344 



CHAPTER XXI. 



HYGIENIC PmNCIPLES. 



Prevention better than Cure— Author's Eules— Sleep— Second Deatli— £03-3 will be Boj's — 

 A Curious Calculation — A Cold Bath— Author's Experience of Drowning — Dumb- 

 bells — Eating and Drinking — Bad Outside — Best Inside— Advice — Smoking — Cigar- 

 ettes — Juvenile Smoking — Inductive Philosophy — Wine and Whisky v. Meat — 

 Fashionable Cooking— Author's Ideas — A Modern Dinner — To keep Meat— Professed 

 Cooks — Their Incapabilities — Their Capabilities— Good Plain Cooking v. Professed — 

 Out of Season — Eat too often — 9.0 a.m. — 7.0 p.m. — Exceptions — Kound-of-Beef Break- 

 fast—A Cirte— What an Eminent Doctor said— Digestive Organs— Their Work— Day 

 Drinking— After Dinner — The Author — His Peculiarities — Likes and Dislikes — A 

 Pernicious Habit — Its Origin — Good Old Custom — Dr. Abernethy — His Practical 

 Illustration— Hints by the Author— " Hignorance is Bliss"— A Mutton Hash— Sleep- 

 ing Hours — Fresli Air — Night A'r— The North— Exercise — Dumb-bells again — A 

 Rough-up— Same Age and Weight— Boxing— Foot Beagles— A " Night-cap" v. Fresh 

 Air — Clothing— Warm v. Heavy — Texture — The Sailor's Opinion — Banting — Weight — 

 What to Bat— What to Drink— What not to— Verb. Sap.— A very bad Habit— Go:d 

 Proportions — In a Nutshell — A Homily on Rheumatism. 



To engage in field sports, not to speak of to follow them energetically, 

 a man must be possessed of fairly good health and be in pretty hard con- 

 dition. I shall, therefore, give a short treatise upon hygienic principles, 

 and as I followed pretty nearly the rules I advocate in the following 

 pages and had not to fee a doctor from boyhood for anything except 

 accidents until I approached the "nasty half hundred," they may 

 perhaps be considered worth mentioning. 



As a rule men eat, drink, and sleep too much, and don't take enough 

 exercise. 



Xow, in my younger days I looked upon sleep as a second death, 

 during which all the pleasures of life are, so to speak, dead — conse- 

 quently I spent as little time in bed as possible. I am afraid, however, 

 that in addition to getting up early I often went to bed late 1 Boys 

 will be boys, and having a good constitution it did me no harm, and I 

 had lots of fun at the old Waterford club which I could not have 

 asleep in bed. 



Most men require their eight hours' sleep and can't do without that 

 complement. Many, however, do very well with six hours, and they 

 in ten years have lived 7,300 hours more than the fellows who have 

 slept eight hours. That is just ten months, but as the whole time will 

 be spent awahe it is in reality equal to one year and eight months of 

 extra life. If my six hour friend does not enjoy and improve himself 

 during that time more than the eight hour chap he is not, in my 

 opinion, much of a fellow ! 



A cold bath every morning, I need not say, is indispensable to 

 thoroughly good health, but in very cold weather the water should be 



