APPENDIX. 335 



digested, will irritate the surfaces of the alimentary canal, 

 and cause many sympathetic diseases. Hunger is, in health, 

 the general criterion of the power to digest ; but, in disorder, 

 as M. Abernethy has observed, the uneasy feelings of .a weak 

 stomach are often mistaken for it. 



Custom has, in artificial life, appointed meals at certain 

 stated hours ; a practice which does not appear to have arisen 

 wholly from economical convenience, but which may have 

 been established, partly in order to embrace the beneficial 

 results of conviviality, which consist in the pleasurable sen- 

 sations, and, perhaps, better digestion, occasioned by cheerful 

 company during and after meals. The wassail bowl, though 

 abused by posterity, was, probably, suggested by the sagacity 

 of our forefathers, as a salutary pleasure. The periods of 

 eating should not come too near together. People fall into a 

 mistake often by supposing that persons with weak stomachs 

 should eat little, and frequently ; whereas they ought really 

 to allow considerable time for the digestive organs to recruit 

 their strength. And many who for ill health have tried various 

 kinds of food without success, have found great benefit from 

 a long fast before dinner. Of the quality of food proper for 

 man, much has been said and written by physicians in all 

 ages, and various have been their opinions. Many have 

 enjoyed good health who have subsisted entirely on a vegetable 

 diet ; while others have grown weak, and have not been 

 sufficiently nourished by it. In some particular diseases 

 patients have not been able to eat vegetable food, and in 

 others animal food has appeared injurious ; but we must not 

 draw our conclusions of the wholesomeness of any particular 

 food from its effects on diseased subjects. There are many 

 idiosyncrasies which must be regarded as exceptions to general 

 rules : some persons cannot eat honey, others butter, others 



