Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/223

DIETETICS 205 nervous system, so that we feel its influence on our thoughts sooner than on any other part of the system. Sometimes it brings them more completely under our command, controls and steadies them ; more often it con fuses or disconnects them, and then breaks off our power over them altogether. When a man has tired himself by intellectual exertion, a moderate quantity of alcoholic stimulant taken with food acts as an anaesthetic, stays the wear of the system which is going on, and allows the nerve force to be turned to the due digestion of the meal. But it must be followed by rest from toil, and is in essence a part of the same treatment which includes rest it is an artificial rest. To continue to labour and at the same time t > take, an anesthetic is a physiological inconsistency. The druf merely blunts the useful feeling of weariness, and prevents it from acting as a warning. There is no habit more fatal to a literary man than that of taking stimulants between meals ; the vital powers go on wearing out more and more without their cry for help being perceived, and in the end break down irrevocably. As to quantity, the appetite for solid food is the safest guide. If a better dinner or supper is eaten when it is accompanied by a certain amount of fermented liquor, that is the amount most suitable ; if a worse, then an excess is committed, however little be taken. The aim of the diet should be (to quote the words of John Milton) " to preserve the body s health and iiardiiess, to render lightsome, clear, and not lumpish jbedience to the mind, to the cause of religion and our country s liberty, when it shall require from hearts in sound bodies to stand and cover their stations." It is especially when the mind of genius is over shadowed by the dark clouds of threatened insanity, of hypochondriasis, or of hysteria, that a rational mode of life preserves it. Nothing but daily exercise, temperate meals, and a punctual observance of regular hours of rest and study could have kept burning the nickering reason in poor Cowper. As regards the proper quantity of alcohol that may be used the two following questions naturally occur How is a man to know when he has had enough ] and what are the signs of too much 1 The ancients used to wear dark red or purple engraved gems, which they considered preser vatives against excess, and called them aficOvcrroi, " sober-stones," " amethysts." The name is now limited to the violet rock crystal, but in early times it was applied to several other stones, cut in intaglio, and* worn on the fingers at festive gatherings. So long as the wearer could de cipher the minute works of art they bore, he had not reached excess. A more delicate test still is the appreciation of temperature by the skin ; if a draught does not chill, if a hot room fails to produce the usual discomfort, the wise man knows he has exceeded and must stop at once. In short, the safest rule is that when there is a consciousness of any psychical effect at all beyond that of satisfaction at the relief of bodily weariness such a satisfaction as is felt on taking a good meal by a vigorous person then the limits of moderation have been attained. On ordinary occasions of daily life, and " for the stomach s sake, " no more should be taken. Each fresh drop is a step down wards to the evil results of alcohol. But to the practiser of daily temperance, festive occasions are safe and may be beneficial. A man may from time to time keep up without harm the above mentioned sense of satisfaction by good and digestible wine in good company without fear of getting drunk or failure of health, if he makes it a law to himself to stop as soon as he experiences any hurry of ideas or indistinctness of the senses. Diet of Mothers. During pregnancy as much care should bu taken not to get too fat as is taken by an athlete training for a race. The rules for modified training explained above will afford hints on the subject, but It is not desirable to carry the process so far. There is a temptation at this time to increase the usual allowance of stimulant; alcohol is taken between meals to overcome the nausea and depression incident to the state of body. And by this mistaken expedient the nausea gradu ally becomes dyspeptic vomiting. On leaving it off the sickness ceases. A mother should also remember that nearly all the alcohol she consumes mixes with her blood, which now is one with the blood of the foetus. During lactation the most suitable drink for a mother is cow s milk, fresh and unskimmed. If it turns sour on the stomach, lime-water mixed with it not only corrects the acescence, but also supplies a valuable aid to the growing bones of the infant. In her solid dietary also milk may be fairly taken as the type of a due admixture of alimentary principles, because it is not individual growth, or the production of muscular force, but the secretion of milk, that is the object of the selection of diet. Supposing the full diet to consist of three pounds of solid food, that will require six pints extra of uncombined aqueous fluid to make it as fluid as milk; and, to combine the nitrogenous and carbonaceous constituents in due pro portion, the three pounds of solid food should consist of 144 oz. of meat. 13 oz. of fat, butter, and sugar. 20 oz. of fariuaceous food aiid vegetables. oz. of salt, lime, &c. At first, from the exhaustion consequent on childbed, from the want of exercise and of fresh air, the appetite turns against meat. Let then milk, especially boiled milk with arrowroot or the like, chicken broth, or egg custards, fill up the deficiency. Any increase in the habitual allowance of alcohol is as unfitting to this period of life as during pregnancy. Diet of Old Age. It is a remark extant from the rough times when famine was more frequent than now, that the older a human being is the better deficiency of food is borne. Old men suffer least from abstinence, 1 and benefit therefore most from temperance in eating. Everybody who has passed the age of fifty, or thereabouts, with a fairly unimpaired constitution, will act wisely in diminishing his daily quantity of solid food. There is less demand for the materials of growth, and consequently animal food should bear a smaller proportion, than heretofore to vegetable, and it is mainly in that ingredient of the diet that reduc tion should be effected. Neglect of this rule in declining years is often punished by gout, a disease attributable to excess of nitrogenous aliment, and for this reason common in elderly men. In the autumn of life the advantages derived from fermented liquor are more advantageous, and the injuries it can inflict less injurious to the body than in youth. The effect of alcohol is to check the activity of destructive assimilation, to arrest that rapid flux of the substance of the frame which in healthy youth can hardly be excessive, but which in old age exhausts the vital force. Loss of appetite is a frequent and a serious symptom in old age. It usually arises from deficient formation of gastric juice, which, in common with other secretions, diminishes with years. It is best treated physiologically rather than by drugs. Diet in Sickness.- In all that has gone befure health has been presupposed. The modifications necessitated by sickness are of three kinds : first the avoidance of such articles of consumption as would increase the disease under the special circumstances, although ordi narily wholesome ; second, the maintenance of the functions

1 Hippocrates, Aphorism xiii.