"This office of the stomach being effected, it should be left in a state of repose, till its powers be restored and accumulated; and this return of energy would in health be denoted by a return of appetite. Three hours more or less may elapse, in the healthy, before the digestion of a moderate meal be effected, so that the stomach is empty and in a state of repose. It is reasonable, therefore, to allow the same proportion of time for the same purpose, when the organ is disordered, whilst we have diminished the quantity of food, in order to proportion it to the diminished powers of the organ; yet, instead of pursuing this rational plan of diet, many persons are taking food every third or fourth hour, pleading in excuse for such conduct, that they cannot do without it. The truth is, that when the stomach is disordered, the exertion of digesting & single meal, after its excitement and efforts have ceased, is productive of sensations of languor, sinking, and inquietude, which ought to be calmed or counteracted by medicines, and not by food, for a second meal cannot be well digested in this state of the stomach." The same author further remarks that " we also often tease and disorder our stomachs by fasting for too long a period; and when we have thus brought on what I may call a discontented state of the organ, unfitting it for its office, we sit down to a meal, and fill it to its utmost, regardless of its power or its feelings. The rules then for diet may be thus summarily expressed :We should proportion the quantity of food to the power of the stomach; adapt its quality to the feel : ings of the organ; and take it at regular intervals of six or seven hours, thrice during the day.” With such plain directions for eating and drinking, the man of sense will always know how to regulate his appetite on the principles of health; the gourmand or epicure on those of easy digestion; while the glutton only will founder on the rock of his disobedience. Dr. Cogan,* from whom it is not improbable Mr. Abernethy's plan may have had its origin, or from coincidence of sentiment, says, "When four hours be past, after breakfast, a man may safely taste his dinner-the most convenient time for dinner is about eleven of the clocke before noone-in 1570 this was the usual time of serving it in the University of Oxford-elsewhere about noone: it commonly consisted of boiled biefe, with potage, bread, and biere, and no more- -the quan tity of beefe was in value an halfepenny for each mouth-they supped at five of the clock in the afternoon." Early hours, it appears, were as fashionable in Dr. Cogan's time, as late ones are at the present day. None of our English customs, perhaps, have undergone so thorough a change as the hours of rising-the number of meals per day-and the time of retiring to rest. "The stately dames of Edward the Fourth's court rose with the lark, dispatched their dinner at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and shortly after eight were wrapt in slumber. How would these reasonable people * See Haven of Health, 1584, p. 187. (reasonable people at least in this respect) be astonished, could they but be witnesses to the present distribution of time among the children of fashion?—Would they not call the perverse conduct of those who rise at one or two, dine at eight, and retire to bed when the morning is unfolding all its glories, and nature putting on her pleasing aspect,—absolute insanity ?”* "The modern hours of eating," says another author,† "have arrived at an excess that is perfectly ridiculous. Now, what do people get by this? If they make dinner their principal meal, and do not wish to pall their appetite by eating before it, they injure their health. Then in winter they have two hours of candle-light before dinner, and at summer they are at table during the pleasantest part of the day; and all this to get a LONG MORNING—for idle people, to whom one would suppose the shortest morning would seem too long." * Warner's Antiq. cul. p. 134. + Pye's Sketches, 12mo. 1797, p. 174. INACTIVITY. THE multitudes that support life by labour, generally regard inactivity as idleness; it is certain, however, that to think is to labour; and that, as the body is afterwards affected by the exercise of the mind, the fatigue of the study is not less than that of the field or manufactory. The labour of the mind, though it is equally wearisome with that of the body, is not attended with the same advantages. Exercise gives health, vigour, and cheerfulness, sound sleep, and a keen appetite: the effects of sedentary thoughtfulness are diseases that embitter and shorten life, interrupted rest, tasteless meals, perpetual languor, and causeless anxiety.— Neither is the reward of intellectual equally certain with that of corporeal labour; the artificer, for the manufacture which he finishes in a day, receives a certain sum; but the wit frequently gains no advantage from a performance, at which he has toiled many months; either because the town is not disposed to judge of his merit, or because he has not suited the popular taste. Indolence is a clog to health. The poor man has no excuse for it; and the rich have it always in their power to exercise their bloated bodies by various means, as may suit their habits or inclinations. Gymnastic exercises are numerous as healthful. Even walking, which requires the least exertion, if sufficiently used, will supply the necessary degree of exercise for the elaboration of the fluids, and the proper tension and elasticity of the solids. Riding on horseback, or in a carriage, is a salutary and convenient mode of exercise, and well adapted to those to whom walking might prove irksome and too fatiguing. Swift has facetiously remarked, such is the extent of epicurism, that “the world must be encompassed before a washerwoman can sit down to breakfast"-namely, by a voyage to the East Indies for tea, and to the West Indies for sugar. In the Northumberland Household Book (pp. 314318) for 1512, a thousand pounds, it is there stated, was the sum annually expended in housekeeping. This maintained one hundred and sixty-six persons. Wheat was then five shillings and eightpence per quarter. The family rose at six in the morning; my lord and my lady had set on their table for breakfast, at seven o'clock in the morning, A quart of beer, A quart of wine, Two pieces of salt fish, A dish of sprats!!! * They dined at ten-supped at four in the afternoon -the gates were all shut at nine, and no further ingress or egress permitted. * See passim. |