ily digested, the digestive powers will be
weakened; if over-worked, they will be exhausted. Hence the kind and
amount of food should be adapted to the maintenance of the digestive
powers, and to their gradual invigoration when debilitated.

_Observation._ Food that is most easily digested is not always most
appropriate to a person convalescing from disease. If the substance
passes rapidly through the digestive process, it may induce a
recurrence of the disease. Thus the simple preparations which are not
stimulating, as water-gruel, are better for a sick person than the
more digestible beef and fish.

297. The question is not well settled, whether animal or vegetable
food is best adapted to nourish man. There are nations, particularly
in the torrid zone, that subsist, exclusively, on vegetables; while
those of the frigid zone feed on fish or animal food. In the temperate
zone, among civilized nations, a mixed diet is almost universal. When
we consider the organization of the human system, the form and
arrangement of the teeth, the structure of the stomach and intestines,
we are led to conclude, that both animal and vegetable food is
requisite, and that a mixed diet is most conducive to strength,
health, and long life.

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296. How is the question answered, whether that article is most
appropriate to the system which is most easily digested? Give
observation. 297. What is said of the adaptation of animal and
vegetable food to man?

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298. _The food should be adapted to the distensible character of the
stomach and alimentary canal._ The former will be full, if it contain
only a gill; it may be so distended as to contain a quart. The same is
true of the intestines. If the food is concentrated, or contains the
quantity of nutriment which the system requires, in small bulk, the
stomach and intestines will need the stimulation of distention and
friction, which is consequent upon the introduction and transit of the
innutritious material into and through the alimentary canal. If the
food is deficient in innutritious matter, the tendency is, to produce
an inactive and diseased condition of the digestive organs. For this
reason, nutrient food should have blended with it innutritious
material. Unbolted wheat bread is more healthy than hot flour cakes;
ripe fruits and vegetables than rich pies, or jellies.

_Observation._ 1st. The observance of this rule is of more importa