The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-09-26
SOLITARY EATING HARMFUL!
Health Authority Says That COmpzA-
ionable Conversation Is Essen
tiaI to Digestion.

AZ time ike Ine present, when
the marrying age of the average man
of the middle classes is being more
and more postponed, the physical ills
OF bachelordOm come increasingly
under the notice of the medical man.
1t is not good for man or woman to
ave alone. Indeed, it has been well
said that for solitude to be success
full man must be either angel or
deVll. This refers, perhaps mainly
to the moral aspects of isolation, and
with these we have now no concern,
says the London Lancet
There are certain physical ills,
however, which are not the least
among the disadvantages of loneli-
ness. Of these thee is many a clerk
IN London, many young barrister,
rising, perhaps, but not yet far
enough risen, many business man or
journalist who will say that one of
the most trying features of his I'M
married life is to have to eat alone.
And a premature dyspepsia is the
only thing that ever takes him to his
medical man. There are some few
can dine alone and not eat too fast,
nor too much, nor too little. With
the majority it is different. The av-
erage man puts his novel or his pa
per before him and thinks that he
Will lengthen out the meal with due
dellberation by reading a little with,
and more between. the courses. He
Will just employ his mind enough to
help, and too little to interfere with
digestion. In fact, he will provide
that gentle mental accompaniment
which with happier people CONVERSE
ton gives to a meal.
This is your solitary's excellent
idea. In reality he becomes en-
crossed in what he is reading till
suddenly finding his chop cold he de-
molishes it in few mouthfuls; or
else he finds that he is hungry and
paying no attention to the book,
which he filings aside, he rushes
through the food as fast as possible,
to plunge into his armchair and lit
erature afterwards. In either case
the lonely man must digest at a dis
advantage. For due and easy nutri
tlon food should be slowly taken and
the mind should not be intensely ex-
ercsed during the process. Everyone
knows that violent bodily exercise is
bad just after meal, and mental ex-
ertion is equally so.
Wise people do not even argue
during or just after dinner, and OBJ
servation of after-dinner speeches
will convince anyone that most
speakers neither endure themselves
nor excite in their hearers any severe
intellectual effort.
In fact, the experience of countless
generations, from the red InoIan of
the woods to the white-shirted diners
of modern party, has perpetuated
the lesson that a man should not eat
alone, nor think much at this time,
but should talk and De talked to
while ne feeds. Most people do not
think much when they talk, and ak
ing is a natural accompaniment of
eating and drinking.
How does it fare with the many
solitary women of to-day? No better,
we know, than with the men, but diff
ferently. Alone or not a man may
generally be trusted at any rate to
take food enough. eve suppose of
course that he can get it, With a
woman it is different. She is more
emotional, more Imaginative, ana less
inclined to realize the gross necessi-
ties of existence. Therefore, the
woman doomed to dine alone as often
as not does not dine at all. She gets
dyspepsia because her digestion has
not sufficient practice; a man gets it
because his functions practice it too
often in the wrong way.
Worst of all, perhaps, is the case
of the solitary cook. In the myriads
of small fats in London there are
thousands of women doing for
their solitary masters or mistresses-
These women, whose main occupa-
ton is to prepare food for others,
find it impossible to enjoy, or even to
take, food themselves. AS confection-
ers are said to give their apprentices
a free run of the stock of the shop
for the first few days, knowing that
it will effectually cure appetite after
wards, so the women who are always
occupied with buying and preparing
food grow unable to use it for them
selves.