henefit, as the fluid passes at once to the stamach, and affords no relief to the parts affected; but after rinsing the mouth, small quantitics may be swallowed slowly. The ficld for the selection of food to meet the waste of the body under any con- dition of physical exertions is by no means restricted, All that the exceptional requirements of training cali for is to make a judicious selection ; bul, in recognising this principle, rowing men have formed a dietary composed almost wholly of restrictions the effect of which has been to produce a samencss in diet which has almost been as injurious in some cases as the entire absence of any laws would be in others.
It should be borne in mind that Mr. Brickwood’s field as an amateur lay principally in sculling, which entailed solitary train- ing, unlike that of a member of an eight or four. He had therefore to train himself, and to trust to his own judgment when so doing, blending self-denial with discretion. He is, in the above quotation, apparently speaking of the principles under which he governed himself when training. That they were crowned with good success his record as an athlete shows, for he twice won the Diamond Sculls, and also held the Wingfield (amateur championship) in 1861. Such testimony therefore is the more valuable coming from a successful and self-trained sculler.
As regards sleep, the writer lays great stress upon obtaining a good amount of it. Even if a night is sultry, and sleep does not come easily, still the oarsman can gain something by mere physical repose, thongh his brain may now and then not obtain rest so speedily as he could wish. The adage ascribed to King George 111. as to hours of sleep, ‘six for a man, seven for a woman, and cight for a fool,’ is unsound. He who is credited with having propounded it, showed in his later years that, either his brain had suffered from deficiency of rest, or that it never had been sufficiently brilliant to justify much attention being bestowed on his philosophy. Probably he never did a really hard day’s (still less 2 weck’s) labour, of cither brain or body, in his life. Had he done so, he would have found that not six, nor seven, and often not eight hours, are too much to enable
