WHY GROW OLD? 229 



stitutional bank before the age of twenty to such an extent that 

 the account can never be placed on the right side on this side the 

 grave. 



If I were asked what factors would conduce to green old age, 

 and the ability to enjoy life to past the eighties, I should say it 

 was a matter of plenty of good food, fresh air, and exercise in 

 early life. But, alas ! how few people take the trouble to consider 

 for one moment what food would be most suitable for their par- 

 ticular requirements, or the requirements of their children, at a 

 time when this is all-important ! We can not put old heads on 

 young shoulders, but we can suggest to those who have young 

 lives in their charge that they have a serious trust, and what their 

 duty is in this respect. 



We know that meat and bread furnish all that is necessary to 

 sustain life, but, of course, we do not live on meat and bread 

 alone. The ordinary living is made up of thousands of different 

 articles in daily use. Still, there are certain rules that particu- 

 larly apply in this way, that certain constitutions require a larger 

 proportion of one particular class of food than other constitutions, 

 and the man who does a large amount of physical labor requires 

 a different mode of dieting from one who is sedentary. It would 

 be impossible to enter into a subject of this kind at length in a 

 short article. Diet, however, undoubtedly has much to do with 

 long life, and this more especially applies in its application to the 

 particular calling of each individual. The engine of an express 

 train is coaled differently from that of a slow one. A race-horse 

 is fed and exercised differently from a cart-horse, etc. 



A man brought up in an active occupation that entails a cer- 

 tain amount of muscular exercise can take an amount of food 

 that a man of sedentary habits would not stand, and therefore a 

 certain difference should be made in the composition of the diet 

 taken by the two. Food is simply fuel, and in a general way an- 

 swers the same purpose. 



As Dr. B. W. Richardson, in his interesting work, Diseases of 

 Modern Life, observes : " The English middle class, who may be 

 exhibited as types of comfortable people, moderately provided for, 

 take on an average twelve ounces of mixed solid food for break- 

 fast, twelve ounces for midday meal, or luncheon, and from twenty 

 to thirty ounces for their late modern dinner or ancient supper. 

 A total of from forty-fiye to fifty ounces of solid sustenance is in 

 fact taken, to which is added from fifty to sixty ounces of fluid in 

 the way of tea, coffee, water, beer, wine. This excess is at least 

 double the quantity required for the sustainment of their mental 

 and bodily labor." 



He then gives a good illustration of this, and says : " I was 

 once consulted in respect to the symptoms with which the idle in- 



