Sec. 22. 



THE FOOD QUESTIOX. 



aC3 



incals, abandon themselves to jabber and niirtli, and they enjoy life. At tho 

 i'ainily-table all should meet to make a common interchange of high-bred 

 courtesies ; of warm afl'ections ; of cheering mirthfulness, and that generosity 

 of nature which lifts us above the brutes which j>erish ; fur such tilings pro- 

 mote good digestion, health, and long life. Children in good healtli, if left 

 to themselves at the table, become, after a few mouthful.s, garrulous and 

 noisy ; but if within bounds at all reasonable or bearable, it is better to let 

 them alone; they cat less, because they do not eat so rapidly as if compelled 

 to keep silent, while the very exhilaration of sjiirits quickens the circulation 

 of the vital fluids, and energizes digestion and assimilation." 



Let this excellent advice of JlaWs Journal of Hcaltk be followed univer- 

 sally, and we shall hear less aliout dys|)epsia. 



390. Early Breakfast— its Effect ou Health.—'- Breakfast should be eaten 

 lieforo leaving the house in tho morning for exercise or any description of 

 labor. Thoic who practice this will be able to perform more work, and with 

 greater coiufort and alacritj-, than those who work an hour or two before 

 breakfast. Besides this, the average duration of tlie lite of those who take 

 breakfast before exercise or work will be a number of yeare greater than 

 those who do otherwise. 



" If early breakfast were taken in regions where chill and fever and fever 

 and ague prevail, and if in addition a brisk lire were kindled in the t'amily 

 room for the hours including sunset and sunrise, these troublesome maladies 

 ^vould diminish in any one year, not ten-fold, but a thousand-fold ; because 

 miasm is more solid, more concentrated, and hence nrore malignant about 

 sunrise and sunset than at any other hour of the twenty-four." 



This, and much more said upon the same subject by Dr. Hall, agrees fully 

 with our long experience in a miasnuitic regiun of the West. The most in- 

 dustrious people who come from Kew England, where they had always 

 been accustomed to early rising and working before breakfast, were tho 

 ones most liable to attacks in autumn of bilious fever and ague. Let us 

 therefore urge gwcv^ resident in such a region, never to go to work, nor 

 "o much out of doors before breakfasting, and let no expense or trouble 

 about the work deter you from having your dwellings purilied by lire. In 

 some parts of South Carolina men have lost their lives from a single night's 

 exposure to miasm, without lire. Hence, whenever persons arc compelled 

 to speiul a night in such a situation, their first care is to build a largo fire 

 and, without sleeping, keep near it, even in the smoke, and thus they eseaj>e 

 the danger of the poisonous ^il.uiospherc. 



