On The Necessity for Proper Foodstuffs. 321 
tary. Any great defect in the general quantity leads to a 
general deterioration of body which allows acutecommuni- 
cable disorders for the most part to attack a people, as is 
so commonly seen in India where famine isalways followed 
by Cholera. Excess of food also produces by repletion 
an enfeebled state of health and an increased liability to 
disease. Special disorders are the result of excess or 
defect in special parts of a dietary, as gout by excess of 
nitrogenous foods and scurvy by defect of vegetables, 
more especially green vegetables. 
In the matter of food as in all other things of this life 
moderation should be the guide, but when if ever the 
time shall be reached when man will allow his reason to 
govern him in the matter of the food he shall eat and the 
liquid he shall drink, there are as far as I am aware no 
dtaa for forming an opinion. 
