Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/195

 dispassionately, and with the seriousness befitting a subject that is of more practical import than any other in the whole range of hygienic research. When this shall have been accomplished, the theory embodied in the results of the tests mentioned will be fully borne out and conclusively established as a living truth.

With the individual himself rests the selection of a healthful and properly distributed food supply. In order to maintain a normal body in perfect equilibrium, the amount and the selection of food require careful consideration. Quantity depends upon physical characteristics and the kind of labor at which the subject is employed. A working man destroys more tissue in shorter time than does the banker or the clerk ; yet, usually, the latter eat no fewer meals nor less at a sitting than their burly brother. What is needed for the one is far more than sufficient for the others. Should the brain-worker devote spare time to outdoor recreation or to manual labor a mean might be established; but, in general, equilibrium is seldom reached, and the supply of food is far in excess of requirement. The laboring man, too, is at fault in this respect, for, unless his be an exceptional