92 PHYSIOLOGY AND HEALTH. 



liabilities, we learn that the stomach performs some of the 

 most delicate operations, and effects some of the most won- 

 derful changes, in nature; and that it requires the aid of 

 the intelligent hand to supply its wants, and fit the sup- 

 plies to its necessities. There is no human instinct to be 

 our unerring guide, and to direct us what and how much 

 we shall eat or drink. The living machinery within, and 

 the dead material without our bodies, are prepared for our 

 use ; and the law of nature is declared to us for our govern- 

 ment. This we are required to read and to understand, 

 before we can perform our part in the sustenance of our 

 frames. 



200. This is not a law of appetite, that -directs us always 

 to eat when we are hungry, and take such kinds of food, 

 and as much of it, as the palate craves. Nor is it a law of 

 convenience, that allows such food as chance or caprice may 

 place before us. But nature has established for every 

 man a law which must govern his nutrition. This law is 

 founded upon the structure of his digestive organs, the wants 

 of his frame, his temperament, his age, and his habits of 

 exercise. Every individual must understand these general 

 principles, which have been described in this book, and, 

 applying them to ^imself and his circumstances, he must 

 determine what food, and how much, will meet the necessi- 

 ties of his own body. 



201. In this matter, as there are great varieties of men and 

 of external circumstances, so there is no one rule of diet 

 that will apply to all mankind. ' All the differences of men 

 must be supplied with corresponding differences of nutriment. 

 Those codes of diet which are laid down for the government 

 of all men, of every variety of temperament, and habit, and 

 location, and which attempt to sustain all men with the same 

 aliment, are absurd, and fail ; for every man, or every class of 

 men, have their peculiar powers, and their peculiar wants ; 

 and if they disregard these, and endeavor to support life by 

 any other rule, they will not fully accomplish the purpose of 

 eating. 



