Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/465

Rh has been as uniformly followed by improvement without the aid of medicine. It is a true maxim in physic that diseases which are long in their advancement are, as a rule, only to be remedied by long-continued curative attention. Common-sense proves the fallacy of expecting to eradicate old-established errors of the body by any sudden remedies; the diet and medical regimen of such persons should therefore be undeviatingly suited to their disordered tendencies, and resolutely maintained as long as they afford any hope of relief.

We have seen that certain foods, such as the fats themselves, and others that consist principally of starch or sugar, favor the development of corpulence; and it will be observed that in the following dietary designed by Dr. Harvey, and prescribed by him in the famous case of Banting, foods of this class are reduced to a minimum, though not altogether interdicted, the nitrogenous foods being correspondingly increased.

Breakfast.—Four to six ounces of meat, two ounces of biscuit or toast, and a large cup of tea, but without milk or sugar.

Dinner.—Ten to twelve ounces of any fish except salmon; any vegetable except potatoes and vegetable roots; any kind of poultry or venison, and two ounces of toasted bread. With it drink two or three glasses of good red wine, sherry or madeira, avoiding champagne, port, or beer.

In the afternoon, four to six ounces of fruit, one or two biscuits, and again a large cup of tea without milk or sugar.

Supper.—Six to eight ounces of meat or fish, and one or two glasses of red wine.

Dr. Harvey remarks: "When once the body has reached its full development in manhood, the quantity and quality of the food should be regulated by the demand made by the wear and tear of the system. If, for instance, a person, already sufficiently stout, is growing fatter and fatter, he is taking more fattening food than is necessary or safe, and must restrict himself if he would restore the balance of the functions."



OME of you may ask, and you have a perfect right to ask, why I, a clergyman, have chosen this subject for my lecture? Why do I wish to teach young men physical science? What good will the right understanding of astronomy or of chemistry, or of the stones under their feet, or of the plants or animals which they meet—What [sic] good, I say, will that do them?