baking. The boiled pulps of fruits (possessing seeds or stones) are easily digested; but pastry, especially if it be hard and stale, should be carefully avoided. Vegetables and animals that come to maturity in the shortest time are the easiest for

the digestive organs. Whatever is small, if the age be the same, is lighter and better for the stomach than substances of a larger size. Roasted meat is more nutritious than boiled; but the latter is easier of digestion. All kinds of plainly dressed food are more beneficial for the stomach than meats which are pickled, salted, smoked, or highly seasoned. The diet of weakly persons should consist of light, cool, and tender food. It should be taken in small quantities, with intervals of two or three hours. Some substances are easy in the first digestion, but difficult in the second. A full and luxurious meal may rest very quietly in the stomach on the day it is eaten; but it may occasion severe pain two or three days afterwards, when it has passed into the latter stages. Other kinds may lie heavily on the stomach at first, and yet they may pass easily through the second digestion. The best method of judging, both of the quantity and quality of food, is by observing the state of the health. Of tea and coffee, Dr. Cheyne observes, “I take all their virtue to consist in custom, and all their harm in excess.”

Salt, pepper, mustard, capers, wine, or spirits in small quantities, cheese, sugar, and bitters, facilitate digestion; but oils, and acids of every kind, retard it. Sweet substances are generally nutritive, pleasant to the palate, and easy of digestion; sour

substances are usually unpleasant and injurious. A small quantity of water, immediately after a meal, is more beneficial than if taken with the food: a large quantity is injurious. A little warm water after dinner facilitates digestion, but it produces a habit which cannot be easily broken. A large quantity of hot water purges the stomach and carries off the food without digestion. Much mental or bodily employment, immediately after a meal, is injurious; but a little exercise, and an erect position, are beneficial. Leaning on the breast, or wearing tight clothing, retards digestion.

The continuance on one particular kind of diet is not only unpleasant but hurtful. This has been demonstrated by experiments on dogs and other animals. But it will be our interest to avoid the other extreme. For a multitude of dishes at a table stimulates the appetite and burdens the stomach. A person should generally dine on one dish of meat; but he may, and should have, a different kind for every day in the week. In the time of Henry VIII. there were very few vegetables; while the practice of taking salt with food was universally prevalent; consequently the blood became so much impregnated with saline particles, that almost every good liver was troubled with scurvy. Pork is unfavourable for many constitutions, and likely to occasion cutaneous disorders.

The proper quantity of food is a necessary consideration in the subject of diet. But this must be regulated by the appetite, the health, and the exercise. Those who move much in the open air

may eat a larger quantity than those who lead a sedentary life. About eight or nine ounces of animal food, with twelve ounces of bread and vegetables, have been deemed a moderate portion for a vigorous and laborious man. But the sedentary person, or the female, may subsist on four ounces of animal food, with seven or eight ounces of bread and vegetables. A person should not stimulate his appetite; and he should never continue to eat until his stomach becomes oppressed. He should finish his meal with an inclination or a capability of eating more; and thus he will be more vigorous and cheerful than if he crammed himself with a greater variety and a greater quantity. High living and much eating are very injurious to persons of delicate habits. Dr. Cheyne observes, "A full meal of strong meat, as fish, beef, pork, baked meat, or made dishes, in tender persons, goes off with the hurry and irritation of a purge, leaving the bowels inflated, and the spirits sunk.” When the stomach is laden with food, we are obliged to have recourse to artificial methods for aiding digestion. Raleigh says, "We press nature with overweighty burdens; and finding her strength defective, we take the work out of her hands, and commit it to the artificial help of strong waters;" and thus we depend on stimulants for the appetite, and stimulants for disposing of the food. But, if we relied on the same means for the action of the heart, we should be placed in a dangerous condition. The evil, however, is only delayed. A disordered stomach produces unhealthy chyle; and unhealthy chyle deteriorates the blood: thus

the heart, the lungs, and every part of the system become disordered. The most healthy stimulant to the appetite is exercise in the open air; and the best help to digestion is temperance.

The taste or palate is not always a rule for the quantity or the quality of the food; it would be, if it had not been disordered by custom and art; but these influences have so counteracted the inclinations of nature, as to bring us to eat and drink what is not only unpleasant, but actually injurious. By habit, we distend the stomach, force the operations of digestion, and accustom ourselves to a much larger quantity than our general health or comfort would require. The pleasure of eating is gratified, regardless of the consequences.

A person should never drink hot fluids when he is cold, nor cold fluids when he is hot. "This practice," observes Locke, " brings more people to the grave, or to the brink of it, by fevers and other disorders, than any thing I know." A full meal ought never to be made immediately after great exertion; and, on these occasions, cold substances especially should be avoided. A hearty meal ought not to be taken in a great hurry; nor during the time, nor immediately after the time, of mental excitement; for, in these cases, the stomach becomes burdened, and a muscular irritation ensues, which carries off the food in an undigested state. A person can generally eat most heartily and most safely after he has been employed about his usual engagements.

There has been a difference of opinion as to the most advantageous time for eating, and the num

Some have recom

ber of meals proper for a day. mended one meal in the morning, and another in the evening; others have deemed three meals necessary; and some have recommended four. The number should, however, be regulated by the quantity and the quality of the food. When the meals

are hearty, and consist of solid viands, two in the day may be sufficient; but it is better to make a lighter repast, and more frequently. When a person has laden his stomach he feels languid; and he is not only more liable to sudden attacks of illness, but he is in a more dangerous state, provided he be attacked. Taking only one or two meals in the day makes a man unsociable, inasmuch as he cannot join with others in their usual repasts. The advantage of eating greedily, once or twice in the day, is not equal to the benefit arising from more temperate meals with a shorter period between. The Romans had only two set times for eating, which were at noon and at six in the evening, though they took food at other periods. Late eating was deemed voluptuous and disgraceful, until luxury had degraded the corporeal and intellectual habits of the people. Some of the ancients were accustomed to one meal in the day; and this was about sunset. Uncivilised tribes, who subsist on hunting or plunder, eat whenever they have food. Sometimes they fast for two or three days, and then they feed most voraciously. A New Zealander devours as much pork and yams as would satisfy half-a-dozen Europeans. The English, from the time of William I. to that of Henry VIII., were ascustomed to make two meals