HOW TO EAT AND DRINK FOR HUNTING. 101 



so munificently bestowed upon them by the right hand 

 of their lord and master. 



But as Death eventually levels all distinctions, so do 

 a constant slight intoxication produced by tobacco, vinous 

 and spirituous liquors, with a superabundance of rich 

 food, sooner or later first weaken the stomach, and then 

 gradually debilitate the system, of the strong man as well 

 as of the puny one. 



The first symptom of premature decay is announced by 

 the nerves, which, to the astonishment of the young rider, 

 sometimes fail so rapicjly, that while the whole of the 

 rest of his system appears to him and to everybody to 

 be as blooming and as vigorous as ever, he is compelled, 

 under the best excuse he can invent, to sell his stud, 

 and abandon for the rest of his life the favourite recreation 

 he has himself destroyed. 



Again, although the delicate network of the nervous 

 system may continue uninjured, the stomach, from being 

 continually over-excited, overwhelmed, and over-burdened 

 by a heavy, conglomerated mixture which it has not 

 power to digest, begins to become unable to execute, not 

 its natural functions, but the unnatural amount of work 

 it is called upon to perform. The blood becomes impure, 

 secretions are vitiated, the liver gets disordered, the 

 oppressed lungs are ready for inflammation, the brain is 

 heated, the pulse irregular ; in fact, the whole mechanism 



