DIET. 
common than accounts of the fu aden death of idol 
“* who appeared to bein perfec health, and had juft ea 
hearty dinner,”’ or ho had ae to bed in apparent aie 
fered. by 
to me that 
more were injured by pees Or diet a of drinking. 
| Loc, Cit. 
“ The fir phyficians by debauch were made, 
Excefs began, and floth melisey the trade.” 
ated ; asa neglect of this at- 
em us confequences. To the ftrong an 
inflammatory ‘dileafes happen, and all fuch as proceed from 
plenitude, as the gou rsa tag palfy, ny 2h and a 
variety of chronic difpoftion To the tend 
delicate, it is the pare 
e delicate and valetudinary the pela of 
the ase of the food is of ftill more importan 
o not rife —- rich and varied repafts with ie fame 
reedom from uneafy fenfations, as the robuft; they are 
affefied with aeaiac ts. fome in one way, fome in another, 
the unnatural Joa nd we often hear them com- 
bf 
piaining of the ill effedts of this or of that particular kind of 
diet, when, perhaps, their fufferings arife from the quantity 
of all, rather than from the difagreement of any. 
What renders an attention to the quantity of food in in- 
valids ftill more ppt is, that they are often fubje& toa 
falfe appetite; to a craving that does not arife from the de- 
mands of health, but ion the morbid condition of the 
y which means their fufferings are increafed, the difeafe 
pains gr ear, defeats every purpole es the phyfician, and 
fhould the patients have admitted an opinion, (and fuch a 
opinion occure but too often) that their recovery will be aided 
byt taking ina greater hare of food, their misfortune is 
much fervency, for the fake of thofe who are li- 
able to bee ome the victims of appetite or inattention. Earl 
y 
habits of felf-command are of the utmoft benefit to all; and 
even thofe who feel no immediite diftrefs from the utmoft 
repletion at prefent, would find it their intereft to be moderate. 
and di prs Fothergill, 
m of countries, in refpedt to meals, are different. 
Breakfat, aie and fupper, in this country, have been ha- 
bitual. Suppers, at prefent, are difcouraged among the 
affluent ; and exceffive ones, fuch as have been‘in ufe among: 
our queedens: very probably with good reafon. Or, perhaps, 
we fhould rather confider the meal of dinner to have been 
pane and an early fupper fubflituted ; a change which, 
on the whole, isto be confidered | as detrimental, at leaft to. 
diet crowded into one late din 
he general breakfaft of peorles from the higheft to the 
loweft, is tea, coffee, or chocolate. There are, of courfe, 
many exceptions ; fome for one reafon, = for others, make 
ing choice of other oe as_ thei 
nions “st em 
with more or lefs butter and fugar, is commo ay ined to 
a many inconteftible proofs, that 
rable quantities is injurious to conftitutions 
83 
u e€ mea 
butter in confide 
not ftrong, it is aa aly ufed in many families. It is found 
by many to be very difficult of digeftion, efpecially vel 
toafted before the fire, or fried llas in fauc 
ufed, it begins with a fingular kind of glimmering in the fight, 
obje&s fwiftly changing their apparent polition; giddinefs 
then comes on, head-ac ape and ficknefs. An emetic, and 
the he offending matter, and re- 
appears to be whole 
of becoming with - other ipa as Toft and inofftnfive 
eafes prevalent, that can juftly be stenbel 4 
ients in the common courfe of livin 
tea excites various unpleafant fymptoms, as headarhe reft- 
leffnefs, &c. ; and feveral Britith plants have been recom- 
& mended 
