before were so robust and healthy; and that disease had
nearly disappeared from the army. The civic physicians joined and
pronounced it the healthiest bread; and, for a time, schools, families,
and public institutions, used it almost exclusively. Even the nobility,
convinced by these facts, adopted it for their common diet; and the
fashion continued a long time after the scarcity ceased, until more
luxurious habits resumed their sway. For this reason, also, soups,
gellies, and arrow-root, should have bread or crackers mixed with them.
We thus see why children should not have cakes and candies allowed them
between meals. These are highly-concentrated nourishments, and should be
eaten with more bulky and less nourishing substances. The most
indigestible of all kinds of food, are fatty and oily substances;
especially if heated. It is on this account, that pie-crust, and
articles boiled and fried in fat or butter, are deemed not so healthful
as other food.

The following, then, may be put down as the causes of a debilitated
constitution, from the misuse of food. Eating _too much_, eating _too
often_, eating _too fast_, eating food and condiments that are _too
stimulating_, eating food that is _too warm_ or _too cold_, eating food
that is _highly-concentrated_, without a proper admixture of less
nourishing matter, and eating food that is _difficult of digestion_.

FOOTNOTE:

[F] The individual here referred to,--Alexis St. Martin,--was a young
Canadian, of eighteen years of age, of a good constitution, and robust
health, who, in 1822, was accidentally wounded by the discharge of a
musket, which carried away a part of the ribs, lacerated one of the
lobes of the lungs, and perforated the stomach, making a large aperture,
which never closed; and which enabled Dr. Beaumont, (a surgeon of the
American army, stationed at Michilimackinac, under whose care the
patient was placed,) to witness all the processes of digestion and other
functions of the body, for several years. The published account of the
experiments made by Dr. B., is highly interesting and instructive.

CHAPTER VII.

ON HEALTHFUL DRINKS.

Although intemperance in eating is probably the most prolific cause of
the diseases of mankind, intemperance in drink has produced more guilt,
misery, and crime, than any other one cause. And the responsibilities of
a woman, in this particular, are very great; for the habits and
liabilities of those under her care, w