5 i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



him, or too much of it. The food may be " wholesome enough in 

 itself," a popular phrase permitted to appear here, first, because it 

 conveys a meaning perceived by every one, although the idea is loosely 

 expressed ; but, secondly and chiefly, for the purpose of pointing out 

 the fallacy which underlies it. There is no food " wholesome in it- 

 self," and there is no fact which people in general are more slow to 

 comprehend. That food only is wholesome which is so to the individ- 

 ual, and no food can be wholesome to any given number of persons. 

 Milk, for example, may agree admirably with me, and may as certainly 

 invariably provoke an indigestion from my neighbor ; and the same 

 may be said of almost every article of our ordinary dietary. The 

 wholesomeness of a food consists solely in its adaptability to the indi- 

 vidual, and this relation is governed mainly by the influences of his 

 age, activity, surroundings and temperament or personal peculiarities. 



Indigestion, therefore, does not necessarily, or indeed often, require 

 medicine for its removal. Drugs, and especially small portions of 

 alcoholic spirit, are often used for the purpose of stimulating the 

 stomach temporarily to perform a larger share of work than by nature 

 it is qualified to undertake ; a course which is disadvantageous for the 

 individual if persisted in. The effect on the stomach is that of the 

 spur on the horse : it accelerates the pace, but " it takes it out " of the 

 animal, and, if the practice is long continued, shortens his natural 

 term of efficiency. 



It is an erroneous idea that a simple form of dietary, such as the 

 vegetable kingdom in the largest sense of the term furnishes, in con- 

 junction with a moderate proportion of the most easily digested forms 

 of animal food, may not be appetizing and agreeable to the palate. 

 On the contrary, I am prepared to maintain that it may be easily 

 served in forms highly attractive, not only to the general but to a 

 cultivated taste. A preference for the high flavors and stimulating 

 scents peculiar to the flesh of vertebrate animals mostly subsides after 

 a fair trial of milder foods when supplied in variety. And it is an ex- 

 perience almost universally avowed, that the desire for food is keener, 

 that the satisfaction in gratifying appetite is greater and more enjoy- 

 able, on the part of the general light feeder than with the almost 

 exclusively flesh-feeder. For this designation is applicable to almost 

 all those who compose the middle-class population of this country. 

 They consume little bread and few vegetables ; all the savory dishes 

 are of flesh, with decoctions of flesh alone for soup. The sweets are 

 compounds of suet, lard, butter, eggs and milk, with very small quan- 

 tities of flour, rice, arrowroot, etc., which comprise all the vegetable 

 constituents besides some fruit and sugar. Three fourths at least of 

 the nutrient matters consumed are from the animal kingdom. A re- 

 versal of the proportions named, that is, a fourth only from the latter 

 source with three fourths of vegetable produce, would furnish greater 

 variety for the table, tend to maintain a cleaner palate, increased zest 



