DIGESTION AND FOOD. 87 



lymphatic will become more sluggish, and the excitable 

 will have too high degree of action, and run on life too 

 rapidly ; and thus both will enjoy less health, and accom- 

 plish less, than if they lived faithful to the necessities of 

 their constitution. 



CHAPTER XX. 



Difference of Constitution in Childhood and old Age. Food to be 

 varied accordingly. The Active want more stimulating Diet than 

 the Inactive. When Habits are changed, Food must change. 



186. THERE is a difference of excitability in the differ- 

 ent periods of life, which should be supported by a corre- 

 sponding difference in the quality of the food. In childhood, 

 all the powers of life are more active, the blood flows more 

 rapidly, the nervous system is more irritable, and the muscles 

 more easily stimulated to action ; the feelings and passions, 

 and nil the motions of life, more readily quickened; but there 

 is le&s power of endurance, and the energies are sooner ex- 

 hausted, than in maturer life. In old age, all the powers and 

 systems are in the very opposite condition. There is a slug- 

 gishness in all the motions, and an inactivity in the limbs : 

 and the feelings, the passions, are slow to rise. 



187. There is a wide difference between these conditions 

 of life ; and, if we should attempt to support them with food 

 of the same quality, we should fail of giving each its true 

 life and strength. It is plain that the elastic period requires 

 a mild and soothing diet, while the inactive period needs 

 more stimulating food. Children then want milk, bread, and 

 mostly vegetable food ; and, if they add meat to this, it should 

 be of the milder kinds, such as fish and fowl, rather than beef 

 and mutton. But old men need more meat, and that of the 

 most stimulating and nutritious kinds. 



188. The habits of the individual have an important bear- 

 ing upon the quality of food. Those can bear the greatest 



