238 ELEMENTS OF PHYSIOLOGY 



built up. A cow's appetite is a certain guide to her among 

 poisonous plants and berries, yet she will eat a bucket of 

 paint and harm herself ; this is beyond the range of her 

 inherited habits. Even if man's instincts had their early 

 strength, they could hardly guide him among the many 

 food concoctions and preparations undreamed of by primi- 

 tive man. We can train our taste into wrong ways, and 

 we can likewise train it into right ways and into liking 

 food that we know is wholesome. 



423. The uncertainties of man's early savage life, the 

 times of drought or of ill luck in hunting, accustomed his 

 cells to periods of starvation and repletion, of feast and of 

 famine. His organs could withstand irregularity better 

 than they could withstand continuous scarcity or overfeed- 

 ing, continuous overwork or idleness. The Indian lies 

 around the camp and gorges himself in times of peace and 

 plenty, his cells laying up strength which enables him to 

 follow the trail or the chase for days at a time, going 

 sometimes fifty miles a day. It is said that the business of 

 one age becomes the recreation of the next. 



424. It is found that returning to natural habits by 

 going on camp hunts and fishing trips is one of the most 

 effective hygienic measures for the restoration of health. 



425. Hobbies about Nutrition. The subject of food and 

 digestion is a more complicated one than that of exercise 

 or breathing, and more common sense is required to master 

 it. Therefore, more persons fail to master it, and allow 

 their minds to come to rest on some one fact or view of 

 the subject and so become extremists. 



426. Hot Water Fad. Some would cure every digestive 

 ill by means of water. Their belief is "water internally, 

 externally and eternally." They sometimes drink it as hot 

 as it can be borne, yet hot water is very relaxing to the 

 walls of the stomach and weakens the flow of the gastric 

 juice. This extreme belief arose from the fact that 



