176 ANSWERS TO PRACTICAL QUESTIONS 



7. Should iced ivater be used at a meal? 



Only a person in robust health can endure the shock of 

 drinking iced water at a meal. Indeed, drinking of iced water 

 under any circumstances is dangerous and hurtful. If used at 

 all, it should be carefully and slowly sipped, a little at a time. 



8. Why is strong tea or coffee injurious ? 



The tannic acid acts unfavorably on the coatings of the 

 stomach.* The nervous system is over-stimulated, and, when 

 the reaction occurs, becomes correspondingly depressed and 

 weakened. The constant decay of the body, so essential to its 

 highest activity, is greatly retarded. Wakefulness is often in- 

 duced, and thus the organs are deprived of that rest which is 

 absolutely necessary for perfect health. 



9. Should food or drink be taken hot ? 



The pepsin of the gastric juice, in order to produce its 

 effect, must have a moderately warm temperature, neither too 

 hot nor too cold. The gastric juice will not act upon the food 

 when near the freezing point of water, neither will it have any 

 effect if raised to the neighborhood of a boiling temperature. 

 It must be intermediate between the two ; and its greatest ac- 

 tivity is about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which is exactly the 

 temperature of the interior of the living stomach. D ALTON'S 

 Physiology, p. 103. 



10. Are fruit-cakes, rich pastry, and puddings ivhole- 



some ? 



(See BLACK'S Ten Laws of Health, p. 83, et seq.) 



They are too concentrated. They are not easily penetrated 

 by the juices of the system, and hence are not quickly digested. 

 They stimulate the appetite, and so lead to gluttony. They 

 supply the system with an over-abundance of nutrition, for 



pultaceous mass. If to another vial of food and gastric juice, treated in 

 the same way, you add a glass of pale ale or a quantity of alcohol, at the 

 end of seven or eight hours, or even some days, the food is scarcely acted 

 upon at all. 



* Tea contains from 14 to 16 per cent, of this astringent substance, 

 and coffee not over 6 per cent. YOUMANS. 



