O'SHEA ASPECTS OF MENTAL ECONOMY. 127 



has pointed out that animals which live upon coarse, indigestible 

 foods, as the cow and the sheep, are, considered in respect alike 

 of physical power and mental acuteness and vivacity, relatively 

 inferior in the scale of being. Now, it seems a safe inference 

 from the evidence everywhere at hand that the quota of energy 

 which can be expended in mental and physical activity will be 

 determined by the ease with which this may be obtained in the 

 process of nutrition. It is a fact of daily experience, probably 

 as common in student life as elsewhere, that when the stomach 

 is overloaded with indigestible and waste materials the mind is 

 inert and confused, and the body little disposed to vigorous or 

 lively activity. Let any one recall his mental and bodily status 

 after assisting at the ordinary Thanksgiving feast, or perhaps 

 even the familiar Sunday dinner. Sabbath afternoon is so fre- 

 quently a time for loafing in both body and mind, not because 

 one wants to rest but because he cannot arouse himself. Many 

 of our students have a still more impressive experience ; not in- 

 frequently they are required to rush off precipitately to their 

 university duties directly following upon a meal which taxes the 

 organism to the utmost, — oatmeal cooked a half hour or less, 

 fried potatoes, fried meat or eggs, hot bread and cakes, 

 and coffee, — a combination which, as will be shown later, is more 

 than a match for the most energetic and powerful digestive 

 mechanism. At such a time the mind works slowly and inac- 

 curately ; and the philosophy of the thing is not at all abstruse. 

 When food is taken into the system the organism will if neces- 

 sary turn its energy wholly to extracting the nutrition contained 

 therein. Suppose then that a considerable amount of half di- 

 gested starch and other food materials find their way to the 

 stomach; there is needed at once force to transform these into 

 assimilable substances. The blood, rushing to the appropriate 

 organs to supply the required digestive agents, must, of course, 

 be withdrawn from the service of the cerebral and muscular 

 systems. When, on the contrary, food is eaten which is nearly 

 ready for assimilation, the organism can while attending 

 to the now easy labor of digestion engage also in a measure in 

 mental or physical work. 



