70 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Aug. 3, 1883. 



that the flatness of the water surface was proved and that 

 the sum of £1,000 should be handed to the loser instead of 

 to the winner according to the simpler test. 



What they were really doing, only they did not know it, 

 was proposing to substitute a very delicate and unsatisfac- 

 tory test for a very simple and beautiful one ; they were 

 proposing in fact that the advantage given by the use of 

 a mid signal at b, in adding to their instrumental means 

 just what was necessary to make the experiment easy and 

 decisive, should be given up, and a test at once difficult and 

 indecisive suljstituted for it. This I propose to show next 

 week. 



{To he continued.) 



HOW TO GET STRONG, 



llEDUCING FAT. 

 {Co7itimied from page 50.) 



IN passing let me note that those who are not troubled 

 with undue adipose deposits need not imagine that 

 therefore what is said here about reducing fat can have 

 no interest for them. Most of the plans to which I refer 

 are such as are good for those who wish simply to be strong 

 in body. These methods depend on the avoidance of what- 

 ever overtaxes or weakens the system ; and though the 

 strong may be able to dispose of an extra amount of food 

 or to resist influences which injuriously aflect the weaker, 

 they will be none the worse for following those rules by 

 which the energies of the body are increased, or developed, 

 or saved from being unduly taxed. Yet of course some 

 parts of a system for reducing fat need not be followed by 

 those who have no tendency or little to become obese. 



After the food question considered in our last comes 

 naturally the question of sleep which — like food — acts as 

 a restorer of what Nature's wear and tear has removed. 



In regard to sleep I take the same line as in regard to 

 food. I consider it unwise to trust wholly or largely in 

 wakefulness and want of rest to reduce fat. That to cut 

 short the hours of sleep does tend to diminish fat is un- 

 doubted. The method is a very unpleasant one ; but it is 

 efiective if one has but energy to follow it. Resolutely 

 limit the sleeping hours to — say — the night hours between 

 eleven and six, and certainly, if you have been in the habit 

 of lying in bed till nine or ten, and perhaps taking a two 

 hours' snooze in the afternoon, you shall find your weight 

 diminishing. You lose weight because you are subjecting 

 the body to a trying ordeal. Seven hours' sleep may be 

 ample for most men, but the allowance is not ample for one 

 who has fallen into the habit of sleeping daily nine or ten 

 hours or more. Punish the body still more by depriving it 

 of sleep and there will be more rapid reduction of weight. 

 But there will probably be other mischief too. Besides, if 

 a man has energy to apply this method, the most distressing 

 of all fat-reducing systems, he can well adopt others, and 

 he will assuredly do well to apply others to do part of the 

 work of fat reduction. 



Yet a share of the work can be left to this method — 

 with great advantage all round. An undue amount of 

 sleep is injurious in other ways than in encouraging the 

 development of fat. It weakens the body, dulls the mind, 

 and cuts away a considerable slice of life. Fat folk could not 

 be wrong in steadily resisting and overcoming the habit, 

 even though in so doing they did not — as they will — assist 

 whatever other methods they employ for reducing their 

 weight. 



The first step in regulating sleep is to adopt regular 



hours for it. There should be a fixed time for going to 

 bed and for getting up. Nature presently becomes accus- 

 tomed to such hours, and then there is no lost time in bed. 

 A man in average health should be asleep a few minutes 

 after his head is on the pillow, and shoidd wake a few 

 minutes before the time which he makes his rising time. 

 It is well to wait till these few minutes after waking have 

 passed ; though jumping out at the moment of waking may 

 do very well when the habit of regular rising at a certain 

 hour is first being formed. Immediately after rising it is 

 well to fill a basin three-fourths full of cold water, and to 

 plunge the face and fore part of the head in it several 

 times till nearly out of breath. Recover breath and 

 repeat the process. Again, and yet again. Then dry, — 

 regular washing being attended to later. You are now 

 wide awake, and able also to enjoy being so. 



As to afternoon sleep, the rigid would say stop that at 

 once. I do not agree with them. To a man who has 

 fallen into the bad habit of sleeping after a midday meal, 

 suddenly breaking the habit is very trying, and in my 

 opinion mischievous. Careful observation has satisfied me 

 that the evening is passed unpleasantly by one who has 

 thus resisted a habit which though bad has become for 

 awhile a part of his nature. The temper is tried ; the sleep 

 at night is not improved ; and if after a week or two fat 

 is reduced by this particular part of fat-attacking discipline, 

 it is because the l>ody is punished. One can get rid of fat 

 and other mischiefs without punisliing the system. 



I would advise those who have fallen into the evil habit 

 of sleeping in the afternoon, to resist each day for a time 

 the heaviness which comes over them at the hour when 

 they are accustomed to sleep. When the effort becomes 

 painful, let them, instead of lying on a sofa or bed, sit 

 comfortably in an arm-chair, loosing collar, cravat, and 

 wristbands (also if necessary the waistband). Then let 

 them sleep for about halfan-hour. I don't mean that 

 they should give folk instruction to waken them, but 

 that they should mentally resolve as they yield to the 

 influence of sleep that it shall be but for half-an-hour or 

 so. Without being wakened they will wake within a few 

 minutes of the time. At least it will be so before long. 

 Then let them stroll to bedroom or lavatory and repeat 

 the face-plunging process as in the morning performance. 

 They will be wide awake, yet all the better for the sleep. 

 As time progresses the sleeping time may be shortened, 

 and probably before long the afternoon nap altogether 

 discarded. 



It will be found that the change of diet both in quantity 

 and quality suggested in our last will greatly help in 

 giving mastery over sleep, especially over afternoon sleep. 

 The active exercise advised in what follows may at first 

 encourage the desire for sleep ; but not long. By helping 

 to make sleep sounder it will rather tend to shorten the 

 sleeping hours in the long run. 



We consider next, however, not exercise, but the treat- 

 ment of the skin, on the condition of which the value of 

 exercise in great part depends. Probably there is no surer 

 and sounder system of fat reduction than that which is 

 based on due encouragement of the healthy action of the skin. 

 {To be continued.) 



Sun-Spots.— Mr. Slack writes that on the 22nd ult. [his letter 

 was unfortunately forwarded to Ventnor, where, in consequence of 

 a railway accident, the Editor was unable to go], in the afternoon, 

 the sun's disk presented an extraordinary appearance; a succession 

 of spots stretched nearly across it, most of them exliibiting a mul- 

 tiplicity of nuclei. There were also three spots isolated from the 

 groups. With such a prodigious line of disturbance, any action 

 which the spot condition may have upon the weather might be 

 expected to be strongly marked. 



