cannot, or profess to be unable to, stomach this gruel. The writer has had to deal with one or two such in his time. He had his doubts whether their stomach or their whims were to blame ; but in such cases he gave way, and allowed a cup of chocolate insteead—without milk. (Milk blends badly with meat and wine at the end of a hard day.) Chocolate is rather more fattening than gruel, otherwise it answers the same pur- pose, of checking any disposition to ‘coppers.’
It has been a time-honoured maxim with all trainers, that it is the fluids which lay on fat and which spoil the wind, Accordingly, reduction in the consumption of fluid has always been one of the first principles of training, and it is a sound one so long as it is not carried to excess. It is not at the out- set of training that thirst so appresses the patient, but at the end of the first week and afterwards, especially when tempera- ture rises and days are sultry. Vinegar over greens at dinner tends to allay thirst; the use of pepper rather promotes it. In time the oarsman begins to accustom himself somewhat to his diminished allowance of fluid, and he learns to economise it during his meals, to wash down his solids.
A coach should be reasonably firm in resisting unnecessary petitions for extra fluid, but he must exercise discretion, and need not be always obdurate. On this subject the writer repro: duces his opinion as expressed in ‘Oars and Sculls’ in 1873 —
The tendency to ‘coppers’ in training is no proof of insobriety. The whole system of training is unnatural to the body. It is an excess of nature. Regular exercise and plain food are not in them- selves unnatural, but the amount of each taken by the subject in training is what is unnatural. The wear and tear of tissue is more than would go on at ordinary times, and consequently the body requires more commissariat than usual to replenish the system. The stomach has all its work cut out to supply the commissatiat, and leave the tendency to indigestion and heat in the stomach. A cup of gruel seldom fails to set this to rights, and a glass of water besides may also be allowed if the coach is satisfied that a com- plaint of thirst is genuine. There is no greater folly than stinting a man in his liquid. He should not be allowed to blow himself out
