To Our Readers.

To Our Readers.Readers who appreciate the independence and all-round nature ofThe Healthy Lifecan materially assist the extension of its circulation by tactfully urging their local newsagent to have the magazine regularly displayed for sale. An attractive monthly poster can always be had free from the Publishers, 3 Tudor Street, London, E.C.

Readers who appreciate the independence and all-round nature ofThe Healthy Lifecan materially assist the extension of its circulation by tactfully urging their local newsagent to have the magazine regularly displayed for sale. An attractive monthly poster can always be had free from the Publishers, 3 Tudor Street, London, E.C.

We cull the following definition of neurasthenia from our French contemporary: Neurasthenia is discouragement of the soul. Being in a state of discouragement the soul ceases to take care of the body and allows it to become encumbered with waste products. The body in its turn becomes so defective that the soul is incapable of repairing the enfeebled organs and throws the body away into the water or leaves it somewhere to be crushed or abandons it by some other means. Neurasthenia may be compared to an indolent mechanic. He neglects to oil his engine. It runs off the rails and is smashed.

The Vegetarian Society of France has introduced three new sections into its organisation. The first is documentary, and aims at the collection, centralisation and classification of all information bearing on food reform. The second deals with domestic economy and hygiene. A number of ladies willing to devote themselves to the popularisation of the leading ideas of vegetarianism have joined this section. They offer advice and instruction to all who wish to familiarise themselves with food reform principles. The third section is concerned with physical training and outdoor games, with special reference to the relationship between these things and a non-flesh regimen.

“A simple life,” wrote Nietzsche in 1879, “is very difficult at the present time,” and went on to explain its difficulties and to suggest that even the most determined would be obliged to leave the discovery of the way to a wiser generation. He himself, however, tooksome steps upon the way during his stay in Genoa, when he lived on bread and fruit and spent but a few shillings a week. Eggs were occasionally included, and artichokes—and the little cookery he needed was done by himself over a spirit lamp. His winter in Genoa, he declares, was the happiest in his life and saw the production of his “Twilight of the Gods.”

The movement goes ahead rapidly in Russia. Hardly a town of any size but has now its vegetarian restaurant. This year the first Russian Vegetarian Congress has been held. It seems to have been a very successful gathering. “Seldom,” writes one who was present, “have I experienced such a strong impression as was made upon me by this first vegetarian congress in Moscow.” Unity seems to have been the prevailing note. Papers were read on the general significance and the various aspects of vegetarianism, followed by discussions. Amongst the various excursions undertaken was a pilgrimage to Yasnaya Polyana, including a visit to Tolstoy's grave.

A Vegetarian Exhibition has also been held in Moscow. It included a fine show of fruits and vegetables, exhibits of various substitutes for leather, soaps made of vegetable oils, an abundance of Russian and foreign vegetarian literature of all sorts, from the noblest reaches of theory to the most invaluable details of practice. The next Congress is arranged for Easter 1914, at Kiev.

Fifteen years ago the Berlin municipal authorities stoutly refused Professor Baron's offer to found an orphanage which should be conducted on vegetarian principles. At the present moment it is being arranged that all school children shall be taught the value of vegetables and leguminous preparations and the wholesomeness of a diet that is relatively non-stimulating and practically meatless.

D.M. Richardson.

In George Macdonald'sPhantastes: a Faery Romance for Men and Womenit is told how a man found himself in the midst of a great circular hall built entirely of black marble. On every side and at regular intervals there were archways, all heavily curtained. Hearing a faint sound of music proceeding from one of these hidden doorways he went towards it and, drawing aside the hangings, found a large room crowded with statuary, but no sign of an living creature. Yet he was certain the music had proceeded from that particular archway. Greatly puzzled, he let the curtain fall and stepped back a few paces. At once the music continued. Stepping stealthily and quickly to the curtain, he again lifted it, and received a vivid impression of a crowd of dancing forms suddenly arrested: something told him beyond dispute that at the moment he had drawn the hangings aside what were now lovely but motionless statues had sprung each to its pedestal out of the mazes of an intricate dance. Sound and movement had been frozen, in a flash of time, into a crowd of beautiful forms—in stone. No statue but seemed to tremble into immobility as the intruder's gaze turned this way and that no marble face but seemed to be aglow with the music that had died with his entry; no white limb but seemed to be tremulous with the rhythm of the dance that had ceased so suddenly.

If the subtlety and imaginative truth of this story should lead you to read the whole book, I shall have had the privilege of introducing you to what is surely one of the finest and most delicately wrought fantasies in the English language, a fantasy so permeated with beauty and truth that you will neither wish nor need to look for the “moral”.

But whether you readPhantastesor not, I may be allowed to suggest that the incident I have attempted to describe conveys one of the secrets of healthy living.

It is a trite saying, that health is harmony. But I plead for a much wider and fuller interpretation of harmony than is customary.Mens sana in corpore sano—a sane mind in a healthy body—does not fill all the requirements of a healthy life. It is but an excellent theme, wanting orchestration.

It is good to aim at a harmonious working of one's internal arrangements if one has had the misfortune or the folly to break that harmony. The physical basis of life must be attended to if we would be well. Only, you cannot stop there without imperilling the whole scheme.

Again, it is good to train the body by means of exercise, play, singing and handicraft; all these things react both upwards and downwards, outwards and inwards. For example, one of the special virtues of tennis, if it be played at all keenly, is the necessity for making one's feet (those neglected members!) quick and responsive to the messages of eye and brain. In an increasingly sedentary age the rapidly growing popularity of tennis is, for this one reason alone, a good omen. But if you play tennis, or any other healthy outdoor sport, or learn how to sing, or how to breathe, or if you do Müller's exercises daily, for the sole purpose of benefiting your liver or developing your muscles, or of “keeping fit,” you will miss the real prize.

It is good, also, to train the mind to be logical, critical and balanced: it is good to cultivate a retentive memory and to store up useful facts. But if while you are aiming at intellectual fitness and alertness you allow these good things to obscure other and better things, if, in short, you let means become ends, you will never be healthy, because you will miss half the joys of living.

There are many very skilful performers on musical instruments. They have set themselves, or their parents have set them, to gain certain prizes, distinctions or qualifications. No music is now too difficult for them to execute. But that is exactly what they do—they execute it: destroy its head and heart by sheer mechanical perfection. They have mastered the piano, or the organ, or the violin, or their own voice; but music eludes them.

You see why I began with that tale of the curtained doors, the mysterious music, and the quivering statuary. There is an elusive, haunting quality about life and all living things which, if we look for it and listen to it, imparts a glamour, a rhythm, a beauty to everything that is worth doing. The great danger is that in the pressure of work, the hurry of play, the pursuit of health, or the training of the mind we miss the very thing which can give meaning and value to all these things. The severely matter-of-fact people don't go near the curtained doors, and if they did, would discover only a lot of cold, lifeless statues. Whoever heard of statues dancing? Whoever heard of music without instruments? And yet this very sense of a lyrical movement imperfectly seen, and of a temporarily frozen music, is not only the very secret of all art: it is a slender guiding clue to the centre of everything....

And in the house of every man, and of every woman, are the curtained doorways.

Edgar J. Saxon.

This discussion arose out of thearticlewith above title, by “M.D.,” which was published in ourJuly number.—[Eds.]

Ilift my hat to M.D. and trust that, as I don't know him, the somewhat jarring difference that I have with his views will not be put down to personal feeling. A.A. Voysey has put my first objection quite well from the layman's point of view. He says “there is no agreement between those who have beentaught physiology.” This is true. Playfair's full diet is different from Voit's. Voit's is different from Atwater's. Atwater's is different from Chittenden's.

The custom of reducing the diets to calories, inasmuch as it introduces a false theory, has had a disastrous effect on progress, and has been a great hindrance to the attainment of knowledge. If the coal in the fireplacewerethe cause of the heat of the fire (but is it?), there is no analogy between the elevation of the heat by hundreds and even thousands of degrees when the fire is lighted, and the elevation of half-a-degree or a degree which occurs when food is taken into the body, especially when we remember that a similar elevation of temperature occurs when work is performed by means of the body without eating or drinking at all.

It is quite evident to every clear seer, or it ought to be, that the force of animal life or zoo-dynamic is the cause of the heat of the body, just as the electric force is the cause of the liberation of heat through the battery, and the chemic force is the cause of the heat of the fire, and that zoo-dynamic and electro-dynamic and chemico-dynamic are forms or species or varieties of the one omnipotent and eternal energy by which all things in this universe consist. The aggregate of all the particular forces makes up the eternal energy which is one. They are all species of the one, but it is convenient and even necessary for our limited intellects to consider them separately, for the indefinite number of the facts and also their intricacy and complexity stagger and overwhelm us unless we do; and indeed they stagger us even when we try to treat them and take them up separately for consideration and examination. But now for the proof of A.A. Voysey's statement.

Ranke found he required 100 grammes proteid; fat 100 grammes; carbo-hydrate 240 grammes to keep him going. These he could have got from 9 oz. of lean meat or 250 grammes, 18 oz. of bread or 500 grammes, 12 oz. or 55 grammes of butter and 1 oz of fat (I do not, of course, suggest that it would have been wise for him to get them so). Moleschott's demands are: proteid120 grammes, fat 90 grammes, carbo-hydrate 333 grammes. Voit demands for hard work: proteid 145 grammes, fat 100 grammes, carbo-hydrate 450 grammes. Atwater demands for hard work the following:—proteid 177 grammes, fat 250 grammes, carbo-hydrate 650 grammes. Horace Fletcher, we are told by Professor Chittenden, took for a time, when everything was accurately measured and weighed: proteid 44.9 grammes, fat 38 grammes, carbo-hydrate 253 grammes. Cornaro lived on 12 oz. of solid food and 14 oz. of red wine a day for a period of something like 60 years, from 38 years of age to about 97, and had vigorous health during the time except when he transgressed his rule. Of course, he was not a hard physical worker—i.e.he did not do the work of a navvy. But how, in view of these differences, can M.D. say: “These quantities were settled by physiologists many years ago, and no good reasons have since been adduced for altering them”? It is amazing to me to read such a statement. It reminds me of a statement by a distinguished physician in London during last year to the effect that we could not give a growing schoolboy too much food—we could not over-feed him. My opinion, on the other hand, after a long experience, during which time my eyes have not been shut, is that the large majority of the diseases of humanity are due to mal-nutrition and that the form of that mal-nutrition is over-feeding—not under-feeding. This opinion should be taken for what it is worth. But to test it we should ask ourselves: What is the reason for the necessity to take food into the body? Is it to give strength and heat to the body? Or is it to restore the waste of the body sustained by the action on it of the force of life or zoo-dynamic which inhabits it? The demands for food will vary and vary much according to the way in which we answer this question. As you allowed me to discuss this question inHealthy Lifein July and August of last year I must not take up your space by discussing it again. But the answer we give determines the amounts of food that we require to take, since, obviously, if thestrength and heat of the body depend upon the food, the more food we take the more strength and heat shall we have; while, if the function of food in the adult or grown body is only to restore the waste of the body, the question is how much is the waste. There are various ways in which this question can be answered and I cannot go into them now; but I say, in my opinion, the waste is very much less than is commonly supposed. The body, I take it, is made by zoo-dynamic or the life-force to be a fit habitation for itself. The body must waste when the life-force acts through it, and that waste must be restored by food and sleep, or the body will die; since things (the body) cannot act as the medium of conveying forces (zoo-dynamic or the life-force) without wasting under their action. But so beautifully has the body been made by zoo-dynamic that it wastes very little, much less than is commonly supposed, by the action of zoo-dynamic through it. Not seeing this, we ingest into the body far more than is required to restore its waste, and so we fall ill, for, obviously, if we ingest more than the quantity necessary for this purpose we choke the body up and render it inefficient for its purpose as an instrument for work.

Now this is precisely what seems to me to happen in life. As we are all under the double delusion that the strength of the body and its heat come from the food, we all with one accord put far too much food into the body, and when we find that we die, all of us, generation after generation, at from 50 to 70 years of age, we make up little proverbs to justify our unphysiological conduct and say that three score years and ten are the measure of the duration of life. M.D. says that “some twenty years ago most people lived fairly close to the old physiological quantities” (but what are these? for we have seen how they vary), “now they have been cut adrift from these and are floundering out of their depth.” May I remind M.D. that people are now living longer than they did twenty years ago. How does he account for that? No doubt some of the increase in the length of life is due to the diminution of the birthrate, but still I suppose M.D. would admit that there is an increase in the duration of life over and above what can be accounted for in this way. If so, how does he account for it?

M.D. says, further: “For the public it will now probably suffice if they insist on raising (or considering, A.R.) the question of quantity” (of food, A.R.) “wherever they suffer in any way.” I agree with all my heart. But M.D. implies, if I read him aright, that the public should increase the quantity of their food when they suffer in any way. I, on the other hand, and rather unhappily for myself, am convinced that the raising of this question implies that it should be answered in the exact opposite way to that of M.D. and that we should diminish our food if we “suffer in any way.” And I can point to Nature's own plan as a corroboration of the truth of my view, for her plan when we suffer in any way is to fling us into bed and take away our appetite, or at least to diminish our appetite if we are not so ill as to require to remain in bed.

The whole question of medical practice depends on the answer we give to this question, and therefore one might go on indefinitely with its discussion. Neither the Editors' space and patience nor my time allow of this; but I should like to ask M.D., with all respect, if he remembers what Dr King Chambers said of the starvation that comes of over-repletion? Dr King Chambers occupied one of the most prominent places as a consultant in London (very probably, I suppose) when M.D. was a very young man. My late lamented friend, Dr Dewey of Meadville, Pennsylvania, used the phrase “starvation from over-feeding,” not knowing that Dr King Chambers had used practically the same expression before him. That I made the same discovery myself, and independently, is not, I take it, a sign of acuteness of intellect or of observation. The amazing thing is that every practitioner is not compelled to make the same discovery. But if it is a true discovery, then it follows that all the signs oflowered vitality referred to by M.D., while theymaybe caused by under-feeding, may also be caused by over-feeding and may therefore require for proper treatment, not increase of the diet, but diminution of it. A low temperature, therefore, a slow pulse, languor, pallor, inanition, fatigue, good-for-nothingness, inefficiency, anorexia, anæmia, neurasthenia, etc., etc., may all be due to blocking of the body with too much food as well as to supplying it with too little. Fires may be put out by heaping up too much coal on them. To make them burn briskly we ought to push the poker in and gently lift the coal so as to admit of the entrance of air. Then in a while our fire will become brisk and bright. And so it may be in the body. Nay, my opinion is that almost always these marks of depression are caused by blocking up of the body and that therefore the proper treatment is, as a rule, not increase but diminution of the diet. The place in the body in which the blocking first occurs is the connective tissues or the tissues that connect every part with every other. It is here that the lymph is secreted, and as the lymph joins the thoracic duct which conveys the products of digestion to the blood, it is obvious that lymph-secretion is a complementary digestive process and it is also obvious how blocking up of the connective tissues, which is the immediate cause of anorexia and inanition, usually comes to exist in the body.

M.D. talks of “natural food.” He seems to be a vegetarian? Good. But is not the question of how much food we ought to eat equally urgent whether we are vegetarian or omnivorous? I think it is. I do not think that the chief cause of our illnesses to-day is taking wrong or unsuitable food. In my opinion we are ill mainly because we take suitable food too often and because we take too much of it. My answer to the question, therefore—“How Much Should We Eat?—A Warning”—turns on the previous question: What is the Function performed by Food in the Body? As I think that this function in the grown body is only to restore the waste, thewarning in my mind is far rather that we should take less than that we should (as M.D. advises us) take more. I agree with him in the view that “chronic starvation is insidious.” But, as I believe that “chronic starvation” is usually a form of Dr King Chambers's “starvation from over-repletion” and of Dr Dewey's “starvation from over-feeding,” I am bound to be of the consequent opinion that it is to be met, not by increase, but by diminution of the diet. This is one of my reasons for thinking that none of us ought ever to eat oftener than twice a day, under fifty years of age, and that after that we would do well to eat once a day only. I feel sure that if we altered our habits in these ways, we should add very much both to the duration and to the efficiency of life. This is not a question of dietetics only. The issue is of the most practical character. What an addition of five or ten or fifteen or twenty or twenty-five years to the average duration of life might mean to this people and still more to the people of the whole globe is unpredictable by mortal man. But it is evident that it would be of the very greatest import to humanity. This is the great issue of the discussion of this subject. It seems to me that illness might be enormously diminished and health and efficiency and happiness immensely increased. But I think that these boons might be obtained, not by indulging the body and its appetites, but only by the exercise of a wise restraint and government over it. It is at least very much to be desired that more agreement might be manifested in the opinions and practice of qualified physiologists so that the public might have clear guidance, and not as at present, be advised in ways so conflicting that they do not know what or whom to believe.

A. Rabagliati, M.D.

Every little village has a little shop where you can buy nasty little sweets.

He was a native of Liverpool, but had liver for many years in the Isle of Wight—Edmonton(Canada)Journal.

Funny he didn't go to Poole and leave his liver behind him.

REAL FLESH FOOD FOUND AT LAST.—From an advt. in daily papers.

Evidently we have all been vegetarians and knew it not.

Nothing can replace salt.—From an advt. inPunch.

Many food reformers advantageously replace salt with nothing.

The golf craze has been greater this autumn than in any previous year. Nobody is quite safe from the fever. It seizes those who mocked at it, and pays no respect to sex or age.—British Weekly.

By the time the next Medical Congress comes round it is expected that at least three distinguished bacteriologists will have discovered the golf-fever microbe. They will probably agree to call itMashilococcus Caddes.

Between lunch and dinner take another tumbler of water cold. Take a glass of cold water half-an-hour after lunch, half-an-hour after tea, half-an-hour after dinner, and before going to bed at night. Never drink between meals.—Woman's Life.

All other methods failing, try putting your watch half-an-hour on after each meal.

I once got a circular from a man who grew potatoes containing his photograph, and, I think, an autobiography.—Musical Standard.

Not nearly so convenient as one of those automatic egg-stamping hens.

Stop-Press News.A “pocket clipper” has been invented (according to a certain catalogue) which can be used for the beard or hair at back of neck.

Stop-Press News.

A “pocket clipper” has been invented (according to a certain catalogue) which can be used for the beard or hair at back of neck.

But surely people who can do anything so clever as grow a beard on the back of the neck ought not to be tempted to clip it off.

Peter Piper.

In our issue of May 1912 we published a number of special recipes for eggs. These were much appreciated. And even now this and other back numbers are asked for. We now give some further recipes.

It should be remembered that eggs are a simple form of animal food and much purer than meat. They are also easily digested by most people. They therefore form a very useful substitute for flesh-foods, especially where the latter have only recently been discarded.

The normal progress towards a more or less ideal diet involves, of course, the elimination of eggs as well as of other dairy products. But wise food reform proceeds always by steps.

Melt a little butter, or vegetable fat, in an open earthenware baking dish; break into this as many eggs as required. Cover thinly with grated cheese; add a knob of butter and bake till set. The dish can be placed direct on the table.

One egg, two medium-sized tomatoes, butter.

Skin the tomatoes; cut in halves and put them, with a small piece of butter, into a small stewpan. Close lightly, and cook slowly until reduced to a pulp. Break the egg into a cup, and slide it gently on to the tomato. Replace the pan lid and the egg will poach in the steam rising from the tomato.

[13]This recipe is fromThe Healthy Life Cook Book, a new and revised edition of which is in contemplation.

Six eggs, two large tomatoes, half-teaspoon mixed dried herbs, about three tablespoons ground biscuits (“Ixion” or any of the unsweetened “P.R.” kinds).

Hard boil three of the eggs and chop them finely. Skin the tomatoes, mash them and add to the choppedeggs with the remaining eggs (well beaten), herbs and biscuit powder. Should the mixture be too moist to mould add more biscuit powder; if too dry add a little water. Cut and shape into finger shapes and either fry in olive oil or bake on buttered tin or open earthenware baking dish. (The last-mentioned is the best method, as the baking dish can be brought to the table as it is, and there is only one dish instead of two to wash up afterwards.)

The above Egg Fritter mixture made rather moist may be used as a filling for savoury patties.

Make for these a short crust with ½ lb. of Artox meal, 3 oz. of Nutter and water. Slightly bake the shells of pastry (made thin) before adding the filling, and finish to a golden brown.

Serve these and the fritters with either brown gravy or white sauce.

Five eggs, ¾ lb. soft cane sugar, 1 oz. ground rice, 2 oz. of butter, rind of half a lemon.

Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs. Beat up the yolks and sift in the ground rice, sugar and grated rind of the lemon. To this batter add the well-whisked whites. Well heat the butter in a frying pan, turn in the batter and fry over gentle heat till set. Fold over the edges and place on well-greased flat dish and bake for barely a quarter of an hour. Sift over some soft cane sugar and serve very hot.

Three eggs, one and a quarter pints of milk, a teaspoon of soft cane sugar, vanilla flavouring.

Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs and whisk the whites to a very stiff froth with the sugar. Put the milk into a saucepan and when it boils drop in whites of eggs in small pieces shaped between two dessert spoons. Only a little should be cooked at a time in this way, and each should beallowed to poach for two minutes, and when done should be taken out with a slice and put on a sieve to drain. When all the whites are used in this way, strain the milk and add it to the well-beaten yolks. Pour into a double saucepan and stir over the fire till the custard thickens; flavour with vanilla to taste.

Whencoldpour into a dish and lay the snow eggs on top.

(Kindly supplied by Mrs Edith Wilkinson.)

9 oz. good “standard” flour, 5 oz. Nutter (or other nut fat), 5 oz. cane castor sugar, 2 oz. preserved cherries (glacé), 2 oz. well-washed sultanas, 2 oz. ground almonds, four eggs, outer rind of lemon (grated).

Beat Nutter and sugar to a cream; add eggs one by one, beating all the time; have ready the flour, with the fruit, grated lemon rind and ground almonds mixed in, and add gradually to the above mixture, beating all the time, and until of even consistency throughout. Line a cake tin with double thickness of buttered paper, pour in the mixture and bake in moderate oven about one and a half hours.

Any housewife who doubts the possibility of making light and dainty cakes without the now customary baking powder and baking soda, etc., should try the above recipe. No one could wish for a more excellent cake.

Now that casserole cookery (i.e.cooking in earthenware dishes, both open and covered) is becoming more widely known and practised, readers will be glad to know that many housewives believe in boiling new earthenware before using it, as this effectually toughens and hardens it. This is particularly efficacious in the case of ordinary brown kitchenware, the articles being placed in a large pan of cold water which is then brought slowly to the boil. After being allowed to boil for ten minutes remove the pan and allow the water to cool before taking out the ware.

Under this heading our contributor, Dr Valentine Knaggs, deals briefly month by month, and according as space permits, with questions of general interest to health seekers and others.

In all Queries relating to health difficulties it is essential that full details of the correspondent's customary diet should be clearly given.

Correspondents are earnestly requested to write onone side only of the paper, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a stamped addressed envelope must be enclosed.—[Eds.]

Miss R.E.N. writes.—I am troubled with excessive perspiration. I neither eat meat nor drink tea. I have a cold sponge bath down to my waist every morning, and I change all my clothes when I go to bed. My diet is, roughly, as follows:Breakfast.—Oatmeal porridge with toast or bread and jam or golden syrup. Hot water.Lunch.—Peas, beans or lentils, eggs, cheese. Vegetables: potatoes and onions, or carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips. Puddings, fruit or milk wholemeal bread, not much sugar except for sweetening fruits, etc.Tea meal.—Wholemeal bread and butter, nuts, jam, cake, pastry; hot water.At bedtime.—Hot water or coffee.

Breakfast.—Oatmeal porridge with toast or bread and jam or golden syrup. Hot water.

Lunch.—Peas, beans or lentils, eggs, cheese. Vegetables: potatoes and onions, or carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips. Puddings, fruit or milk wholemeal bread, not much sugar except for sweetening fruits, etc.

Tea meal.—Wholemeal bread and butter, nuts, jam, cake, pastry; hot water.

At bedtime.—Hot water or coffee.

If our correspondent wishes to remedy this excessive perspiration she must get a hot towel-bath daily (all over),[14]wearing porous linen-mesh underclothing next the skin. She should also discontinue the soft sugary and starchy foods, and not mix fruit with other foods (it is best taken by itself, say, for breakfast). She needs more of the cooling salad vegetables. The following diet would be a great improvement:—

On rising.—Half-pint of hot boiled water, sipped slowly.

Breakfast.—Wholemeal bread or biscuits and butter(all made without salt), with salad or grated raw roots. Stop porridge, jam and golden syrup. Avoid drinking at meals.

Lunch.—Two eggs, or 2 oz. of curd cheese. Two vegetables cooked in casserole without salt; wholemeal bread or biscuits and butter; a few figs, prunes, dried bananas, or raisins, washed but not cooked. Avoid milk puddings or stewed fruits as too fermentative and heating.

Supper meal.—1 to 2 oz. flaked nuts, some crisp “P.R.” or “Ixion” biscuits with nut butter. Some fresh salad or grated roots. Stop jam, cake and pastry.

At bedtime.—Half-pint of hot boiled water, or clear vegetable soup, sipped slowly.

[14]The Sanum Oxygen Baths are also excellent in a case of this kind.

Mrs L.B. writes.—Do you think it would be wise for a person suffering from ulcers in the throat and on other mucous membranes to adopt a diet devoid of meat, yeast and salt?

It would certainly be wise to discard meat and salt in a case of this kind, but yeast is sometimes useful taken as “unflavoured Marmite.” The chief cause of ulcers is the abuse of the soft cereal and sugary foods. In a case of this sort I should advise a diet consisting exclusively of well-dextrinised cereals—e.g.Granose, Melarvi, etc.—with plenty of grated raw roots and finely chopped salads and tomatoes. This can be combined with curd cheese, raw or lightly cooked eggs, flaked nuts or Brusson Jeune bread as the proteid part of the diet.

Mrs A.C.B. writes.—For two months my husband, who leads an active open-air life, has had severe pain all down the back of his left leg. It is like neuralgia, and comes on worse when sitting. He has been a farmer all his life, but is anything but strong and constantly taking cold. Are these pains likely to be due to wrong food?

This pain is evidence of sciatica. Chills alone will not produce sciatica, which has its real cause in thesystem being choked up with acids and toxins of various kinds. In such a case as this, warm water enemas should be taken freely to clear the colon well; sugar, milk and all starchy mushy foods should be strictly avoided; vegetables should be taken either as baked roots or as fresh salads; eggs and cheese should be substituted for meat; and plenty of fresh butter should be taken. Boiled water,between meals, will be good, but nothing should be given to drink with food. Salt, pickles, and greasy or highly flavoured foods should be avoided.

Miss E. would like to know what kind of diet is suitable for one who has been suffering from Bright's Disease following a serious illness. Why should meat have any bad effect upon the kidneys? She does not take it, although her medical man advises the use of it at once.

It is not an uncommon thing for people who have suffered from an acute septic fever to find albumen temporarily present in the urine. This is due to the irritant action of the toxins and other poisons (which the fever is the means of ejecting) upon the structure of the kidneys. The kidneys are filters and they remove the bulk of the soluble waste of the body.

The practitioner frequently finds albumenuria in cases of scarlet fever, typhoid fever, diphtheria, etc., and the object of his treatment is to prevent this condition of kidney irritation from becoming an established disease (Bright's disease).

Flesh foods, and especially meat extracts and meat soups, are the worst possible wherewith to feed these fever cases, because they throw so much extra work upon the kidneys. Meat is composed mainly of proteids. It also contains the urinary wastes and the toxins (due to fear) which were in the animal's body and on the way to elimination when it was killed.

This sufferer should take one meal per day consisting of fresh fruit only; the rest of the diet should consist of salad vegetables and finely grated raw roots, home-made curd cheese, dextrinised cereals (such as Melarvi biscuits, Shredded Wheat, “P.R.” crackers, Granose biscuits, Grape-Nuts, twice-baked standard bread, etc.) and fresh or nut butter.

W.H.H. writes:—I should be very grateful if Dr Knaggs could help me with any information or hints regarding phosphaturia. I suffer much from this troublesome complaint.

We have to remember that the nervous system is two-fold. The one, or conscious portion, consists of the brain and spinal cord, from which all the nerves or branches travel to all parts of the body and give us dominion over them. The other, or subconscious, called the sympathetic nervous system, lies on either side of the front of the spine as two long chains with centres, or ganglia, at intervals. This second system is not within our control and has to do with the regulation of our vegetative functions, including the bulk of the digestive process.

All nerves, whether they come from the brain or from the sympathetic system, ranging to their smallest terminals, are built alike of cells, and these cells secrete a complexfattysubstance, calledlecithin, whose dominant element is phosphorus. This phosphorus has to be supplied to the body with food, and as food, and it cannot be properly utilised or assimilated by the body or used by the nerves to build up theirlecithinunless it is eaten in the form of organic compounds.

The tissues of the body are continually dying, as a result of work done, and are continually being replaced by fresh young tissues as needed. It is the function of the nerves to manage this work for us as well as to similarly arrange for reproduction.

In order to control the functions of the various organs and tissues and to regulate the rate at which they reproduce themselves, the nerves extend their terminal branches, not only into every tissue, but into every microscopical unit of such tissue, and the part of the cell which represents the nerve terminal is the inner structure called the nucleus.

Now it will be obvious that the more the two nervous systems are worked the greater will be their depletion oflecithinand the more need there will be for fresh supplies of phosphorus in the daily food rations.

The person who works hard, whether it be manual labour or brain work, needs food and rest at intervals in order that the nerves may recuperate and replenish their stocks oflecithin.

A goodly proportion of uncooked foods rich in phosphorus must be supplied to make good the wear and tear, and the digestion must equally be efficient if these food-stuffs are to become assimilated.

Cooking of food to a large extent breaks down the organic phosphorus salts and makes them inorganic. In this state they are of but little use to the body. Poor digestion associated with putrefactive fermentation equally converts the organic salts into inorganic ones. These pass into the blood and are promptly eliminated by the kidneys as waste (phosphaturia) and thus they never reach the nerves at all.

We must remember that phosphorus is usually found in natural foods bound up with the proteid and especially with that proteid which has to do with the reproduction of the species. For this reason man instinctively resorts to the use of egg-yolks, and to the various seeds (such as nuts, wheat, barley, etc.) because of their rich phosphorus content.

These proteid-bound phosphorus salts can only be properly utilised when the hydrochloric acid of the stomach juice is well formed, for it converts them into acid salts which are readily absorbed. Therefore to ensure free absorption we must always remember to give the phosphorus-containing foods with such meals as will cause free secretion of the gastric acid.

When fermentation is active and the stomach juices are weakened the germs of the intestines rapidly break up the phosphorus constituents of the proteids and make them inorganic. Therefore the first thing to do when a person is found to be suffering fromphosphaturiais to stop the intestinal fermentation by a right diet, clearthe bowels of their accumulated waste poisons and give the nerves plenty of rest. Another consideration to bear in mind is that the nerves need fat wherewith to build up thelecithin. An excessive fermentative sourness of the stomach makes the food so acid when sent into the bowels that the bile, pancreatic and other intestinal juices cannot neutralise them, and so the fats themselves are not emulsified and digested, which fully accounts for the mental depression and debility of which these patients complain.

People who are suffering from “nerves” in any form need plenty of pure fat (fresh dairy butter, cream, nut butter, fruit-oils, etc.) and an abundance of natural fresh vegetable products at once rich in phosphorus and iron and in organic alkaline acid-neutralising earthy salts. These arrest fermentation and so enable the phosphorus and the fat to become duly assimilated.

R.B., Lincoln, would like to know if there is very much difference, as regards food value, between the Jamaica and Canary banana. “I have heard it said that the Jamaica is only fit for the dust-heap. Well, I cannot very easily think it is so useless, and at the same time I have an idea that the Canary is the better of the two. I should be very pleased to know if you think there is much difference between them.”

The difference between Jamaica and Canary bananas is due to the length of time necessary for them to reach us from their place of growth. It takes, I believe, nearly twice as long for a ship to travel from Jamaica as from the Canary Islands. Hence the fruit imported from the latter place can be picked in a much riper condition than would be the case with the Jamaica article. This probably accounts for the better quality and flavour of the Canary banana. Besides this the climate may have some determining influence. To say that the Jamaica bananas should be discarded because they are of a less satisfactory food value or because their flavour is less developed is uncalled for. The disparity in price is also very marked, so that the poor can readily procure the Jamaica banana where they would not be in a positionto afford the better class of fruit coming from the Canaries. I have discussed this subject in p.34 of my book,The Truth about Sugar.

H. Valentine Knaggs.

LeytonstoneTo the Editors.Sirs,Enclosed please find P.O. for a copy ofThe Healthy Lifeto be sent to Carnegie Public Library, close to Midland Station, Leytonstone, also to The Alexandra Holiday Home, Y.W.C.A., Alexandra Road, Southend-on-Sea. At the latter home there are something like 500 to 600 visitors every year, many of whom are semi-invalids. No doubt the magazine will be scorned by many, yet I am quite certain that there are others amongst the number there who will gladly welcome the truths it teaches, and if only one or two are helped to live a more healthy and therefore more happy life, it will be quite worth while. Please do not mention my name in either case. Yours, etc., X.

Leytonstone

To the Editors.

Sirs,

Enclosed please find P.O. for a copy ofThe Healthy Lifeto be sent to Carnegie Public Library, close to Midland Station, Leytonstone, also to The Alexandra Holiday Home, Y.W.C.A., Alexandra Road, Southend-on-Sea. At the latter home there are something like 500 to 600 visitors every year, many of whom are semi-invalids. No doubt the magazine will be scorned by many, yet I am quite certain that there are others amongst the number there who will gladly welcome the truths it teaches, and if only one or two are helped to live a more healthy and therefore more happy life, it will be quite worth while. Please do not mention my name in either case. Yours, etc., X.

There is every reason whyThe Healthy Lifeshould be known and read in every public library in the United Kingdom. In this we are entirely dependent upon those readers who are ready to follow the excellent example of the above correspondent. A year's subscription—2s.—is a very small price to pay for bringing the message of this magazine before the public in this way. We should like to hear from readers in all parts.—[Eds.]

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