78 PHYSIOLOGY AND HEALTH. 



stomachs with food, this organ cannot receive from the 

 blood, or from the nervous system, that aid which is neces- 

 sary to enable it to digest. The laborer, therefore, should 

 not go directly from his hard work, nor the student from his 

 severe study, nor the merchant from his oppressive anxieties, 

 to the table. But each should allow a short interval of rest, 

 and then he is prepared to eat and digest his food. 



165. It is not uncommon for students to devote the hour 

 before dinner to their exercise. Schools and academies, and 

 even colleges, usually have this hour of leisure to be taken 

 from books and devoted to recreation. That there should be 

 rest of the brain at this time is well. When the gymnasium 

 was established at Harvard University, in 1826, the students 

 were invited to go to the playground at twelve, and engage 

 in the gymnastic exercises till one o'clock. These were 

 very active, and some of them violent, for men and boys of 

 their strength, so that, when they left the field for dinner, 

 they were generally fatigued, and some were almost ex- 

 hausted. Those who were most fatigued, ate their dinner 

 with less than their usual relish, and felt neither refreshed 

 nor comfortable afterward. Their stomachs could not digest 

 the meal with the usual ease, and consequently they were 

 heavy, and indisposed for study in the afternoon. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Cheerful Conversation at Meals aids Digestion. Silent and solitary 

 Meals unfavorable to Digestion. Consequences of Abuse of di- 

 gestive Organs. 



166. DURING the time of eating, the body should be seated 

 in a comfortable and easy position, and all the organs and 

 powers, except the digestive, should be at rest. The 

 muscles and the brain should be quiescent. The mental 

 and the moral powers should yield, for the time, to the busi- 

 ness of calm nutrition. The mind should therefore be free 

 from the burden of deep reflection, care, and anxiety. None 



