PURE AND IMPURE FOODS. 
Edited by C. F. Lancworrny, Pu.D. 
Author of “On Citraconic, Itaconic and Mesaconic Acids,’”’ “‘Fish as Food,” ete, 
“What a Man Eats He Is.” 
DIET FOR THE AGED. 
In his recently published “ Diet in Rela- 
tion to Age and Activity,’ Sir Henry 
Thompson, who at the time of writing it 
was in his 82d year, gives, on the basis of 
experience, excellent advice regarding the 
food best suited to old age. Some of his 
statements follow: 
“I advise -more emphatically than ever, 
simplicity in diet. Not only should the 
quantity of food taken be gradually dimin- 
ished in proportion to decreased activity 
of body and mind, but not more than 2 or 
3 different forms of food should be served 
at any one meal. There is no objection to 
variety in the choice of provisions. On the 
contrary, it is neither necessary or desira- 
ble to make use of the same kinds of ali- 
ment every day. Moreover, these neces- 
sarily vary with the season of the year, 
both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. 
From the profusion which nature gives 
should be selected those which each individ- 
ual, at the time of life supposed, has dis- 
covered, by personal experience or other- 
wise, to agree best with his constitution. 
I say advisedly ‘with his constitution,’ 
rather than with his stomach. There are 
notable examples of the stomach easily di- 
gesting material§ which are highly injurious 
to the constitution. For instance, many per- 
sons readily digest and assimilate fatty or 
fat-forming elements in their food and be- 
come unduly corpulent in consequence. 
Such a condition should be avoided as 
most undesirable in advancing years, and 
as one of the most certain to prevent long- 
evity, and give rise to complaints which 
entail discomfort and even suffering during 
later life. No one should permit himself 
to become the subject of obesity in ad- 
vancing years; and almost invariably it 
is his own fault if he does. The pre- 
vention may be insured by largely re- 
ducing the use of fatty foods, as fat of 
meat, bacon, ham, etc.; by renouncing all 
pastry which contains that element largely; 
also cream, and much milk, as well as all 
starchy matter, which abounds in the po- 
tato and other farinaceous products of the 
vegetable kingdom; and especially in those 
combinations so popular and so universally — 
met with at the family table, as rice, sago, 
tapioca and corn-flour puddings, made with 
milk and eggs, of which the yolks contain 
much fat, the whole being sweetened with 
sugar and making a combination of carbo- 
hydrates of the most fattening kind. Ad- 
mirable for childhood and middle life, and 
afterward, during the years of maximum 
activity, they must ‘be completely _re- 
nounced if corpulence appears in later life. 
In this condition also large quantities of 
liquid are undesirable at meals; indeed, no 
liquid should be taken during the meal, 
and only in moderate quantity soon after 
it. If any wine is taken it should be a 
light Moselle, while ale or beer in any 
form is wholly inadmissible. Pure water 
alone is probably the best, or as used in 
tea, coffee, and cocoa-nibs. 
“Respecting the act of eating, itself, it 
is desirable to add a few words. The pro- 
cess of masticating affects the food in 2 
ways during the period it is retained in the 
mouth, before the act of swallowing it 
takes place. 
“First, it is essential that ,all food 
whether formed of meat, fish, bread, or 
vegetables, should be thoroughly divided 
into minute fragments by the teeth, so that — 
the animal portion may be _ properly 
subjected to the action of the gastric juice 
when it arrives at the stomach; also 
because for all starchy foods already spok- 
en of as the carbohydrates, complete and 
prolonged mastication is, if possible, even 
more necessary, although they are gener- — 
ally soft and easily swallowed. The act 
of mastication excites a constant flow of — 
saliva into the mouth. This fluid contains 
a specific chemical agent known as “ptya- 
lin,’ by means of which the actual diges- 
tion of all the starchy products is per- 
formed in the mouth. These starchy prod- 
ucts are completely insoluble in water, 
but saliva converts them into glucose, 
which is quite soluble; and on being swal- 
lowed they can therefore be absorbed as 
soon as they reach the stomach. This fact 
should never be forgotten; that the mouth 
is the cavity in which that large portion 
of our food which consists of bread, far- 
inaceous foods and vegetable tubers ought 
to be digested by means of mastication and 
insalivation, that is, thorough mixing with 
the saliva. If, however, this process be 
neglected, as unhappily is too often the 
case, the stomach, which is capable of di- 
gesting animal food only, of course includ- 
ing milk and eggs, and has no power what- 
ever to digest starchy matters, is liable te 

