mediately follow a meal. It will be noticed that each stage of
digestion prepares the food for the next stage _e.g._, the mouth
prepares the food for the stomach. Now, as the food ceases to be under
our control when it leaves the mouth, every effort should, as we have
said, there be made to prepare the food for its reception by the
stomach. Chew food dry as far as possible, for that excites saliva. It
is best not to drink till after the meal. The digestive powers often
become weakened in advancing years, but may be greatly preserved, and
even restored to health after long debility, by careful attention to
the above hints.

Drinks made of lemon juice or orange juice and water are often very
good to help an invalid digestion, but nothing is better than sips of
hot water for some time before a meal. Distilled water is especially a
most valuable drink. Cooling applications to a fevered stomach and warm
fomentations to a cold one will often promote digestion marvellously.
The feet and legs may be fomented if cold while the cold cloth is
pressed over the stomach, especially if the process be long continued.
Where heat is necessary it should be gradually and cautiously applied,
so that sickening the patient may be avoided. (_See also_ Assimilation,
Food in Health, Indigestion).

Diet, Economy in.--Dr. Hutchison, one of our greatest authorities on
the subject of Dietetics, has well said--

"The dearest foods are by no means the best. 'Cheap and nasty' is not a
phrase which can be applied to things which you eat. A pound of Stilton
cheese at 1s. 2d. contains no more nutriment than a pound of American
cheese at sixpence. A given weight of bloater will yield more building
material than the same quantity of salmon or sole.

"The upper classes in this country eat too much. The labouring classes
are insufficiently fed--much worse fed than their brethren in America.
One of the chief consequences is an undue craving for alcoholic
stimulants; another is that our poor are not properly armed against
tuberculosis and epidemic disease.

"How can this be rectified? Anyone who knows anything about the poor
man's budget knows that he already spends as much on food as he is
able. As it is, 50 per cent. of a workman's wages are absorbed in its
purchase, so that half the struggle for life is a struggle for food.

"The only remedy is to buy the things which are the most nourishing and
which yield the most energy. Quite a good diet can be o