156 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



backing. It will never be a popular practice : of that 

 let us all rest well assured. Like many other excellent 

 things in the way of remedies to wit, Gregory's far- 

 famed powder, or even the bland and emollient oil of 

 cod itself the virtues of starvation are not to be 

 measured by its purely physical characteristics. 



One may rest in a tolerable sense of logical security 

 after reiterating the assertion that the vast majority of 

 us eat far too much. Amid the crowd of fads and 

 " isms " with which we are deluged by would-be re- 

 formers in these latter days, there is scarcely a solitary 

 voice which lifts up its accents to declare that we are 

 given to gluttony in a physiological sense, or to extol 

 the merits of frugal fare. Yet Nature herself preaches 

 us many a sermon on that same text. When we are 

 indisposed she does away with the appetite as sharply 

 as the Water Company cuts off the supply when the 

 householder is far behind with his rate. The starve 

 we feel to be necessary under such circumstances, is 

 really but another name for the physiological rest of 

 the organs we have overtaxed. 



Persons " with a liver," as the phrase goes, know 

 only too well how, under a starvation regime, they 

 recover their tone ; and your gouty man, and his 

 plethoric neighbour, are each similarly made to see that 

 life is worth living after experiencing the benefits of a 

 starve, and after giving the internal mechanism a 

 necessary rest. Then, again, certain of our neighbours 

 exemplify starvation, as related (under the name of 

 " Fasts ") to religious observances. The Jewish fasts 

 are well-known institutions, and there are those who 

 do not hesitate to attribute much of the energy and 

 vitality of that ancient people to the regular exercise 

 of abstinence from food at fixed periods. I have 



