rt, and eating between
meals avoided. There is nothing more unsafe, and wearing to the
constitution, than a habit of eating at any time, merely to gratify the
palate. When a tempting article is presented, every person should
exercise sufficient self-denial, to wait till the proper time for eating
arrives. Children, as well as grown persons, are often injured, by
eating between their regular meals, thus weakening the stomach, by not
affording it any time for rest.

In deciding as to _quantity_ of food, there is one great difficulty to
be met by a large portion of the community. It has been shown, that the
exercise of every part of the body is indispensable to its health and
perfection. The bones, the muscles, the nerves, the organs of digestion
and respiration, and the skin, all demand exercise, in order properly to
perform their functions. When the muscles of the body are called into
action, all the blood-vessels entwined among them are frequently
compressed. As the arteries are so contrived, that the blood cannot run
back, this compression hastens it forward, through the veins, towards
that organ. The heart is immediately put in quicker motion, to send it
into the lungs; and they, also, are thus stimulated to more rapid
action, which is the cause of that panting which active exercise always
occasions. The blood thus courses with greater celerity through the
body, and sooner loses its nourishing properties. Then the stomach
issues its mandate of hunger, and a new supply of food must be
furnished. Thus it appears, as a general rule, that the quantity of
food, actually needed by the body, depends on the amount of muscular
exercise taken. A laboring man, in the open fields, probably throws off
from his skin ten times the amount of perspirable matter, which is
evolved from the skin of a person of sedentary pursuits. In consequence
of this, he demands a far greater amount of food and drink.

Those persons, who keep their bodies in a state of health, by sufficient
exercise, can always be guided by the calls of hunger. They can eat when
they feel hungry, and stop when hunger ceases; and then they will
calculate exactly right. But the difficulty is, that a large part of
the community, especially women, are so inactive in their habits, that
they seldom feel the calls of hunger. They habitually eat, merely to
gratify the palate. This produces such a state of the system, that they
have lost the guide which Nature has provided. Th