PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. 



live healthily on one or the other kind exclusively, 

 or nearly so. The above is, nevertheless, the general 

 rule, to which it is safest to adhere. It has been 

 found, for instance, that field-labourers, including 

 ploughmen, will live healthily for many years on a 

 diet chiefly farinaceous that is, composed of the 

 farina of grain. But it is to be feared that the 

 food in this case, though apparently sufficient for 

 health, is only so apparently ; and that the consti- 

 tution, being all the time not supported as it ought 

 to be, breaks down prematurely in a great propor- 

 tion of instances. It has been said, again, that the 

 Irish labouring-classes are a remarkably robust 

 race, although their food consists almost exclu- 

 sively of potatoes. The fact is overlooked, that 

 the Irish eat a quantity of potatoes so enormous 

 as could not fail to make up in some measure for 

 the want of animal diet. It was found by the 

 Poor-law Commissioners, that the greater number 

 of the peasantry of Ireland, women as well as men, 

 take at their two daily meals in general about nine 

 pound-weight of this aliment ! Such a case is 

 rather to be ranked amongst instances of extra- 

 ordinary adaptations to a particular variety of 

 food, than as a proof that an unmixed potato-diet 

 is healthy. 



Climate has a remarkable effect in modifying 

 the rule as to the mixture and amount of animal 

 and vegetable food. The former has most of a 

 stimulating quality, and this quality is greater in 

 beef, and flesh in general, than in fowl or fish. 

 Now, the inhabitants of torrid countries are, in 

 their ordinary condition, least in need of stimulus ; 

 hence they find a simple diet of rice and sago 

 sufficient for them. Those, on the contrary, who 

 dwell in cold countries need much stimulus ; 

 hence they can devour vast quantities of flesh and 

 blubber, with scarcely any mixture of vegetable 

 food. 



Inquiries with respect to the comparative diges- 

 tibility of different kinds of food are perhaps 

 chiefly of consequence to those in whom health 

 has already been lost. To the sound and healthy, 

 it is comparatively of little consequence what kind 

 of food is taken, provided that some variation is 

 observed, and no excess committed as to quantity. 

 Within the range of fish, flesh, and fowl, there is 

 ample scope for a safe choice. There is scarcely 

 any of the familiar aliments of these kinds but, if 

 plainly dressed, will digest in from two to four 

 hours, and prove perfectly healthy. One rule 

 alone has been pretty well ascertained with respect 

 to animal foods, that they are the more digestible 

 the more minute and tender the fibre may be. 

 They contain more nutriment in a given bulk than 

 vegetable matters, and hence their less need for 

 length.of intestine to digest them. Yet it is worthy 

 of notice, that between the chyle produced from 

 animal and that from vegetable food no essential 

 distinction can be observed. 



Tendon, suet, and oily matters in general, are 

 considerably less digestible than the ordinary 

 fibre; and these are aliments which should be 

 taken sparingly. Pickling, from its effect in 

 hardening the fibre, diminishes the digestibility 

 of meat. Dressed shell-fish, cheese, and some 

 other animal foods are avoided by many as not 

 sufficiently digestible. 



Farinaceous foods of all kinds wheat, oaten, 

 and barley bread, oaten porridge, sago, arrow-root, 

 tapioca, and potatoes are highly suitable to the 



human constitution. They generally require under 

 two hours for digestion, or about half the time of 

 a full mixed meal. The cottage children of Scot- 

 land, reared exclusively upon oaten porridge and 

 bread, with potatoes and milk, may be cited as a 

 remarkable example of a class of human beings 

 possessing in an uncommon degree the blessing 

 of health. One important consideration here 

 occurs : there is need for a certain bulk in our 

 ordinary food. Receiving nutriment in a con- 

 densed form, and in a small space, will not serve 

 the purpose. This is because the organs of diges- 

 tion are calculated for receiving our food nearly in 

 the condition in which nature presents it namely, 

 in a considerable bulk with regard to the propor- 

 tion of its nutritious properties. The same law 

 applies with respect to the lower animals. When 

 a horse is fed upon corn alone, it does not thrive. 

 The present writer is much inclined to doubt the 

 propriety of grinding off the coarse exterior of 

 wheaten grain. It does not seem by any means 

 likely that nature calculated the human aliment- 

 ary cavity for the use of the white interior of the 

 grain, exclusive of all the rest, which consists of 

 very different but not less necessary chemical 

 constituents. Wheat forms so large a part of our 

 daily food, that if this be the case, we unquestion- 

 ably make a departure of a very important kind 

 from the laws of health. Experience is favourable 

 to this view, for the effect of coarse brown bread 

 in relaxing, seems only comparable to that of 

 white bread in constipating the bowels. 



Quantity of Food Number and Times of Meals. 



With respect .to the amount of food necessary 

 for health, it is difficult to lay down any rule, as 

 different quantities are safe with different indi- 

 viduals, according to their sex, age, activity of life, 

 and some other conditions. There is a general 

 and probably well-founded opinion, that most 

 persons who have the means eat too much, and 

 thereby injure their health. This may be true, 

 and yet it may not be easy to assign to such per- 

 sons a limit beyond which they ought not to go. 



The best authorities are obliged to refer the 

 matter to our own sensations. Dr Beaumont, for 

 example, says that we should not eat till the mind 

 has a sense of satiety, for appetite may exceed the 

 power of digestion, and generally does so, par- 

 ticularly in invalids ; but to a point previous to 

 that, which 'may be known by the pleasurable 

 sensations of perfect satisfaction, ease, and qui- 

 escence of body and mind' 



The number and times of meals are other ques- 

 tions as yet undetermined. 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 l ; ght nature. Break- 

 fast, dinner, and tea as a light meal, may be con- 

 sidered as a safe, if not a very accurate prescrip- 

 tion for the daily food of a healthy person. Certainly 

 four good meals a day is too much. No experi- 

 ments, as far as we are aware, have been made 

 with regard to the total amount of solids which a 

 healthy person in active life may safely take in a 

 day. It has been found, however, that confined 

 criminals and paupers are healthiest when the 

 daily solids are not much either above or below 

 twenty-five ounces. Of course, in active life 



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