r.
When asked why this ferment was omitted from such preparations, the
druggist confided to me in a whisper: "Pepsin is a drug that costs money,
while diluted molasses is cheap."

As I had apparently not made much of a success at dieting myself, I
thought I would consult a physician who called himself a specialist on
"metabolism." I first thought the name had some reference to metals, but I
found out differently. This man gave me what he was pleased to term a
"test breakfast," for the purpose of diagnosing my case. Now, good
friends, if you never had a "test breakfast" from one of these
ultra-scientific men, you are just as well off in blissful ignorance of
it. Take my word for it, it is also calculated to put your good nature to
the test. This doctor found out everything that I was eating and then told
me to eat just the opposite.

A few weeks later I went to see another specialist of the same kind. I
wanted to compare notes. This man, too, inquired carefully into what I was
eating. I knew at once that he wanted to prescribe something different.
Sure enough, when I told him what my bill-of-fare now was he threw up his
hands and said: "Man, those things will kill you!" He told me to go back
to my former diet.

So many doctors act on the presumption that we are doing the wrong thing.
It reminds me of this little conversation between a mother and her
nurse-maid:--

_Mother_--"Martha, what is Johnnie doing?"

_Martha_--"I don't know, mum."

_Mother_--"Well, find out what he is doing _and tell him to stop it this
very minute_."

By the way, I learned a few things in an experimental process about the
great subject of alimentation. No matter much what we eat, the system
appropriates what elements it wants. The taste bulbs were planted in our
mouths for a useful purpose. Our taste is about the surest index to the
body's requirements in the matter of nourishment. If our appetite calls
for a thing and it tastes all right, it will do us good whether it be
carbo-hydrate or hydro-carbon or something else.

CHAPTER XI.

TELLS OF A FEW NEW OCCUPATIONS AND VENTURES.

Only casual mention has been made for a while concerning my occupations.
The reader may imagine that in the pursuit of health I found no time to
engage in the usual avocations of life. If such be your opinion I would
say, be at once undeceived. The neurasthenic has the faculty of being able
to turn off more work of a varied and useless character than