244 CONDITION OF THE SYSTEM. 



system. Severe exertion, therefore, of any kind should never be 

 made within a period varying from thirty to sixty minutes of the 

 time of taking a meal. This interval may be passed in cheerful 

 amusement or conversation. The prevailing practice among all 

 sorts of people of passing at once from severe employment to meals 

 and from meals back to work does much to undermine the 

 health of all the mental and physical laborers of this country. 



To satisfy himself of the soundness of this theory an English- 

 man had two dogs fed on the same article of food, and while he 

 permitted one of them to remain quiet, he sent the other in pur- 

 suit of game. At the expiration of an hour he had both dogs 

 killed. Tne stomach of the one that had remained at rest was nearly 

 empty, the food having been properly changed and carried into the 

 alimentary canal; while, in the stomach of the dog that had been 

 running, the food remained in nearly the same state in which it had 

 been eaten. The same fact is true with man, with this difference, 

 that his organs being more delicate he is more liable to deep and 

 permanent injury from a similar cause. The Spanish " siesta," or 

 after-dinner sleep, would be no bad custom to engraft upon the 

 habits of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is true that in some instances 

 of strong health and constitution, persons may seem to violate the 

 law with impunity; but outraged Nature will sooner or later have 

 her revenge. The Spanish custom might, perhaps, be substituted 

 and improved by an hour of gentle exercise or pleasant recreation 

 before and after meals, as these facilitate digestion and help to 

 sweep " the cobwebs from the brain." No judicious horse-master 

 rides or drives his animals as soon as they have swallowed their 

 food, because he knows that this makes them dull and sluggish and 

 tends to impair their efficiency. What a pity that he cannot be 

 induced to treat himself as kindly. 



The Passions All have observed their influence upon the 

 appetite. Let a man, sitting at table and beginning the enjoyment 

 of a hearty meal, receive suddenly- intelligence of the aeath or 

 dangerous illness of a dear friend, or be made violently angry or 

 unusually excited in any other way, and note the effect upon his 

 appetite. It disappears as if by magic. This is merely because the 

 blood and nervous fluid have been drawn away from the stomach to 

 supply the violent demands of those other organs which were 

 roused to action by the stimulus of passion. Let the passion be 

 calmed and a proper interval elapse and he will turn hungrily to his 

 meal. This enows the importance of shutting out the " shop " 

 from the meal ; of avoiding at that hour absorbing thoughts and 

 discussions ; and that every one who appears at the board should 

 show only the lightest and sunniest phase of his temper and char- 

 acter. 



Prostration of the Nervous System Indigestion from 

 this cause should receive very careful attention. The food should 

 be simple, nutritious, moderate in quantity, and taken at regular 



