DIET FOR DIFFERENT STAGES OF LIFE. 347 



lark or a snipe, will however often tempt them, for their fancy ii 

 pleased by the idea of eating a whole bird and this means frequently 

 succeeds when all others fail. 



" The above scale of diet need not be literally followed in the 

 case of all children troubled with worms, but may be varied accord- 

 ing to circumstances. In general, three meals are better than four; 

 but whichever arrangement is adopted no food should be allowed 

 between the meals." 



DIET FOB DIFFERENT STAGES OF LIFE. 



Though not properly coming under any heading of " disease," 

 there are stages of life when special rules for the government of 

 the diet may be advantageously observed, and which ir followed will 

 result in the most beneficial effects. Such are the natural periods 

 of the feebleness of infancy and of the decay of old age; the 

 transitions from one division of life to another; maternity in woman 

 hood, etc. At each of these periods of life the general health may 

 be greatly conserved, and both the length and enjoyment of life 

 prolonged by judicious application of the dietetic rules given in the 

 following chapters : 



1 Diet in Infancy Infancy is not naturally a period of sick- 

 ness ; but it is a time in which sickness is often induced by errors 

 in diet. Indeed, there is no more fruitful source of suffering and 

 death at this period than unsuitable or excessive feeding. 



Milk is the natural food of infants, and nothing can altogether 

 take its place. If the mother's milk be withheld, unless the milk of 

 another carefully selected mother be substituted, the child will 

 suffer. This alone contains the elements suitable for the growth 

 of the infant, and should be given in such proportions as can be 

 digested, for during the first period of infancy all the digestive 

 functions are not in operation. There are no teeth for the mastica- 

 tion of food, there is no saliva to dissolve it and facilitate its assimi- 

 lation, while the stomach and intestines are in such a susceptible 

 and delicate state that they are easily deranged, even by the unsuita- 

 ble food which may be eaten by the mother. There are thus physi- 

 ological indications that the digestive capacity is limited and that no 

 other food is suitable besides that which the Creator has provided 

 in the mother's milk. When the teeth begin to appear and the 

 maternal milk begins to fail, this may be supplemented by light 

 farinaceous diet. 



If the mother's milk fail and a substitute cannot be provided, 

 the milk of the cow should be used, as it approaches most nearly 

 to woman's milk in its constituent elements. It is of course impor- 

 tant that the milk should come from a healthy cow or from a dairy 

 where the cows are healthy and well cared for. Where practicable it is 

 desirable that the milk should bo always obtained from one particu- 



