DOMESTIC ECONOMY, HYGIENE, DIETETICS. 



391 



tending perhaps from the ages of twenty-five 

 to forty-five, in which the bodily exchanges 

 are in equilibrium, the expenses and receipts of 

 nutrition are balanced, and the individual 

 neither gains nor loses weight. No portion of 

 the food is now to be appropriated as hereto- 

 fore, in growth ; it may all be devoted to ex- 

 ertion. It is the time of maximum power, 

 the effective working period of .life. The diet 

 should be varied and strong, but of course 

 ought to be modified in accordance with the ac- 

 tivity, constitution, and various circumstances. 

 For hard, exhausting labor, brow a or lean 

 meat, the leguminous seeds, bread, and an ad- 

 mixture., of vegetables may be employed. It 

 can hardly be necessary to add in the light of 

 the principles of nutrition which have been 

 established, that fat pork is generally much 

 over-estimated by laborers ; it is the blood 

 producing beans and bread with which it is 

 always associated that chiefly imparts the 

 strength. It has been sufficiently pointed out 

 that persons in light sedentary occupations, 

 brain-workers and idlers, should avoid those 

 more indigestible substances, and while rein- 

 ing in the appetite, or, at all events, not spur- 

 ring it, should live upon a diet of the most 

 easily digestible substances. 



DIET OF ADVANCED LIFE. 



As age comes on, the nutritive conditions 

 of youth hood are reversed, the body, can no 

 longer digest and appropriate sufficient to meet 

 its destructive losses, and there is a decrease 

 of strength and weight. The tissues shrink, 

 as we see in the shriveled hands and wrinkled 

 brow, the hair is changed in composition, the 

 bones become more earthy and brittle, the car- 

 tilages ossify, there is a general diminution of 

 fat, and a loss of fluids in all parts except the 

 brain, which becomes more watery. The stom- 

 ach participates in the general decline, its di- 

 minished and weakened juices becoming less 

 capable of dissolving the necessary food ; the 

 circulation is retarded and the general vitality 

 lowered. As the solvent powers of the stom- 

 ach begin to be enfeebled, and the appetite 

 becomes languid, elderly people should be ad- 

 monished to exercise care in selecting food, 

 and not waste the power they have on refrac- 

 tory, indigestible aliments. Young and tender 

 meats, strong broths, milk, light, well-baked 

 bread, and tender succulent vegetables, tax the 

 digestive organs least. Nor should they com- 

 mit the error of supposing that the waning 

 powers of advancing life can be sustained by 

 increasing the quantity of food eaten. Dr. 

 Cheyne remarked more than a hundred years 

 ago, " Every man after fifty ought to begin to 

 Jessen the quantity of his aliment ; and if he 



would avoid great and dangerous distempers, 

 and preserve his senses and faculties clear to 

 the last, he should go on every seven years 

 abating gradually." When hints like these 

 are neglected, and persons persist in a high 

 and hearty diet, keeping up a plethoric state 

 of the system, serious and fatal consequences 

 often ensue. The blood vessels of the brain 

 are not only weaker than those of any other 

 part of the body, but they derive no support 

 as other vessels do from the elastic pressure of 

 surrounding muscles. In the imperfect nutri- 

 tion and growing debility of advancing age, 

 these vessels participate, so that with over- 

 fullness there arises liability of their giving 

 away, as in brain congestion or apoplexy. 



GYMNASTICS AND PHYSICAL 

 DEVELOP MENT. 



The principal methods of developing the 

 physical man now prescribed by trainers are 

 exercise with dumbbells, the bar bell, and 

 the chest weight. The rings and horizontal 

 and parallel bars are also used, but not nearly 

 to the extent that they formerly were. The 

 movement has been all in the direction of 

 the simplification of apparatus ; in fact, one 

 well known teacher of the Boston Gymnasium, 

 when asked his opinion, said: "Four bare 

 walls and a floor, with a well posted instruc- 

 tor, is all that is really required for a gymna- 

 sium." 



Probably the most important as well as the 

 simplest appliance for gymnasium work is 

 the wooden dumbbell, which has displaced the 

 ponderous iron bell of former days. Its weight 

 is from three quarters of a pound to a pound 

 and a half, and with one in each hand a variety 

 of motions can be gone through, which are of 

 immense benefit in building up or toning down 

 every muscle, and all vital parts of the body. 



The first object of an instructor in taking a 

 beginner in hand is to increase the circulation. 

 This is done by exercising the extremities, the 

 first movement being one of the hands, after 

 which come the wrists, then the arms, and 

 next the head and feet. As the circulation is 

 increased, the necessity for a larger supply of 

 oxygen, technically called "oxygen-hunger," 

 is created, which is only satisfied by breathing 

 exercises, which develop the lungs. After the 

 circulation is in a satisfactory condition, the 

 dumbbell instructor turns his attention to ex- 

 ercising the great muscles of the body, begin- 

 ning with those of the back, strengthening 

 which holds the body erect, thus increasing 

 the chest capacity, invigorating the digestive 

 organs, and in fact all the vital functions. By 

 the use of very light weights an equal and 

 symmetrical development of all parts of the 



