Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/383

Rh the fall it weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds; when dug out it weighed only forty.

Now, with regard to the proper diet for hot weather. In the first place, we must take into consideration the occupation of the individual. A man doing sedentary work or intellectual work would not require the same diet as a person doing laborious muscular work; but this article, in nine cases out of ten, would appeal to the ordinary individual earning his living by the sweat of his brow, or, if I may so say, by the sweat of his brain. If a man earns his living by the sweat of his brain he must, if he wishes to live long, maintain his health by the sweat of his brow, that is, he must, in some form or other, take muscular exercise. He may do it by brisk walking, tennis, bicycling, shooting, hunting, or the thousand and one pursuits that the average Englishman indulges in; so that, as I said before, the diet that I should lay down as suitable for summer will, under these conditions, almost universally apply.

Nature apparently knows what is good for us, and Nature furnishes for the different seasons suitable substances in the way of food. But, of course, Nature assumes that man, being a reasonable being, should study and apply them as he ought to do; but Nature in this case credits man with attributes that in this matter he seldom possesses, or, at all events, does not care to use if he does possess them. Men do not study Nature as much as they should, at least the majority do not. If they did, they would see that in the warm weather fruit should form a considerable portion of the daily food. The most suitable articles for hot weather, experience tells me, are fish, such kinds of meat as fowls and game, green vegetables, salads, and fruit. Farinaceous food, that is, starches, should be taken in the very smallest quantity only. Sufficient sugar would be found in the different fruits that the season of the year produces, and, therefore, should not be supplemented.

In a former article on The Proper Diet for Cold "Weather, I illustrated what I meant by giving one or two samples of a day's dietary for an ordinary individual, and I will here do the same. Of course, in an article of this kind it would be perfectly impossible to distinctly draw a dietary suitable to each individual. This can only be done by taking into consideration the mode of life, the idiosyncrasies, the intellectual work, the peculiarities of constitution of a particular person; but in the case of the ordinary healthy person, of course, these distinctions are not necessary. If a man is too fat, he would require certain modifications; if he is gouty or biliously inclined, slight change would be necessary; but, as I said before, to go into this would be unnecessary and out of place, and every intelligent person must alter and adapt the’