The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-06-13
DIET AND INTELLECT.
Keeping Body and Mind in Fit Condi-
tion-Some Great Eaters.

Spare living and hard thinking
were thought to be almost synony-
| nous terms and to some extent expe-
rience seems to have borne out the
truth of this dictum. Many men,
| and for the matter of that women,
| have done their best brain work when
insufficiently fed and clad, and the
remark applies especially to invent
ors. 1t used to be thought that fast
ing purified the spirit and made the
intellect clearer.
This view, however, as have many
| of the old time ideas, says the Di-
etetic and Hygienic Gazette, has
been relegated to the limbo OF ex-
ploded notions, and it is held now
that while fasting may purify the
spirit the effect that it has on the
intellect is not altogether of satis-
factory nature.
Undoubtedly overeating has an in
furious effect on the mental powers,
but on the other hand fasting does
not strengthen them. Overeating
has a tendency to cloud mental agil-
ity, but perhaps fasting attenuates
the faculties of the mind. The old
AKIN that whats one mans meat is
another mans poison" holds good
with reference to mind as to the
body. The amount of food necessary
to keep body or mind in fit condi-
ton varies with the individual, and
Of course no hard and fast rule can
be laid down. The quality Of the
food requisite to insure a healthy
state of body or mind is dependent
upon such large number of circum-
stances that it would be absurd to
dogmatize on this point.
Some of the giants of literature or
of other branches in which conspicu-
Gus intellect has shone have been al
so trenchermen of no mean powers.
Walter Scott, Goethe, Luther, Charles
", DR.. Johnson were all big eaters.
The great photographer, as was his
wont, discoursed to Boswell sapient-
ly and weightily on the subject of
eating and according to his faithful
biographer carried precept into prac-
tice with an unfailing and vigorous
regularity. So much so that in po-
lite society at least he must have
been regarded as a glutton.
Napoleon ate very fast, a habit
which caused him much suffering and
may have been at any rate partly re-
sponsible for his end. The Little Cor
pcral's table manners were as bad
as tnose of Johnson, for he was fire.
quently in such hurry to get done
that he would use his fingers in place
of fork or spoon. His tastes in food
were catholic, but he had an especial
liking for Italian macaroni and Par
mesan cheese and highly esteemed
the red mullet of the Mediterranean.
He must have been the despair OF
his cook, as he took his meals at any
time of the day or night. At night
food was always kept ready for him.
He evinced a great prediction for
ices, which together with coffee with
cream chocolate and champagne, he
would consume at a late hour.
Many great men have suffered from
indigestion due to some extent no
doubt to errors of diet. The inf1u-
ence which indigestion has exerted
on the course of events cannot be
computed. Battles have been lost,
crimes committed and the pen has
been imbued with venom and deadly
satire mainly owing to the fact that
great men, like ordinary mortals,
have possessed weak stomachs and
have indulged not wisely but too we'll
in the pleasures of the table.