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"With regard to nutrition , it must be borne in mind that , previous to maturity , the processes of organic life have two distinct duties . First , to replace such portions of the frame as are worn out by the actions of life ; and , secondly , to accumulate such additional matter as will siiffice for the structure , and complete the growth of the frame . But after maturity , this second duty-no longer exists ; the frame once completed , does not require , materials for increase , but only for repair . We do not add new stories to the house , we only plaster the walls and fasten the windows . If too much nutrition be taken , too much material will be deposited , and a state of plethora , general or local , will be the result . If you are not going to build new stories , you must not bring fresh bricks and mortar , they will only encumber the
passages , arid choke up the rooms . If too little nutrition be supplied , debility will be the result . If you do not repair your crumbling walls and rickety staircases , your house will soon be in ruins . Hence , the adult should bear in mind that he requires proportionately less food than he did during the periods of growth : and he should also bear iiimind two muchneglected facts—namely , that he can neither take'that food so frequently as a child , nor proceed to active employment so immediately after it . Dr . Van Oven justly remarks , though without limiting it , as we have done , to the periods of maturity and decline , that the process of digestion can only be performed healthily and vigorously , after having been some time suspended , so as to allow the stomach to be fully recruited from its previous labours .
" A solid , nutritious , and somewhat full meal , taken at an early period of the day , is , I believe , one of the best means of sustaining the body in good health . Some observations will be hereafter made on the varieties of foods and drinks ; but in truth the quantity taken , and the time-when it is taken , is much more important than any line-drawn distinction as to kind of food or mode of cooking . Queen Elizabeth and her ladies breakfasted on meat , bread , and strong ale . Our modern ladies take tea and coffee , and thin slices of toast or bread . The Esquimaux or Cossacks drink train-oil and ardent spirits . The inhabitants of France and Germany eat much more largely than we do of vegetable diet , and drink at all times of the day their acid wines . In Devonshire and Herefordshire an acid cider is the . common ' beverage , and in the Highlands of Scotland oatmeal porridge is in a great measure the food , and whisky the drink , of the inhabitants . The Irish peasant lives chiefly on potatoes , and the Hindoo on rice . Yet all this variety , and much more is digested , yields nutriment , and promotes growth . ''
After this breakfast , a man may proceed to his employment . Dr . Van Oven does not object to u slight luncheon , but he objects very energetically to heavy meals taken during the hours of btisiness or labour . A mid-day dinner he regards as a great error , the food being often hastily swallowed , consequently not well digested , and the process of digestion being further troubled by the immediate application of the mental or physical powers to the work of the day . The popular notion of an early dinner lieing wholesome , we regard as true only when the early dinner is preceded \> y an early breakfast , and is not succeeded by immediate activit \ .
Dr . Van Oven ' s remarks are mostly of a gefleral kind , giving general directions , to be applied according to the sagacity of the reader , rather than specific details which teach him little . We cannot folloAv him through these , nor through the interesting chapters forming the third part of his work , and devoted to the decline of life in disease ; in other words , to the diseases incident to old age . We must refer to the volume itself for satisfaction on these points , as also for the extremely interesting tables which he has printed in the Appendix , sotting forth the names , conditions , and countries , of persons who have lived upwards of a century . Ilufeland ' s Art of Prolonging Life , of which Krasmus Wilson gives us a new edition for Iiulf a crown , should forthwith be in the possession of every one who 1 ms half a crown to spare . Its general directions are admirable , its physiological explanations very intelligible , and its multifarious details useful and interesting . We cannot afford space for many extracts , but here is one which is irresistible : —
TUK AGE OK THE PATRIARCHS . "Sorao have not liesitatod seriously to ascribe to our forefather Adam , the height of nine hundred yards , and the age of almost a thousand years , lint the accurate and rational investigation of modern philosophy has converted the supposed bones of giants , found in different parts of the earth , into tlioHe of the elephant and rhinoceros ; and acute thcologists have shown that tlio chronology of the early ages was not the same as that used at present . Some , particularly llensler , have proved , with the highest probability , that the year , till the time of Abraham , consisted only of three months ; that it was ufterwardw extended to eight ; and that it was not till the time of Joseph that it was nuulo to connist of twelve . These assertions are , in a certain degree , confirmed by some of the eastern nations , who still reckon only three months to the yuar ; and
besides , it would be altogether inexplicable why the life of man should have been shortened one-half immediately after the flood . It would he <><] tin . lly inexplicable why the patriarchs did not marry till their sixtieth , seventieth , and oven hundredth year ; but thin difficulty vanishes when we reckon lliesu ages according to the before-mentioned standard , which will f > ive the twentieth or thirtieth year ; and , consequently , the name periods at which people marry at present . Tho whole , therefore , according to thin explanation , assumes a different iippenranco . The sixteen hundred years before tho Hood will become 'our hundred and fourteen ; and the nine hundred years ( tho highcut recorded ) which Methuselah lived , will be reduced to two hundred-an ivja which in not impossible , and to which some men in modem times have . nearly approached . "
Before dismissing this little volume to the reader ' s care , wo may take occasion to object to tho metaphysical nature of llufelnnd ' . H conception of life , which vitiates his reasoning on the duration of life , llo believes in ' vitalit y" an a separate entity . Here in a wimple : . " Tho vital power is the principal support of the body in which it resides . It not only binds and keops together the whole organization , but it counteracts also , very strongly , the destructive influence ofthe other powers of nature , so far » s the ;/ depend on chemical lawn , which it is ul >[ e to annihilate , or at least to modify . Among theao J reckon , in particular , tlio offectn of putrefaction , of tlio at mo * pnere , and of / rout , Kg living bcii > £ yntrofios ; a mcviyua weakening pr un
nihilation of the vital power is always necessary in order to render corruption possible . " . We are aware that in thus declaring the vital power counteracts and for a time annihilates chemical powers , Hufeland has the sanction of all phvsiologists , or rather , the sanction of most physiologists , and-ihe negative sanction of silence from the rest . Bis , however , as we have shown more than once in these columns , a confusion of ideas or a misuse of terms . So far from vitality " counteracting" chemical laws , vitality is only the generalized expression for the special aggregate of certain chemical laws . * Our bodies are laboratories , in which the laws of chemistry are incessantl y active . Life itself is only possible upon a continuous composition and decomposition .
iwery breatn we take , every movement we make , every thought we think is . by means ' of chemical action . The readei-, however , must ° not suppose that we mean by this to confound " vitality" with " chemistry " . Vital phenomena are distinguished from chemical phenomena , strictly so called by their speciality—and it is this speciality which has masked their dependance- on chemical phenomena from the observer ; as we see in the oft-quoted illustration of corruption . Living bodies do not corrupt like dead bodies ; hence it has been concluded that living bodies have a special protecting power , named vitality , which " counteracts" the chemical laws
on which corruption depends . But if you consider this matter attentively , you will see that corruption is at bottom simply a case of chemical decomposition . The elements forming a substance are disintegrated and redistributed . Now , this corruption goes on in the living body with the same intensity , but with this difference , that in . the living body the movement of ^ composition is accompanied by a movement of rc-composition- tho process of disintegration is silently succeeded by a pi-ocess of integration the wear and tear of action-is-repaired by fresh structure ; and it is on this power of repair that the duration of life depends—it is by this power of repair that liyiug bodies are demarcated from the dead .
It is because Hufeland makes this fundamental mistake respecting vitality , that his reasoning is vitiated when he conies to . ' speak ' of the dura ^ tion of life . He thinks that every man has a distinct " supply of vital power" given to him as a dowry ; and as you cannot eat-your cake * and have it too , ' so he thinks 3 ^ 011 cannot live j'our life and keep it too . Hence the principle of longevity with him is economy . " What I call retardation of vital consumption , as being-, in my opinion , tbe most important means of prolonging life , deserves here , jn ° a particular manner , to be considered . If we suppose that each body is possessed of a certain quantity of vital power , and certain organs winch make as it were ouv stock of life , and . that life consists in a consumption of them , it must be allowed that this . stock may be naturally consumed by a stronger exertion of the organs , and by the speedier wasting which is connected with it . lie who in a
day consumes twice as much of the vital power an another , will exhaust his stock sooner ; and organs used with double force will in half the time be worn out and become useless . The energy of life , therefore , Avill be in an inverse ratio with its duration ; or the more intensively a being lives , the more will its life lose in extension . The expression fast living , which , as well as the thing itself , is at present so common , is not then altogether improper . One may certainly make the process of vital consumption , whether it consists in labour or enjoyment , move or less rapid , and thus live either fast or slowly . '' This is not only in contradiction to philosophy , but also to his own illustrations , derived from experience ; for upon his own showing , idleness and celibacy are -never found accompanying longevity ; the activity of all the functions—that is to say , tho energetic living of fife—is the only means of preserving life . Jt is not those who live abundantly , but those who live in excess , who fall victims to their activity !
What can be said of Ernsmus Wilson's Healthy Shin ? a new edition the fourth—as a companion to the Hufeland , and at the same trifling cost , tempts us to *; iy much on it ; but the relentless necessities of space foreo us into almost silent acquiescence in its immense success , without calling upon our ingenuity to point out the reasons of that success . To those who have never seen it we may emphatically recommend it as one of tlio very best books published in our time on the great subject of personal hygiene , uniting philosophical power with popular exposition , scientific explanations with the most familiar illustrations ; from the development of cells to the right mode of washing your face , nothing seems too abstruse , nothing- too domestic ! It is a book worth its weight iu half-crowns '
finally , we miiy recommend the Memoirs of a Stomach , Written by Himself , that all who cat may read , as an amusing and ingenious lesson read to the world at lur ^ e on the ill-trontnient received by that , important and " much enduring" individual , from the hands of nurses , mothers ( especially grandmothers ) , schoolboys , doctors , and quacks ; and mixed up with the amusement , there h also useful instruction slily and humorously conveyed .
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LETTERS OF A WMMIfJim XVIII . Seven Hill * , April 2 SI . li , iar . 2 . jcj 2 S ! . 1 ) 1 . 1 ) not toll you all that passed when Mark ham professed to iw ? ' < h us how to conduct life on commercial principles , and still ? H $ less oouM I oxpect , dear friends , to tell you in detail how we $ && we | - < ' enlightened by Con way and Kdwnnles on a philosophical conduct of life . I should fail , partly because the clergyman was reluctant and fragmentary in his expoundings , partly becuuso the mirgeon was copious and elaborate . 1 never before so thoroughly appreciated tho bomlago entailed by that mo . st English , of all KnHish institutions , tho Church of England , aa in witnessing tho struggle of
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Wo ahoulcl do our utrnoal , t , o onoourajV U 10 I ! fia .. ita ( ul , for 1-ho Uuoful onooui'u&oa it . ;;<> lf .- - ( iotTiiK .
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OcTOBEft 8 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . ^ g
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 8, 1853, page 979, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2007/page/19/
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