DIETETICS. The application of science to the regula-tion of the continuous demands of the body for nutriment aims mainly at three objects—Health, Pleasure, and Economy. They are rarely inconsistent with one another, but yet require separate consideration, as under varying circumstances each may claim the most prominent place in our thoughts.

Influence of Diet upon Health.

The influence of diet upon the health of a man begins at the earliest stage of his life, and indeed is then greater than at any other period. It is varied by the several phases of internal growth and of external relations, and in old age is still important in prolonging existence, and rendering it agreeable and useful.

Diet in Infancy.—No food has as yet been found so suitable for the young of all animals as their mother's milk. And this has not been from want of seeking. Dr Brouzet (Sur I'Education medicinale des Enfants, i. p. 165) has such a bad opinion of human mothers, that he expresses a wish for the state to interfere and prevent them from suckling their children, lest they should com-municate immorality and disease ! A still more determined pessimist was the famous chemist Van Helmont, who thought life had been reduced to its present shortness by our inborn propensities, and proposed to substitute bread boiled in beer and honey for milk, which latter he calls " brute's food." Baron Liebig has followed the lead with a " Food for infants," in the prescription for which half ounces and quarter grains figure freely, and which has to be prepared on a slow fire, and after a few minutes boiled well. And after all not nearly such a close imitation of human milk is made as by the addition to fresh cow's milk of half its bulk of soft water, in each pint of which has been mixed a heaped up teaspoontul of powdered " sugar of milk " and a pinch of phosphate of lime. Indeed, in default of these cheap chemicals, the milk and water alone, when fresh and pure, are safer than an artificial compound which requires cooking. And experience shows that the best mode of administering food to the young is also that which is most widely adopted throughout warm-blooded nature, namely, in a fresh, tepid, liquid state, frequently, and in small quantities at a time.

Empirical observation is fully supported in these deduc-tions by physiological and chemical science. Milk con-tains of-—
Water 88 per cent.
Oleaginous matter (cream or butter) 3 ,,
Nitrogenous matter (cheese and albumen) 4 ,,
Hydrocarbon (sugar) 4J ,,
Saline matter (phosphate of lime, chloride of
sodium, iron, &c.) J ,,

These are at once the constituents and the proportions of the constituents of food suited to a weakly rapidly-growing animal. The large quantity of water makes it pass easily through the soft absorbent walls of the digestive canal, and the complete suspension in an alkaline fluid of the finely divided fat and nitrogenous matter introduce more of them than could be effected were they in a solid form. The fat is the germ of new cellular growth, and the nitrogenous matter is by the new cells formed into flesh, which is doubling its bulk monthly. The phosphate of lime is required for the hardening bones, the chloride of sodium and the iron for the daily increasing amount of blood in circulation. Milk may be said to be still alive as it leaves the breast fresh and warm, and quickly becomes living blood in the infant's veins. A very slight chemical change is requisite. Its frequent administration is demanded by the rapid absorption, and the absence of regular meals prevents the overloading of the delicate young stomach with more than it can hold at once,

The wholesomest nutriment for the first six months is milk alone. A vigorous baby can indeed bear with im punity much rough usage, and often appears none the worse for a certain quantity of farinaceous food; but the majority do not get habituated to it, without an exhibition of dislike which indicates rebellion of the bowels.

To give judicious diet its fair chance the frame must be well protected from the cold; and just in proportion as the normal temperature of the body is maintained so does growth prosper, as is satisfactorily proved by experiments on the young of the lower animals.

It is only when the teeth are on their way to the front, as shown by dribbling, that the parotid glands secrete an active saliva capable of digesting bread stuffs. Till then anything but milk must be given tentatively, and considered in the light of a means of education for its future mode of nutrition. Among the varieties of such means, the most generally applicable are broth and beef tea, at first pure, and then thickened with tapioca and arrowroot. Chicken soup, made with a little cream and sugar, serves as a change. Baked flour, biscuit powder, tops and bottoms, should all have their turn; change is necessary in the imperfect dietary which art supplies, and for change the stomach should be prepared by habit.

The consequences of premature weaning are insidious. The external aspect of the child is that of health, its muscles are strong, but the bones do not harden in proportion, and if it tries to walk its limbs give way, and it is said to be suffering from rachitis or "rickets."

These consequences follow in other animals as surely as in the human race ; and in them it was possible to make the experiment crucial. A gentleman named Guérin set himself to find if he could produce rickets at will. He took a number of puppies in equally good condition, and having let them suckle for a time, he suddenly weaned half of them and fed them on raw meat, a fare which at first thought wouldseem the mostsuitable for carnivorous animals. Nevertheless, after a short time, those which continued to take the mother's milk had grown strong and hearty, whilst those which had been treated with a more substantial dietary pined, and frequently threw up their victuals, then their limbs bent, and at the end of about four months they showed all the symptoms of confirmed rickets. From these experiments we must conclude that the rachitis depended mainly on the derangements of nutrition brought on by improper diet. A diet which is taken at a wrong season may fairly be called improper. For carnivora, it is flesh before the age of suckling has passed ; for herbívora (and an experiment bearing on the point has been made on pigs), it is vegetable feeding begun when they ought to be at the teat.

The time for weaning should be fixed partly by the child's age, partly by the growth of the teeth. The troubles to which children are subject at this crisis are usually gastric, such as are induced by summer weather; therefore at that season the weaning should be postponed, whereas in winter it should be hurried forward. The first group of teeth nine times out of ten consists of the lower central front teeth, which may appear any time during the sixth and seventh month. The mother may then begin to diminish the number of suckling times; and by a month she can have reduced them to twice a day, so as to be ready when the second group makes its way through the upper front gums to cut off the supply altogether. The third group, the lateral incisors and first grinders, usually after the first anniversary of birth give notice that solid food can be chewed. But it is prudent to let dairy milk form a con-siderable portion of the fare till the eye teeth are cut, which seldom happens till the eighteenth or twentieth month. At this period children are liable to diarrhoea, convulsions, irritation of the brain, rashes, and febrile catarrhs. In such cases it is often advisable to resume a complete milk diet, and sometimes a child's life has been saved by its reapplication to the breast. These means are most feasible when the patient is accustomed to milk; indeed, if not, the latter expedient is hardly possible.

Diet in Childhood and Youth.—At this stage of life the diet must obviously be the best, which is a transition from that of infancy to that of adult age. Growth is' not completed, but yet entire surrender of every consideration to the claim of growth is not possible, nor indeed desirable. Moreover that abundance of adipose tissue, or reserve new growth, which a baby can bear, is an impediment to the due education of the muscles of the boy or girl. The supply of nutriment needs not to be so con-tinuous as before, but at the same time should be more frequent than for the adult. Up to at least fourteen or fifteen years of age the rule should be four meals a day, varied indeed, but nearly equal in nutritive power and in quantity, that is to say, all moderate, all sufficient. The maturity the body then reaches involves a hardening and enlargement of the bones and cartilages, and a strengthening of the digestive organs, which in healthy young persons enables us to dispense with some of the watchful care bestowed upon their diet. Three full meals a day are generally sufficient, and the requirements of mental training may be allowed, to a certain extent to modify the attention to nutrition which has hitherto been paramount. But it must not be forgotten that the changes in figure and in internal organs are not completed till several years have passed, and that they involve increased growth and demand full supplies. As less bulky food is used, care should be taken that it is sufficiently nutritious, and habits should be acquired which conduce to making the most of it for the maintenance of strength.

The nutritiousness of food depends on digestibility and concentration. Food is digestible when it yields readily its constituents to the fluids destined for their reduction to absorbable chyme. It is more or less concentrated, accord-ing as a given weight contains more or less matter capable of supporting life. The degree in which they possess these qualifications united constitutes the absolute nutritiva value of alimentary matters.

The degree of cohesion in the viands influences digesti-bility. Tough articles incapable of being completely ground up by the teeth, remain unused, while fluids and semifluids lead the van of digestibles. The tissues of young vegetables and young animals are for this reason more digestible than old specimens. It is desirable also that the post mortem rigidity, which lasts several days in most instances, should have merged into softness before the meat is cooked, or should have been anticipated by cooking before the flesh is cold. In warm climates and excep-tionally warm weather the latter course is the preferable. The dietician, especially when the feeding of the young is in question, will prefer those methods of culinary preparation which most break up the natural cohesion of the viands. And it may be noticed that the force of cohesion acts in all directions, and that it is no advantage for an article to be late-rally friable if it remains stringy in a longitudinal direction.

Fat interposed between the component parts of food diminishes its digestibility. It is the interstitial fat between the fasciculi of muscular fibre in beef which renders it to young persons and to dyspeptics less digestible than mutton.

A temperature above that of the body retards digestion. Meat, which is digested by the gastric juice in the stomach, has time to cool before it gets there ; but farinaceous food, which depends for its conversion into chyme on the salivary glands, suffers a serious loss if by reason of being too hot it cannot avail itself of the saliva supplied by the mouth. It should also be borne in mind that a temperature much above that of the body cracks the enamel of the teeth.

Excessive concentration impairs digestibility. The prin-cipal medium by which nutriment is carried through the absorbent membrane of the digestive canal is water. There is no doubt it passes more rapidly by endosmosis than anything else. The removal, then, of water is an injury to viands, and drying, salting, over-frying, over-roasting, and even over-boiling renders them less soluble in the digestive juices, and so less nutritious. A familiar illustration of this may be taken from eggs. Let an egg be lightly boiled, poached in water, custarded, or raw, and the stomach even of an invalid can bear it; but let it be baked in a pudding which requires a hot oven, or boiled hard, or otherwise submitted to a high temperature for a prolonged period, and it becomes a tasteless, leathery substance, which can be of no more use in the stomach than so much skin or hair. It is obvious then that it is mainly in a commercial point of view that articles of diet can be called nutritious in proportion to their concentration. About this there can be no question; milk adulterated from the pump is worth so much less than pure milk, and a pound of beef steak | sustains a man longer than a pint of veal broth.

The attainment of nutritiousness by concentration is of considerable importance to travellers and in military medicine. There are not a few strategists who attribute the success of the Germans in the war of 1870 to the easily carried and easily prepared food supplied to them by the sausage-makers of Berlin. Concentration of viands carried to excess, so as to be likely to affect the health, is usually made manifest by a diminution in the secretion of urine and itscondensed condition; while, on the other hand, if dilution is needlessly great, the action of the kidneys is excessive. Now the urine of young persons is naturally of lower specific gravity, tbat is, more aqueous, than that of adults. If it is found to equal in density the excretion of full growth, or if it is observed to be voided but rarely, the meals should be made more bulky, or better still, more frequent, so as not to overload the stomach.

An over-concentrated diet often induces costiveness. This should be counteracted by green vegetables and other dilute appetizing dishes, and never by purgative drugs. The habit of taking a considerable quantity and variety of fresh green vegetables has the further advan-tage of preventing that tendency to minor developments of scurvy which is not uncommonly found in youths nourished mainly on animal food. A softness or friability of the gums is one of the first signs of this. If the mouth bleeds after the application of a tooth brush, the use of fresh vegetables at every meal should be enforced.

The young are peculiarly liable to be affected by poisons conveyed in fluids. Their sensitive frames absorb quickly, and quickly turn to evil account such substances, even when diluted to an extent which makes them harmless to adults. The water therefore with which families, and still more with which schools are supplied, should be carefully subjected to analysis. Wherever a trace of lead is found, means should be adopted to remove the source of it; and organic products should have their origin clearly accounted for, and all possibility of sewage contamination excluded. These precautions are essential, in spite of the grown-up portion of the household having habitually used the water without injury.

Fresh milk has long had a bad popular reputation as occasionally conveying fever, and in some parts of Ireland the peasantry can hardly ever be got to take it " raw." This is quite irrespective of the state of the cattle which furnish it; no cases of disease thus communicated have ever been traced home to sick cows. It is probably always due either to adulteration with dirty water, or to the vessels being washed in that dangerous medium, or to their being exposed to air loaded with elements of contagion.

Up to the period of full development the daily use of wine should be allowed only during illness and the express attendance of a medical adviser. Its habitual consumption by healthy children hastens forward the crisis of puberty, checks growth, and habituates them to the artificial sensa-tion induced by alcohol.

Diet for Bodily Labour.—It seems certain that the old theory of Liebig, which attributed the whole of the force exhibited in muscular movements to the oxidation of muscular tissue, is untenable. There is not enough of the material oxidized, that is to say, destroyed and carried away as urea and other nitrogenous excretions, to generate so much force, as measured by the method of Joule. On the other hand, Traube goes too far when he would make out that in the performance of muscular work the metamorphosis of the organized constituents of contractile tissue is not involved, and that non-nitrogenous substances alone are consumed. The prolonged feats of walking performed by the pedestrian Weston in 1876 vastly increased the amounts excreted of those elements of the urine which are derived from the oxidation of muscle and nerve. The urea formed by the destructive assimilation of contractile fibre, and the phosphates whose main source is nervous tissue, were each nearly doubled during and shortly after the extraordinary strain upon those parts of the body. As might be expected, the machinery wears away quicker when it is harder worked, and requires to be repaired immediately by an enhanced quantity of new material, or it will be worn beyond the power of repair. The daily supply, therefore, of digestible nitrogenous food, meat par excellence, must be increased whenever the muscular exercise is increased. In making the recent extension of railways in Sicily, the progress was retarded by the slack work done by the Sicilian navvies compared with that got through by the English gangs. The former took scarcely any meat, preferring to save the wages expended by their comrades in that way. The idea occurred to the contractor of paying the men partly in money and partly in meat; and the result was a marked increase in the amount of work executed, which was brought nearly up to the British average. A mixed diet, with an increase in the proportionate quantity of meat when extra corporeal exertion is required, is the wholesomest, as well as the most economical, for all sorts of manual labourers.

It is absolutely essential that the fleshly machinery for doing work should be continuously replaced by flesh food, as it becomes worn out. Nitrogenous aliment after a few chemical changes replaces the lost muscle which has passed away in the excretions; just as the engineer makes ore into steel and renews the corroded boiler plate or thinned piston. Now, as the renewal of the plate or piston is a " stimulus " to the augmented performances of the engine, so meat is a " stimulus " to augmented muscular action. Taken in a digestible form during exertion, it allows the exertion to be continued longer, with greater ease and less consequent exhaustion. According to the testimony of soldiers experimentally put through forced marches of twenty miles a day, with loads of half a hundredweight each, " meat-extract " bears away the palm from the other reputed stimulants commonly compared with it (viz., rum and coffee). " It does not put a spirit into you for a few miles only, but has a lasting effect; if I were ordered for continu-ous marching, and had my choice, I would certainly take the meat extract," said an unprejudiced sergeant to Dr Parkes, who was the conductor of the experiments alluded to.

When the continuous repair of the muscular machinery is fully secured, the production of heat and force is most readily provided for by vegetable aliment, by reason of the large proportion of carbon which it contains. In assign-ing their physiological functions to the several sorts of food, nearly all the business of begetting active force should ap parently be ascribed to the solid hydrocarbons, starch and fat, by their conversion into carbonic acid. It is not necessary to be acquainted with every step of the process, which in the body we confessedly are not, to appreciate the argument. It is clearly important that these elements of diet should be furnished in sufficient quantity and in a digestible form. In additions to diet made in consequence of additional bodily work not only should the stimulus of animal food be attended to, but the bulk of starch and fat in the rations should be augmented even in larger proportion, for these aliments are the most direct con-tributors of force.
" Training" for athletic sports is based on the principles above enunciated. The usual time allotted to it is six oweeks, and the objects to be attained in this period may be described as—

(1.) The removal of superfluous fat and water;
(2.) The increase of contractile power in the muscles ;
(3.) Increased endui'anee ;
(4.) " Wind," that is to say, a power of breathing and circulating the blood steadily in spite of exertion.

The first is aimed at by considerably adding to the daily amount of nitrogenous and by diminishing farinaceous and liquid food, and providing that it should be so consumed as to be fully digested. The second and third are secured by gradually increasing the demands made upon the muscles, till they have learnt to exert at will all the powers of which they are capable, and for as long a period as the natural structure of the individual frame permits. " Wind" is improved by choosing as part of the training an exercise, such as running, which can be sustained only when the respiratory and circulating organs do their duty fairly.
As an example, the Oxford system of training for the summer boat-races may be cited. It may be considered a typical regimen for fully developing a young man's corporeal powers to fulfil the demands of an extraordinary exertion, a standard which may be modified according to the circumstances for which the training is required. It is as follows :—

A Day's Training.
Not compulsory.
As little as possible.
Underdone. \ Crust only recommended
Rise about 7 A.M.
Exercise
A short walk or run. Of tea,
Breakfast at 8.30
Exercise in forenoon
Meat, beef or mutton Bread or dry toast... None.
Dinner at 2 r.M,
Bread I I Vegi
Crust only recommended.
Not always adhered to.
etables, none.
Meat, much the same as for breakfast.
Beer, one pint
Exercise.
About 5 o'clock start for the river, and row twice over the course, the speed increasing with the strength of the crew.
Supper at 8.30 or J
9 jp.M 1
Meat, cold.
Bed about 1C.
Bread, and perhaps a little jelly or water-cresses.
pound of sugar was allowed extra to each man daily, and for every gang of 21 a cock was provided. The first thing done in the morning was to breakfast; and then the cook and his caldron started along the
Beer, one pint.

The Cambridge system differs very slightly, and in neither is any exaggerated severity of discipline, enforced, while some latitude is permitted to peculiarities and a wish for variety, and plenty of time is left for business and social intercourse. Other plans are objectionable, from involving, without any corresponding advantage, a complete departure from the usual habits of the educated classes. For instance, according to Clasper, dinner is to be at noon, with only a light tea afterwards, and no supper. Then a country walk of four or five miles is to be taken before breakfast, and two hours row afterwards, and another hard row between dinner and tea. " Stonehenge," again, requires the time between breakfast and dinner to be spent entirely on billiards, skittles, quoits, rowing, and running, in spite of another hour's row being prescribed at 6 P.M. He also requires the aspirant for athletic honours to sleep between 10 and 11 hours. Only professionals will carry out such rules, and even they do not either benefit their health or lengthen their lives by the sacrifice. For it is notorious that " over-training" leads to a condition of system in which the sufferers describe themselves as " fallen to pieces." The most peculiar symptom is a sudden loss of voluntary power after exertion. It is sometimes called " fainting," but there is no loss of sense, and it is quickly relieved by liquid food. It is to the pathologist a timely warning of that consequence of overstrained muscle which constitutes paralysis scriptorum, turner's palsy, and blacksmith's palsy, and which results in fatty degeneration of the red muscular fibre. To get and to keep its health a muscle needs a constant alternation of active contraction and rest, and an enforced protraction of either one or the other leads to the loss of vital properties. The limbs of an Indian fakir, voluntarily held in a strained posture, or those of a bed-ridden invalid, are equally apt to become useless. Overtrained persons are also liable to a languor and apparent weakness, which is found on examination tc depend on an excessive secretion of urea by the kidneys.

Such are not the results, however, of the training adopted at the universities, by which it would appear that the con-stitution is strengthened, the intellect sharpened, and life lengthened. Dr John Morgan (University Oars, 1873), has collected statistics of the subsequent health of those who have rowed in the university races since 1829, and he finds that, whereas at twenty years of age, according to Farr's life tables, average expectation of survival is forty years, for these oarmen it is forty-two years. Moreover, in the cases of death, inquiry into its causes exhibits evidence of good constitutions rather than the contrary, the causes consisting largely of fevers and accidents, to which the vigorous and active are more exposed than the sick. And

and thoroughly well boiled till thin gruel was made. As soon as the shout for drink " was heard, buckets were filled and carried round with small pannikins to convey the liquid to the panting mouths. The men liked it exceedingly, and learned by experience the impor-tance of having it well cooked.

The incident may remind the reader of classical medicine of Hippo-crates, who considers the culinary preparation of oatmeal ptisan so im-portant that in a short treatise On the Treatment of Acute Disease he devotes to it the only cookery recipe he has inserted in his works. He describes how it is to be boiled till it can swell no longer (so that it may swell no more in the stomach), how it is to be settled and strained (through a coarse cullender). He prescribes it indeed for sick people but he would have been the first to agree with our advanced physiologists in the opinion that overstrained muscular effort produces the same effects as continued fever (ey -jruperbv Kadicrarat liaKpSrepov), its chief dangers lying in rise oi tempera-ture and arrested cutaneous action, and that its trae antagonist is nutriment capable of rapid absorption, dissolved in that most essential nutriment, water.

it is not at the expense of the mind that the body is culti-vated, for this roll of athletes is adorned with the names of bishops, poets, queen's counsel, &c.

Training greatly increases the vital capacity of the chest, so that much more air can be blown in and out of the lungs, and with greater force, than previously. And this vital capacity endures longer.than the other improvements. It is evidence of the permanent elasticity of the pul-monary tissue, and an efficient protection against asthma, emphysema, and other degenerations of the organ of breathing.

Indigestion, sleeplessness, nervous indecision, palpitation of heart, and irregularity of bowels disappear under train-ing ; but if they exist, the regimen should be entered upon with more than usual caution.

An important modification of training is that which contemplates the reduction of CORPULENCE (q. v.), which has increased to the extent of interfering with comfort and preventing active exercise. If an exhausting amount of muscular effort is enforced, the digestion of meat is interfered with, while at the same time there still goes on the absorption of such fat as is unavoidably present in the victuals, so that the muscles and nerves lose strength, while the adipose tissue grows. Besides this, if by violent means the weight is worked down, then, to keep it down, those violent means must be persisted in ; and if they be neglected for more interesting occupations, the burden rapidly increases to a greater degree than ever. Many uncomfortably obese persons are very active in mind and body, and could not add to their muscular exercise without risk of harm.





Regimen, then, is more essentially important to them than to other trainers, and they will probably be more induced to attend to it if they understand the principles on which it is based. This is simply to exclude from the bill of fare all those articles which contain fat or which by the chemical actions of the digestive viscera may be converted into fat.

For the reduction of corpulence the following rules may be observed for a three weeks' course :—

Rise at 7, rub the body well with horse-hair gloves, have a cold bath, and take a short turn in the open air. Breakfast (alone) at 8 or 8.30, on the lean of beef or mutton (cutting off the fat and skin), dry toast, biscuit or oat cake, a tumbler of claret and water, or tea without milk or sugar, or made in the Russian way with a slice of lemon. Lunch at one on bread or biscuit, Dutch cheese, salad, water-cresses, or roasted apples, hung beef or anchovies, or red-herring, or olives, and similar relishes. After eating, drink claret and water, or unsweetened lemonade, or plain water, in moderation. Dine at any convenient hour. Avoid soup, fish, or pastry, but eat plain meat of any sort except pork, rejecting the fat and skin. Spinach, haricots, or any other green vegetable may be taken, but no potatoes, made dishes, or sweets. A jelly, or a lemon-water-ice, or a roast apple, must suffice in their place. Take claret and water at dinner, and one glass of sherry or Madeira afterwards.

Between meals, as a rule, exercise must always be taken to the extent of inducing perspiration. Running, when practicable, is the best form in which to take it.

Seven or eight pounds is as much as it is prudent to lose during the three weeks. If this loss is arrived at sooner, or indeed later, the severe parts of the treatment may be gradually omitted, but it is strongly recommended to modify the general habits in accordance with the principle of taking as small a quantity as possible of fat and sugar, or of substances which form fat and sugar, and sustaining the respiratory function. By this means the weight may be gradually reduced for a few months with safety.

Small quantities of dilute alcoholic liquids taken with meals slightly increase the activity of the renewal of the uitrogenous tissues, mainly muscle; that is to say, there is a more rapid reconstruction of those parts, as is shown by the augmented formation of urea and the sharpened appetite. Life is fuller and more complete, old flesh is removed and food appropriated as new flesh somewhat more quickly, than when no alcohol is ingested. There appears to be a temporary rise in the digestive powers of the stomach, which is probably the initiative act. The nerve functions are blunted, and a lessened excretion of phosphorus exhibits a temporary check in the wear and renewal of the nerve tissue. The " vital capacity " of the lungs, as indicated by the spirometer, is reduced, showing a diminished oxidation of the blood.

The effect on a healthy man of taking with a meal such a quantity of fermented liquor as puts him at ease with himself and the world around, without untoward exhilara-tion, is to arrest the wear of the nervous system, especially that part employed in emotion and sensation. Just as often, then, as the zest for food is raised to its normal standard by a little wine or beer with a meal, the moderate consumer is as much really better as he feels the better for it. Where the food is as keenly enjoyed without it, the consumption of a stimulant is useless. But alcohol is not a source of force, and its direct action is an arrest of vitality.

Diet for Mental Work.—An expression of Büchner's— " No thinking without phosphorus" —has gained an un-happy notoriety. Strictly speaking, it is a groundless assumption, for we cannot say that intellectual being may not exist joined to any form of matter, or quite independent of matter. We certainly do not know enough of the sub-ject to lay down such a negative statement. And if it be held to mean that the amount of phosphorus passing through the body bears a proportion to the intensity of thought, it is simply a mis-statement. A captive lion, tiger, leopard, or hare assimilates and parts with a greater amount of phosphorus than a hard-thinking man; while a beaver, noted for its powers of contrivance, excretes so little phosphorus that chemical analysis cannot find it in the excreta. All that the physiologist is justified in assert-ing is that for the mind to energize in a living body that body must be kept living up to a certain standard, and that forthe continuous renewal of life a supply of phosphatic salts is required. The same may be said with equal justice of water, fat, nitrogen, chloride of sodium, oxygen, &c. The phosphates are wanted indeed, but wanted by pinches, whereas water is required by pailfuls. A few days without water, or a few minutes without oxygen, will ter-minate the train of consciousness. The practical points taught us by physiology are that for the integrity of thought integrity of the nervous tissue is requisite, and for the integrity of the nervous tissue a due quantity of such food as contains digestible phosphatic salts.

The most perfect regimen for the healthy exercise of thought is such as would be advised for a growing boy, viz., frequent small supplies of easily soluble mixed food, so as to furnish the greatest quantity of nutriment without overloading the stomach, or running the risk of generating morbid half-assimilated products. For it is essential to the intellectual direction of the nervous system that it should not be oppressed by physical impediments. The presence in the stomach or blood of imperfectly assimilated nutriment impedes its functions in close proportion to their amount, so that not only the constituents, but the mode of administering food, must come into the calculation. " Repletus venter non studet libenter " is an old proverb, the application of which saves many a brain and many a stomach from being worked against the grain. Best from brain-work for twenty minutes before meals, entire abstinence from it during meals, and rest again till the weight has passed from the stomach, are essential to the reconcilement of psychical exertion with bodily health.

The physiology of the action of alcohol has a very important bearing on the physical management of the mental functions. Alcohol has the power of curbing, arresting, and suspending all the manifestations of the nervous system, so that we feel its influence on our thoughts sooner than on any other part of the system. Sometimes it brings them more completely under our command, controls and steadies them; more often it con-fuses or disconnects them, and then breaks off our power over them altogether. When a man has tired himself by intellectual exertion, a moderate quantity of alcoholic stimulant taken with food acts as an anaesthetic, stays the wear of the system which is going on, and allows the nerve force to be turned to the due digestion of the meal. But it must be followed by rest from toil, and is in essence a part of the same treatment which includes rest—it is an artificial rest. To continue to labour and at the same time to take an anaesthetic is a physiological inconsistency. The drug merely blunts the useful feeling of weariness, and prevents it from acting as a warning. There is no habit more fatal to a literary man than that of taking stimulants between meals ; the vital powers go on wearing out more and more without their cry for help being perceived, and in the end break down irrevocably.

As to quantity, the appetite for solid food is the safest guide. If a better dinner or supper is eaten when it is accompanied by a certain amount of fermented liquor, that is the amount most suitable; if a worse, then an excess is committed, however little be taken.
The aim of the diet should be (to quote the words of John Milton) " to preserve the body's health and hardness, to render lightsome, clear, and not lumpish obedience to the mind, to the cause of religion and our country's liberty, when it shall require from hearts in sound bodies to stand and cover their stations."

It is especially when the mind of genius is over-shadowed by the dark clouds of threatened insanity, of hypochondriasis, or of hysteria, that a rational mode of life preserves it. Nothing but daily exercise, temperate meals, and a punctual observance of regular hours of rest and study could have kept burning the flickering reason in poor Cowper.

As regards the proper quantity of alcohol that may be used the two following questions naturally occur—How is a man to know when he has had enough ? and what are the signs of too much 1 The ancients used to wear dark red or purple engraved gems, which they considered preser-vatives against excess, and called them a^Ova-Toi, " sober-stones," " amethysts." The name is now limited to the violet rock crystal, but in early times it was applied to several other stones, cut in intaglio, and worn on the fingers at festive gatherings. So long as the wearer could de-cipher the minute works of art they bore, he had not reached excess. A more delicate test still is the appreciation of temperature by the skin; if a draught does not chill, if a hot room fails to produce the usual discomfort, the wise man knows he has exceeded and must stop at once. In short, the safest rule is that when there is a consciousness of any psychical effect at all beyond that of satisfaction at the relief of bodily weariness—such a satisfaction as is felt on taking a good meal by a vigorous person—then the limits of moderation have been attained. On ordinary occasions of daily life, and " for the stomach's sake, " no more should be taken. Each fresh drop is a step down-wards to the evil results of alcohol. But to the practiser of daily temperance, festive occasions are safe and may be beneficial. A man may from time to time keep up without harm the above mentioned sense of satisfaction by good and digestible wine in good company without fear of getting drunk or failure of health, if he makes it a law to himself to stop as soon as he experiences any hurry of ideas or indistinctness of the senses.

Diet of Mothers.—During pregnancy as much care should be taken not to get too fat as is taken by an athlete training for a race. The rules for modified training explained above will afford hints on the subject, but it is not desirable to carry the process so far.

There is a temptation at this time to increase the usual allowance of stimulant; alcohol is taken between meals to overcome the nausea and depression incident to the state of body. And by this mistaken expedient the nausea gradu-ally becomes dyspeptic vomiting. On leaving it off the sickness ceases. A mother should also remember that nearly all the alcohol she consumes mixes with her blood, which now is one with the blood of the foetus.

During lactation the most suitable drink for a mother is cow's milk, fresh and unskimmed. If it turns sour on the stomach, lime-water mixed with it not only corrects the acescence, but also supplies a valuable aid to the growing bones of the infant. In her solid dietary also milk may be fairly taken as the type of a due admixture of alimentary principles, because it is not individual growth, or the production of muscular force, but the secretion of milk, that is the object of the selection of diet.

Supposing the full diet to consist of three pounds of solid food, that will require six pints extra of uncombined aqueous fluid to make it as fluid as milk; and, to combine the nitrogenous and carbonaceous constituents in due pro-portion, the three pounds of solid food should consist of 14| oz. of meat.
13 oz. of fat, butter, and sugar. 20 oz. of farinaceous food and vegetables. J oz. of salt, lime, &c.

At first, from the exhaustion consequent on childbed, from the want of exercise and of fresh air, the appetite turns against meat. Let then milk, especially boiled milk with arrowroot or the like, chicken broth, or egg custards, fill up the deficiency.

Any increase in the habitual allowance of alcohol is as unfitting to this period of life as during pregnancy.

Diet of Old Age.—It is a remark extant from the rough times when famine was more frequent than now, that the older a human being is the better deficiency of food is borne. Old men suffer least from abstinence,1 and benefit therefore most from temperance in eating. Everybody who has passed the age of fifty, or thereabouts, with a fairly unimpaired constitution, will act wisely in diminishing his daily quantity of solid food. There is less demand for the materials of growth, and consequently animal food should bear a smaller proportion than heretofore to vegetable, and it is mainly in that ingredient of the diet that reduc-tion should be effected. Neglect of this rule in declining years is often punished by gout, a disease attributable to excess of nitrogenous aliment, and for this reason common in elderly men.





In the autumn of life the advantages derived from fermented liquor are more advantageous, and the injuries it can inflict less injurious to the body than in youth. The effect of alcohol is to check the activity of destructive assimilation, to arrest that rapid flux of the substance of the frame which in healthy youth can hardly be excessive, but which in old age exhausts the vital force. Loss of appetite is a frequent and a serious symptom in old age. It usually arises from deficient formation of gastric juice, which, in common with other secretions, diminishes with years. It is best treated physiologically rather than by drugs.
Hippocrates, Aphorism xiii.

Diet in Sickness.—In all that has gone before health has been presupposed. The modifications necessitated by sickness are of three kinds:—first the avoidance of such articles of consumption as would increase the disease under the special circumstances, although ordinarily wholesome; second, the maintenance of the functions or parts of the frame which remain normal; third, the administration, for a special curative purpose, of peculiar food which would not be recommended for general use.

In all fevers, which are classed together as being apparently due to a poison multiplying itself in the blood, the art of diet consists in giving an almost continuous supply of liquid nutriment, holding very soluble aliments in a dilute form. There is nothing so digestible as water, and we take advantage of this high digestibility to get whatever it can dissolve digested along with it. For the first three or even four days patients previously strong should have only farinaceous food, well boiled and cooled to the temperature of the body. Evidence has been already quoted of the power which oatmeal gruel possesses of sus-taining force under the trying circumstances of excessive toil. Now, fever closely resembles muscular effort in its arrest of the digestive functions, at the same moment that it makes an urgent demand for nutriment. With ultra-Egyptian rigour, while straw is withheld, " the tale of the bricks is doubled," and we know by the quantity of urea and phosphates in the urine, and by the faecal excretion, that the muscles and nerves of the bed-ridden sufferer are melting away as fast as if he were scaling the Alps with nothing to eat. It is quite reasonable to transfer the experiences derived from health to sickness, and to feel satisfied that we are not wasting precious opportunities when we are giving fever patients such a time-honoured diet as oatmeal gruel, care being taken that it is thoroughly well boiled. After three days the tissues are beginning to suffer, and it is advisable to add chicken broth, meat jelly, and strong soup. Let that be supplied which the emaciation shows to be passing away—nitrogenous tissue.

The administration of alcohol is to be regulated partly by the temperature and partly by the condition of the nervous system. Usually if the heat of the blood (as taken at the axilla) is above 103°, and always if it is above 105°, there is a necessity for it. Again, if there is great prostra-tion of strength, or tremor of the hands, or quivering in the voice and respiration, if there is low muttering delirium when the patient is left quiet, it is required.

Green-sickness, or anaemia, is characterized by the rapid disappearance of the red particles which float in the blood. To what a strange extent this goes may be seen by looking at the insides of the lips, which naturally hold such a quantity of the fluid as to be quite scarlet, but which now are pale like those of a corpse. It is calculated that the loss of material in marked cases of green-sickness may amount to three pounds of this important constituent of the blood. Yet it is capable of complete renewal by diet. If by dint of remedies, notably iron, the appetite can be so regulated as to enjoy meat in excess of the immediate wants of the body, that meat is converted into haematine, and the healthy hue returns to the cheeks as quickly as it left. Wine is useful at meals on account of the stimulus it gives to th? appetite; it is injurious between meals by spoiling it.

Chronic gout is indubitably due to good cheer indulged in, either by the sufferer or his ancestors. When a man day after day swallows more nitrogenous food than is wanted
Acute rheumatism and acute gout are best treated on an opposite principle. A nuti'ient nitrogenous diet, which the patient assimilates only too readily, retards recovery, and will even bring on a relapse during convalescence. If meat in any form, solid or liquid, be eaten, it seems to turn into acid, which is already in excess in the blood. The power of fully converting it into living flesh is wanting, and until this power is regained a semi-conversion into an organic acid takes place. The redder and more muscular the meat is, the more it disagrees.

for the repair of his tissues, the following results may be expected, with variations dependent upon his original con-stitution. If the digestive solvents are weak and scanty, the excess passes through the canal in an undigested state, and is partially decomposed there. Thereon ensue all sorts of abdominal derangements, which, however, have the advantage of getting rid of the offending matters. If, on the other hand, the stomach secretes vigorously on being stimulated, then indeed the excess is digested and absorbed, and is subject to the future changes consequent on assimilation. An active out-of-door life neutralizes this in some measure by augmenting oxidation; much of the albumen goes to form glycogen, and acts as a fuel for the maintenance of muscular force. The balance is wasted in an unexplained way, and does not necessarily injure a hardy frame. The violent muscular exertion and high training needful for oxidation being inconsistent with the habits of intellectual society, a man in the prime of life who puts too much meat into a good stomach habitually retains in his blood an excess of uric acid, into which the nitrogenous waste converts itself. Uric acid in the blood has been distinctly traced as the essence of gout. Perhaps this imaginary first offender develops the full con-sequences ; and that is the best thing that can happen, inducing greater carefulness in future.

These views can suggest but one line of preventive treatment. The children of gouty families should be brought up to a life of strict abstemiousness and muscular activitjf. From the earliest years vegetables and " meagre " soups should form a considerable portion of their dietary.

Gouty adults require meat but once in twenty-four hours. The bill of fare should be varied from day to day, but as simple as possible at each meal. Eich sauces are to be eschewed, and a lemon, an infusion of herbs and pepper, bread-sauce, or a pur<5e of vegetables, adopted in their place. Sugar at the end of meals generates an excess of organic acid, and is to be avoided; if cheese is eaten it should be new, and is best toasted and creamed.

Dilute alkaline waters containing soda, such as Apollinaris or the weaker Vichy, are a rational drink during meals; but it is probably best to keep to pure water. Those who live idle lives require no alcohol; and it should not be an habitual accompaniment to meals.

Red gravel is evidence of a constitution so closely allied to gout, that nothing need be said further about its appropriate regimen.

In Bright's disease of the kidneys, in contracted liver, and in short in all degenerative lesions, alcohol has a baneful influence. Its action upon the tissues is directly the same as theirs. Moreover, if we agree with its latest expositor, Dr Sibson, that Bright's disease is closely asso-ciated with increased arterial tension, alcohol (whose effect is also to increase tension) must be peculiarly poisonous.

For the cure of these diseases, independent of the nutri-tion of the rest of the body, a milk diet has been proposed, and it seems to offer a fair prospect, if the patients can be persuaded to persist in it. How safely a milk diet may be adopted in middle life is shown by the example of Dr Cheyne, a Bath physician of the last century, who at about fifty-five restricted himself entirely to milk and biscuits, and yet was able to fulfil the duties of his laborious pro-fession. He took at first of the former six pints, of the latter twelve ounces; but he shortly diminished the quantity to half, and after sixteen years' experience found it fully sufficient, and indeed capable of further reduction in quantity.8

Weak and slow digestion is a condition which enforces an especial care for meat and drink. The cause of the im-perfection lies in a deficiency in the supply of nerve power to the stomach, so that it both secretes its solvent fluid and also rotates its contents too slowly ; and the more it is loaded the slower it goes. Of the medicinal means of curing such a state this is not the place to speak ; but none of them will avail without the aid of a rational dietary. Time must be given to the oppressed organ wherein to empty itself of every complete meal, and such a period of rest given as will allow of the recovery of force ; or if the meals are frequent they must be very sparing. The observations of Busch (Virchow's Archiv. xiv.) show that a period of five hours elapses in the healthy subject before a fully filled stomach can empty itself, and in the dyspeptic the process is still longer. Whenever, therefore, the organ is loaded as healthy people rightly load it, a man should allow at least seven or eight hours to elapse before sitting down to another meal. And he must never eat till the need for food is announced by appetite. Perhaps a more generally applicable and easier obeyed lav/ is not to make full meals at all, but to stop short at the feeling of repletion, and, when that has gone off, again to take in the supply allowed by circumstances. Three moderate meals are usually sufficient to keep up the strength.

Meat should be once cooked. Mutton, feathered fowl, venison, lamb, and beef are digestible in the order they here are placed in. The more difficult dishes should have the longest time allowed to them. Of the farinaceous articles of diet, bread and biscuits are the most easily penetrated by the gastric juices, and all their preparations are safe. The best bread is the " aerated," which is free from decomposing yeast. Macaroni is good if soaked till quite macerated. Pastry is difficult of solution. Vegetables are very necessary; cauliflowers, Jerusalem artichokes, beetroot, French beans, soft peas, stewed celery, turnip-tops, spinach, are the most readily disposed of.

When the usual mixture of meat and vegetables is found to induce flatulence, it is a good expedient to eat vegetables only at one meal and meat and bread only at another. The principle on which this plan is based is that starchy food is dissolved mainly by the alkaline saliva, whereas meat is dissolved by the acid gastric juice. In a vigorous person both these are copious enough to render immaterial their mutual neutralization, but when they are scanty, their separate employment is a physiological economy.

Consumption is a disease whose treatment is almost wholly dietetic. The children of a mother whose pedigree exhibits proof of a consumptive tendency may with propriety be put to a healthy wet nurse immediately on birth, and, on being weaned, be fed from a Channel Island cow. The milk should be boiled and then cooled down to tepidity. A small tea-spoonful of '; saccharated solution of lime " may be advantageously added to each quart of milk when the coming teeth require the elements of their nutrition to be added to the diet. The rules already given for the healthy management of the young should be adhered to with unusual strictness, and any departure from them should be made only to provide for some peculiar necessity of the case according to medical advice.

In cases of consumption it is difficult to say that drugs are useless, but certainly those that come nearest to aliments have most evidence in their favour, such as iron, cod-liver oil, and the phosphates of lime. Their effect on the appetite must be sedulously watched, and the end must not be sacrificed to the means; that is to say, if they spoil the appetite, they must be left off. The reason for administering oil is to afford an easily assimilated basis of renewed organic growth, to take the place of the abnormal tendency to form tubercular matter. If anything pre-vents its easy assimilation it is obviously useless, The use of climate in the treatment of phthisis may be tested by its dietetic action ; if it improves the appetite, it is doing good ; if it injures the appetite, it is doing harm.

In chronic jaundice the function of the liver is best restored by the free use of green vegetables at all meals.

Diabetes, when it has once assumed a chronic form, is never really cured, but life may be much prolonged by the employment of a diet from which sugar and starch are excluded as far as practicable, and the patient nourished on animal food. The best fare for diabetic patients is that given by Professor Bouchardat in his work Du Diabète sucrée, Paris, 1852.

In functional nervous diseases, such as hysteria and hypochondriasis, the appetite, muscular elasticity, and mental powers will often be observed to be deficient in the early part of the day, and to recover their tone in the evening. At this latter time, therefore, it is advisable to make the principal meal.

Scurvy is a notable example of a disease of which, more than any other, the prevention depends on the adoption of a suitable diet. Its symptoms so far resemble those of general starvation that from the earliest time of its appearance in history it has been suspected that it is due to a dietary defective in some necessary ingredient ; and practical observation soon showed that this was fresh vegetables. It was found on every long voyage that the crew suffered from scurvy in proportion to the length of time they were restricted to dry food, and that they recovered rapidly as soon as they got access to a supply of succulent plants. This requisite for health is obviously the most difficult of all things to procure aboard ship, and efforts were made to find a substitute capable of marine transport. From the time of Hawkins1 (1593) downwards the opinion has been expressed by all the most intelligent travellers that a substitute is to be found in the juice of fruits of the orange tribes, such as oranges, lemons, <fec. But in its natural state this is expensive and troublesome to carry, so that skippers and owners for a couple of centuries found it expedient to be sceptical. The pictures of scurvy as it appeared during the 18th century are horrible in the extreme. But the statute of 1795, passed through the exertions of Captain Cook and Sir Gilbert Blane, has enforced the carrying of lime-juice. This invaluable preventive has shown its influence all the more decidedly by the disease still appearing occasionally under strong promoting circumstances, and to a certain extent in spite of the antidote ; but it is so modified as to be usually more of the nature of a warning or demonstration than of a serious invasion. Some indeed have questioned and even denied altogether the blessings derived from the enforced use of lime-juice. But they make a very scanty show when weighed with those whom they undertake to oppose ; and it is superfluous here to enter into the arguments and results of observation constituting the ponderous Report of the Committee appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to Enquire into the Causes of the Outbreak of Scurvy in the recent Arctic Expedition, &c, and presented to both Houses of Parliament, May 7th 1877," which seems to settle for ever the preventive powers against scurvy of the use of lime-juice.

The committee alluded to was appointed in consequence of one of those exceptional outbreaks of scurvy induced by exceptional circumstances. The ships sent on the explor-ing expedition of 1875 were amply provided with lime-juice, and with printed expositions of its value. During the voyage out and in the long inaction of the winter the men's health was so well preserved by general attention to hygiene that no cases of even mild scurvy were detected; the pallor and languor and depression of spirits of some among the sailors were attributed to the want of sunlight for 142 days, and it was expected that a few days sledge travelling in the open air would reinvigorate them. There was plenty of lime-juice aboard : but it seems that it is not the custom to add to the weight of provisions, which Polar sledging parties have to propel, by including the preserva-tive amongst them. Sir George Nares, the commander of the expedition, cites the names of 10 admirals, 10 doctors, and 15 captains who have conducted land explorations in this fashion without it; and they returned unscathed to any serious extent. But on this recent occasion the crews seem to have been peculiarly predisposed to illnesses of scorbutic nature by the more than ordinary scarcity of fresh meat iu their dietary, arising out of the deficiency of game in the extremely high latitude where they wintered. With few exceptions the whole of the crews of the " Alert " and the " Discovery " were employed in sledging, and the consequence was, that of the 122 officers and men, 59 were more or less incapacitated by scurvy, and 4 died.

The real reason for not carrying lime-juice in such expeditions is its cumbersomeness. Including bottles, though in truth they are not wanted in a hard frost, it may be said that lib a week for each man would have to be added to the baggage, —a serious item, no doubt. And with a view of remedying the inconvenience, medical men have long sought to discover to what constituent of the complicated mixture afforded by nature it is that it owes its efficacy. In a contribution to the Medico-Chirurgical Review for 1848, Dr Parkes examined exhaustively the evi-dence concerning the various deficiencies in ship food as compared with fresh food which might be filled up by one or other of the components of lime-juice; and by exclusion he is led to the conclusion that the cause of scurvy is to be found in deficiency of salts whose acids form carbonates in the system, viz., citric, tartaric, acetic, lactic, and malic acids.

Though not so good as when in their natural form, because less digestible and pleasant, yet a supply of citrates, tartrates, lactates, and malates of potash might be packed in small bulk, and, under circumstances where weight is of importance, might take the place of lime-juice. Or bolo-lozenges might be made of lime-juice freed from its aqueous portion and preserved with sugar. Three or four of these a day might be easily swallowed without stopping work.

Before leaving the subject of maritime scurvy, it may be suggested how useful it would be if those who sail in desolate regions were to carry seeds of antiscorbutic vege-tables, which, strewn broadcast in uninhabited places, would form a flora capable of saving the lives of many a wrecked or weather-bound crew.

Scurvy, as landsmen see it in time of peace, amounts to little more than anaemia with a softening and bleeding condition of the gums. But it indicates the use of exactly the same preventives and remedies as the more severe complaint.

Starvation is a disease which it is a platitude to say may be prevented by diet; nevertheless there are connected with it a few peculiarities of scientific and practical interest which may not be unworthy of notice. " Inedia," as it is called in the nomenclature of diseases by the London College of Physicians, is of two kinds, arising from want of food and from want of water.

When entirely deprived of nutriment the human body is capable of supporting life under ordinary circumstances for little more than a week. In the spring of 1869 this was tried on the person of a " fasting girl " in South Wales. The parents made a show of their child, decking her out like a bride on a bed, and asserting that she had eaten no food for two years. Some reckless enthusiasts for truth set four trustworthy hospital nurses to watch her ; the Celtic obstinacy of the parents was roused, and in defence of their imposture they allowed death to take place in eight days. Their trial and conviction for manslaughter may be found in the daily periodicals of the date; but, strange to say, the experimental physiologists and nurses escaped scot-free. There is no doubt that in this instance the unnatural quietude, the grave-like silence, and the dim religious light in which the victim was kept contributed to defer death.

One thing which remarkably prolongs life is a supply of water. Dogs furnished with as much as they wished to drink were found by M. Chossat (Stir l'Inanition, Paris, 1843) to live three times as long as those who were deprived of solids and liquids at the same time. Even wetting the skin with sea-water has been found useful by shipwrecked sailors. Four men and a boy of fourteen who got shut in the Tynewydd mine near Porth, in South Wales, in the winter of 1876-7 for ten days without food, were not only alive when released, but several of them were able to walk, and all subsequently recovered. The thorough saturation of the narrow space with aqueous vapour, and the presence of drain water in the cutting, were probably their chief preservatives,—assisted by the high even temperature always found in the deeper headings of coal mines, and by the enormous compression of the confined air. This doubtless prevented evaporation, and retarded vital processes dependent upon oxidation. The accumula-tion of carbonic acid in the breathed air would also have a similar arrestive power over destructive assimilation. These prisoners do not seem to have felt any of the severer pangs of hunger, for they were not tempted to eat their candles. With the instinctive feeling that darkness adds a horror to death, they preferred to use them for light.

It is a paradoxical fact, that the supply of the stomach even from the substance of the starving individual's body should tend to prolong life. In April 1874, a case was recorded of exposure in an open boat for 32 days of three men and two boys, with only ten days provisions, exclusive of old boots and jelly-fish. They had a fight in their delirium, and one was severely wounded. As the blood gushed out hs lapped it up ; and instead of suffering the fatal weakness which might have been expected from the hemorrhage, he seems to have done well. Experiments have been performed by a French physiologist, M. Anselmier (Archives Gén. de Médecine, 1860, vol. i. p. 169), with the object of trying to preserve the lives of dogs by what he calls " artificial autophagy." He fed them on the blood taken from their own veins daily, depriving them of all other food, and he found that the fatal cooling incident to starvation was thus postponed, and existence prolonged. Life lasted till the emaciation had proceeded to six-tenths of the animal's weight, as in Chossat's experiments, extend-ing to the fourteenth day, instead of ending on the tenth day, as was the case with other dogs which were not bled.

These instances of the application of the art of dietetics to the treatment of disease are sufficient to show the principles which should be kept in sight. The pathology of the ailment should be considered first, then its bearing upon the digestive organs, and lastly the bearing of the digestive organs upon it.

And before quitting the subject of health as affected by diet, the common-sense hint may be given to those who are in good sanitary condition, that they cannot do better than let well alone. The most trustworthy security for future health is present health, and there is some risk of overthrowing nature's work by overcaring.

Pleasure as an object of Dietetics.

The social importance of gratifying the palate has certainly never been denied in practice by any of the human race. Feasting has been adopted from the earliest times as the most natural expression of joy, and the readiest means of creating joy. If ascetics have seemed to put the pleasure away from them, they have done so in the hope of purchasing by their sacrifice something greater and nobler, and have thus tacitly conceded, if not exaggerated, its real value. Experience shows that its indulgence, unregulated by the natural laws which govern our progress in civilization, leads to unutterable degradation and meanness, brutalizes the mind, and deadens its per-ception of the repulsiveness of vice and crime. But that is no cause why this powerful motive power, governed by right reason, should not be made subservient to the highest purposes.

The times of meals must be regulated with a regard to the disposal of the remainder of the day, whether that depends on choice or on necessity. Violent exertion of either mind or body retards digestion ; and therefore, when this is practised, food is not called for so soon as on a day of rest. The heaviest meal should be postponed till the day's work is done ; it is then that social home joys give the requisite repose to the body and mind. Light eaters may dine as late as they please, but those of larger appetite should lengthen the interval between their repast and bed-time. After the night's sleep and the long fast which has emptied the digestive canal of its nutritive contents, a breakfast should be taken before any of the real business of life be begun. It is no proof of health or vigour to forego it without incon-venience ; but it is proof of health and vigour to be able to lay in then a solid foundation for the day's labour. Not less than four and not more than six hours should elapse before the store is again replenished. A light farinaceous lunch with vegetables and fruit may be made most appetizing, and is followed by a cheerful afternoon, whereas a ponderous meat and wine meal entails heaviness of spirit.

Diet in relation to Economy.

Due Proportion of Animal and Vegetable Food.—It has been taken for granted thus far, that the mixed fare, which has met the approval of so many generations of men, is that which is most in accordance with reason. But there are physiologists wdio argue that our teeth resemble those of the vegetable-feeding apes more than those of any other class of animal, and that therefore our most appropriate food must be of the fruits of the earth. And if we were devoid of the intelligence which enables us to fit food for digestion by cookery, it is probable no diet would suit us better. But our reason must not be left out of account, and it is surely quite as natural for a man to cook and eat every thing that contains in a convenient form starch, fat, albumen, fibre, and phosphorus, as it is for a monkey to eat nuts or an ox grass. The human race is naturally omnivorous.

Moreover, man is able not only to develop his highest faculties and perform all his duties on any form of digestible aliment, but he is able also very much to diminish the requisite quantities by a due admixture. The diet which supplies the demand most accurately will be the most economical in the highest sense. And that this diet is a mixed one can be shown by the following method of calculation. We can measure by experiment the ultimate elements of all that is thrown off from the body as the result of vital decomposition, the ashes, the smoke, and the gases which the fire of life produces; and thus we can lay down a rule for the minimum quantity of those elements which the daily food must contain to keep up the standard weight. If the diet be such as to make it necessary to eat too much of one element in order to secure a sufficient amount of another, there is a waste, and the digestive viscera are burdened with a useless load. But there is no single article procurable for the food of the adult population which presents the exact proportion of elements required by an adult, and therefore no single article alone can sup-ply human wants without waste.

As an example, apply this reckoning to the elements carbon and nitrogen, which constitute the main bulk of the solids in our food and in our bodies. Suppose a gang of 100 healthy prisoners to excrete, in the shape of breathed air and evacuations, 71J lb of carbon and 4J ft> of nitrogen (which is pretty nearly the actual amount of those elements in the dried solids of the secreta, as estimated by current physiological works). Both nitrogen and carbon to that extent must of course be supplied in the food. Now, if you fed them on bread only, there would be wanted daily at least 380 lb of it to sustain them alive long, for it takes that weight to yield the i\ lb of nitrogen daily excreted ; while, in the 380 lb of bread there are 128^- lb of carbon, which is 57 lb above the needful quantity of that substance.

If, on the other hand, the bread were replaced by a purely animal diet, there would have to be found 354 K> of lean meat in order to give the 71-j,- lb of carbon ; and thus there would be wasted 105 ft> of nitrogen contained in the meat, over and above the 4£ lb really required to prevent emaciation.

In the first case each man would be eating about 4 lb of bread, in the second 3^ lb of meat per diem. If he ate less, he would lose his strength. The first would carry about with him a quantity of starch, and the last a quantity or albuminous matter not wanted for nutrition, and would burden the system with an useless mass very liable to decompose and become noxious.

When work is undertaken, much more is actually wanted. According to Mr . Vizetelly, the labourer in a Spanish vine-yard consumes daily between 8 and 9 lb of vegetable food, consisting of bread, onion-porridge, and grapes. And when animal food alone is taken, as in the case of the Esquimaux, 20 lb of it a day is the usual allowance.

Now, if a mixed dietary be adopted for the gang of 100 prisoners before mentioned, 200 ft> of farinaceous food, with 56 lb of animal muscle, would fulfil the requirements of the case; 2 K> of bread and a little more than | ft) of meat a head would be enough, under ordinary circumstances, for each man's daily food.

200 lbs. of bread contains 60 of carbon, 2 of nitrogen.
60 lbs. of meat (including 12|
lbs. of fat on it), contains 12 ,, 2J
72 4i

Balance of Food and Work.—The most important modifi-cation to be made in the above estimate arises from the differences of work demanded. Men may exist in inaction on a scale of food-supply which is followed by death from starvation when they are put to hard labour. It is of im-portance, therefore, to have some measure of the effects of physical exertion. And here mechanical science has contributed to physiology a precision rarely attainable in our dealings with social economy. Mr Joule of Manchester analyzed, about thirty years ago, the relation which the heat, used as a source of power in machinery, bore to the force of motion thus made active. He showed that raising the temperature of 1 ft of water 1° Fahr. was equivalent to raising 772 ft to the height of 1 foot; and conversely, that the fall of 772 ft might be so applied as to heat 1 ft of water 1° Fahr. Thus, the mechanical work represented in lifting 772 ft 1 foot, or 1 ft 772 feet, forms the " dynamic equivalent," the measure of the possible strength of 1° of temperature as marked by the thermometer in 1 ft of water. Physiologists seized eagerly on the opportunity which Joule's demonstration seemed to afford them of estimating in actual numerals the relation of living bodies to the work they have to do. So much earth raised on an embankment represents so much heat developed in the machinery, be it living or dead. The fully digested food, converted through several stages into gaseous, liquid, and solid excretory matters, produces by its chemical changes a definite amount of heat, of which a definite amount escapes and a definite amount is employed in working the involuntary machinery of the body, and the rest is available for conversion at wdll into voluntary muscular actions,

It may be reckoned that the daily expenditure of force in working the machinery of the body—in raising the diaphragm about 15 times and contracting the heart about 60 times a minute, in continuously rolling the wave of the intestinal canal, and in various other involuntary move-ments, without anything to be fairly called work,—it may be reckoned that the expenditure of force in doing this is equal to that which would raise a man of 10 stone 10,000 feet.

There are several reasons for believing that in assigning their physiological functions to the several sorts of food, nearly all the business of begetting force should be ascribed to the solid hydrocarbons, starch and oil, by their conver-sion into carbonic acid and water, just as there are good grounds for thinking that it is the conversion of the solid hydrocarbon of coal into the same substances which drives a locomotive. To the nitrogenous aliments seems allotted primarily the task of continuously replacing the wear and tear of the nitrogenous tissues, while any excess of them assists the starch and oil in keeping up the animal heat.

One of the most cogent of the reasons for this view is that the chief nitrogenous excretion, the urea, is not in-creased in amount in proportion to the work done, as shown by the experiments of Messrs Fink and Wiscelenus; whereas the excretion of carbonic acid in a decided manner follows the amount of muscular exertion. Now, it is very clear that if the supply of power to do work depended on the decomposition and renewal of the muscles by flesh food, the urea must be exactly proportioned to the exertion, which is not the case.

To give an example of the mode of working out a problem by this theory. Professor Frankland, in a series of experiments made in 1866 at the Eoyal Institution, and published in the London Philosophical Magazine, vol. xxxii. p. 182, ascertains with the " calorimeter " (which reckons the amount of heat evolved as a thermometer does its degree) the quantity of energy or force evolved under the form of heat during the oxidation of a given weight of alimentary substance. It has been explained that heat and mechani-cal work, being convertible into one another, bear a constant proportion to one another; so that a definite pro-duction of so much heat invariably represents the poten-tiality of so much motion, used or wasted according to circumstances. From the reading of the calorimeter there-tbre may be calculated how many extra pounds ought to be raised a foot high by a man who has eaten an extra pound of the food in question ; how many steps a foot high he ought to raise a weight of ten stone (say himself) before he has worked out the value of his victuals. Pro-fessor Frankland has thus estimated the comparative value of foods as bases of muscular exertion, and he has made out a table of the weight and cost of various articles that would require to be consumed daily to enable a man to support life, the equivalent of which has been already reckoned as the muscular force in action which would raise a man of 10 stone 10,000 feet.

== TABLE ==

After the supply of sufficient albuminoid matters in the food to provide for the necessary renewal of the tissues, the best materials for the production of internal and external work are non-nitrogenous matters, such as oil, fat, sugar, starch, gum, <fcc. When the work is increased, not so much extra meat as vegetable food, or its dietetic equivalent, fat, is demanded.

In comparing the cost of a daily sufficiency of the various foods to produce the required force, we must not forget the inconveniences which many of them entail. These incon-veniences must be added to the cost. For example, suppose a man to have been living upon potatoes only, just supporting life with 5 ft a day, and then to get work which enabled him and required him to take a double supply of non-nitrogenous food, he would act unwisely if he were to swallow it in the form of 12 lb of cabbage. He would be knocked up by the shear labour of carrying 12ft extra in a vessel so ill-adapted to sustain heavy loads as the stomach. A similar objection would lie against milk, or veal, or apples, however cheap accident might make them; and a more serious objection still would hold against nine bottles of ale, or seven of stout. On the other hand, the over-concentration of cheese, beef dripping, and lump sugar, makes them nauseous when in large quantity or monotonously persisted in, though when introduced as a variety they are appetizing and digestible. There is no saving in using that against which the stomach is set, or which the absorbents refuse to assimilate.

Reverting to the illustration of the gang of a hundred prisoners, and supposing it were requisite to put them on hard labour equivalent to half " Frankland's unit" of 10 stone raised 10,000 feet—such, for instance, as carrying up ladders, altogether 1£ mile high, three tons of stone daily— calculation would show that to add this amount of labour to the outgoings caused by the functioning of physiological life, would involve the addition to their spare diet of at least 117 lb of bread, or of 58 Bb of bread with 44 lb of lean meat and 63 lb of potatoes. The slightest imperfection or indigestion of any of this would cause a loss of bodily weight, and cases of illness would be culpably frequent. Were a draught of milk, or a cup of cocoa and sugar, or some oatmeal porridge and treacle, or even a little dripping or butter or bacon given, the danger would probably be averted.

The most conspicuous fault in the dietary of the working classes is want of variety. Many of the articles which combine ample nutritiousness with small cost are habitually neglected, because when used exclusively they are disagree-able and unwholesome. From never being eaten they become absolutely unknown. There are many sorts of cheap beans, vetches, and pease, unheard of except at gentlemen's tables, of which a complete meal may be made, or which may support the dish of meat; while beet-root, cresses, kail, carrots, and other plants easily grown are left unused.

Quantity of Food required.—The calculations of Dr Pla3rfair " on the food of man in relation to his useful work " enable us by another route to arrive at an estimate of what amount of solid victuals is required by an adult Jiving by bodily labour to preserve his health under various circumstances. The circumstances which chiefly affect the question can be classified thus :—(1) bare existence; (2) moderate exercise ; (3) active work ; and (4) hard work.

1. The first is calculated from the mean of sundry prison dietaries, of the convalescents' diet at hospitals, that of London needlewomen, and of that supplied during the Lancashire cotton-famine, as reported by Mr Simon. The result is that, in a condition of low health, without activity, 2\ ounces of nitrogenous food, 1 ounce of fat, 12 ounces of starch, and \ of an ounce of mineral matters a day are necessary. The amount of carbon in this is equal to 7-44 ounces. In other words, a man's life will be shortened or burdened by disease in the future, or he will die of gradual starvation, unless his provision for a week is equivalent to 3 Bb of meat with 1 lb of fat on it, or with the same quantity of butter or lard, two quartern loaves of bread, and about an ounce of salt and other condiments. If he cannot get meat, he must supply its place with at least two extra quartern loaves, or about a stone and a half of potatoes, or between 5 and 6 lb of oatmeal,'—unless he is, indeed, so fortunate as to be able to get skim milk, of which 5 pints a week will replace the meat.

A person reduced to bare existence diet can undertake no habitual toil, mental or bodily, under the penalty of breaking down.

" Bare existence " diet is that which requires to be estimated for administration to certain classes of the community who have a claim on their fellow-countrymen that their lives and health shall be preserved in statu quo, but nothing further. Such are prisoners, paupers, or the members of a temporarily famine-stricken community.

It would be obviously unjust to apply the same scale of quantity and quality to all persons under varying circum-stances of constitution and outward surroundings ; and to attempt to feed in the same way all these people for short or long periods, idle or employed, with light work or hard work, in hot or in cold weather, excited by hope or depressed by failure, involves an error of either excess or defect, or both at once. The dietaries recommended by the Home Office for prisoners very properly take all these circumstances into consideration. They allot "bare existence " diet only to those sentenced for short terms without labour. And they recognize the fact that a man's health is not injured (perhaps sometimes it is improved) by a few days of such abstinence as would in the long run be deleterious to him. Under a sentence of seven days a prisoner gets daily 1 lb of bread, and a quart of gruel con-taining 4 oz. of oatmeal. For more than seven and under twenty-one days he has an extra |lb of bread. For longer terms it is advised to add potatoes and meat.

The nutritive value of the first named diet is thus calcu-lated by Dr Pavy (Treatise on Food, p. 415) :—

Nitrogenous matter 1 '800 02.
Fat -480 ,,
Carbohydrates 10712 ,,
of the second—
Nitrogenous matter 2'448 oz.
Fat I -608 „
Carbohydrates 14'792 ,,

In the convict establishments prisoners are all under long sentence, and are classified for dietetic purposes according to their occupation.

1.296 oz. 8-160 „ 0-256 „ 0-368 „

The sparest of all is called " punishment diet," and is administered for offences against the internal discipline of the prison. It is equivalent to corporeal chastisement, being designed to make the stomach a source of direct pain. It is limited to a period of three days, and fully answers its proposed end as a deterrent by causing the solar plexus to experience the greatest amount of distress it is capable of ; for after the expiration of that period sensation becomes blunted. It consists of 1 lb of bread and as much water as the prisoner chooses to drink. This last-named concession is not an unimportant one; for it has been already remarked that a supply of fluid enables starvation, and by implication abstinence, to be longer borne. At the same time it probably postpones the anaesthesia, and therefore makes the intended suffering more real. " Punishment diet" contains, in Dr Pavy's estimate,—

Nitrogenous matter.
Carbohydrates
Fat
Mineral matter
Total of dry solids 10-080 ,,

This is about half of what an average man requires to sustain himself without work, and under its discipline he would probably lose 3 or 4 ounces of his weight daily till his bodily substance was reduced by six-tenths, at which period, according to Chossat's experiments, he would die.

" Penal diet" is that which is apportioned for more pro-tracted punishment. It may be continued for three months. It consists of 20 oz. of bread, 8 oz. of oatmeal, 20 oz. of milk, and 16 oz. of potatoes daily. It3 chemical constitu-ents are as follows :—

Nitrogenous matter 3'784 oz.
Carbohydrates 19 '864 ,,
Fat 1-580 „
Mineral matter , 0'972 ,,
Total of dry solids 26-200 „

Upon this diet a fair amount of work may be done. The combustion of the carbohydrates evolves sufficient force to raise a ton 4193 feet; and thus the effete muscular sub-stance may be worn off by destructive assimilation, making place for new muscle derived from the nitrogenous matter of which a bare sufficiency, but yet probably a sufficiency, is supplied. A man of strong constitution is usually found at the end of it to be in good health and of normal weight; yet he has never probably experienced the content which arises from a fomfs-consumption of food. It is intended to deny him the normal pleasure of the accumulation of reserve-force in the gastric region. This pleasurable sensa-tion under ordinary circumstances much promotes diges-tion, so that the whole of the ingesta are made the best use of; and therefore in " penal diet," as above quoted, it has been found expedient to introduce the slight excess to be noticed above what is needful to accomplish the required work in " foot-tons " (see before). The penalty of the regimen involves a certain degree of waste.

A close imitation of "penal diet" is that which the duty of a responsible Government demands should be served out during a temporary famine, that is, one calculated not to last above three mouths. It is more economical to intro-duce the elements of variety in the diet than to be too monotonous,—that is, to save in the daily issue and to be occasionally liberal, to feast from time to time as a break in the regular fast. The expense of the excess is more than replaced by the diminished habitual ration, and that powerful preservative of life, anticipation of pleasure, is brought into play. A reduction of the allowance below what experience has indicated as " bare existence diet," made during the famine in Madras in the beginning of 1877, was attended with disastrous results.

By dint of mixing and varying his diet and making it consist of very nutritious articles, such as bread, meat, yolk of eggs, and soup, Signor Cornaro (see CORNARO) succeeded in reducing the quantity he daily consumed to as little as 12 oz. (Venetian). But then he made the solids go much further by taking 14 oz. of good wine. And the proba-bility is that this gentlemen had a peculiar constitution, for, in spite of his many readers, he has had no imitators of the experiment on their own persons.

2. The appropriate food of the second class may be fairly represented by the dietaries of European soldiers in time of peace. The English soldier on home service, according to Dr Parkes, receives from Government 5^ lb of meat and 7 B) of bread weekly, and buys additional bread, vegetables, milk, and groceries out of his pay. Such a diet is sufficient for anybody under ordinary circumstances of regular light occupation; but should extra demands be made upon mind or body, weight is lost, and if the demands continue to be made the health will suffer. Mr F. Buckland, surgeon in the Guards, remarks (Soc. of Arts Journal, 1863, quoted by Dr Playfair) that though the sergeants in the Guards fatten upon their rations, the quantity is not enough for recruits during their drill.
The Prussian soldier during peace gets weekly from his canteen 11 R) 1 oz. of rye bread, and not quite 2^- K> of meat. This is obviously insufficient, but under the con-scription system it is reckoned that he will be able to make up the deficiency out of his own private means, or obtain charitable contributions from his friends. Dr Hildesheim (Die Normal-Diät, Berlin, 1856, p. 60) states that asthenic diseases are very common in the army, which leads to the inference that the chance assistance on which the authori-ties lean is not trustworthy. As the legal ration in these two services does not profess to be a man's full food, it is needless to analyze it. In the French infantry of the line each man during peace gets weekly 15 R> of bread, 3 ^ B> of meat, 2 lb of haricot beans or other vegetables, with salt and pepper, and If oz. of brandy. This seems to be enough to support a man under light employment. Its analysis gives—

Water 179-83 oz.
Nitrogenous matter (or albuminates) 30-17 „
Fat 9-29 ,,
Carbohydrates (or starch) 126-84 ,,
Total of dry so!id3 166-30 „
An Austrian under the same circumstances receives 13-9Ib of bread, J lb of flour, and 3'3 lb of meat. The alimentary contents are—
"Water 129-50 oz.
Nitrogenous matter 27'40 ,,
Fat 8-23 „
Carbohydrates 119-45 ,,
Total of dry solids 155'08
The Russian conscript is allowed weekly —
Black bread 7K>.
Meat 7ft.
Barley
Salts 104 oz.
Horse radish... 28 grains.
Pepper 28 grains.
Kawass (beer) 7 "7 quarts.
Sour cabbage 24J gills, =122J oz.
Vinegar,
244 gills, = 1224 oz.
51 gills, =264 °z-

The " moderate exercise " of brain and muscle combined in the above classes is fairly represented in the convict scale by " light labour " (such as oakum-picking), and by " industrial employment " (such as tailoring, cobbling, Eoman mosaic and mat making, basket weaving, &c). The dietary for prisoners thus engaged is nearly identical, except that the artisans using their brains are supplied with about an ounce extra daily.

Nitrogenous matter.
Carbohydrates.
Mineral Matter.
Total water-free matter.
Fat.

The " industrial employment diet" for a week is thus analyzed by Dr Pavy :—

== TABLE ==

This is probably a fair model for the most economical dietary on which an artisan or labourer on light work can thrive. It may be observed that the principle of variety is very conspicuous, and in private life it is possible to in-troduce still more variety by cookery (see COOKERY.) In the English and Prussian armies the introduction of variety is left to be attained by forcing the soldier to purchase some portion of his food out of his own pocket; in the French scale it is managed by issuing spices and various vegetables, and trusting to the innate genius of the Gaulish warrior for cooking. The issue of an occasional glass of brandy on holidays makes an agreeable change and benefits digestion ; but if wine could be obtained it would be better, and not extravagant. The Austrian bill of fare is sadly monotonous. The Russian ration may be noticed as particularly liberal of accessory and antiscorbutic food, from which civil as well as military dieticians might take an useful hint.

Vinegar and other vegetable acids are too much neglected by our handicraftsmen and soldiers. The Carthaginians are stated by Aristotle to have used vinegar as a substitute for wine during their campaigns ; and the recipes given by Cato for flavouring vinegar with fruits show that it was in use among the labouring population in Italy.

3. " Active " labourers are those who get through such an amount of work daily, exclusive of Sundays, as may be represented by a walk of 20 miles. In this class are soldiers during a campaign, letter carriers, and engineers employed on field work or as artisans. These habitually consume on the average about a fifth more nitrogenous food and twice as much fat as the last class, while the quantity of vegetable hydrocarbons is not augmented, except in the Royal Engineers.

The " hard labour diet" of convict prisons fairly represents what the authorities consider the minimum. It is the same as that already described as " industrial employment diet," with the following additions :—barley, 1 oz. ; bread, 20 oz. ; shins for soup, 8 oz. : carrots, 1 oz.; onions, \ oz. ; turnips, 1 oz. It contains, however, 14 oz. less milk, and 1 oz. less " meat."
The nutritive value of the additions may be seen by Dr Pavy's alimentary analysis, which is as follows :—

== TABLE ==

From these totals must be deducted the articles cut off:—

== TABLE ==

The same food is given summer and winter, though the demand must be greater to provide for the extra quantity of heat required to be produced in cold weather. But then the amount of work is diminished at the latter season by If hours, which is equivalent to an augmentation of the diet. The additions are more judicious than those made by the classes above mentioned who partly furnish their own food ; for bread and vegetables constitute a large portion of the convict ration, and the extra quantity of soup replaces the lost milk, without risk of the waste in cooking common when the uneducated deal with solid meat.

4. " Hard work" is that got through by English navvies, hard-worked weavers, and blacksmiths, <fec. which is more earnest and intense than the enforced "hard labour " of the convict. It is difficult to obtain accurate information, but it would appear from Dr Playfair's esti-mates that the customary addition to the diet is entirely in nitrogenous constituents. The higher their wages the more meat the men eat.

The neglect of vegetables by the last two classes is in a physiological point of view imprudent, and possibly may be a contributing cause of an inordinate thirst for alcohol which impoverishes and degrades many among them. To satisfy their instinctive craving for a hydrocarbon, they take one convenient indeed in some respects, but of which any excess is unwholesome. The discovery already mentioned of the production of force from the assimilation of starch leads to a knowledge, opposed to old prejudices but supported by experience, that the raising of the energies to their full height of usefulness may be effected by vegetable food quite as well as by the more stimulating and more expensive animal nutriment, or by the more rapidly absorbed alcohol.

With regard to the tables quoted above in which ultimate analyses are used as data for dietetic rules, it must be noticed that their authors deprecate arguments being founded on any but the very broadest characters of the articles analyzed, Specimens, even when of the highest quality, differ strangely from one another. Season, soil, modes of culture, the variations of species, and many other little known influences come into play and prevent our taking the market names of eatables as representatives of a definite chemical constitution. And it may be added that ample scope should be allowed for the peculiarities of the individual and of his life-history. In the application of general rules some one must be trusted to relax or strain them when circumstances require, or failures of a fatal character may occasionally result, and more often a galling perversion of justice.

Estimates for the thrifty management of food-supply have usually reference to the feeding of others rather than to the calculation of a man's own dietary. Enough has been said on that point under the head of the influence of diet upon health, and if a person really wants to bring down the expense of feeding himself to the lowest point, he can readily rate himself under one of the classes numerated above, and act accordingly. It may, however, be doubted whether it is wise to reduce the diet to the minimum which the work requires. The certain evils of an accidental deficiency or of a miscalculation are so serious that the danger outweighs the possible inconvenience of a slight excess. It were an unthrifty thrift indeed which imperilled vigour of mind and body to effect a pecuniary saving ; for there is no investment so remunerative as high health. A man need not consider that he is wasteful when he spends money upon making his bill of fare palatable and provocative of indulgence to the extent of moderate superfluity. Pleasure and prudence here walk hand in hand. (T. K. CH.)


Footnotes

Trousseau, Clinique Medicate, vol. iii. p. 484, 3d edit.

See Dr Pavy on Weston's walk, in Lancet of Dec. 23, 1876. The urea excreted when walking bore to that excreted during rest the rela-tion of 17 to 10, phosphoric acid 19 to 10, lime 15 to 10, &c.
On the Issue of a Spirit Ration during the Ashantee Campaign of 1874, by E. A. Parkes, M.D., Professor of Military Hygiene in the Army Medical School. London, 1875.

This is well iilustratrated by a remarkable feat performed on the Great Western Railway in the summer of 1872. It was neces-sary to shift the rails from the broad to the narrow gauge on upwards of 500 miles of permanent way within a fortnight. The task was enormous, for the Great Western is one of the few English lines whose rails are held down by bolts screwed into nuts. All these had to he unscrewed and replaced after removing the heavy rail two feet. About 3000 men were employed, working double time, sometimes from 4 in the morning till 9 at night; and, without one being sick or drunk, they accomplished the work in the prescribed time. The scheme for generating muscular power was this. The men were hutted along the line, so as not to waste their strength by coming and going, and they brought with them bacon, bread, cheese, cocoa, &c., to provide their usual meals at usual times. But they had no beer, nor alcohol iu any form. A pound and a half of oatmeal and half a

pound of sugar was allowed extra to each man daily, and for every gang of 21 a cock was provided. The first thing done in the morning was to breakfast; and then the cook and his caldron started along the

line til) water was found convenient; a fireplace of stones was built,
and the pot boiled. Oatmeal was then sprinkled into it with sugar,


2 See Maelaren's Training in Theory and Practice, appendix to edition 1866.
3 Rowing Almanac, 1863.
* Article "Boat-Racing," in British Rural Sports, 1861.

Ohne Phosphor kein Gedenke. Kraft und Stoff, sect. 122.

Hippocrates, Aphorism xiii.

Chambers's Lectures, chiefly Clinical. Lect. 11.

Sibson's Harveian Lectures, British Med. Jour., Feb. 10, 1877.

3 The Natural Method of Curing Diseases of the Body, &c, by Geo. I Cheyne, M.D. 1742.

Sir Rd. Hawkins's Voyage, edited by Hakluyt Society, p. 60.

In merchant ships lime-juice is used during Polar service in a ration of an ounce daily. See "Report" above cited. But the opinions of the officers examined seems to agree that the quantity is not sufficient, and advise half as much again or more.

Milne-Edwards, Cours de Physiologie, vol. vi. p. 198

Dr Letheby's analysis gives 8'1 percent, of nitrogenous matter to bread (Lectures on Food, p. 6). Of this yth is nitrogen, Boussingault's analysis of gluten giving 14*60 per cent. (Annates de Chim. et Phys., Ixiii. 229). M. Payen makes the proportion of nitrogen to carbon in bread as 1 to 30.
The proportion of nitrogen to carbon in albumen is as 1 to 3^ (15 '5 to 53 '5 by Mulder's analysis, quoted in Lehmann, Phys. Chemie, i. 343). In red meat there is 74 per cent, of water (ditto iii. 96).
Facts about Sherry, chap. i. 1876 ; and Sir John Ross's Second. I Voyage for the Discovery of tM North-Vest Passage, p. 413.

Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, London, April 28, 1865.

Report of Sanitary Commission, 1858, p. 425, quoted by Dr Parkes.
Report of Sanitary Commission, 1858, p. 425, quoted by Dr Parkes.