450 



Mr. W. North. The Influence of 



the breakfast and dinner hour, or at the most an honr or so later, 

 the exercise did not entail any material alteration in the 'arrange- 

 ments already described; but when the distance to be walked ex- 

 ceeded 30 miles, the time required for its performance was too 

 great to admit of even approximate adherence to the rules as to 

 meal-times, &c, described in the previous section. For instance, on 

 the occasion when the distance to be walked was close upon 50 

 miles, it was necessary to go some little distance by train as usual, in 

 order to get out of London before commencing the march. This 

 involved getting up at 4 a.m., breakfasting before I started, and 

 walking to a railway station to catch a train, so that I might be on 

 my road by 6 a.m. I did not return perhaps until 8 p.m. or even 

 later, my sole food during the journey being one-half of my daily 

 allowance of bread. 



Before starting I had the following operations to perform : — Obser- 

 vations on pulse, temperature and body-weight naked, and body- 

 weight when fully equipped for the journey, in order that I might bo 

 able to estimate the load carried. After this I had to prepare and 

 eat my breakfast and put on my kit again before I could start. On 

 returning my first duty was to weigh myself "all standing" and then 

 naked; the differences between these observations and those taken 

 in the morning gave me the actual loss of weight sustained and the 

 mean load carried, because, as I need hardly point out, the load 

 brought back is somewhat differently constituted from that taken out 

 in the morning, being lighter by the weight of bread consumed and 

 heavier by the urine and fteces brought back. 



Having made these observations on my body- weight, I took my 

 pulse, temperature, and respiration, at all events in the standing posi- 

 tion, had a cold bath, after which I sometimes made further obser- 

 vations on pulse and temperature, and then prepared my dinner, of 

 which by this time I was generally greatly in need. On the days of 

 exercise I always combined dinner and supper, so that at the latest 

 the last ingestion of food for the day was certainly not later than 

 usual, and often an hour or two earlier. 



During the actual progress of the walk, I frequently observed my 

 pulse, temperature, respiration, the length of my stride, and average 

 pace. 



I have thought it necessary to state thus explicitly my manner of 

 proceeding on a day of exercise, because it may possibly be urged 

 that the results I have obtained may be thus accounted for ; that is 

 to say, it may be urged that whereas an ordinary day was one of 

 twenty-four hours, the day of exercise was on two occasions at all 

 events longer by four hours, and the day before the exercise was 

 shortened by the same amount. I am obliged to admit a certain 

 amount of justice in this objection, but I would urge, on the other 



