394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



whose sole occupation may be a little reading or knitting, or even 

 nothing at all, when extreme age is reached. 



The kind of food to be eaten varies with the condition : if the old 

 person needs building up, the more nutritive foods, that is, those con- 

 taining the greatest amount of nourishment to a given volume, the 

 greatest proportion of assimilative matter ; if, on the contrary, it is 

 necessary to encourage the digestive action, we select stimulating food. 

 In this connection I shall quote from an eminent French authority : 

 " As age advances, not only is one able to bear with impunity food 

 which is piquant, pungent, and more exciting, but the use of these 

 latter foods is necessary to the physiological conditions acquired by the 

 'organs of digestion.' 



"This alimentation becomes especially necessary to individuals 

 whom residence in great cities, sedentary life, and confining work 

 separate in a great measure from the natural conditions of life, found 

 in free air and bodily exercise." With regard to the use of wines 

 or liquor by the aged, I would say, if there is a proper time in the life 

 of a man when he should use stimulating drinks, that time is when he 

 has arrived at a good old age. 



A glass of sherry or burgundy during dinner often aids digestion 

 wonderfully. When the tongue is pale, and the desire for food absent, 

 a " nip " of brandy will stimulate the stomach into secreting properly. 

 This condition of atony or sluggishness of action is not at all unusual. 

 A glass of milk-punch at night often goes, as a very good and exceed- 

 ingly temperate old lady once said to me, "to the right spot." Coffee 

 is a natural drink for the aged. Its mildly stimulating, soothing quali- 

 ties directly indicate it as a beverage for the old. Gasparin tells us 

 that " coffee has the property of rendering the elements of the body 

 more stable, and thus, if not affording nourishment, it diminishes the 

 waste going on." 



The origin of many dyspepsias in the old will be found in the lack 

 of the proper means for the complete mastication of their food. The 

 loss of their teeth, and the neglect to replace that loss with artificial 

 ones until a dyspepsia is established, will often entail a long train of 

 ills. A set of false teeth will sometimes remove dyspeptic troubles of 

 long standing. The teeth with metal plates (platinum or gold), al- 

 though more expensive than rubber or celluloid, are to be preferred. 

 Mastication must be well performed even if the food is not very solid. 

 The one golden rule is to eat slowly. 



Some old people have idiosyncrasies about certain foods, which 

 must not be overlooked. Milk is one of the most easily digested of 

 foods, on account of its various constituents, and can be taken when 

 nothing else is permissible. Eggs, soft-boiled or raw, are easily digest- 

 ed. Oysters, fish, and lamb, follow in about the order named. Beef, 

 mutton, and fowls, and wheaten bread, occupy about the same time in 

 digestion. I have met with two forms of dyspepsia more frequently 



