FLEUR-DE-LIS 



2208 



FLICKER 



Horace Fletcher (1849-1919), an American lec- 

 turer and writer. When Mr. Fletcher was forty 

 years of age he was, according to his own state- 

 ment, a physical wreck, and it was with the 

 hope of regaining his health that he devoted 

 himself to a study of the problem of nutrition. 

 His theory, in brief, is that all bodily ills can 

 be corrected by the proper mastication of one's 

 food that all solid food should be chewed 

 until it is reduced to a liquid condition, when 

 it will "excite in an irresistible manner the 

 impulse to swallow." This is what Fletcher 

 terms natural mastication, as a result of which 

 the food "swallows itself." Moreover, food of 

 every sort, liquid or solid, should be held in 

 the mouth until all the good taste which it 

 possesses has been extracted. He also believed 

 that over-eating and eating at the wrong time 

 are as much to be condemned as hasty eating, 

 and that all three demoralize the digestive ap- 

 paratus and lead to innumerable bodily ills. 

 Never partake of food, he advised, unless a 

 natural appetite for it has been created, and 

 then cease to eat when the appetite "begins to 

 slack up." With proper mastication poisons 

 are eliminated from the body and fatigue is 

 prevented, and the net result is a high standard 

 of health, vigor of mind and body, and im- 

 munity from disease. 



The benefits derived from thorough mastica- 

 ti6n are recognized by all physicians. Some, 

 however, believe that Mr. Fletcher took an 

 extreme position that is open to criticism. 

 The excessive secretion of saliva that results 

 from prolonged chewing is held by some of his 

 critics to be unwise, and may cause the teeth 

 to decay and the gums to be diseased. Fur- 

 thermore, his system tends to reduce not only 

 the amount of food eaten, but the variety, 

 and students of nutrition hold that the human 

 organism demands a wide range of food. On 

 the other hand, the people owe him their 

 gratitude for having stimulated interest in the 

 subject. Fletcher did more than any other 

 person to focus public attention on the evils 

 of hasty eating and on the general problem 

 of nutrition. See FOOD; DIGESTION; MASTICA- 

 TION. 



FLEUR-DE-LIS, flurdelee', the national 

 flower of France, more generally known as the 

 iris. The emblem of the French kings, a con- 

 ventionalized form of iris, was also called fleur- 

 de-lis. Many legends are related as to the 

 origin of this emblem, but it was King Charles 

 V who definitely fixed the French coat-of-arms 

 as three golden fleurs-de-lis on a blue field. 



As a compliment to this king the practice was 

 adopted, and still exists, of marking North on 

 the card of a mariner's compass by a fleur-de- 

 lis. 



The plant has large, sword-shaped, rushlike 

 leaves, and flowers with three outward curving 



FLEURS-DE-LIS 



petals and three smaller, inwardly arched parts. 

 The colors range from white and yellow to 

 mauve and purple, appearing in many beautiful 

 combinations. It is found both cultivated and 

 wild. Longfellow says of it: 



Born in the purple, born to joy and pleasure, 



Thou dost not toil nor spin, 

 But makest glad and radiant with thy presence 



The meadow and the lin. 



FLEXIBILITY, a property of certain ma- 

 terials that makes it possible to bend them 

 to a varying degree without breaking them. 

 Elasticity causes the material bent to resume 

 its former shape when the strain is removed. 

 Flexibility, however, does not necessarily imply 

 more than bending. A thin bar of iron is 

 flexible; a bar of steel of the same thickness 

 is generally both flexible and elastic. Flexibil- 

 ity enables a bow to be readily bent, but it is 

 elasticity that causes it to spring back into 

 position and propel the arrow. See MATTER, 

 subhead Properties of Matter. 



FLICKER, flik'er, one of the handsomest 

 and most common birds of the Eastern United 

 States and Southern Canada, known popularly 

 as the golden-winged woodpecker. The name 

 flicker is supposed to have been suggested by 



