FOOD AND FEEDING. 379 



which latter that skin-stuffed compound of unknown origin, an uncer- 

 tified sausage, may be accepted as the type. 



After this period arise the temptations to drink, among the youth 

 of all classes, whether at beerhouse, tavern, or club. For it has been 

 taught in the bosom of the family, by the father's example and by 

 the mother's precept, that wine, beer, and spirits are useful, nay, 

 necessary to health, and that they augment the strength. And the 

 lessons thus inculcated and too well learned were but steps which led 

 to wider experience in the pursuit of health and strength by larger use 

 of the same means. Under such circumstances it often happens, as 

 the youth grows up, that a flagging appetite or a failing digestion 

 habitually demands a dram before or between meals, and that these are 

 regarded rather as occasions to indulge in variety of liquor than as 

 repasts for nourishing the body. It is not surprising, with such train- 

 ing, that the true object of both eating and di'inking is entirely lost 

 sight of. The gratification of acquired tastes usurps the function of 

 that zest which healthy appetite produces ; and the intention that food 

 should be adapted to the physical needs of the body and the healthy 

 action of the mind is forgotten altogether. So it often comes to pass 

 that at middle age, wdien man finds himself in the full current of life's 

 occupations, struggling for preeminence with his fellows, indigestion 

 has become persistent in some of its numerous forms, shortens his 

 " staying power," or spoils his judgment or temper. And, besides all 

 this, few causes are more potent than an incompetent stomach to en- 

 gender habits of selfishness and egotism. A constant care to provide 

 little personal wants of various kinds, thus rendered necessary, culti- 

 vates these sentiments, and they influence the man's whole character 

 in consequence. The poor man, advancing in years, suffers from con- 

 tinuous toil with inadequate food, the supply of which is often dimin- 

 ished by his expenditure for beer, which, although often noxious, he 

 regards as the elixir of life, never to be missed when fair occasion for 

 obtaining it is offered. Many of this class are prematurely crippled 

 by articular disease, etc., and become permanent inmates of the parish 

 workhouse or infirmary. 



It must be obvious to everybody how much more of detail might 

 be added to fill in the outlines of this little sketch. It is meager in the 

 extreme : nevertheless it suffices for my purpose ; other illustrations 

 may occur hereafter. 



But it is necessary to say at this point, and I desire to say it em- 

 phatically, that the subject of food need not, even wdth the views just 

 enunciated, be treated in an ascetic spirit. It is to be considered in 

 relation to a principle, in which we may certainly believe, that aliments 

 most adapted to develop the individual, sound in body and mind, 

 shall not only be most acceptable, but that they may be selected and 

 prepared so as to afford scope for the exercise of a refined taste, and 

 produce a fair degree of that pleasure naturally associated with the 



