DIGESTION AND FOOD. 53 



age, and the habits of the person, and the quantity and di- 

 gestibility of the food previously eaten. The nutriment 

 would be earlier exhausted, and hunger sooner return, after a 

 light meal of innutritions food, than after a full meal of rich 

 food. The young and growing need food oftener than the 

 mature arid full-grown, and the convalescent oftener than 

 the permanently healthy. The expenditure of life and the 

 waste of particles are more rapid when we are in motion 

 than when we are still. Consequently the active and labori- 

 ous are sooner exhausted, and need to be earlier recruited, 

 and should eat more frequently than the slow and indolent. 

 The sanguine and the nervous, for the same reason, are mere 

 impatient of hunger than the lymphatic and dull. 



104. . The return of appetite is very easily trained to reg- 

 ular habits, so that it comes at about the usual time of eating ; 

 and until that hour, whatever it may be, hunger is not felt. 

 At the usual hour of eating, appetite becomes perceptible, 

 and, if not then gratified, it may become urgent; or some- 

 times it ceases till the next time of eating. The stomach, 

 being trained to observe these hours, accommodates its wants 

 to the periods of supply. Those who dine at twelve feel the 

 want of food at that hour ; while those who dine later, what- 

 ever may be the season, are not often disturbed with hunger 

 until their usual time of eating comes round, and then they 

 feel the want of food. 



105. This power of the stomach to accommodate itself to 

 the habits of life, is not only manifested in different persons, 

 who have been differently educated from the beginning, but 

 it is shown in the same individual at different times. We 

 not unfrequently see an entire change of habits of the same 

 stomach, arising from change of manner of life. 



106. Some have always been accustomed to dine at twelve, 

 and always felt hungry at that hour. Suddenly, they change 

 their residence and their hour of eating, and wait till one or 

 two o'clock for their dinner. The stomach does not change 

 its habits and wants so speedily. At first, and for some time, 

 the appetite returns at the former hour of indulgence, and 



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