, 1880-12-01

educated man who was addicted to 1T III
the sense in which it becomes a vice,
though in two cases we have known men
with an appetite for food so abnormal as
to be the subject of remark and the cause
of nicknames. We question if during the
last twenty years a sermon has been
preached against it, and certainly it has
not become a subject for popular lecturing
or Social Science Congresses. There is o
society for most things, but no Society to
regenera'e mankind by eating once a day.
The poor are very often abused, and some
times very unjustly, for their passion for
expensive food,-a bit of imitativeness
sometimes, and sometimes, as in the fancy
of Lancashire for ham. a bit of combined
frugality and caste feeling; but they are
seldom denounced for the quantity they
devour, and the consumption of the rich is
noticed only by doc 'ors. Theologians have
given up the subject, or attend 10 it only
to condemn gourmandise,-that is over
attention to the quality of the food eaten,
or expense upon the table. Very little,
indeed, is said even about these, not per-
hapS as much as might be said, for the
taste for good food, though in itself sound
and favourable both 10 longevity and high
vitality is often carried to a vicious excess,
and over eating has tacitly been dropped
out Of the area of dominion conceded to
the moralists. We should not wonder,
however, if it were once more taken up
by the UtilitarianS, backed by a few of the
Medical profession. Nothing consumes
the general wealth of the world like the
feeding of its populations, and it IS by no
means yet completely settled that the
majority OF men, once above the imperative
restrictions OF poverty, do not eat q good
deal too much. An idea has been very
generally spread that it is healthy to eat
often, oil certain classes, moro especially
s~ervlats, eat five times a day and the END
of no medical aphorism, that those who
eat ,ften should eat little, is very often
forgotten. The Lancet Of September Attn,
in Il ~curiously cautious article, hints that
the modern world eats too much in posi-
tive bulk Of food-a statement certainly
true of great bread eaters, q distinct ana
we'll marked type-and thinks the modern
REGULARITY of meals has induced us 10
regard appetite rs guide rather than nun.
qnr. which il tho truo one, Regularity OF
meals dcyelopeS appetite, not hunger. we
rather QueS ion the previous proposltlon,as
Il very hungry man is apt to eat TOO mucf1I
but we believe that the extension OF wealth
and the extreme public ignorance upon the
subject. tend to foster a habit OF taking
foo many meals. Men and women eat
three in ten hours and a halt, breakfast at
10 a. m. lunch at 100 p. m. and dinner
at 73O D. ma division of the twenty
four hours of the day which can hardly Dc
healthy. 1t leaves thirteen hours and q
half without food, while in the remaining
ten and a half there are three meals. 1t
would he better we imagine, for sedeniary
mon TO reduce theirs to two, taken at
considerable intervals or if that Is too
Worrying. to confine the intercalary meal
to tbe merest mouthful, taken without
sitt,no down. and with no provision 10
tcmpt the appetite. lunch for those VINO
work with the brain is the destructloh VI
righteousness. and for those who WORK
with the hands is the least useful OF tno
meals. 1t is very doubtful whether the pow.
erfnlly built races Of Upper lnola, WIZ u"'
only twice a day, at s q m. and IL =. m.,
are NOT in the right, exactly equalising, as
tbev do. the period of abstinence, Jn0ugn
Il is difficult 10 decide from the exahple VI
hereditary t~eetotal vegetarians, the puik
of whose food is out of all proportlon 10 lCS
nourishment. The great EVIL TO DO reMos.
cd ID however. not so much the midday
meal. as the profound Ignorance, even "a
educated men. as to the quantity OF iooo
;ndienensable to health, and the quantty
most beneficial to it. On the first supJecC
most men know nothing, or at pesI oh!y
tbn amount of q con vict's ration, which ls
fvod ot the standard found most conducive
10 boa1tb nnder severe labour in confinement,
ondi 10 M rnle for ordinary mankind. cannon
.honoctors fell us some handy rule OF thumb
obont this. They nave told us that tne
Hoo'o -e.:r Of alcohol is the oQu1Va-