
among the motley visitors many whose by every one, although the idea is loosely
presence is damaging to the interior. expressed; but secondly, and chiefly, for
These powerful feeders after a time suffer the purpose of pointing out the fallacy
from the unexpended surplus, and pay for which underlies it. There is no food
their hardy temerity in becoming amen-"wholesome in itself;" and there is no
able to penalty, often suddenly declared fact which people in general are more
by the onset of some serious attack, de- slow to comprehend. That food only is
manding complete change in regimen, a wholesome which is so to the individual;
condition more or less grave. On the and no food can be wholesome to any
other hand, the owner of the delicate given number of persons. Milk, for ex
stomach, a man perhaps with a habit of ample, may agree admirably with me, and
frequently complaining of slight troubles, may as certainly invariably provoke an
and always careful, will probably in the indigestion for my neighbor; and the
race of life, as regards the preceding pil- same may be said of almost every article
grim, take the place of the tortoise as of our ordinary dietary. The wholesome-
against the hare. It is an old proverb ness of a food consists solely in its adapt-
that "the creaking wheel lasts longest," ability to the individual, and this relation
and one that is certainly true as regards a is governed mainly by the influences of
not powerful but nevertheless healthy his age, activity, surroundings, and tem-
stomach which is carefully treated by its perament or personal peculiarities.
owner; to whom this fact may be accept-
able as a small consolation for the posses-
sion of a delicate organ.

For it is a kind of stomach which not seldom accompanies a fine organization. The difference is central, not local; a difference in the nervous system chiefly; the impressionable mental structure, the instrument of strong emotions, must necessarily be allied with a stomach to which the supply of nerve power for digestion is sometimes temporarily deficient and always perhaps capricious. There are more sources than one of compensation to the owner of an active, impressionable brain, with a susceptible stomach possessing only moderate digestive capabilities sources altogether beyond the imagination of many a coarse feeder and capable digester.

But it is not correct, and it is on all grounds undesirable, to regard the less powerful man as a sufferer from indigestion, that is, as liable to any complaint to be so termed. True indigestion, as a manifestation of diseased stomach, is comparatively quite rare, and I have not one word to say of it here, which would not be the fitting place if I had. Not one person in a hundred who complains of in digestion has any morbid affection of the organs engaged in assimilating his food. As commonly employed, the word "indigestion" denotes, not a disease, but an admonition. It means that the individual

Indigestion, therefore, does not necessarily, or indeed often, require medicine for its removal. Drugs, and especially small portions of alcoholic spirit, are often used for the purpose of stimulating the stomach temporarily to perform a larger share of work than by nature it is qualified to undertake; a course which is disad vantageous for the individual if persisted in. The effect on the stomach is that of the spur on the horse: it accelerates the pace, but "it takes it out" of the animal; and if the practice is long continued, shortens his natural term of efficiency.

It is an erroneous idea that a simple form of dietary, such as the vegetable kingdom in the largest sense of the term furnishes, in conjunction with a moderate proportion of the most easily digested forms of animal food, may not be appetizing and agreeable to the palate. On the contrary I am prepared to maintain that it may be easily served in forms highly attractive, not only to the general but to a cultivated taste. A preference for the high flavors and stimulating scents peculiar to the flesh of verbetrate animals, mostly subsides after a fair trial of milder foods when supplied in variety. And it is an experience almost universally avowed, that the desire for food is keener, that the satisfaction in gratifying appetite is greater and more enjoyable, on the part of the general light feeder, than with the almost exclusively flesh-feeder. For this