DIET IN RELATION TO AGE AND ACTIVITY. 515 



scolded by anxious mothers until the habit of eating it is acquired. 

 Adopting the insular creed, which regards beef and mutton as neces- 

 sary to health and strength, the mother often suffers from groundless 

 forebodings about the future of a child who rejects flesh, and manifests 

 what is regarded as an unfortunate partiality for bread and butter and 

 pudding. Nevertheless, I am satisfied, if the children followed their 

 own instinct in that matter, the result would be a gain in more ways 

 than one. Certainly, if meat did not appear in the nursery until the 

 children sent for it, it would be rarely seen there, and the young ones 

 would as a rule thrive better on milk and eggs, with the varied produce 

 of the vegetable kingdom. 



A brief allusion must be made to the well-known and obvious fact 

 that the surrounding temperature influences the demand for food, which 

 therefore should be determined as regards quantity or kind according 

 to the climate inhabited, or the season of the year as it affects each 

 climate. In hot weather, the dietary should be lighter, in the under- 

 stood sense of the term, than in cold weather. The sultry period of 

 our summer, although comparatively slight and of short duration, is 

 nevertheless felt by some persons to be extremely oppressive ; but this 

 is mainly due to the practice of eating much animal food or fatty mat- 

 ters, conjoined as it often is with the habit of drinking freely of fluids 

 containing a small quantity of alcohol. Living on cereals, vegetables, 

 and fruits, with some proportion of fish, and abstaining from alcoholic 

 drinks, the same person would probably enjoy the high temperature, 

 and be free from the thirst which is the natural result of consuming 

 needlessly substantial and heating food. 



There is a very common term, familiar by daily use, conveying un- 

 mistakably to every one painful impressions regarding those who mani- 

 fest the discomforts indicated by it I mean the term indigestion. 

 The first sign of what is so called may appear even in childhood ; not 

 being the consequence of any stomach disorder, but solely of some 

 error in diet, mostly the result of eating too freely of rich compounds 

 in which sugar and fatty matters are largely present. These elements 

 would not be objectionable if they formed part of a regular meal, 

 instead of being consumed as they mostly are between meals, already 

 abounding in every necessary constituent. 



Sugar and fat are elements of value in children's food, and natu- 

 rally form a considerable portion of it, entering largely into the com- 

 position of milk, which Nature supplies for the young and growing 

 animal. The indigestion of the child mostly terminates rapidly by 

 ejection of the offending matter. But the indigestion of the adult is 

 less acutely felt and is less readily disposed of. Uneasiness and inca- 

 pacity for action, persisting for some time after an ordinary meal, 

 indicate that the stomach is acting imperfectly on the materials which 

 have been put into it. These signs manifest themselves frequently, 

 and, if Nature's hints that the food is inappropriate are not taken, they 



