PHYSIOLOGY AND HEALTH. 



most of them are generally more moderate in their indul- 

 gence, yet overstep now and then, by adding to the sufficien- 

 cy of their regular meals another and another portion which 

 tempts their taste, or by taking at other times some pleasant 

 little refreshment, which chance may throw in their way, but 

 which afterwards becomes a source of oppression to their 

 organs of digestion. There are others whose habits of eat- 

 ing are generally in accordance with the natural law, and 

 whose daily food is usually no more and no other than their 

 nourishment requires. Yet these will, on perhaps rare occa- 

 sions, meet in parties, or go upon excursions of pleasure, 

 which include a feast; and then they give free rein to their 

 appetites, and induige in the pleasures of the table. 



152. All these indulgences of appetite, when for nutrition 

 there is no call for food, or when we have already eaten as 

 much as we can with ease convert into chyme, must neces- 

 sarily lay a tax upon the stomach ; and, so far as they exceed 

 the wants of the body, they do not add to its strength, but, 

 on the contrary, they bring upon it weakness. These are 

 plainly violations of the 'law of life, and are inevitably fol- 

 lowed . by the consequences of disobedience. The conse- 

 quences are not one and the same for all, whatever may be the 

 error, but they are measured out in precise proportion to the 

 delinquency. The constant epicure suffers more than the 

 occasional gourmand, and the frequent gourmand more than 

 he who but rarely indulges in eating more than he needs. 

 But none escape. All the least as well as the greatest 

 offenders have greater or less oppression. In some it is 

 almost imperceptible ; and in others it is almost intolerable 

 It is a singular perversion of the digestive organs, to compel 

 them to receive and to attempt to digest food of such quan- 

 tities as are not needed for nutrition, and of such qualities 

 as nature never intended they should convert into chyle for 

 the blood. But this apparatus is sometimes perverted to 

 stranger and more dangerous purposes than even these. 

 Children and men put into their mouths, and masticate, and 

 often swallow, some materials which cannot be dissolved in 



