Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-15

and these not always-that kindle anything
like earIestness and enthusiasm. We hardly
needed professional admonition to make it
plain that this shirking of honest fare is un-
wise. The novelty lies in the severity with
which the doctor dons the gown of the moralist
and proclaims that under eating is wrong.
without sufficient food" we are told, neither
man nor woman can be happy or well, and as
it is an obvious duty to enjoy life and do ones
share in the worlds work, it follows that we
| are under the most solemn obligation to take
| an adequate amount of nourishment. Our
| teacher, however, it must be owned, takes up
| his parable against the prevailing tendency to
| spirit He will not hear of the doctrine OF in
| eradicable depravity. Those who err may
| work out their own reformation. and that with
out the slightest consciousness OF painful
| effort.
Can the Appetite be Conxede
Eating is a duty''-granted; but eating, he
| goes on to affirm, ought to be pleasure also.
| 1t lies in every ones power to master his re
| pugnance to the creature comforts of the
table. 1.-THE appetite" it is laid down with an
artistic disregard for verbal accuracy, "can be
| coaxed and trained as well as any other part of
| the body" Distaste for food IS mere phase
| of barbafism. 1.-The woman who, without be-
ing ill, refuses o.take reasonable meals is on
savage who refuses to be worried with the dis
comfort of clothes" But what is the poor sin
| ner to do? How is she to take the first step up
| the ladder of civilization? How is she in fine,
to learn to eat? The answer is-by eating.
Whether she likes it or not, she must sit down
| and empty her plate. The expert pledges his
| reputation that there is no danger in eating a
| fair quantity three or four times a day, even
| though appetite be wanting and digestion be
| impaired. And he would make the path of the
| returning transgressor not only safe but pleas
| ant. Secure 'appetizing" food; perseyere with
it, and repugnance will before long convert it
| self into liking. There is fascinating SIM
Bile.
Old Maxims Set Aside.
The counsel rendered will, at any rate, be
most welcome to large class who do notjpar-
ticularly stand in need of a stimulus. Rightly
or wrongly, the bon vivant will interpret the
advice as sanction to his spontaneous tastes.
Hitherto, the epicure and gourmet have en-
joyed themselves with fear and trembling. The
tags of the moralists and the precepts of the
doctors have all been at the service of the
ascetics. The schoolDoy who sees his slim sis
ter struggling conscientiously with "a fair
quantity of food three OF four times day."
will feel himself more than ever entitled to
have good 'stuff" at the pastry cooks after
he has done his duty by the leg of mutton and
sueI puuuluS dG DOue. Lie mOSC pruueul VI
Scotchmen will for once indulge in that for
hidden dream of bliss-as much haggis as he
would like to have. No doubted the blast that
has been sounded against the pernicious prac
tice of starving could not logically be inter-
preted as an incitement to the opposite ex-
treme of gluttony. But to those who have i'm
bibed the traditional teaching of the doctors
on the subject of meat and drink, the open
disrespect shown to the authority of hunger
must be demoralizing. Eat not to live, but
MIGHT N
adequate menu. But how can we possibly get
over the time-honored maxims that we should
rise from table hungry; that we should never
eat unless we have an appetite; that dyspepsia
is the sure proof, and chastisement, either of
error or excess?
Hunger the Best Sauce.
Physiology is not the most graceful of themes.
but it will not we trust, offend any ones fas-
tdiousness, if we recall the trite rule that when
the stomach goes wrong the only thing is to
give it holiday and let it recruit its lost
energies. 1t is revolutionary age and IN
nothing is the revolt from prescription more
striking than in this Reputation of the stand
ing dogma of the hygienists of the last genera
ton. "Stinting," perhaps, will have its turn
once again. The lay word has to accommodate
itself to the whims of the physicians. Port
wine has been in and out of favor within the
life of many who like to think themselves
abused; prescribed and vetoed till at last. the
patient, in mere desperation. is reduced to CIV
ing up champagne if it was his one delight
and slipping Scotch whisky. if he has rooted
aversion TO spirits. The new dogma on the
subject of hearty meals is of neutral complex
ion. On the other hand it peremptorily orders
people to eat who would very much sooner
fast, but on the other, it directs that the food
shall be made tempting. If only the benevo-
lent physician who lays down laws for us had
impaired the secret of giving zest to the pal
ate, lie would complete his services to feeble
humanity. The best sauce, according to the
Latin Deectus, is hunger; but supposing hun
ger is lacking, what condimenC can be found to
take its place? The confirmed dyspeptIc will
the discipline of surfeit to which our contem-
porary lightly invites him. The insipIdity of
the dish lies IN the palate that has to taste it.
Where is the SAVIOUR to come from if instead of
craving, there be loathIng? There is the diff
Guilty, and, with all respect for the new teach
ing, we cannot help thinking that conscience.
in such cases, is avery bad stimulus to appetite.
Girls and Grandmothers Compared.
Where undertaking is matter of habit. or
fashion, or affectation, or caprice, the warning
given by our contemporary is one that ought to
lead to better ways. 1t is not, however, the
quantity eaten but the manner of eating, that
saddens the heart of the observer of nine
teenth century civilization. The poor figure
which our girls cut at the dinner table-in
comparison with what their grandmothers
were, or, viewed through the mellowing lapse
of time, are popularity adjudged to have been
is rather symptom than cause of i'll. They
are captious about their food because they are
too often frivilous in their lives They spend
the morning in an armchair, over the latest
novel, instead of wooIng health and good looks
by good long walk. They have got it into
their foolish heads that it is rather an inter-
esting than a discreditable thing to be delicate,
and the result is that they get into way OF liv
ing on a few spoonfuls of soup and helping
OF souffie pudding. Their father, in his way,
leads life just as little in accordance with the
dictates of nature. He gets up in time to hur-
ry off (by train, of course) to his office; he puts
aside his briefs or his papers to have a hasty
snack returns to work, drives home in time to
complex and most tedious offupctions the poor
remnant of an appetite which ought to have
"lived and thrived" on reasonably organized
repasts in the earlier hours of the day.
The Mistakes of some People.
The total consumption Of food in Great
Britain is, probably, far in excess of the re-
quirements of healthy existence; it is the dis
tribution of it that is faulty The average cit
izen fasts too long, and then eats too much and
too quickly. To do him justice,h he is quite con-
scious of the mistaken arrangement ofshis life.
But it is not he who made societya and its
usages. b was born into life, and must take
things as they come; and, in spite of all the re-
monstrances of doctor-, he will go on doing
what he knows to be hygienically wrong, but
finds on business grounds to be inevitable.
The smaller class of people, who might make
good meals il they chose, and perversely and
obstinately trifie with the serious business of
eating, may possibly be affected and converted
by the vigorous appeal to their conscience. In
Children are unaffectedly devoted to the de-
lights of eating and drinking, md it only re-