CHEWING GUM. 381 



taken an hour or two after a meal; it aids digestion. If one become 

 faint before dinner, a cracker should be taken with a glass of water. 

 The hearty meal of the day should not come later than five hours 

 after breakfast. Soup should be taken at this meal; it helps diges- 

 tion. There are certain Brahmins or Priests in Asia who are very 

 corpulent. Their diet consists of vegetables, milk, sugar, sweet- 

 meats and " ghee." Dr. Fothergill states that a strict vegetable 

 diet produces fat more certainly than any other means. Condi- 

 ments, spices and stimulants should not be taken, unless they are 

 very mild. Much cold water, at meal -times, should be avoided. 

 It chills the stomach. Every meal should be eaten slowly and with 

 pleasant company, and a half hour, at least, of rest taken after- 

 wards, if possible. If a full, hearty meal lies heavily on the stom- 

 ach, as it often does, with dyspeptics, a drink of hot water, sweet 

 ened or salted to the taste, aids much to complete digestion. About 

 3 or 4 P. M., a drink of water should be taken. Supper should be 

 light; bread-and-butter and tea, with some mild sauce. Children 

 and old people should retire early. 



Another method of becoming plump is a free diet of oysters. 

 They may be taken in any form, raw or cooked, but they should be 

 eaten without vinegar or pepper. To sum up, then: to become 

 plump, one must use plenty of water, starchy food, oysters, fats, 

 vegetables, sweets, and take plenty of rest. 



CHEWING GUM. 



The habit of chewing spruce or any other gum is not only 

 filthy and unpleasant, but is also destructive to health, and parents 

 cannot be too careful to guard their children against it. If the 

 chewer spit the saliva from his mouth its loss weakens and 

 exhausts his whole system and seriously impairs his digestion; 

 for the saliva contains important properties which are all 

 needed and are essential in the process of digestion. If the 

 saliva be swallowed, impregnated as it is with the stimulating 

 properties of the gum, it causes inflammation of the stomach, and 

 often serious and troublesome diseases of this character are thus 

 caused. It also not infrequently leads the young to the use of 

 tobacco. 



