i ' >OD. 107 



as different quantities are safe with different individuals, according to their 

 sex, age, activity of life, and some other conditions. 



The number and times of meals are other questions as yet undeter- 

 mined. As the digestion of a meal rarely requires more than four hours, 

 and the waking part of a day is about sixteen, it seems unavoidable that 

 at least three meals be taken, though it may be proper that one, if not two 

 of these, be comparatively of a light nature. Breakfast, dinner, and tea 

 as a light meal, may be considered as a safe, if not a very accurate, pre- 

 scription for the daily food of a healthy person. Certainly four good meals 

 a day is too much. 



The interval between rising and breakfast ought not to be great, and 

 no severe exercise or task-work of any kind should be undergone during 

 this interval. There is a general prepossession to the contrary, arising 

 prohably from the feeling of freedom and lightness which most people feel 

 at that period of the day, and which seems to them as indicating a prepar- 

 edness for exertion. But this feeling, perhaps, only arises from a sense of 

 relief from that oppression of food under which much of the rest of the day is 

 spent. It is quite inconsistent with all we know of the physiology of ali- 

 ni' -nt, to suppose that the body is capable of much exertion when the sto- 

 mach has been for several hours quite empty. We have known many per- 

 sons take long walks before breakfast, under an impression that they were 

 doing something extremely favourable to health. Others we have known 

 go through three hours of mental taskwork at the same period, believing 

 that they were gaining so much time. But the only observable result was 

 ubtract from the powers of exertion in the middle and latter part of 

 the day. In so far as the practice was contrary to nature, it would likc- 

 \\-\^ of course produce permanent injury. Only a short saunter in th- 

 "p"ii air, or a very brief application to business or task-work, can be safely 

 indulged in Ix-fore breakfast. 



With regard to the time for either breakfast or dinner, nothing fan !> 

 said with scientific authority. 



VARIITV OF Koon. A judicious variation of food is not only useful, hut 

 important. There an-, it is true, some aliment*, such as lnvad, which < 



i. and which no one 6TWP wishes to be SO. lut apart from 

 one or two articles, a certain variation of rotation is much t> 1><> deeil 

 and will prove favourable to health. There is a common pivpo.ssr 



, which is more spoken of than acted upon. In ivality, 



there is n.) virtue in this pr;i< -ptinij that, if rigidly adhered to, it, 



-os excess n.-arly impossible, no one being able to eat to satiety of one 



kind of food. Th.-n- would be a benefit from both a daily variation of 



