268 MEALS. MEDICINAL. 
Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked.’’ ‘‘ Whenever I see a fat citizen 
at a feast in his bib and tucker I cannot imagine this to be a 
surplice.” The shrewd worldly old Lord Chesterfield, in one of 
the noted letters to his son, then at Paris, 1752, for the recovery 
of his health, gave the advice, “ I pray you leave off entirely your 
heavy greasy pastry, fat creams, and indigestible dumplings ; 
and then you need not confine yourself to white meats, which 
I do not.take to be one jot wholesomer than beef, mutton, and 
partridge.” ; . 
M. Brillat Savarin directs (1889), “‘ that lean persons for whom 
it is sought to correct this disposition should eat plenty of newly- 
baked bread, taking care to masticate it thoroughly, and not 
to leave any of the crumb ; also to partake of eggs for luncheon 
at about 11.0 a.m. Then at dinner, potage, meat, and fish, may 
be had as desired, but to these must be added rice, macaroni, 
sweet pastries, sweet cream, chariottes, etc. At dessert, savoy 
biscuits, babas, and other preparations which contain starch, 
with eggs and sugar. Beer is to be the beverage by preference, 
or Burgundy, or Claret. Acids are to be avoided, except with 
the salad, which rejoices the heart. Eat plenty of grapes in the 
season. Go to bed at about eleven p.m. on ordinary days, and 
not later than one o’clock in the morning on holiday occasions.” 
Such is the French method for getting fat ! 
Sydney Smith, who had been trying anti-fat dieting, and lessen- 
ing his sleep, wrote in 1819 from Saville Row, London, to Lady 
Mary Bennett, “I shall be so thin when you see me that you may 
trundle me about like a mop.” It should be remembered that 
the dietetic requirements of old age are just the reverse of those 
of childhood. The assimilative power of the bodily cells is now 
on the wane, and the physical activities are restricted, so that 
less food is required. ‘“ Leanness and longevity,” it has been 
remarked, “ go together, and a man will only roll all the faster 
down the hill of life if his figure be rotund.” “ Discerne,” 
taught Bacon, “of the coming on of yeares, and thinke not to 
doe the same things still, for age will not be defied.” 
Charles Dickens, when humorously describing a foot-race 
between the Boston Bantam, and the Man of Ross (very fat), 
said of this Roscius, “ according to the epigram of some anony- 
mous cove” :— | 
“And when he walks the streets the paviours ery 
' “God bless you, sir,’ and lay their rammers by.” 
