rves abates, and a due supply of fluids is transmitted
to other organs, or an equilibrium of action in the system is
reestablished.

315. Thus food should not be taken immediately after severe mental
labor, protracted speaking, continued singing, or laborious manual
toil; as the digestive organs will be in a state of comparative
debility, and consequently unfit to digest food. From thirty to sixty
minutes should elapse, after the cessation of severe employment,
before food is taken. This time may be spent in cheerful amusement or
social conversation.

_Observation._ The practice of students and accountants going
immediately from severe mental labor to their meals, is a pernicious
one, and a fruitful cause of indigestion and mental debility. The
custom of farmers and mechanics hurrying from their toil to the
dinner-table, does much to cause dyspepsia and debility among these
classes in community.

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313. Should the condition of the system be regarded in taking food?
314. When should food not be taken? Why? What is the result when an
organ has been in vigorous action? 315. After the cessation of severe
toil, how much time should expire before eating? What is one cause of
indigestion among students and accountants?

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316. _Severe mental or manual toil should not be entered upon
immediately after eating._ As there is an increased amount of blood
and nervous fluid supplied to the stomach and alimentary canal during
the digestion of food, a deficiency exists in other organs. This is
evinced by a slight paleness of the skin, and a disinclination to
active thought and exercise. Under such circumstances, if either the
mind, vocal organs, or muscles are called into energetic action, there
will be an abstraction of the necessary amount of blood and nervous
fluid from the stomach, and the process of digestion will be arrested.
This will not only cause disease of the digestive organs, but chyle
will not be formed, to nourish the system.

_Illustration._ An English gentleman fed two dogs upon similar
articles of food. He permitted one to remain quiet in a dark room; the
other he sent in pursuit of game. At the expiration of one hour, he
had both killed. The stomach of the dog that had remained quiet was
nearly empty. The food had been properly changed and carried forward
into the alimentary canal. In the stomach of the dog that had used his
muscles in chasing game, the al