CHAPTERVIII.HOW TO EAT FOOD.

CHAPTERVIII.HOW TO EAT FOOD.Mastication.This is even more important than the nature of the food itself. The great majority of digestive troubles are due to the habit of taking food too quickly, and imperfectly masticating it. It is surprising what people can eat with impunity provided they take it slowly and chew it until it is reduced to a fine pulp, almost a liquid in fact, in the mouth. When staying at an hotel some time ago I met a gentleman of seventy who told me that he had never known all his life what it was to have a pain or a discomfort in his stomach. And his looks bore out his statement. Yet he would take most things that were set before him, but he ate them with a deliberation that is seldom met with nowadays.One has only to go into any restaurant to see crowds of men eating their food like ostriches, but without the digestion of an ostrich to deal with it after it has been swallowed. The rush and hurry of these days have caused meal-times to be looked upon as necessary nuisances, an unavoidable interference with the day’s work, rather than as a vitally-important function, and an opportunity for a congenial rest. Men get into such a habit of hurrying when at theirbusiness, that they attack their meals in the same manner, whether there be any need for haste or not. And if the urgency of their work is such as to curtail the time required for lunch or dinner, it would do them far less harm and vastly more good to take half the meal quietly instead of bolting the whole lot. Every bite that is swallowed without being masticated is a nail in a man’s coffin. And as we have seen already, this applies to soft foods as well as to those which are of a more substantial nature.When mastication is imperfect the starchy foods do not get their meed of saliva, and when meaty ones are taken in the same way, they are swallowed in too solid a form to be acted on by the gastric juices in the stomach. Indigestion results, and this means that the eatables lose their power of nourishment, and, what is even worse, become tainted with poison. Then there is not only trouble in the present, but even greater trouble in the remote future, which, if it gets beyond a certain stage, may baffle all the resources of medicine to put it right.Yet few people will acknowledge to this bad habit. It is only when they are persuaded to take special notice of their manner of eating that they can be convinced of the fact. They resent the imputation that they are eating incorrectly. “We always live on plain, healthy food,” they say. Quite so; but the healthiest food can become a menace if taken in the wrong fashion. They scoff at the people who go in for a number of courses calling them gourmands. Yet manya man who takes a simple dinner, meat and vegetables followed by pudding, actually takes more than those who indulge in a greater variety of courses, but much smaller ones.Intervals between bites.Strange to say, many people who often suffer from indigestion after their simple fare at home can go through an hotel menu without any bad after-effects. It is because the latter provides a greater number of intervals. When people are taking their two-course dinner in their own homes they are eating all the time, except for the interval between the meat and the sweet course. The action of the stomach is very much like that of a concertina. It needs to contract and expand regularly, and if little interval is allowed to elapse, it does not have the chance of doing so.This concertina motion also demands an interval between the separate bites, and it gets it if the diner has company, and is obliged to converse during the meal. If it is eaten in silence, as happens in the case of those condemned to live alone, these intervals are lacking. In such a case the only remedy is to be found in reading a book or paper while taking the meal. It requires a tremendous force of will for a man to eat carefully and slowly when alone. He gets tired of the sound of his own jaws. If he is occupied in reading, he is much more likely to take his food in a more leisurely manner.There is no habit more difficult to eradicate than this of rapid eating, and it needs constantcare and attention, and we might add “practice,” to get rid of it. The point is to avoid drinking too much liquid with the meal, and never to drink until the food has been swallowed. Otherwise it is washed down before it is in a fit state.It is many years since a well-known physician advocated the custom of taking thirty-two bites at each mouthful before swallowing it. He probably selected this figure as representing the total number of teeth in the adult jaws. Yet twenty-two would probably do as well. It does not follow that if this plan is adopted we shall have to go on counting at each meal for the remainder of our lives. The habit of mastication would soon become so automatic that we should not need to think about it at all.Another point to keep in mind is to put down the knife and fork or spoon between the separate bites. This is of great importance, as it ensures the requisite interval being obtained.An excellent plan is to eat hard crusts without taking any liquid. It is impossible to swallow crusts until they are thoroughly masticated, at any rate without suffering pain in the throat. A little practice at this each day will soon inculcate the habit of eating other kinds of food in a proper manner.In the case of children, and perhaps of adults also, a good method is to insist on all food being taken with a teaspoon. This will generally be found efficacious.Whatever method is adopted, nearly all cases of dyspepsia, except those due to some diseaseof the stomach, can be cured by this means alone.Sound teeth.One essential, however, is the possession of good, sound teeth. And no artificial teeth that were ever made are equal to the natural ones. Every effort should be made, therefore, to keep the latter as long as possible.This can be done only by frequent brushing. People sometimes ask whether they should brush their teeth in the mornings or the evenings. There is only one answer, “Both.” We might also say, “And after each meal in addition.” It is very little trouble, for it takes but half a minute at the outside. And it is well worth doing this, if it means that the teeth can be preserved.There is nothing so good as a powder to clean the teeth, the mechanical friction removes the particles of food more efficiently than any liquid or paste can do.Of course, if the teeth are really bad they are better taken out and supplanted by artificial ones. Yet at the best these are like crutches we must have them if we cannot walk without their aid, but that is the most that can be said for them.Sound, healthy teeth are important for more reasons than that of mastication. For if they are allowed to get into a bad condition, a virulent poison is developed in their sockets, which destroys the virtues of the saliva, and also gets down into the stomach, still further hindering digestion. And its evil deeds do not end in this,for it is absorbed into the system, every part and organ of which feels the effects of its baneful influence.It is only by constant and scrupulous care that this disease, pyorrhœa by name, can be prevented in the case of those whose teeth are in an unsatisfactory condition. And if they have got to this stage of decay, it is infinitely better to have them all out. For it is not a disease which acts by fits and starts. On the other hand, it is there, like a lurking demon, working its subtle process of pollution all the time, night and day alike. And while it is better to have natural teeth than artificial ones, the latter are vastly to be preferred to a poison manufactory.It is just because of the persistent way in which this mischief acts that it forms one of the deadliest foes against which the human body has to contend. Its malign influence is so continuous and so all-pervading that it becomes one of the most potent factors in predisposing to breakdowns. No sacrifice, either of time or money, is too great that will help to prevent it or keep it in check.

Mastication.

This is even more important than the nature of the food itself. The great majority of digestive troubles are due to the habit of taking food too quickly, and imperfectly masticating it. It is surprising what people can eat with impunity provided they take it slowly and chew it until it is reduced to a fine pulp, almost a liquid in fact, in the mouth. When staying at an hotel some time ago I met a gentleman of seventy who told me that he had never known all his life what it was to have a pain or a discomfort in his stomach. And his looks bore out his statement. Yet he would take most things that were set before him, but he ate them with a deliberation that is seldom met with nowadays.

One has only to go into any restaurant to see crowds of men eating their food like ostriches, but without the digestion of an ostrich to deal with it after it has been swallowed. The rush and hurry of these days have caused meal-times to be looked upon as necessary nuisances, an unavoidable interference with the day’s work, rather than as a vitally-important function, and an opportunity for a congenial rest. Men get into such a habit of hurrying when at theirbusiness, that they attack their meals in the same manner, whether there be any need for haste or not. And if the urgency of their work is such as to curtail the time required for lunch or dinner, it would do them far less harm and vastly more good to take half the meal quietly instead of bolting the whole lot. Every bite that is swallowed without being masticated is a nail in a man’s coffin. And as we have seen already, this applies to soft foods as well as to those which are of a more substantial nature.

When mastication is imperfect the starchy foods do not get their meed of saliva, and when meaty ones are taken in the same way, they are swallowed in too solid a form to be acted on by the gastric juices in the stomach. Indigestion results, and this means that the eatables lose their power of nourishment, and, what is even worse, become tainted with poison. Then there is not only trouble in the present, but even greater trouble in the remote future, which, if it gets beyond a certain stage, may baffle all the resources of medicine to put it right.

Yet few people will acknowledge to this bad habit. It is only when they are persuaded to take special notice of their manner of eating that they can be convinced of the fact. They resent the imputation that they are eating incorrectly. “We always live on plain, healthy food,” they say. Quite so; but the healthiest food can become a menace if taken in the wrong fashion. They scoff at the people who go in for a number of courses calling them gourmands. Yet manya man who takes a simple dinner, meat and vegetables followed by pudding, actually takes more than those who indulge in a greater variety of courses, but much smaller ones.

Intervals between bites.

Strange to say, many people who often suffer from indigestion after their simple fare at home can go through an hotel menu without any bad after-effects. It is because the latter provides a greater number of intervals. When people are taking their two-course dinner in their own homes they are eating all the time, except for the interval between the meat and the sweet course. The action of the stomach is very much like that of a concertina. It needs to contract and expand regularly, and if little interval is allowed to elapse, it does not have the chance of doing so.

This concertina motion also demands an interval between the separate bites, and it gets it if the diner has company, and is obliged to converse during the meal. If it is eaten in silence, as happens in the case of those condemned to live alone, these intervals are lacking. In such a case the only remedy is to be found in reading a book or paper while taking the meal. It requires a tremendous force of will for a man to eat carefully and slowly when alone. He gets tired of the sound of his own jaws. If he is occupied in reading, he is much more likely to take his food in a more leisurely manner.

There is no habit more difficult to eradicate than this of rapid eating, and it needs constantcare and attention, and we might add “practice,” to get rid of it. The point is to avoid drinking too much liquid with the meal, and never to drink until the food has been swallowed. Otherwise it is washed down before it is in a fit state.

It is many years since a well-known physician advocated the custom of taking thirty-two bites at each mouthful before swallowing it. He probably selected this figure as representing the total number of teeth in the adult jaws. Yet twenty-two would probably do as well. It does not follow that if this plan is adopted we shall have to go on counting at each meal for the remainder of our lives. The habit of mastication would soon become so automatic that we should not need to think about it at all.

Another point to keep in mind is to put down the knife and fork or spoon between the separate bites. This is of great importance, as it ensures the requisite interval being obtained.

An excellent plan is to eat hard crusts without taking any liquid. It is impossible to swallow crusts until they are thoroughly masticated, at any rate without suffering pain in the throat. A little practice at this each day will soon inculcate the habit of eating other kinds of food in a proper manner.

In the case of children, and perhaps of adults also, a good method is to insist on all food being taken with a teaspoon. This will generally be found efficacious.

Whatever method is adopted, nearly all cases of dyspepsia, except those due to some diseaseof the stomach, can be cured by this means alone.

Sound teeth.

One essential, however, is the possession of good, sound teeth. And no artificial teeth that were ever made are equal to the natural ones. Every effort should be made, therefore, to keep the latter as long as possible.

This can be done only by frequent brushing. People sometimes ask whether they should brush their teeth in the mornings or the evenings. There is only one answer, “Both.” We might also say, “And after each meal in addition.” It is very little trouble, for it takes but half a minute at the outside. And it is well worth doing this, if it means that the teeth can be preserved.

There is nothing so good as a powder to clean the teeth, the mechanical friction removes the particles of food more efficiently than any liquid or paste can do.

Of course, if the teeth are really bad they are better taken out and supplanted by artificial ones. Yet at the best these are like crutches we must have them if we cannot walk without their aid, but that is the most that can be said for them.

Sound, healthy teeth are important for more reasons than that of mastication. For if they are allowed to get into a bad condition, a virulent poison is developed in their sockets, which destroys the virtues of the saliva, and also gets down into the stomach, still further hindering digestion. And its evil deeds do not end in this,for it is absorbed into the system, every part and organ of which feels the effects of its baneful influence.

It is only by constant and scrupulous care that this disease, pyorrhœa by name, can be prevented in the case of those whose teeth are in an unsatisfactory condition. And if they have got to this stage of decay, it is infinitely better to have them all out. For it is not a disease which acts by fits and starts. On the other hand, it is there, like a lurking demon, working its subtle process of pollution all the time, night and day alike. And while it is better to have natural teeth than artificial ones, the latter are vastly to be preferred to a poison manufactory.

It is just because of the persistent way in which this mischief acts that it forms one of the deadliest foes against which the human body has to contend. Its malign influence is so continuous and so all-pervading that it becomes one of the most potent factors in predisposing to breakdowns. No sacrifice, either of time or money, is too great that will help to prevent it or keep it in check.

CHAPTERIX.HOW MUCH FOOD TO TAKE.Speaking generally, the amount should be sufficient to keep the body well and active, but not to load it up with more than it can get rid of.Personal requirements.As to the actual amount, there is no guide save that of personal requirements. Some people need more than others, and without any reference to the size of the individual. A little man may easily require twice as much as a big one. It depends on the rate at which his system burns it up. It is of no use, therefore, to judge of our own needs by those of other people. A noted big game hunter is said to be able to take three full-course dinners in immediate succession, without the slightest inconvenience or any apparent detriment to his health. Such persons can be regarded only as freaks, and any attempt on the part of others to imitate their example would lead to disaster. For we could no more follow his lead in this respect than we could do what he is also capable of, namely to go for three days and nights without food or drink, and feel no worse for so doing.Appetite.Appetite will usually be found a sound guide,provided that it is not satisfied to the point of repletion. It is always well to eat steadily and moderately, following the time-worn plan of rising from the table feeling as if you could eat more. Sometimes a man will sit down as hungry as a hunter, attacking his viands with avidity. Two hours later he wishes that he had not. He has taken more than his digestion can cope with, and the result is that for a day or two afterwards he can scarcely eat anything. If there is an excess of appetite, so to speak, left over, it will keep until the next meal. Regularity in amount, as well as in times of feeding, is essential to health.As a rule people eat too much, and need to be reminded of the fact, tactfully of course. It is astonishing to watch the improvement in health and energy which often follows a reduction in the amount of food taken. Many listless, tired patients become bright and vigorous after they have been persuaded to adopt this course. It is not uncommon to see thin people who have been overfed by their anxious relatives, and have become sallow and dyspeptic in consequence. In such cases it is difficult to convince the individual himself, and still harder to convince his friends, that he will not become thinner if he takes less food. Yet practical experience has shown that he not only fails to lose weight, but in many cases even puts it on.A physician once experimented with two men of this type, pallid, seedy young fellows, both of them. He kept them under his care for sixmonths, giving them one-third the amount of food they had been accustomed to, and making them take three times as long in eating it. By the end of that period they had grown into strong, lusty chaps, two stone in weight heavier, and with a fine healthy colouring in their cheeks.Excess of food.The average diet of the Anglo-Saxon is vastly in excess of his needs. Especially does this refer to the amount of food taken on Sundays. Why we should choose to celebrate the Sabbath by eating more and taking less exercise is a mystery. We often meet with people who complain of feeling “Mondayish,” as they call it. They think it is due to the reaction consequent on resuming the week’s work, whereas it is nothing more than the fact of their having eaten too much on the previous day. For many people who are abstemious enough during the week-days take more at every meal on Sundays. They have something extra for breakfast, and take it at a later hour than usual; they have a hearty dinner midday, and take cake and jam for tea, completing the day by a hearty supper, in which cold meat and pickles generally take a large share. And all “because it is Sunday.”Now if such persons can be prevailed upon to make a light breakfast, eat moderately at dinner, limit their food at tea to a biscuit or a piece of bread and butter, and finish up with a rational supper, they will find that on Monday mornings they are as fresh as on any other day of the week; in fact, probably much fresher. It would be agood thing for the community if people would make Sunday a day of rest in regard to diet as well as other things.Diet at middle age.In speaking of butcher’s meat, we pointed out that less of this is necessary in the case of people approaching middle age. The same remark applies, though not with the same urgency perhaps, to food of all sorts. As people grow older the system loses some of its power of throwing off the residue of waste matter, and it is of vital importance, therefore, that people should exercise even more care and discrimination than at any previous period in their lives.Yet as a rule they tend to eat more rather than less. And the consequent strain upon the system is the starting-point of many a breakdown. For not only is the system less capable of eliminating the waste, but the various organs have less power to support each other when any of them suffer in consequence of the extra effort demanded of them.Diet for the obese.The question of a suitable diet for stout people is one that bulks largely in the mind of the public to-day. At one time the neurotic patient was always supposed to be thin. It was the fat ones who kept people alive and in a good humour. It was all a myth, of course, and there was no truth in it. It is all very well to talk about “Laugh and grow fat,” but whether fat people are addicted to laughing is another matter. For gradually it began to dawn upon the world thatthey were rather a heavy, stolid set of folk after all.Then, to its surprise, it found that stout people are more liable to neurasthenia than thin ones. In any medical paper to-day you are almost sure to see an article on neurasthenia and obesity.The result of all this has been that there are more people wanting to get thin than thin people desirous of getting stout. The question is how they are to do it. It is generally supposed that it can only be achieved by eating less. This is quite correct in one way. They must eat less, but of certain articles of diet. It does not follow that they must always rise from the table craving for food. It is a healthy custom, as we have pointed out, for people to get up from the table feeling that they could take more, but for some to be doomed constantly to leave their meals as hungry as when they sat down would be a hardship that few would submit to.Fortunately this is not necessary. It is not so much the quantity of food as its quality which accounts for putting on flesh. There are certain articles which are fattening, not only because of what they consist of in themselves, but also because they tend to make other items give up the fat they contain. The important point is to avoid these foods. It must be made clear, however, that a certain amount of laxity may be allowed. There may be some of Falstaff’s dimensions who may find it necessary to carry out the diet to the letter. It may be a matterof urgency, perhaps of life itself, that they should be brought down in weight, and without any loss of time.But there are others who feel that a certain reduction is desirable, but not to the same degree as these others. And such people, while following the general principles, need not deny themselves so completely as the stouter ones.Speaking generally, the foods which tend to put on weight are the starches, such as bread and potatoes, sugars and fats. The following list contains firstly those articles which have this tendency, and then those which can be taken with impunity.Articles to be avoided.—Cream and butter. Bread, teacakes, scones and cake of all sorts. Porridge. The fat of bacon, ham or any other meat. Eggs. Red fish, as salmon and mullet. Potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, artichokes and all other root vegetables. Puddings of all kinds. Pastry, sweets, jellies, jam and sugar. Apples, pears and bananas.The following may be taken.—Tea and coffee (but not cocoa). Milk in strict moderation. Dry biscuits, such as cracknel. Lean ham, bacon, tongue, white fish, thin soup, fowl and game, and the lean of butcher’s meat. Green vegetables, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes, peas, beans, asparagus. Cheese may be permitted in small quantities.Water should be taken apart from meals. If taken hot before meals it has a reducing and beneficial effect.It will be seen from this list that there isno reason why anyone wishful to reduce their weight need complain of a lack of food wherewith to satisfy their appetites. Yet, if adhered to, the diet rarely fails to bring about the desired result.

Speaking generally, the amount should be sufficient to keep the body well and active, but not to load it up with more than it can get rid of.

Personal requirements.

As to the actual amount, there is no guide save that of personal requirements. Some people need more than others, and without any reference to the size of the individual. A little man may easily require twice as much as a big one. It depends on the rate at which his system burns it up. It is of no use, therefore, to judge of our own needs by those of other people. A noted big game hunter is said to be able to take three full-course dinners in immediate succession, without the slightest inconvenience or any apparent detriment to his health. Such persons can be regarded only as freaks, and any attempt on the part of others to imitate their example would lead to disaster. For we could no more follow his lead in this respect than we could do what he is also capable of, namely to go for three days and nights without food or drink, and feel no worse for so doing.

Appetite.

Appetite will usually be found a sound guide,provided that it is not satisfied to the point of repletion. It is always well to eat steadily and moderately, following the time-worn plan of rising from the table feeling as if you could eat more. Sometimes a man will sit down as hungry as a hunter, attacking his viands with avidity. Two hours later he wishes that he had not. He has taken more than his digestion can cope with, and the result is that for a day or two afterwards he can scarcely eat anything. If there is an excess of appetite, so to speak, left over, it will keep until the next meal. Regularity in amount, as well as in times of feeding, is essential to health.

As a rule people eat too much, and need to be reminded of the fact, tactfully of course. It is astonishing to watch the improvement in health and energy which often follows a reduction in the amount of food taken. Many listless, tired patients become bright and vigorous after they have been persuaded to adopt this course. It is not uncommon to see thin people who have been overfed by their anxious relatives, and have become sallow and dyspeptic in consequence. In such cases it is difficult to convince the individual himself, and still harder to convince his friends, that he will not become thinner if he takes less food. Yet practical experience has shown that he not only fails to lose weight, but in many cases even puts it on.

A physician once experimented with two men of this type, pallid, seedy young fellows, both of them. He kept them under his care for sixmonths, giving them one-third the amount of food they had been accustomed to, and making them take three times as long in eating it. By the end of that period they had grown into strong, lusty chaps, two stone in weight heavier, and with a fine healthy colouring in their cheeks.

Excess of food.

The average diet of the Anglo-Saxon is vastly in excess of his needs. Especially does this refer to the amount of food taken on Sundays. Why we should choose to celebrate the Sabbath by eating more and taking less exercise is a mystery. We often meet with people who complain of feeling “Mondayish,” as they call it. They think it is due to the reaction consequent on resuming the week’s work, whereas it is nothing more than the fact of their having eaten too much on the previous day. For many people who are abstemious enough during the week-days take more at every meal on Sundays. They have something extra for breakfast, and take it at a later hour than usual; they have a hearty dinner midday, and take cake and jam for tea, completing the day by a hearty supper, in which cold meat and pickles generally take a large share. And all “because it is Sunday.”

Now if such persons can be prevailed upon to make a light breakfast, eat moderately at dinner, limit their food at tea to a biscuit or a piece of bread and butter, and finish up with a rational supper, they will find that on Monday mornings they are as fresh as on any other day of the week; in fact, probably much fresher. It would be agood thing for the community if people would make Sunday a day of rest in regard to diet as well as other things.

Diet at middle age.

In speaking of butcher’s meat, we pointed out that less of this is necessary in the case of people approaching middle age. The same remark applies, though not with the same urgency perhaps, to food of all sorts. As people grow older the system loses some of its power of throwing off the residue of waste matter, and it is of vital importance, therefore, that people should exercise even more care and discrimination than at any previous period in their lives.

Yet as a rule they tend to eat more rather than less. And the consequent strain upon the system is the starting-point of many a breakdown. For not only is the system less capable of eliminating the waste, but the various organs have less power to support each other when any of them suffer in consequence of the extra effort demanded of them.

Diet for the obese.

The question of a suitable diet for stout people is one that bulks largely in the mind of the public to-day. At one time the neurotic patient was always supposed to be thin. It was the fat ones who kept people alive and in a good humour. It was all a myth, of course, and there was no truth in it. It is all very well to talk about “Laugh and grow fat,” but whether fat people are addicted to laughing is another matter. For gradually it began to dawn upon the world thatthey were rather a heavy, stolid set of folk after all.

Then, to its surprise, it found that stout people are more liable to neurasthenia than thin ones. In any medical paper to-day you are almost sure to see an article on neurasthenia and obesity.

The result of all this has been that there are more people wanting to get thin than thin people desirous of getting stout. The question is how they are to do it. It is generally supposed that it can only be achieved by eating less. This is quite correct in one way. They must eat less, but of certain articles of diet. It does not follow that they must always rise from the table craving for food. It is a healthy custom, as we have pointed out, for people to get up from the table feeling that they could take more, but for some to be doomed constantly to leave their meals as hungry as when they sat down would be a hardship that few would submit to.

Fortunately this is not necessary. It is not so much the quantity of food as its quality which accounts for putting on flesh. There are certain articles which are fattening, not only because of what they consist of in themselves, but also because they tend to make other items give up the fat they contain. The important point is to avoid these foods. It must be made clear, however, that a certain amount of laxity may be allowed. There may be some of Falstaff’s dimensions who may find it necessary to carry out the diet to the letter. It may be a matterof urgency, perhaps of life itself, that they should be brought down in weight, and without any loss of time.

But there are others who feel that a certain reduction is desirable, but not to the same degree as these others. And such people, while following the general principles, need not deny themselves so completely as the stouter ones.

Speaking generally, the foods which tend to put on weight are the starches, such as bread and potatoes, sugars and fats. The following list contains firstly those articles which have this tendency, and then those which can be taken with impunity.

Articles to be avoided.—Cream and butter. Bread, teacakes, scones and cake of all sorts. Porridge. The fat of bacon, ham or any other meat. Eggs. Red fish, as salmon and mullet. Potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, artichokes and all other root vegetables. Puddings of all kinds. Pastry, sweets, jellies, jam and sugar. Apples, pears and bananas.

The following may be taken.—Tea and coffee (but not cocoa). Milk in strict moderation. Dry biscuits, such as cracknel. Lean ham, bacon, tongue, white fish, thin soup, fowl and game, and the lean of butcher’s meat. Green vegetables, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes, peas, beans, asparagus. Cheese may be permitted in small quantities.

Water should be taken apart from meals. If taken hot before meals it has a reducing and beneficial effect.

It will be seen from this list that there isno reason why anyone wishful to reduce their weight need complain of a lack of food wherewith to satisfy their appetites. Yet, if adhered to, the diet rarely fails to bring about the desired result.

CHAPTERX.WHEN TO TAKE FOOD.Punctuality.Punctuality at meals is absolutely essential for the maintenance of good health. The stomach gets into the habit of secreting its digestive juices at certain times, as meals fall due. If it does not meet with the food it has come to act upon, it will seize upon the stomach wall and cause pain and a nauseous sense of sinking. And these sensations will probably be followed by a headache, for the gastric juice, which is one of our vital agents, is nothing less than an irritant poison if it has no work to do. It is like a man loitering about an office or workshop when trade is slack. He has gone there to work, and when he finds nothing to do except to hang around and put in time as best he can, he becomes dissatisfied.More than that, it is only too likely that if this goes on for several days the man will fail to turn up one morning. As there is nothing for him to occupy his time with, he thinks he might as well stay away. And that is exactly what the gastric juice does under similar circumstances. If people have been accustomed to take dinner at one o’clock each day, and for several days in succession turn up an hour late, they will find that they begin to suffer from indigestion. The gastricjuice has got tired of making its appearance at the proper time; as it has been treated with contempt, it takes its revenge by staying away. There is a form of gastric derangement known as Commercial Traveller’s Dyspepsia, which is due solely to the fact that with these members of the community meal-times must be constantly varied, owing to the exigencies of their work, and the vagaries of railway trains.Of course, it may be necessary at times to make an alteration in a meal hour. When the light summer evenings come, many people prefer to change the hour of the evening meal, in order to enjoy walks or outdoor games. If, however, the new hour is adhered to, the stomach soon learns to adapt itself to the change. It is the constant chopping and changing about from day to day that has such a pernicious effect on the system.There is another member of the community who is liable to suffer from the consequences of irregularity in regard to the midday meal. It is the woman whose husband cannot get home to lunch, so that she is left to take it alone, unless she has children to cater for. We confess to having less sympathy for her than for the aforesaid commercial traveller, for it is not the fault of the latter that he does not get his meal regularly at its proper time, while in the case of the woman the blame lies entirely with herself. She takes that deadly “something on a tray,” and takes it at any time that suits her convenience. Probably she has had a breakfast of tea and bread and butter. Too often the same fare appears for herlunch. There is little wonder that often she is a martyr to dyspepsia and headache.Interval between meals.The question as to the length of the interval between meals is an important one. And here, in particular, individual requirements enter largely. Some people can go for a considerable time without food and feel better for so doing. Others feel sick and unduly tired if they fast too long. It rests with each one to find out what suits them best.On general principles, however, if an interval is too short there is a likelihood of a certain amount of food being left over still undigested from the last meal. And this interferes with the work of the stomach. Under such circumstances the tongue is liable to be coated with a thick fur, and the individual to suffer from a constant feeling of nausea.If, however, the interval is too long, the system has become exhausted and the stomach goes on strike. By the time the meal is taken, the supply of gastric fluid has failed. If a long interval between any two meals is unavoidable, as for instance where a man has to have his breakfast at eight and cannot get his lunch until half-past one, it is better to take some light food in the meantime. This prevents the sense of exhaustion, and does not hinder the stomach from doing its work when it is called upon. Otherwise the man is apt to get a headache before he gets his meal, and indigestion after he has taken it.This is a very different matter from the habitof eating between meals, whether it be in regard to sweets or to heavier articles of diet. There is a form of hunger known as “false.” It comes on an hour or two after meals, and is due to the irritation of undigested food in the stomach. As it is often accompanied by a sensation of sinking, people sometimes take some food, such as beef-tea or strong soup, to keep themselves up, as they term it. The result is confusion worse confounded, and if the process is repeated too frequently serious damage may be inflicted on the digestive organs.Diet and breakdowns.I have dealt at considerable length with this question of diet, simply because it has such an important bearing on the subject of breakdowns. There is no single path that leads to breakdowns, the way thither is rather a tangled maze of paths, along which people stumble blindly until they suddenly find themselves at animpasse. Yet the point at which they first left the high road of health consists in most cases of a mistake or series of mistakes in regard to their food and the manner in which they take it.The old style.The digestive troubles of the present day are very different from those of a century ago. “The fine old English gentleman, one of the olden style,” consumed an enormous breakfast and a still more enormous dinner, washing down vast quantities of food with great draughts of beer or wine. Every now and then he waslaid up with a stomach-ache or an attack of gout, and for a day or two made the welkin ring with his upbraidings; then he turned up again, as fresh as any young buck, and went on his way rejoicing until the next attack laid him by the heels.We marvel that he survived to tell the tale. “I should be dead in a week if I did such things,” one of my readers probably remarks. Yes, but the hale old chap led a different sort of life from that which we lead to-day. He spent most of his time in the saddle or in walking about the country-side. Moreover, the food he ate was of such a solid nature that he was bound to chew it well before he could swallow it. And the bilious or gouty attacks from which he suffered afforded a welcome respite to the whole system, giving it the chance to throw off a large amount of deleterious matter.The present style.There is no comparison between such a process as this and the continued remorseless poisoning from which many people suffer in these days as a result of dietetic mistakes. And this poison finds an easy victim in the constitutions of to-day. These hearty blades of olden times did not impose much strain on their nervous systems. They lived nearer to Nature instead of cooping themselves up in offices and businesses, straining body and mind in the struggle to make a livelihood or a fortune. All the more reason why we should take infinitely more care in regard to our diet nowadays than our ancestors did.At a dinner party some years ago one of the guests was a sallow, dyspeptic-looking individual,of a melancholy cast of countenance, and with nerves written in large characters all over him. In fact, the state of his nerves constituted the chief part of his conversation, to the utter boredom of the lady he had taken in to dinner.It appeared that he was always tired and depressed, and could not make out why it was. He had taken tonics and gone for holidays to various health resorts, but had gained not the slightest benefit.He might have obtained some glimmering of the truth if he had placed a mirror in front of him as he dined, or even if he had only stopped to think. For he ate rapidly, almost ravenously, of every course that was set before him, bolting it down with scarcely any attempt at mastication, which the present style of preparing food renders only too easy. “He was bound to make a good dinner,” he said, as his business was of such an arduous and worrying nature that he rarely had time to get any lunch. At the conclusion of the meal he apologised for taking out of his pocket a box of digestive tablets. He was forced to have them, he explained, as he was a martyr to dyspepsia.Yet ten years before this man had been a strong, healthy athlete. Now he had become a wreck, and his life was a burden to him. Not only was he incapable of doing his work properly or of enjoying his pleasures, but he lived in a constant dread of a nervous breakdown. And the probability is that unless he has reformed his ways of eating that catastrophe has happened to him ere this.

Punctuality.

Punctuality at meals is absolutely essential for the maintenance of good health. The stomach gets into the habit of secreting its digestive juices at certain times, as meals fall due. If it does not meet with the food it has come to act upon, it will seize upon the stomach wall and cause pain and a nauseous sense of sinking. And these sensations will probably be followed by a headache, for the gastric juice, which is one of our vital agents, is nothing less than an irritant poison if it has no work to do. It is like a man loitering about an office or workshop when trade is slack. He has gone there to work, and when he finds nothing to do except to hang around and put in time as best he can, he becomes dissatisfied.

More than that, it is only too likely that if this goes on for several days the man will fail to turn up one morning. As there is nothing for him to occupy his time with, he thinks he might as well stay away. And that is exactly what the gastric juice does under similar circumstances. If people have been accustomed to take dinner at one o’clock each day, and for several days in succession turn up an hour late, they will find that they begin to suffer from indigestion. The gastricjuice has got tired of making its appearance at the proper time; as it has been treated with contempt, it takes its revenge by staying away. There is a form of gastric derangement known as Commercial Traveller’s Dyspepsia, which is due solely to the fact that with these members of the community meal-times must be constantly varied, owing to the exigencies of their work, and the vagaries of railway trains.

Of course, it may be necessary at times to make an alteration in a meal hour. When the light summer evenings come, many people prefer to change the hour of the evening meal, in order to enjoy walks or outdoor games. If, however, the new hour is adhered to, the stomach soon learns to adapt itself to the change. It is the constant chopping and changing about from day to day that has such a pernicious effect on the system.

There is another member of the community who is liable to suffer from the consequences of irregularity in regard to the midday meal. It is the woman whose husband cannot get home to lunch, so that she is left to take it alone, unless she has children to cater for. We confess to having less sympathy for her than for the aforesaid commercial traveller, for it is not the fault of the latter that he does not get his meal regularly at its proper time, while in the case of the woman the blame lies entirely with herself. She takes that deadly “something on a tray,” and takes it at any time that suits her convenience. Probably she has had a breakfast of tea and bread and butter. Too often the same fare appears for herlunch. There is little wonder that often she is a martyr to dyspepsia and headache.

Interval between meals.

The question as to the length of the interval between meals is an important one. And here, in particular, individual requirements enter largely. Some people can go for a considerable time without food and feel better for so doing. Others feel sick and unduly tired if they fast too long. It rests with each one to find out what suits them best.

On general principles, however, if an interval is too short there is a likelihood of a certain amount of food being left over still undigested from the last meal. And this interferes with the work of the stomach. Under such circumstances the tongue is liable to be coated with a thick fur, and the individual to suffer from a constant feeling of nausea.

If, however, the interval is too long, the system has become exhausted and the stomach goes on strike. By the time the meal is taken, the supply of gastric fluid has failed. If a long interval between any two meals is unavoidable, as for instance where a man has to have his breakfast at eight and cannot get his lunch until half-past one, it is better to take some light food in the meantime. This prevents the sense of exhaustion, and does not hinder the stomach from doing its work when it is called upon. Otherwise the man is apt to get a headache before he gets his meal, and indigestion after he has taken it.

This is a very different matter from the habitof eating between meals, whether it be in regard to sweets or to heavier articles of diet. There is a form of hunger known as “false.” It comes on an hour or two after meals, and is due to the irritation of undigested food in the stomach. As it is often accompanied by a sensation of sinking, people sometimes take some food, such as beef-tea or strong soup, to keep themselves up, as they term it. The result is confusion worse confounded, and if the process is repeated too frequently serious damage may be inflicted on the digestive organs.

Diet and breakdowns.

I have dealt at considerable length with this question of diet, simply because it has such an important bearing on the subject of breakdowns. There is no single path that leads to breakdowns, the way thither is rather a tangled maze of paths, along which people stumble blindly until they suddenly find themselves at animpasse. Yet the point at which they first left the high road of health consists in most cases of a mistake or series of mistakes in regard to their food and the manner in which they take it.

The old style.

The digestive troubles of the present day are very different from those of a century ago. “The fine old English gentleman, one of the olden style,” consumed an enormous breakfast and a still more enormous dinner, washing down vast quantities of food with great draughts of beer or wine. Every now and then he waslaid up with a stomach-ache or an attack of gout, and for a day or two made the welkin ring with his upbraidings; then he turned up again, as fresh as any young buck, and went on his way rejoicing until the next attack laid him by the heels.

We marvel that he survived to tell the tale. “I should be dead in a week if I did such things,” one of my readers probably remarks. Yes, but the hale old chap led a different sort of life from that which we lead to-day. He spent most of his time in the saddle or in walking about the country-side. Moreover, the food he ate was of such a solid nature that he was bound to chew it well before he could swallow it. And the bilious or gouty attacks from which he suffered afforded a welcome respite to the whole system, giving it the chance to throw off a large amount of deleterious matter.

The present style.

There is no comparison between such a process as this and the continued remorseless poisoning from which many people suffer in these days as a result of dietetic mistakes. And this poison finds an easy victim in the constitutions of to-day. These hearty blades of olden times did not impose much strain on their nervous systems. They lived nearer to Nature instead of cooping themselves up in offices and businesses, straining body and mind in the struggle to make a livelihood or a fortune. All the more reason why we should take infinitely more care in regard to our diet nowadays than our ancestors did.

At a dinner party some years ago one of the guests was a sallow, dyspeptic-looking individual,of a melancholy cast of countenance, and with nerves written in large characters all over him. In fact, the state of his nerves constituted the chief part of his conversation, to the utter boredom of the lady he had taken in to dinner.

It appeared that he was always tired and depressed, and could not make out why it was. He had taken tonics and gone for holidays to various health resorts, but had gained not the slightest benefit.

He might have obtained some glimmering of the truth if he had placed a mirror in front of him as he dined, or even if he had only stopped to think. For he ate rapidly, almost ravenously, of every course that was set before him, bolting it down with scarcely any attempt at mastication, which the present style of preparing food renders only too easy. “He was bound to make a good dinner,” he said, as his business was of such an arduous and worrying nature that he rarely had time to get any lunch. At the conclusion of the meal he apologised for taking out of his pocket a box of digestive tablets. He was forced to have them, he explained, as he was a martyr to dyspepsia.

Yet ten years before this man had been a strong, healthy athlete. Now he had become a wreck, and his life was a burden to him. Not only was he incapable of doing his work properly or of enjoying his pleasures, but he lived in a constant dread of a nervous breakdown. And the probability is that unless he has reformed his ways of eating that catastrophe has happened to him ere this.

CHAPTERXI.FRESH AIR.The very title, “Fresh Air,” conjures up visions of wide-spreading moorlands and foam-flecked seas, of sunny dales and quiet trout-streams, of breezy golf links and bracing mountain-tops; of all the things, in fact, which we are going to revel in when we go for our next holiday.When we go for our next holiday! And what is to happen in the meantime? For fresh air is a daily, we might say an hourly, necessity, not a yearly luxury. The combustion on which the health so largely depends is always going on. The bodily engine never ceases running from the beginning to the end of life. Sometimes it is more active than at others, but even during sleep itself, though the muscles may be relaxed and motionless, the heart is acting, and the lungs must continue to do their work. The machinery of the body is never still, the furnaces are never out. Sometimes they are burning fiercely, at other times with a gentle glow.Yet no matter whether it is one or the other, it is necessary that the processes of combustion should be complete, and the purer the air that reaches the lungs, and the more there is of it, the more effectually will this end be attained.Send a tired, seedy-looking man into the openair for a whole day, and even if he only lies down or lounges about the whole time, you may notice the difference in his looks by the time evening has come. His eyes will be brighter and his complexion clearer, and the dragging sense of heaviness in his limbs will have disappeared. Instead of discomfort and nausea, he will have a good, healthy appetite.Fresh air and the nervous system.As for his nervous system, there will be no comparison. There is no tonic in the whole world for jaded nerves like an abundant supply of pure, fresh air. And if sunshine can be obtained at the same time so much the better, for the effect of direct sunlight on the body is simply remarkable. Some years ago a new form of holiday was started in the shape of trips to the Sahara, for the benefit of those suffering from brain-fag. The success which attended them was due largely to the free supply of sunshine, not merely to the fact of the patients being away from their work and ordinary surroundings. Many of them had tried rest cures elsewhere without any good result. It was only when they spent weeks in some oasis, with the sunlight pouring down on them from morning till night, that their nervous systems recovered themselves.Yet these people should never have had brain-fag if they had only carried out the rules we are about to lay down.Most of us are not in a position to go to the Sahara, but we can get at home, if not such aflood of sunshine, at any rate enough fresh air, in conjunction with other precautions as to diet and so forth, to prevent our systems ever getting into such a state as to make a trip of this sort, with its outlay of time and money, a necessity.Apart from sunshine, fresh air has a potent influence on health. We all pine for fine holidays, and no doubt they do us more good, in addition to being more enjoyable, than wet ones. Yet it is amazing how much better people look after even a rainy holiday at the seaside or country. The rest from the worries of business and so forth has something to do with it, but I firmly believe that half the benefit is due to the fact that when people are on a holiday they spend the greater part of their time in the open air.A friend once remarked to me that he always began to feel nervous and worried as soon as he got back home. He wondered if the district agreed with him. I asked him what sort of life he led when he was in the country. And he replied that he pottered about outside all the time. If it was wet, he put on a mackintosh and went out just the same. Yet he owned up that he never thought of doing such a thing at home.Two men were walking down a street in the West of London on a winter’s afternoon. The one was plodding along wearily with his eyes fixed on the pavement and lines of care on his face. The other held himself erect, walking with easy strides, and looking around with genial eyes that seemed to find an interest in everything they saw. His breezy manner and the glow of health in hischeeks were a marked contrast to the look of weariness and pallor on the face of his companion.Yet these two were brothers, brought up in the same way and under the same conditions. The one had applied himself to the law, finally settling down in London, amazed that his brother should be content to bury himself in the heart of the country.A few hours later they sat down to dinner together, and the lawyer looked with envy at the hearty way in which the country brother ate his food, and the relish with which he seemed able to take anything that was set before him. His own appetite was fickle to the last degree, and even when he ate any of the courses it was with a doleful presentiment as to the effect they would have upon him.It was after midnight before the lawyer could make up his mind to go to bed, and he went with the expectation of a restless night. By that time the other brother was enjoying a deep, untroubled slumber.Six months later you might have seen those two men again walking side by side. This time it was on an August morning amongst the fields and hedgerows. The difference between them was not so marked on this occasion. The lawyer held his head higher, his eyes were brighter, and his cheeks had lost much of their pallor. He did not look down at the ground either, but gazed all around him, and some of the careworn lines had disappeared from his face. He had had three weeks of pure, country air, and had spent mostof it in the open. He was dreading the time, a few days hence, when he would have to return to town.That was not anything out of the common. We have all seen people returning from their holidays looking like that. The surprising part—surprising even to the man himself—was to follow. For during the following winter you might have watched that lawyer stepping out of his office any afternoon, and would have been amazed to notice that he had never lost the improvement which he had gained during his weeks in the country. His dread that he would sink back into the same nervous, dyspeptic state as before had been unfounded.For it was only a few days after he had got back to town that he had been talking to a friend and telling him how much better he had felt after his open-air holiday. And the friend had said, “Then why not keep it up now you are at home?”That remark had set the lawyer thinking, and the force of it had impressed him deeply. So instead of driving to his office each day he had made a habit of covering the three miles on foot, and returning home in the evening in the same way. He had taken every opportunity of having a walk, either along the streets or in the park, and had felt a new man after it. And it was not only his bodily health which had benefited; his nervousness had gone, and he had ceased to worry over his work and all his other affairs. He had found not only fresh air during these walks, but a vast number of other things tointerest him at the same time. And the weather did not seem of nearly the same importance as before. If it was wet, he took a coat and umbrella and trudged through it as contentedly as if he were enjoying bright sunshine. To his surprise, he did not catch cold nearly so often as he had been accustomed to do.Now this man only did what anyone else can do, that is to secure a daily supply of fresh air. There are vast numbers of people who would be different creatures if they would have a walk morning and evening, either before breakfast or their evening meal, or on their way to and from their work.Fresh air in the home.It is of little use, however, to take walks in the fresh air if we come back to badly-ventilated houses. There are some dwellings in which the air always feels dead; there is a staleness about it which offends our nostrils the moment we cross the threshold. The doors and windows are kept closed, and the whole house reeks of the accumulated poison from the lungs of those who have lived beneath its roof.In a north country dale there is a charming cottage, its latticed windows framed in creepers, standing back from the village street. It is the admiration of all beholders, yet its beauty is only the shell that hides a grim tragedy. There were five children in the family, and one by one they died of consumption. And if you examine the pretty latticed windows more closely, you will find the secret of their fell disorder, for notone of those windows, upstairs or down, will open. Those youngsters played in the fresh air, they went to school and returned home in it, but every minute that they spent in the house they were living in a poisoned atmosphere. If there had been no such thing as bedtime, they might have escaped; but it was no wonder that when some tubercle bacilli made their way into that house they found easy victims in the innocent, sleeping forms of those children. For even the fireplace in the bedroom was blocked up with a sack of shavings.An atmosphere of that sort is like a two-edged sword, it cuts both ways. It not only lowers the resisting power of the human body, but also favours the growth of germs. And consumption is not the only complaint to which vitiated air may lead. There are many other forms of ailments which, if not so deadly as this disease, exercise a most pernicious influence on health.Common colds play a far greater havoc with the health of a nation than is usually supposed. For it is not merely the loss of time spent in getting rid of them, but the infinitely more important fact that these chills and catarrhs upset digestion, lower the general health, and lay it open for deadlier enemies to enter. Sometimes colds are of the influenza nature, the result of a germ, which may fix itself in the throat in spite of all precautions. Yet the influenza bacillus itself finds the greatest ally in any catarrh of the nose or throat. We frequently hear people say that they had an ordinary cold which developedinto influenza. It is a perfectly true statement, and if the ordinary cold had not been there first, it is more than probable that the influenza germ would not have had a chance of establishing itself.Nothing causes chills more than hot, stuffy rooms. We often hear people complaining that they took cold when they came out into the night air. Yet it was not the night air which did the mischief, but the poisonous atmosphere in the room itself, due to the accumulated exhalations of many lungs, etc. Had the apartment been well ventilated the so-called chill would never have occurred.Most cases of asthma are the result of a bad atmosphere. The catarrh has extended down from the nose and throat into the bronchial tubes, and set up a spasm which is the source of this distressing malady. No asthmatic can afford to keep his windows closed. Whether by day or night, he needs a liberal supply of fresh air.It is not so much by day that people suffer from the effects of poor ventilating. For then most of us are compelled by the force of circumstances and the exigencies of our work to move about from one place to another, even if it is only from room to room. It is in the evenings, and winter evenings in particular, that the atmosphere of the dwelling-rooms becomes contaminated. The family sits by the fireside, with the windows and door closed, and they never notice how stuffy and close the room is becoming, until someone comes in from the outside air and beseeches them to open the window.Yet they go on sitting in that poisoned air,and one or two of them become drowsy and sit half asleep, with the result that when bedtime comes they have to face a restless night. Others, perhaps, find their heads aching, and attribute it to the fact they are working too hard during the day.But it is only when they go to bed in rooms with the windows closed that the chief harm comes. Considering what a large proportion of our lives we spend in our bedrooms, it is of vital importance that the air should be, if anything, purer than that of the rooms we live in by day. For at night we are not moving about, but lying still, and the air does not get a chance of renewing itself unless the ventilation is efficient. Many people complain that they can scarcely wake up in the mornings, they feel so heavy. Or that when they do rouse themselves they have a headache, which it takes hours to get rid of. All this might be avoided by the use of the open window.The objection to it generally consists in the fact that it makes a draught. There is no necessity for this, however. There are some cranks who have much to account for in regard to this matter. They boast that they can sleep close to a window which is open top and bottom to its fullest extent, and are proud to say that they have waked up in the morning to find that the rain had been coming in and had soaked the bedclothes through and through.There may be a few constitutions which canstand this, but they are certainly in a hopeless minority. The majority of people would find themselves in “Queer Street” if they attempted such folly, for folly it is without a doubt. In one case where a father adopted vigorous methods of this sort with his children it ended in one of them getting an inflammation of the ear, which resulted in incurable deafness.There is reason in all things, ventilation included. And fresh air can be secured without any draught at all. A few inches top and bottom, or only at the top if the weather be very stormy, makes all the difference, either in a sitting-room or a bedroom. Better still is the plan of fixing a block of wood the width of the window frame below the lower sash. That leaves a space between the upper and lower sashes, which ensures a constant supply of fresh air. If this be adopted the atmosphere will always be pure and healthy, even if the window is never opened any farther.It is vastly better to have this constant supply of pure air in small doses than to throw the window open wide after the atmosphere has become hot and unpleasant.Sometimes, however, it happens that in spite of all our efforts we have to breathe air containing some deleterious matter, germs or dust or what ever else it may be. To meet this contingency, Nature has provided a filter of her own. It consists of a network inside the nostrils. That is why it is of such importance to breathe through the nose instead of the mouth. If all childrenwere taught to do this there would be fewer colds and fevers. The nostrils would arrest the unwholesome particles before they had a chance of reaching the tonsils, which are such a suitable soil for their growth.Needless to say, pure air is of greater value when it is inhaled as freely as possible. In order to bring this about, it is necessary to breathe deeply. There are not many people who get the best value out of their lungs. As a rule, respiration is much too light. In order to remedy this defect, breathing exercises are of great value. The way to carry them out is to stand with the hands on the hips and breathe slowly in and out, inwardly counting four each time in a deliberate manner, and expanding the chest to its fullest possible extent.The mistake usually made is to lift the chest with each inspiration. This only raises it, it does not expand it. The proper way is to breathe from the abdomen and lower part of the chest wall. When this is done every part of the lung is filled with air, and this has the great advantage of preventing the air inside the lung spaces from stagnating in any one part, an occurrence which is always prone to lead to the onset of congestion or disease.It does another good turn too, for it inculcates the habit of deep, full breathing. Those who practise for a few minutes each day will soon find themselves expanding their lungs habitually, even when they are not thinking about it.Cleanliness in the house.Yet even if windows and doors are kept open,something more is requisite. For unless a house is scrupulously clean and the rooms regularly turned out, it cannot be healthy. If a piece of machinery is left untouched for some months it will never be as good as it was before. The grease has become foul, whilst dust and dirt have accumulated, and these insidious elements have combined to destroy the quality of the metal. That means that some time or other some bar or joint or nut will crack, and once that has happened the mischief rarely stops there, but goes on to the weakening of other parts and the deterioration of the whole machine.And when human beings live in houses that are not fresh and wholesome they are constantly inhaling dust and fusty smells, which act as a slow, subtle poison and lower the vitality of the various tissues of the body. It is so gradual that they may not notice it, until at last something gives way, and after that the downward tendency becomes comparatively rapid. When the cataclysm occurs, they date it from the day when the first crack, if we may call it so, appeared. Rather should they look back to the long years spent in an unhealthy atmosphere within their own homes.Hygiene in the home.There is no fault, however apparently trivial it may seem, in matters of hygiene which does not add its quota towards the final breakdown of the human machinery. The faulty, leaking gaspipe which causes oft-repeated morning headaches; the choked-up scullery sink, with itsabominable mixture of soap, grease and vegetable washings; the defective drain and pipes; each and all do their evil part in undermining the constitution and rendering it more prone to the onset of disease.There is another aspect of this question to which too little prominence has been given. It is that of tidiness, and its effect on the nervous system. We all know that a tidy desk indicates a methodical, well-regulated mind, and that one which is in a litter is usually the sign of a man whose ideas are confused and jumbled up. Everyone does not realise that the sight of a disorderly room, with waste paper lying on the floor and an unswept hearth, has an irritating effect on the nerves of a man or woman who comes home jaded and tired.We shall have occasion shortly to point out that it is this harassed state which is one of the most potent factors in causing nervous breakdowns. And it is just when the home-comer needs to have everything as smooth as possible to put him or her into a calm and equable frame of mind that their fretted nervous systems are still further irritated by signs of disorder in their homes. Tidiness is more than a mere virtue, it is an indispensable adjunct to health.All who wish to be well, and feel well, and keep well, must seek a free and constant supply of air, and strive to obtain it in all its freshness and purity. They must secure it at all times too, at home and away, indoors and out, summer and winter, day and night. If everyone were to dothis, the effect on the health and welfare of the nation would be incalculable. They will find it no irksome duty, for before long they will acquire a taste, a longing, we might say a craving for it which will make them wonder how they ever managed to live without it.An appetite for fresh air is one of those propensities we can indulge in without any fear of going to excess. We can revel in it, gourmandise on it, smack our lips over it, and the more we get of it the better we shall be.

The very title, “Fresh Air,” conjures up visions of wide-spreading moorlands and foam-flecked seas, of sunny dales and quiet trout-streams, of breezy golf links and bracing mountain-tops; of all the things, in fact, which we are going to revel in when we go for our next holiday.

When we go for our next holiday! And what is to happen in the meantime? For fresh air is a daily, we might say an hourly, necessity, not a yearly luxury. The combustion on which the health so largely depends is always going on. The bodily engine never ceases running from the beginning to the end of life. Sometimes it is more active than at others, but even during sleep itself, though the muscles may be relaxed and motionless, the heart is acting, and the lungs must continue to do their work. The machinery of the body is never still, the furnaces are never out. Sometimes they are burning fiercely, at other times with a gentle glow.

Yet no matter whether it is one or the other, it is necessary that the processes of combustion should be complete, and the purer the air that reaches the lungs, and the more there is of it, the more effectually will this end be attained.

Send a tired, seedy-looking man into the openair for a whole day, and even if he only lies down or lounges about the whole time, you may notice the difference in his looks by the time evening has come. His eyes will be brighter and his complexion clearer, and the dragging sense of heaviness in his limbs will have disappeared. Instead of discomfort and nausea, he will have a good, healthy appetite.

Fresh air and the nervous system.

As for his nervous system, there will be no comparison. There is no tonic in the whole world for jaded nerves like an abundant supply of pure, fresh air. And if sunshine can be obtained at the same time so much the better, for the effect of direct sunlight on the body is simply remarkable. Some years ago a new form of holiday was started in the shape of trips to the Sahara, for the benefit of those suffering from brain-fag. The success which attended them was due largely to the free supply of sunshine, not merely to the fact of the patients being away from their work and ordinary surroundings. Many of them had tried rest cures elsewhere without any good result. It was only when they spent weeks in some oasis, with the sunlight pouring down on them from morning till night, that their nervous systems recovered themselves.

Yet these people should never have had brain-fag if they had only carried out the rules we are about to lay down.

Most of us are not in a position to go to the Sahara, but we can get at home, if not such aflood of sunshine, at any rate enough fresh air, in conjunction with other precautions as to diet and so forth, to prevent our systems ever getting into such a state as to make a trip of this sort, with its outlay of time and money, a necessity.

Apart from sunshine, fresh air has a potent influence on health. We all pine for fine holidays, and no doubt they do us more good, in addition to being more enjoyable, than wet ones. Yet it is amazing how much better people look after even a rainy holiday at the seaside or country. The rest from the worries of business and so forth has something to do with it, but I firmly believe that half the benefit is due to the fact that when people are on a holiday they spend the greater part of their time in the open air.

A friend once remarked to me that he always began to feel nervous and worried as soon as he got back home. He wondered if the district agreed with him. I asked him what sort of life he led when he was in the country. And he replied that he pottered about outside all the time. If it was wet, he put on a mackintosh and went out just the same. Yet he owned up that he never thought of doing such a thing at home.

Two men were walking down a street in the West of London on a winter’s afternoon. The one was plodding along wearily with his eyes fixed on the pavement and lines of care on his face. The other held himself erect, walking with easy strides, and looking around with genial eyes that seemed to find an interest in everything they saw. His breezy manner and the glow of health in hischeeks were a marked contrast to the look of weariness and pallor on the face of his companion.

Yet these two were brothers, brought up in the same way and under the same conditions. The one had applied himself to the law, finally settling down in London, amazed that his brother should be content to bury himself in the heart of the country.

A few hours later they sat down to dinner together, and the lawyer looked with envy at the hearty way in which the country brother ate his food, and the relish with which he seemed able to take anything that was set before him. His own appetite was fickle to the last degree, and even when he ate any of the courses it was with a doleful presentiment as to the effect they would have upon him.

It was after midnight before the lawyer could make up his mind to go to bed, and he went with the expectation of a restless night. By that time the other brother was enjoying a deep, untroubled slumber.

Six months later you might have seen those two men again walking side by side. This time it was on an August morning amongst the fields and hedgerows. The difference between them was not so marked on this occasion. The lawyer held his head higher, his eyes were brighter, and his cheeks had lost much of their pallor. He did not look down at the ground either, but gazed all around him, and some of the careworn lines had disappeared from his face. He had had three weeks of pure, country air, and had spent mostof it in the open. He was dreading the time, a few days hence, when he would have to return to town.

That was not anything out of the common. We have all seen people returning from their holidays looking like that. The surprising part—surprising even to the man himself—was to follow. For during the following winter you might have watched that lawyer stepping out of his office any afternoon, and would have been amazed to notice that he had never lost the improvement which he had gained during his weeks in the country. His dread that he would sink back into the same nervous, dyspeptic state as before had been unfounded.

For it was only a few days after he had got back to town that he had been talking to a friend and telling him how much better he had felt after his open-air holiday. And the friend had said, “Then why not keep it up now you are at home?”

That remark had set the lawyer thinking, and the force of it had impressed him deeply. So instead of driving to his office each day he had made a habit of covering the three miles on foot, and returning home in the evening in the same way. He had taken every opportunity of having a walk, either along the streets or in the park, and had felt a new man after it. And it was not only his bodily health which had benefited; his nervousness had gone, and he had ceased to worry over his work and all his other affairs. He had found not only fresh air during these walks, but a vast number of other things tointerest him at the same time. And the weather did not seem of nearly the same importance as before. If it was wet, he took a coat and umbrella and trudged through it as contentedly as if he were enjoying bright sunshine. To his surprise, he did not catch cold nearly so often as he had been accustomed to do.

Now this man only did what anyone else can do, that is to secure a daily supply of fresh air. There are vast numbers of people who would be different creatures if they would have a walk morning and evening, either before breakfast or their evening meal, or on their way to and from their work.

Fresh air in the home.

It is of little use, however, to take walks in the fresh air if we come back to badly-ventilated houses. There are some dwellings in which the air always feels dead; there is a staleness about it which offends our nostrils the moment we cross the threshold. The doors and windows are kept closed, and the whole house reeks of the accumulated poison from the lungs of those who have lived beneath its roof.

In a north country dale there is a charming cottage, its latticed windows framed in creepers, standing back from the village street. It is the admiration of all beholders, yet its beauty is only the shell that hides a grim tragedy. There were five children in the family, and one by one they died of consumption. And if you examine the pretty latticed windows more closely, you will find the secret of their fell disorder, for notone of those windows, upstairs or down, will open. Those youngsters played in the fresh air, they went to school and returned home in it, but every minute that they spent in the house they were living in a poisoned atmosphere. If there had been no such thing as bedtime, they might have escaped; but it was no wonder that when some tubercle bacilli made their way into that house they found easy victims in the innocent, sleeping forms of those children. For even the fireplace in the bedroom was blocked up with a sack of shavings.

An atmosphere of that sort is like a two-edged sword, it cuts both ways. It not only lowers the resisting power of the human body, but also favours the growth of germs. And consumption is not the only complaint to which vitiated air may lead. There are many other forms of ailments which, if not so deadly as this disease, exercise a most pernicious influence on health.

Common colds play a far greater havoc with the health of a nation than is usually supposed. For it is not merely the loss of time spent in getting rid of them, but the infinitely more important fact that these chills and catarrhs upset digestion, lower the general health, and lay it open for deadlier enemies to enter. Sometimes colds are of the influenza nature, the result of a germ, which may fix itself in the throat in spite of all precautions. Yet the influenza bacillus itself finds the greatest ally in any catarrh of the nose or throat. We frequently hear people say that they had an ordinary cold which developedinto influenza. It is a perfectly true statement, and if the ordinary cold had not been there first, it is more than probable that the influenza germ would not have had a chance of establishing itself.

Nothing causes chills more than hot, stuffy rooms. We often hear people complaining that they took cold when they came out into the night air. Yet it was not the night air which did the mischief, but the poisonous atmosphere in the room itself, due to the accumulated exhalations of many lungs, etc. Had the apartment been well ventilated the so-called chill would never have occurred.

Most cases of asthma are the result of a bad atmosphere. The catarrh has extended down from the nose and throat into the bronchial tubes, and set up a spasm which is the source of this distressing malady. No asthmatic can afford to keep his windows closed. Whether by day or night, he needs a liberal supply of fresh air.

It is not so much by day that people suffer from the effects of poor ventilating. For then most of us are compelled by the force of circumstances and the exigencies of our work to move about from one place to another, even if it is only from room to room. It is in the evenings, and winter evenings in particular, that the atmosphere of the dwelling-rooms becomes contaminated. The family sits by the fireside, with the windows and door closed, and they never notice how stuffy and close the room is becoming, until someone comes in from the outside air and beseeches them to open the window.

Yet they go on sitting in that poisoned air,and one or two of them become drowsy and sit half asleep, with the result that when bedtime comes they have to face a restless night. Others, perhaps, find their heads aching, and attribute it to the fact they are working too hard during the day.

But it is only when they go to bed in rooms with the windows closed that the chief harm comes. Considering what a large proportion of our lives we spend in our bedrooms, it is of vital importance that the air should be, if anything, purer than that of the rooms we live in by day. For at night we are not moving about, but lying still, and the air does not get a chance of renewing itself unless the ventilation is efficient. Many people complain that they can scarcely wake up in the mornings, they feel so heavy. Or that when they do rouse themselves they have a headache, which it takes hours to get rid of. All this might be avoided by the use of the open window.

The objection to it generally consists in the fact that it makes a draught. There is no necessity for this, however. There are some cranks who have much to account for in regard to this matter. They boast that they can sleep close to a window which is open top and bottom to its fullest extent, and are proud to say that they have waked up in the morning to find that the rain had been coming in and had soaked the bedclothes through and through.

There may be a few constitutions which canstand this, but they are certainly in a hopeless minority. The majority of people would find themselves in “Queer Street” if they attempted such folly, for folly it is without a doubt. In one case where a father adopted vigorous methods of this sort with his children it ended in one of them getting an inflammation of the ear, which resulted in incurable deafness.

There is reason in all things, ventilation included. And fresh air can be secured without any draught at all. A few inches top and bottom, or only at the top if the weather be very stormy, makes all the difference, either in a sitting-room or a bedroom. Better still is the plan of fixing a block of wood the width of the window frame below the lower sash. That leaves a space between the upper and lower sashes, which ensures a constant supply of fresh air. If this be adopted the atmosphere will always be pure and healthy, even if the window is never opened any farther.

It is vastly better to have this constant supply of pure air in small doses than to throw the window open wide after the atmosphere has become hot and unpleasant.

Sometimes, however, it happens that in spite of all our efforts we have to breathe air containing some deleterious matter, germs or dust or what ever else it may be. To meet this contingency, Nature has provided a filter of her own. It consists of a network inside the nostrils. That is why it is of such importance to breathe through the nose instead of the mouth. If all childrenwere taught to do this there would be fewer colds and fevers. The nostrils would arrest the unwholesome particles before they had a chance of reaching the tonsils, which are such a suitable soil for their growth.

Needless to say, pure air is of greater value when it is inhaled as freely as possible. In order to bring this about, it is necessary to breathe deeply. There are not many people who get the best value out of their lungs. As a rule, respiration is much too light. In order to remedy this defect, breathing exercises are of great value. The way to carry them out is to stand with the hands on the hips and breathe slowly in and out, inwardly counting four each time in a deliberate manner, and expanding the chest to its fullest possible extent.

The mistake usually made is to lift the chest with each inspiration. This only raises it, it does not expand it. The proper way is to breathe from the abdomen and lower part of the chest wall. When this is done every part of the lung is filled with air, and this has the great advantage of preventing the air inside the lung spaces from stagnating in any one part, an occurrence which is always prone to lead to the onset of congestion or disease.

It does another good turn too, for it inculcates the habit of deep, full breathing. Those who practise for a few minutes each day will soon find themselves expanding their lungs habitually, even when they are not thinking about it.

Cleanliness in the house.

Yet even if windows and doors are kept open,something more is requisite. For unless a house is scrupulously clean and the rooms regularly turned out, it cannot be healthy. If a piece of machinery is left untouched for some months it will never be as good as it was before. The grease has become foul, whilst dust and dirt have accumulated, and these insidious elements have combined to destroy the quality of the metal. That means that some time or other some bar or joint or nut will crack, and once that has happened the mischief rarely stops there, but goes on to the weakening of other parts and the deterioration of the whole machine.

And when human beings live in houses that are not fresh and wholesome they are constantly inhaling dust and fusty smells, which act as a slow, subtle poison and lower the vitality of the various tissues of the body. It is so gradual that they may not notice it, until at last something gives way, and after that the downward tendency becomes comparatively rapid. When the cataclysm occurs, they date it from the day when the first crack, if we may call it so, appeared. Rather should they look back to the long years spent in an unhealthy atmosphere within their own homes.

Hygiene in the home.

There is no fault, however apparently trivial it may seem, in matters of hygiene which does not add its quota towards the final breakdown of the human machinery. The faulty, leaking gaspipe which causes oft-repeated morning headaches; the choked-up scullery sink, with itsabominable mixture of soap, grease and vegetable washings; the defective drain and pipes; each and all do their evil part in undermining the constitution and rendering it more prone to the onset of disease.

There is another aspect of this question to which too little prominence has been given. It is that of tidiness, and its effect on the nervous system. We all know that a tidy desk indicates a methodical, well-regulated mind, and that one which is in a litter is usually the sign of a man whose ideas are confused and jumbled up. Everyone does not realise that the sight of a disorderly room, with waste paper lying on the floor and an unswept hearth, has an irritating effect on the nerves of a man or woman who comes home jaded and tired.

We shall have occasion shortly to point out that it is this harassed state which is one of the most potent factors in causing nervous breakdowns. And it is just when the home-comer needs to have everything as smooth as possible to put him or her into a calm and equable frame of mind that their fretted nervous systems are still further irritated by signs of disorder in their homes. Tidiness is more than a mere virtue, it is an indispensable adjunct to health.

All who wish to be well, and feel well, and keep well, must seek a free and constant supply of air, and strive to obtain it in all its freshness and purity. They must secure it at all times too, at home and away, indoors and out, summer and winter, day and night. If everyone were to dothis, the effect on the health and welfare of the nation would be incalculable. They will find it no irksome duty, for before long they will acquire a taste, a longing, we might say a craving for it which will make them wonder how they ever managed to live without it.

An appetite for fresh air is one of those propensities we can indulge in without any fear of going to excess. We can revel in it, gourmandise on it, smack our lips over it, and the more we get of it the better we shall be.

CHAPTERXII.EXERCISE.Several men were riding home together in a tramcar on their way from business, and were discussing their health, as so many people do nowadays. They were all looking tired and depressed, and on comparing notes found that they were all suffering from the same complaint, “nervous exhaustion due to overwork.” At least, that is what they called it. They were tired when they went to bed, and just as tired when they got up in the morning, and had no energy for their day’s work. Why the latter should have proved too much for them was a mystery, as their hours were not long by any means, and they were all in the prime of life.As a matter of fact, they were not suffering from nervous exhaustion at all, but from poisoning, the result of a sedentary occupation and want of exercise. These men had an excess of waste products in their system, retarding their digestions and clogging their energies.Exercise at middle age.It is particularly at or just before middle age that the want of exercise so frequently manifests itself. Most people keep up their games or their walking until the age of thirty or forty. It is after that stage that they tend to settle down and take things easily. If they would onlyreduce their diet at the same time little harm might accrue, but unfortunately in many instances, as we have already pointed out, they begin to eat more instead of less. The result is that we are confronted with the problem of increased intake and diminished output. We often see men of strong physique who have given up games and reduced their walking to a minimum, and have become moody and irritable, sleepless and depressed.This is because their systems have become loaded with a superfluity of waste matter. And the latter not only makes them headachy and tired, but if the accumulation is allowed to go on unchecked, it deranges the vital organs, the kidneys particularly, and before long may actually set up organic disease. After that the strain on the whole bodily functions becomes greater and greater, until the breaking-point is reached. For as people grow older their organs have less power of throwing off waste material, and become less able to support one another when any weakness appears.These breakdowns are the most liable to occur in the case of athletes who have been accustomed to severe and active exercise all their lives. In them the system seems to have learned to depend, even more than in the case of other people, upon hard exercise to keep it in good condition. And when men of this type drop it too suddenly, the results are disastrous. Yet that is what so many of them tend to do. They are unable any longer to indulge in the violent games and training towhich they have been accustomed, and they will not “lower themselves,” as I have heard it expressed, to take part in milder forms of recreation. Sometimes they even become too lazy to walk.Of course, no man can be expected to keep up his running, or take part in boat races, or practise putting the weight after he has passed a certain age. Nor would it be good for him to do so. Once he has passed thirty he must begin to take things a bit more slowly, and avoid taking part in athletic contests. For racing in any form involves a mental as well as a physical strain, and few men beyond that age can stand the stress of the two combined.Yet if he cannot race he can still row or run or whatever else it may be. Later on he may have to give these up also, and take to quieter forms of exercise. The secret lies in the gradual dropping off. And no man need complain, for there are plenty of outdoor games suited to every age and every constitution.Value of exercise.The great point is that everyone, men and women alike, must have exercise of some kind or other. For most of the vital of processes of the body depend upon it. It is the chief agent in burning up the waste matter in the system, reducing it to such a form as is most easily excreted by the different organs. It also keeps this waste on the move, and so brings it more freely into contact with those organs. Furthermore, it stimulates the action of the heart and lungs, and so invigorates the circulation, andsupplies the respiratory tract with a more liberal allowance of oxygen.Then, freed from the incubus of the presence of this poisonous matter, the digestion improves, and the nervous system regains its wonted vigour once more.Regularity.To be efficient, exercise must be steady and regular. A long tramp or a violent burst of tennis or some other game once a week can never make up for days of comparative inaction. More than that, it is almost dangerous. The waste products have meanwhile accumulated to such an extent that, if they are suddenly stirred up, they are apt to produce a severe headache or a bilious attack. People are often puzzled and discouraged when after a long walk on a Saturday afternoon they feel so done up as to be unfit for anything for the next twenty hours.The exercise should be daily, so that the waste matter is eliminated regularly. To realise the difference between this method and the one we have just been discussing, notice the effect of dusting a room once a week compared with doing it each day. It is the difference between an almost imperceptible quantity of dust and a cloud that fills the room and threatens to choke you.Violent exercise and cramp.There is one result of irregular exercise that needs to be referred to here. It is cramp. This painful complaint is due to a deposit of waste matter in some muscle, which it causes to contract violently owing to the local irritation set up. It is liable to occurafter hard or prolonged exercise of any sort, especially in those who only take it now and then. Sometimes, however, it is found in those who never take part in games, as in elderly people, for instance. In this case it is often due to the habit of walking beyond the ordinary pace. There are some temperaments which never allow their possessors to walk quietly, even though age or some infirmity demands it, and such persons are very liable to wake up at night suffering from cramp.The treatment is to avoid too violent exercise or to walk in a more leisurely fashion, as the case may be. When it has come on, the remedy is to rub the affected part vigorously, or put it into hot water if such is available.Outdoor exercise.Exercise, like all other indispensable things in this world, needs to be carried out with discretion. Because a lusty young fellow of twenty finds that a hard game, such as football, once a week, in addition to steady daily exercise, suits him, it does not follow that it is going to be of benefit for a man of forty. It is an important point in selecting a game to choose a suitable one. Golf is often advocated as the ideal recreation for middle-aged men. Yet one has known of cases where a round of golf left a man jaded and tired, but a game of bowls or tennis did him a world of good. The one might require as much as the other, but for some unknown reason it was better adapted to the needs of the individual in question. At the risk of offending every golfer in the country—and that is about every other man you meet—I have no hesitation in saying that even if a man does not play it he may be “a man for a’ that.” And if it only worries and tires, instead of refreshing him, he is vastly better advised to leave it off, and take to something that suits him better and is more in accordance with his feelings.Half an hour a day spent in walking, cycling or playing some outdoor game is sufficient to keep the whole system in good working order.Games have the advantage of adding the stimulus of competition and complete change of thought, but there is no better exercise than that of walking. And after all the change of thought can be obtained equally well at the same time, if people have some outdoor hobby, as botany or natural history. It also provides change of scene, which is a fine mental tonic in itself.The ideal form of recreation is to cycle to some spot, leave your machine there, and set out for a walk. By such means you get far away from your ordinary surroundings, and also receive the benefit of the pure air of the meadow or the mountain-top.The pavement walk.There are many people, however, who live in towns, and, in winter especially, cannot reach green fields or hills except when on a holiday. There are wet days too on which a country walk is hardly possible or even desirable, on account of the state of the roads. Yet there is another form of walking which is of great value under such circumstances. It iswhat we may term the “pavement tramp.” An hour’s brisk walk of this sort is an invaluable boon to town-dwellers on a dull day or a wintry night, when circumstances stand in the way of any other form of exercise.At times even the state of the pavements, as in snowy weather, may render this impossible. In that case, if you are feeling stale and unprofitable, and longing for some active exercise, you may obtain it by walking briskly up and down the stairs. The servants will think you have gone mad, but as they probably think that already, this fact need not deter you from this form of invigoration.On starting exercise.When people who have previously neglected exercise start to take it, they are often met with one difficulty. They complain that after they have walked for a mile or so they are too tired to go any farther, and when they return home they do not feel refreshed but rather the opposite. Under these circumstances we need not hesitate to assure them that if they will but persevere, this feeling of fatigue will pass off, and a sense of enjoyment and lightness take its place. Once they have experienced the truth of this they are ready to continue the daily walk and exercises, and soon begin to wonder how they ever managed to live without them.This acute fatigue is due to the stirring up of the waste matter in the system. If, however, they force themselves to keep on walking quietly, the exercise itself will help to eliminate theseundesirable elements, and so fulfil its most important function.This question of exercise calls for special mention in the case of women of the middle and upper classes. Too often their exercise for the day consists in shopping or paying calls, neither of which are conducive to health. The constantly recurring headaches from which many women of this type suffer might be cured, along with the observance of the other rules of health, by the observance of a daily walk and gentle exercises within their own homes.Indoor exercise.Indoor exercise is the department in which so many people go wrong. A young man is convinced of the necessity of keeping himself fit, and the way in which as a rule he sets about it is to practise with a pair of heavy dumb-bells before breakfast, or else to buy a developer and use it, for the purpose of getting his muscles up.Now Mr. Sandow himself has always been the first to warn people against the abuse or over-use of the developer, and against practising with heavy dumb-bells. I was once amazed to hear that great authority say that he could keep his muscles in perfect condition with two-pound dumb-bells. Little wonder, therefore, that men of ordinary physique find themselves, after a quarter of an hour with seven-pound ones, stale and tired for the remainder of the day.We have to bear in mind that the most important muscle in the body is the heart.Cases are not uncommon in which young fellows have developed their limb-muscles at the expense of this vital organ, with the result that they have been more or less incapacitated ever afterwards. It may be very delightful to possess a biceps twice as large as your neighbour’s, but beyond the gratification of contracting it for their approval there is nothing to be gained, unless you are going to be a navvy, that is to say. And that is not likely to be the case with any of my readers, for navvies are not in the habit of perusing books on health. They do not need to do so.If a man needs certain muscles specially strong for his work, his work will develop them for him. Otherwise they are of little use to him, and he had better conduct his exercises on a sounder principle.Object of exercise.The main object of physical exercise is to keep the whole body fit. In choosing suitable ones, therefore, it is necessary to select those which call upon all the muscles of the body without any undue strain upon any particular set. If any one group is over-used there will come a time when they will begin to waste away. It is well known that in certain occupations which throw great strain upon any one part, such as the arms in the case of porters, who have to be lifting heavy loads constantly, the muscles of these regions enlarge enormously at first, but often degenerate after a time, until at last the limbs in question may be reduced almost to skin and bone.Swedish exercises.The best form of exercises for purposes ofgeneral health are those known as Swedish. No dumb-bells are required, though many people find it easier to practise them if they have a piece of wood in each hand. The number of systems included in this category is legion, and people are often perplexed to know which one to choose. Some friend recommends one set, then another comes along and says that he has derived great benefit from a different set, and a third strongly advocates some other. The fact is there is no advantage in any one over the rest. All are equally efficacious; the great point is to do exercises of some sort. You can easily plan out a set of your own, which will do quite as well as any other.Whichever are chosen, it is well to do them gently at first, and for a short time only, gradually increasing them as you become more accustomed to the movements.A good selection to start with is as follows. Stretch out the arms in front, with the finger-tips touching those of the opposite hand. Swing them slowly backwards as far as they will go. Stretch them out again in the same way, and try to touch the toes, keeping the knees straight. Place the hands on the waist and bend the body forwards as far as possible and also from side to side. Lie on the floor and raise the body without the aid of the hands and with the knees stiff. Stand erect and raise one leg slowly, balancing on the other foot.A few simple exercises such as these are quite sufficient to keep the whole system in goodorder. Complicated or difficult ones are never necessary. The one great point, more important than all else, is to attend carefully to the breathing while making the movements. Take deep, slow breaths, expanding the chest fully and exhale slowly, always breathing through the nose. If you get out of breath you are either doing the exercises wrongly or breathing in an incorrect manner.In addition to the above, you can devise fresh ones as you go along. A good plan is to take each joint in turn, and exercise it. Thus, start with the fingers, clasping and unclasping the hand. Then clench the fist and move the wrist up and down. Do the same with the elbow and shoulder, and with the different joints of the lower extremities. Then bend the body backwards and forwards, and the head in the same way. After all that, there will be few muscles in the whole body that have not received their due attention.The value and the enjoyment of these exercises can be increased very much by getting other people to join you in them. It is easier to persevere with anything if we have the society of others to encourage us. There is a spirit of emulation introduced which is always conducive to success.Imitation of games.If you are so fortunate as to have an empty room or shed, there is nothing better than to practise an imitation of some outdoor game, such as playing tennis against a wall. There is a zest about such exercises which makes them more profitable than those which arecarried on merely from a sense of duty. One of the finest forms of exercise is that of skipping, both for men and women. The former need not look upon it as a feminine pursuit, seeing that some of the best-known athletes and boxers employ it as a means of training.It is simply astonishing what a difference exercise, either outdoor or indoor, makes to those who carry it out systematically. After a few weeks pale, languid people begin to acquire a healthy colour and a sense of vigour they have never known for years; dyspeptic ones may forget that they ever had a stomach; whilst headaches that have been a curse for years are sometimes seen to disappear like magic. Life becomes brighter, for health and happiness go together, and the whole outlook becomes more cheering.Massage.All these are active forms of exercise, but there is another sort which needs mention, viz. the passive, or massage, as it is termed. Some people either through general weakness or some infirmity are unable to take exercise for themselves, and in such cases massage is of great benefit, acting in the same way, but without any exertion on the part of the patient. The full consideration of this subject would need a volume of its own, and this is hardly the place to discuss it in greater detail. One important fact, however, requires mention. It is imperative that a prolonged rest of an hour or two at least should be allowed after each rubbing. One hour of massage is equivalent to several hours of active movement.

Several men were riding home together in a tramcar on their way from business, and were discussing their health, as so many people do nowadays. They were all looking tired and depressed, and on comparing notes found that they were all suffering from the same complaint, “nervous exhaustion due to overwork.” At least, that is what they called it. They were tired when they went to bed, and just as tired when they got up in the morning, and had no energy for their day’s work. Why the latter should have proved too much for them was a mystery, as their hours were not long by any means, and they were all in the prime of life.

As a matter of fact, they were not suffering from nervous exhaustion at all, but from poisoning, the result of a sedentary occupation and want of exercise. These men had an excess of waste products in their system, retarding their digestions and clogging their energies.

Exercise at middle age.

It is particularly at or just before middle age that the want of exercise so frequently manifests itself. Most people keep up their games or their walking until the age of thirty or forty. It is after that stage that they tend to settle down and take things easily. If they would onlyreduce their diet at the same time little harm might accrue, but unfortunately in many instances, as we have already pointed out, they begin to eat more instead of less. The result is that we are confronted with the problem of increased intake and diminished output. We often see men of strong physique who have given up games and reduced their walking to a minimum, and have become moody and irritable, sleepless and depressed.

This is because their systems have become loaded with a superfluity of waste matter. And the latter not only makes them headachy and tired, but if the accumulation is allowed to go on unchecked, it deranges the vital organs, the kidneys particularly, and before long may actually set up organic disease. After that the strain on the whole bodily functions becomes greater and greater, until the breaking-point is reached. For as people grow older their organs have less power of throwing off waste material, and become less able to support one another when any weakness appears.

These breakdowns are the most liable to occur in the case of athletes who have been accustomed to severe and active exercise all their lives. In them the system seems to have learned to depend, even more than in the case of other people, upon hard exercise to keep it in good condition. And when men of this type drop it too suddenly, the results are disastrous. Yet that is what so many of them tend to do. They are unable any longer to indulge in the violent games and training towhich they have been accustomed, and they will not “lower themselves,” as I have heard it expressed, to take part in milder forms of recreation. Sometimes they even become too lazy to walk.

Of course, no man can be expected to keep up his running, or take part in boat races, or practise putting the weight after he has passed a certain age. Nor would it be good for him to do so. Once he has passed thirty he must begin to take things a bit more slowly, and avoid taking part in athletic contests. For racing in any form involves a mental as well as a physical strain, and few men beyond that age can stand the stress of the two combined.

Yet if he cannot race he can still row or run or whatever else it may be. Later on he may have to give these up also, and take to quieter forms of exercise. The secret lies in the gradual dropping off. And no man need complain, for there are plenty of outdoor games suited to every age and every constitution.

Value of exercise.

The great point is that everyone, men and women alike, must have exercise of some kind or other. For most of the vital of processes of the body depend upon it. It is the chief agent in burning up the waste matter in the system, reducing it to such a form as is most easily excreted by the different organs. It also keeps this waste on the move, and so brings it more freely into contact with those organs. Furthermore, it stimulates the action of the heart and lungs, and so invigorates the circulation, andsupplies the respiratory tract with a more liberal allowance of oxygen.

Then, freed from the incubus of the presence of this poisonous matter, the digestion improves, and the nervous system regains its wonted vigour once more.

Regularity.

To be efficient, exercise must be steady and regular. A long tramp or a violent burst of tennis or some other game once a week can never make up for days of comparative inaction. More than that, it is almost dangerous. The waste products have meanwhile accumulated to such an extent that, if they are suddenly stirred up, they are apt to produce a severe headache or a bilious attack. People are often puzzled and discouraged when after a long walk on a Saturday afternoon they feel so done up as to be unfit for anything for the next twenty hours.

The exercise should be daily, so that the waste matter is eliminated regularly. To realise the difference between this method and the one we have just been discussing, notice the effect of dusting a room once a week compared with doing it each day. It is the difference between an almost imperceptible quantity of dust and a cloud that fills the room and threatens to choke you.

Violent exercise and cramp.

There is one result of irregular exercise that needs to be referred to here. It is cramp. This painful complaint is due to a deposit of waste matter in some muscle, which it causes to contract violently owing to the local irritation set up. It is liable to occurafter hard or prolonged exercise of any sort, especially in those who only take it now and then. Sometimes, however, it is found in those who never take part in games, as in elderly people, for instance. In this case it is often due to the habit of walking beyond the ordinary pace. There are some temperaments which never allow their possessors to walk quietly, even though age or some infirmity demands it, and such persons are very liable to wake up at night suffering from cramp.

The treatment is to avoid too violent exercise or to walk in a more leisurely fashion, as the case may be. When it has come on, the remedy is to rub the affected part vigorously, or put it into hot water if such is available.

Outdoor exercise.

Exercise, like all other indispensable things in this world, needs to be carried out with discretion. Because a lusty young fellow of twenty finds that a hard game, such as football, once a week, in addition to steady daily exercise, suits him, it does not follow that it is going to be of benefit for a man of forty. It is an important point in selecting a game to choose a suitable one. Golf is often advocated as the ideal recreation for middle-aged men. Yet one has known of cases where a round of golf left a man jaded and tired, but a game of bowls or tennis did him a world of good. The one might require as much as the other, but for some unknown reason it was better adapted to the needs of the individual in question. At the risk of offending every golfer in the country—and that is about every other man you meet—I have no hesitation in saying that even if a man does not play it he may be “a man for a’ that.” And if it only worries and tires, instead of refreshing him, he is vastly better advised to leave it off, and take to something that suits him better and is more in accordance with his feelings.

Half an hour a day spent in walking, cycling or playing some outdoor game is sufficient to keep the whole system in good working order.

Games have the advantage of adding the stimulus of competition and complete change of thought, but there is no better exercise than that of walking. And after all the change of thought can be obtained equally well at the same time, if people have some outdoor hobby, as botany or natural history. It also provides change of scene, which is a fine mental tonic in itself.

The ideal form of recreation is to cycle to some spot, leave your machine there, and set out for a walk. By such means you get far away from your ordinary surroundings, and also receive the benefit of the pure air of the meadow or the mountain-top.

The pavement walk.

There are many people, however, who live in towns, and, in winter especially, cannot reach green fields or hills except when on a holiday. There are wet days too on which a country walk is hardly possible or even desirable, on account of the state of the roads. Yet there is another form of walking which is of great value under such circumstances. It iswhat we may term the “pavement tramp.” An hour’s brisk walk of this sort is an invaluable boon to town-dwellers on a dull day or a wintry night, when circumstances stand in the way of any other form of exercise.

At times even the state of the pavements, as in snowy weather, may render this impossible. In that case, if you are feeling stale and unprofitable, and longing for some active exercise, you may obtain it by walking briskly up and down the stairs. The servants will think you have gone mad, but as they probably think that already, this fact need not deter you from this form of invigoration.

On starting exercise.

When people who have previously neglected exercise start to take it, they are often met with one difficulty. They complain that after they have walked for a mile or so they are too tired to go any farther, and when they return home they do not feel refreshed but rather the opposite. Under these circumstances we need not hesitate to assure them that if they will but persevere, this feeling of fatigue will pass off, and a sense of enjoyment and lightness take its place. Once they have experienced the truth of this they are ready to continue the daily walk and exercises, and soon begin to wonder how they ever managed to live without them.

This acute fatigue is due to the stirring up of the waste matter in the system. If, however, they force themselves to keep on walking quietly, the exercise itself will help to eliminate theseundesirable elements, and so fulfil its most important function.

This question of exercise calls for special mention in the case of women of the middle and upper classes. Too often their exercise for the day consists in shopping or paying calls, neither of which are conducive to health. The constantly recurring headaches from which many women of this type suffer might be cured, along with the observance of the other rules of health, by the observance of a daily walk and gentle exercises within their own homes.

Indoor exercise.

Indoor exercise is the department in which so many people go wrong. A young man is convinced of the necessity of keeping himself fit, and the way in which as a rule he sets about it is to practise with a pair of heavy dumb-bells before breakfast, or else to buy a developer and use it, for the purpose of getting his muscles up.

Now Mr. Sandow himself has always been the first to warn people against the abuse or over-use of the developer, and against practising with heavy dumb-bells. I was once amazed to hear that great authority say that he could keep his muscles in perfect condition with two-pound dumb-bells. Little wonder, therefore, that men of ordinary physique find themselves, after a quarter of an hour with seven-pound ones, stale and tired for the remainder of the day.

We have to bear in mind that the most important muscle in the body is the heart.Cases are not uncommon in which young fellows have developed their limb-muscles at the expense of this vital organ, with the result that they have been more or less incapacitated ever afterwards. It may be very delightful to possess a biceps twice as large as your neighbour’s, but beyond the gratification of contracting it for their approval there is nothing to be gained, unless you are going to be a navvy, that is to say. And that is not likely to be the case with any of my readers, for navvies are not in the habit of perusing books on health. They do not need to do so.

If a man needs certain muscles specially strong for his work, his work will develop them for him. Otherwise they are of little use to him, and he had better conduct his exercises on a sounder principle.

Object of exercise.

The main object of physical exercise is to keep the whole body fit. In choosing suitable ones, therefore, it is necessary to select those which call upon all the muscles of the body without any undue strain upon any particular set. If any one group is over-used there will come a time when they will begin to waste away. It is well known that in certain occupations which throw great strain upon any one part, such as the arms in the case of porters, who have to be lifting heavy loads constantly, the muscles of these regions enlarge enormously at first, but often degenerate after a time, until at last the limbs in question may be reduced almost to skin and bone.

Swedish exercises.

The best form of exercises for purposes ofgeneral health are those known as Swedish. No dumb-bells are required, though many people find it easier to practise them if they have a piece of wood in each hand. The number of systems included in this category is legion, and people are often perplexed to know which one to choose. Some friend recommends one set, then another comes along and says that he has derived great benefit from a different set, and a third strongly advocates some other. The fact is there is no advantage in any one over the rest. All are equally efficacious; the great point is to do exercises of some sort. You can easily plan out a set of your own, which will do quite as well as any other.

Whichever are chosen, it is well to do them gently at first, and for a short time only, gradually increasing them as you become more accustomed to the movements.

A good selection to start with is as follows. Stretch out the arms in front, with the finger-tips touching those of the opposite hand. Swing them slowly backwards as far as they will go. Stretch them out again in the same way, and try to touch the toes, keeping the knees straight. Place the hands on the waist and bend the body forwards as far as possible and also from side to side. Lie on the floor and raise the body without the aid of the hands and with the knees stiff. Stand erect and raise one leg slowly, balancing on the other foot.

A few simple exercises such as these are quite sufficient to keep the whole system in goodorder. Complicated or difficult ones are never necessary. The one great point, more important than all else, is to attend carefully to the breathing while making the movements. Take deep, slow breaths, expanding the chest fully and exhale slowly, always breathing through the nose. If you get out of breath you are either doing the exercises wrongly or breathing in an incorrect manner.

In addition to the above, you can devise fresh ones as you go along. A good plan is to take each joint in turn, and exercise it. Thus, start with the fingers, clasping and unclasping the hand. Then clench the fist and move the wrist up and down. Do the same with the elbow and shoulder, and with the different joints of the lower extremities. Then bend the body backwards and forwards, and the head in the same way. After all that, there will be few muscles in the whole body that have not received their due attention.

The value and the enjoyment of these exercises can be increased very much by getting other people to join you in them. It is easier to persevere with anything if we have the society of others to encourage us. There is a spirit of emulation introduced which is always conducive to success.

Imitation of games.

If you are so fortunate as to have an empty room or shed, there is nothing better than to practise an imitation of some outdoor game, such as playing tennis against a wall. There is a zest about such exercises which makes them more profitable than those which arecarried on merely from a sense of duty. One of the finest forms of exercise is that of skipping, both for men and women. The former need not look upon it as a feminine pursuit, seeing that some of the best-known athletes and boxers employ it as a means of training.

It is simply astonishing what a difference exercise, either outdoor or indoor, makes to those who carry it out systematically. After a few weeks pale, languid people begin to acquire a healthy colour and a sense of vigour they have never known for years; dyspeptic ones may forget that they ever had a stomach; whilst headaches that have been a curse for years are sometimes seen to disappear like magic. Life becomes brighter, for health and happiness go together, and the whole outlook becomes more cheering.

Massage.

All these are active forms of exercise, but there is another sort which needs mention, viz. the passive, or massage, as it is termed. Some people either through general weakness or some infirmity are unable to take exercise for themselves, and in such cases massage is of great benefit, acting in the same way, but without any exertion on the part of the patient. The full consideration of this subject would need a volume of its own, and this is hardly the place to discuss it in greater detail. One important fact, however, requires mention. It is imperative that a prolonged rest of an hour or two at least should be allowed after each rubbing. One hour of massage is equivalent to several hours of active movement.

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