210 NUTRITIONAL PHYSIOLOGY 



School. In a more popular form the same ideas have been 

 attractively presented by Mr. Fletcher. 



The experience and the principles of this gentleman are 

 somewhat familiar to the American public. By his prac- 

 tice of protracted mastication he contrives to satisfy the 

 appetite while taking an exceptionally small amount of 

 food. Salivary digestion is favored and the mechanical 

 subdivision of the food is carried to an extreme point. 

 Remarkably complete digestion and absorption follow. 

 By faithfully pursuing this system Mr. Fletcher has vastly 

 bettered his general health, and is a rare example of muscu- 

 lar and mental power for a man above sixty years of age. 

 He is a vigorous pedestrian and mountain-climber and 

 holds surprising records for endurance tests in the gym- 

 nasium. 



The chief gain observed in his case, as in others which 

 are more or less parallel, is the acquiring of immunity to 

 fatigue, both muscular and central. It is not claimed that 

 the sparing diet confers great strength for momentary 

 efforts "explosive strength," as the term goes but that 

 moderate muscular contractions may be repeated many 

 times with far less discomfort than before. The inference 

 appears to be that the subject who eats more than is best 

 has in his circulation and his tissues by-products which act 

 like the muscular waste which is normally responsible for 

 fatigue. According to this conception he is never really 

 fresh for his .task, but is obliged to start with a handicap. 

 When he reduces his diet the cells and fluids of his body 

 free themselves of these by-products and he realizes a 

 capacity quite unguessed in the past. 



The same assumption explains the fact mentioned by 

 Mr. Fletcher, that the hours of sleep can be reduced de- 

 cidedly when the diet is cut down. It would seem as 

 though a part of our sleep might often be due to avoidable 

 auto-intoxication. If one can shorten his nightly sleep 

 without feeling the worse for it this is an important gain. 

 The small ration decreases the contents of the colon in 

 two ways : First, the food residues themselves are minimal, 



