468 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



DIET AND DRINK. 



"Eat and drink with moderation, if you wish to live long," 

 is a saying not less applicable to Sportsmen than to other per- 

 sons; but to quaff lightly is absolutely necessary, not only for 

 the comfort but for the success of the Shooter, as much depends 

 upon his temperance in all things appertaining to the bottle. It 

 is impossible, as all will grant (old Topers not excepted), that 

 any one, no matter how hardy he ma}'- be, can take the field 

 with a steady hand and sure eye on the morning following an 

 evening's debauch ; we will use even a more mild term, and say 

 after a night's frolic. Laying aside the headache and the gene- 

 ral malaise that most usually attend excesses of this kind, the 

 nervous sj^stem, even in the most robust, must suffer more or 

 less from the reaction that takes place on such occasions ; and 

 the muscular system, sympathizing with it in its derangement, 

 renders the whole vital apparatus unstrung and unfit for arduous 

 duty, such as the sports of the field require. 



These conclusions are so evident, that it requires no argu- 

 ment to support them, and we suppose no one will deny that 

 such are the inevitable results of any excess in drinking. 



No drink insures better health, and produces a more equable 

 tone throughout the whole system, than the exclusive use of 

 unadulterated water — Nature's gift, the only beverage to which 

 all animated creation instinctively resorts to quench the natural 

 cravings of thirst. 



A fondness for other fluids, especially vinous liquors, is the 

 effect of education and habit, as few or no persons like the taste 

 of any description of spirits the first time they venture to apply 

 their lips to the brimming bowl ; and, moreover, there never was 

 a drunkard made a sot in a week; the dreadful vice is the con- 

 sequence of a long and obstinate use of these liquors, which 

 actually at first were very obnoxious to him. Water is the best 

 solvent of all food taken into the stomach, and there is no drink 

 that favors, or rather assists, the digestive apparatus so much, in 

 a state of health, in the performance of its duties, and therefore 

 should be used in preference to all other beverages by the 

 Sportsman, as well as by all others who wish to live to an ad- 



