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                                _The_

                               HEALTHY

                                LIFE


                           The Independent
                           Health Magazine



                              VOLUME V
                         JULY-DECEMBER 1913




                               LONDON
                    GRAHAM HOUSE, TUDOR ST., E.C.




INDEX

VOLUME V.--JULY-DECEMBER 1913


Ballade of Skyfaring, A, S. Gertrude Ford, 490

Book Reviews, 532

Breathe, On Learning to, Dr J. Stenson Hooker, 630


Camping Out, C.R. Freeman, 438, 480

Care of Cupboards, Florence Daniel, 530

Castles in the Air, E.M. Cobham, 582

Cloud-capped Towers, E.M. Cobham, 626

Correspondence, 504, 533, 580, 658

Cottage Cheese, 658

Curtained Doorways, The, Edgar J. Saxon, 561


Doctor on Doctors, A, 637

Doctor's Reason for Opposing Vaccination, A, Dr J.W. Hodge, 597

Doctors and Health, 633


Fasting, A Significant Case, A. Rabagliati, M.D., 458, 492

Fear and Imagination, E.M. Cobham, 510

Food and the Source of Bodily Energy, 507

Fruit-Oils and Nuts, 659

Futurist Gardening, G.G. Desmond, 451


Health Queries, Dr H. Valentine Knaggs:--
  About Sugar, 540;
  Bad Case of Self-poisoning, 502;
  Boils, their Cause and Cure, 498;
  Canary _versus_ Jamaica Bananas, 579;
  Can Malaria be Prevented? 466;
  Cereal Food in the Treatment of Neuritis, 619;
  Correct Blending of Foods, 655;
  Concerning Cottage Cheese, 617;
  Deafness, 615, 616;
  Diet for Obstinate Cough, 618;
  Diet for Ulcerated Throat, 575;
  Dilated Heart, 653;
  Difficulties in Changing to Non-Flesh Diet, 655;
  Dry Throat, 653;
  Eczema as a Sign of Returning Health, 613;
  Excessive Perspiration, 574;
  Farming and Sciatica, 575;
  Faulty Food Combinations, 536;
  Giddiness and Head Trouble, 468;
  Going to Extremes in the Unfired Diet, 543;
  Long Standing Gastric Trouble, 470;
  Malt Extract, 539;
  Neuritis, 538;
  Onion Juice as Hair Restorer, 651;
  Phosphorus and the Nerves, 577;
  Refined Paraffin as a Constipation Remedy, 652;
  Saccharine, 653;
  Stammering, 654;
  Severe Digestive Catarrh, 471;
  Sciatica, 651;
  Temporary "Bright's Disease" and How to Deal with it, 576;
  Ulceration of the Stomach, 541;
  Unfired Diet for a Child, 467;
  Water Grapes, 619;
  Why the Red Corpuscles are Deficient in Anaemia, 654

Health and Joy in Hand-weaving, Minnie Brown, 591

Health through Reading, Isabella Fyvie Mayo, 517

Healthy Brains, E.M. Cobham, 448, 474, 510, 546, 582

Healthy Homemaking, Florence Daniel, 495, 528

Healthy Life Abroad, D.M. Richardson, 559

Healthy Life Recipes, 462, 571, 610, 641

Hired Help, Florence Daniel, 495, 528

Holiday Aphorisms, Peter Piper, 508, 527

How Much Should We Eat? 442, 477, 513, 563, 593

Human Magnetism, 505


Imagination in Insurance, E.M. Cobham, 546

Imagination in Play, E.M. Cobham, 474

Imagination in Use, E.M. Cobham, 448

Indication, An, Editors, 437, 473, 509, 545, 581, 621


Learning to Breathe, On, Dr J. Stenson Hooker, 630

Letters of a Layman, I., 633

Lime Juice, Pure, 534

Longevity, A Remedy for, Edgar J. Saxon, 491


Mental Healing, A Scientific Basis for, J. Stenson Hooker, M.D., 456

Midsummer Madness, Edgar J. Saxon, 454

Modern Germ Mania: A Case in Point, Dr H.V. Knaggs, 638

More About Two Meals a Day, Wilfred Wellock, 487


New Race, The, S. Gertrude Ford, 601


Ode to the West Wind, Shelley, 555


Pickled Peppercorns, Peter Piper, 464, 570, 609, 660

Plain Words and Coloured Pictures, Edgar J. Saxon, 622

Play Spirit, The, D.M. Richardson, 602

Play Spirit, The: A Criticism, L.E. Hawks, 628


Quest for Beauty, The, Edgar J. Saxon, 523


Recipes, 462, 571, 610, 641

Remedy for Longevity, A, Edgar J. Saxon, 491

Remedy for Sleeplessness, 533


Salads and Salad Dressings, 462

Salt Cooked Vegetables, 506

Swan Song of September, The, S. Gertrude Ford, 523

Sea-sickness, Some Remedies, Hereward Carrington, 484

Semper Fidelis, "A.R.," 526

Sleeplessness, A Remedy, 533

Scientific Basis for Mental Healing, A, J. Stenson Hooker, M.D., 456

Scientific Basis of Vegetalism, The, Prof. H. Labbe, 549, 584

Significant Case, A, A. Rabagliati, M.D., 458, 492

Symposium on Unfired Food, A, D. Godman, 486, 648


Taste or Theory? Arnold Eiloart, B.Sc., 643

Travels in Two Colours, Edgar J. Saxon, 605

To-morrow's Flowers, G.G. Desmond, 451

Two Meals a Day, More About, Wilfred Wellock, 487


Vaccination, A Doctor's Reason for Opposing, Dr J.W. Hodge, 597

Vegetalism, The Scientific Basis of, Prof. H. Labbe, 549, 584


West Wind, Ode to, Shelley, 555

What makes a Holiday? C., 557

World's Wanderers, The, Shelley, 625




                                 THE

                               HEALTHY

                                LIFE

                           The Independent
                           Health Magazine.

                      3 AMEN CORNER LONDON E.C.


              VOL. V                               JULY
              No. 24.                              1913


    _There will come a day when physiologists, poets, and
    philosophers will all speak the same language and understand one
    another._--CLAUDE BERNARD.




AN INDICATION.


Some laymen are very fond of deprecating the work of specialists,
holding that specialisation tends to narrowness, to inability to see
more than one side of a question.

It is, of course, true that the specialist tends to "go off at a
tangent" on his particular subject, and even to treat with contempt or
opposition the views of other specialists who differ from him. But all
work that is worth doing is attended by its own peculiar dangers. It
is here that the work of the non-specialist comes in. It is for him to
compare the opposing views of the specialists, to reveal one in the
light thrown by the other, to help into existence the new truth
waiting to be born of the meeting of opposites.

Specialisation spells division of labour, and apart from division of
labour certain great work can never be done. To do away with such
division, supposing an impossibility to be possible, would simply mean
reversion to the state of the primitive savage. But we have no call
to attempt the abolition of even the minutest division of labour. What
is necessary is to understand and guard against its dangers.

Specialisation _may_ lead to madness, as electricity _may_ lead to
death. But no specialist need go far astray who, once in a while, will
make an honest attempt to come to an understanding with the man whose
views are diametrically opposed to his own. For thus he will retain
elasticity of brain, and gain renewed energy for, and perhaps fresh
light on, his own problems.--[EDS.]




CAMPING OUT.

IV. THE FIVE-FOOT SAUSAGE.


The question of blankets and mattresses may be taken as settled. We
can now sleep quite comfortably, take our fresh air sleeping and
waking, and find shelter when it rains. But that same fresh air brings
appetite and we must see how that appetite is to be appeased.

Take a frying-pan. It should be of aluminium for lightness; though a
good stout iron one will help you make good girdle-cakes, if you get
it hot and drop the flour paste on it. You must find some other way of
making girdle-cakes, and if you take an iron frying pan with you,
don't say that I told you to.

Though it is obviously necessary that a frying-pan should have a
handle, I was bound to tell Gertrude that I do not find it convenient
to take handled saucepans when I go camping. I take for all boiling
purposes, including the making of tea, what is called a camp-kettle.
Most ironmongers of any standing seem to keep it, and those who have
it not in stock can show you an illustration of it in their wholesale
list. It is just like the pot in which painters carry their paint,
except that it has an ordinary saucepan lid. You should have a "nest"
of these--that is, three in diminishing sizes going one inside the
other. The big lid then fits on the outer one and the two other lids
have to be carried separately.

[Illustration: _The Five-Foot Sausage_]

You hang these camp-kettles over the fire by their bucket handles,
from the tripod or other means of getting over the fire. Sometimes the
bough of a tree high out of the reach of the flames will do. Sometimes
a stick or oar thrust into the bank or in a crevice of the wall behind
the fire is more convenient than a tripod. Again, you can do without
any hanging at all, making a little fireplace of bricks or stones and
standing the saucepans "on the hob."

It is a simple thing to tie the tops of three sticks together and make
a tripod. Then from the place where they join you dangle a piece of
string, pass it through the handle of the kettle and tie it to itself,
in a knot that can be adjusted up or down to raise or lower the kettle
from the fire. This knot is our old friend the two half-hitches. Pass
the loose end round the down cord, letting it come back under the up
cord, then round again with the same finish, and lo! the up cord makes
two half-hitches round the down cord. You can slip, them up and put
them where you like and they will hold, but you have to undo them to
take the kettle clean away from the fire. So we add to our equipment a
few pot-hooks or pieces of steel wire shaped like an S. Their use will
be obvious. If we have three of them it is quite easy to keep three
kettles going over one fire. They swing cheek by jowl when they all
want the same amount of fire, but each can be raised or lowered an
inch or several inches to let them respectively boil, simmer or just
keep warm.

These are the cooking utensils. A biscuit tin would make an oven and
Gertrude says she must have an oven. For my part I would not attempt
baking when camping out and I will say no more about ovens, except
that all the biscuit tins in the world won't beat a hole in the ground
first filled with blazing sticks and then with the things to be baked
and covered with turves till they are done.

I had great difficulty in persuading Gertrude to feed out of tin
dishes like those which we use sometimes for making shallow round
cakes or setting the toffee in. They are ever so much better than
plates, being deep enough for soup-plates and not easy to upset when
you use them on your lap. Any number of the same size will go into one
another and a dozen scarcely take up more room than one.

It was worse still when it came to a still more useful substitute, the
camp equivalent of the teacup. In the first place we abolish the
saucer, for the simple reason that we have no earthly use for it in
camp. We take tin mugs with sloping sides and wire bucket handles.
They fit into one another in the same accommodating way as the eating
dishes. Gertrude was nearly put off this device altogether by Basil's
remark that he had only seen them in use in poulterers' shops, where
they are put under hares' noses....

"Basil, you, you monster," cried Gertrude, and I had to push those tin
mugs as though I had been a traveller interested in the sale of them.

The drinking of hot tea out of these mugs is quite a beautiful art.
You hold the wire handle between finger and thumb and put the little
finger at the edge of the bottom rim. It is thus able to tilt the mug
to the exact angle which is most convenient for drinking. When
Gertrude had learnt the trick, she became perfectly enamoured of the
mugs. She sometimes brings one out at ordinary afternoon tea and
insists that the tea is ever so much better drunk thus than out of
spode.

Smaller mugs of the same shape do for egg-cups, and the egg-spoons I
take to camp are the bone ones, seldom asked for but easy to get in
most oil-and-colour shops. Dessert spoons and forks and table knives
are of the usual pattern, but the former can be had in aluminium and
therefore much lighter than Britannia metal.

The camping-out valise is by all means the rucksack. Never the
knapsack. I am almost ashamed to say this, because as far as my
knowledge goes the knapsack is now obsolete. It may be, however, that
it lingers here and there. If you see one, buy it for a museum if you
like but not for use. The bundle should be allowed to fit itself to
the back, as it does in a canvas bag. Suppose now that you fix the V
point of a pair of braces somewhere near the top of the sack and
bringing the webs over your shoulders, fix them, nicely adjusted, to
the lower corners of the sack, it will ride quite comfortably upon
your back--that is, you have made it from a plain sack into a rucksack
or back-sack. Get or make as many good large strong ones as you have
shoulders in the party to carry them. Have them made of a waterproof
canvas, green or brown, to reeve up tight with strong cord passed
through a series of eyelet-holes and, if you would be quite certain of
keeping out the rain, with a little hood to cover the reeved bag end.

The great bulk of your luggage you will generally find it best to
carry by wheeling it on a bicycle. Spread your ground-sheet on the
floor. On that lay your blankets, doubled so as to make a smaller
square, tent, mattress cover and bed suits on that, then your camping
utensils and all other paraphernalia and roll the whole up into a
sausage about five feet long, when the loose ends of the ground-sheet
have been tucked over as in a brown-paper parcel. Tie it well with
whipcord and fasten it to the top bar of your bicycle frame, leaving
freedom of course for the handles and the front wheel to move and
steer. Push the tent-poles through the lashings and start for your
camp at a comfortable four or five miles an hour. You will find it
easy to move camp at the rate of twenty miles a day and will see a
great deal of country in the course of a fortnight.

The sausage on the bicycle shown in the illustration may be taken to
contain all the gear and a little food. The rucksacks will take the
rest and each man's most precious personal belongings. There is a
small parcel tied to the handle-bar, scarcely to be seen because it is
smaller than the end of the sausage. It is a complete tent tied up in
its ground-sheet.

C.R. FREEMAN.




HOW MUCH SHOULD WE EAT: A WARNING.

_This article, by one of the pioneers of modern dietetics, is in the
nature of a challenge, and is certain to arouse discussion among all
who have studied the food question closely._--[EDS.]


When men lived on their natural food, quantities settled themselves.
When a healthy natural appetite had been sated the correct quantity of
natural food had been taken.

To-day all this is upside down, there is no natural food and only too
often no natural healthy appetite either. Thus the question of
quantity is often asked and many go wrong over it. The all-sufficient
answer to this question is: "Go back to the foods natural to the human
animal and this, as well as a countless number of other problems, will
settle themselves."

But supposing that this cannot be done, suppose, as is often the case,
that the animal fed for years on unnatural food has become so
pathological that it can no longer take or digest its natural food?

Those who take foods which are stimulants are very likely to overeat,
and when they leave off their stimulants they are equally likely to
underfeed themselves. Flesh foods are such stimulants, for it is
possible to intoxicate those quite unaccustomed to them with a large
ration of meat just as well as with a large ration of alcohol. The one
leads to the other, meat leads to alcohol, alcohol to meat. Taking any
stimulant eventually leads to a call for other stimulants.

How are we to tell when a given person is getting enough food, either
natural or partly natural? Medically speaking, there is no difficulty;
there are plenty of guides to the required knowledge, some of them of
great delicacy and extreme accuracy. The trouble generally is that
these guides are not made use of, as the cause of the disaster is not
suspected. A physiologist is not consulted till too late, perhaps till
the disorder in the machinery of life is beyond repair.

Diminishing energy and power, decreasing endurance, slowing
circulation, lessening blood colour, falling temperature, altered
blood pressure, enlarging heart and liver, are some of the most
obvious signs with which the physician is brought into contact in such
cases. But every one of these may, and very often does, pass unnoticed
for quite a long time by those who have had no scientific training.
The public are extremely ignorant on such matters because the natural
sciences have been more neglected in this country in the last fifty
years than anywhere else in Europe, and that is saying a good deal.
Hence diet quacks and all those who trade on the ignorance and
prejudices of the public are having a good time and often employ it in
writing the most appalling rubbish in reference to the important
subject of nutrition.

Being themselves ignorant and without having studied physiology, even
in its rudiments, they do not appear to consider that they should at
least abstain from teaching others till they have got something
certain for themselves.

If the public were less ignorant they would soon see through their
pretensions; but, as it is, things go from bad to worse, and it is not
too much to say that hundreds of lives have been lost down this sordid
by-path of human avarice.

On one single day a few weeks ago the writer heard of three men, two
of whom had been so seriously ill that their lives were in danger, and
one of whom had died. The certified cause of death in this case might
not have led the uninitiated to suspect chronic starvation, but those
who were behind the scenes knew that this was its real cause. A
further extraordinary fact was that two out of these three men were
members of the medical profession, whose training in physiology ought,
one would have thought, to have saved them from such errors.

The conclusion seems to be that they did not use their knowledge
because at first they had no suspicion of the real cause of their
illness. In other words, chronic starvation is insidious and, if no
accurate scientific measurements are made, its results, being
attributed to other causes, are often allowed to become serious before
they are properly treated.

These three men went wrong by following a layman quite destitute of
physiological training, who APPEARED to have produced some wonderful
results in himself and others on extraordinarily small quantities of
food.

If the above tests had been made at once by a trained hand the error
involved in such results could not have escaped detection, and none of
these men would have endangered their lives. I myself examined the
layman in question and finding him not up to standard refused to
follow him. The writer has no difficulty in recalling at least a dozen
cases similar to those above mentioned which have been under his care
in the last twelve months, and the three above mentioned were none of
them under his care at the time of their danger.

What, then, must be our conclusions in reference to these and similar
facts of which it is only possible to give a mere outline here? I
suggest that they are:--

1. Food quantities are of extreme importance.

2. These quantities were settled by physiologists many years ago, and
no good reasons have since been adduced for altering them.

3. The required quantity is approximately nine or ten grains of
proteid per day for each pound of bone and muscle in the body weight.

4. Any considerable departure from this quantity continued over months
and years leads to disaster.

5. The nature of this disaster may appear to be very various and its
real cause is thus frequently overlooked.

I will say a few words about each of these except the first, which is
already obvious. The layman above mentioned asserted that he could
live on but little more than half this quantity, but the food quantity
really required is that which will keep up normal strength, normal
circulation, normal colour, normal temperature and normal mental
power. As we have got perfectly definite standards of all these normal
conditions, serious danger can only be run into by neglecting to
measure them.

It is also possible to tell fairly accurately the quantity of food a
man is taking in a day, and then, by collecting and estimating his
excreta, the quantity also out of this food which he is utilising
completely and burning up in his body.

You would say that no danger should be possible with all these
safeguards, and yet the above case history shows that of two trained
physiologists, members of the medical profession, one died at least
twenty years before his time, and the other was in great danger and
only recovered slowly and with difficulty. Another similar case came
to the writer suffering from increasing debility and what appeared to
be some form of dyspepsia. He was quite unable to pass any of the
above-named tests as to physiological standards, and an investigation
of his excreta showed that his food was at least one-fifth or
one-sixth below its proper quantity and had probably been so for many
months past. Some of his doctors had been giving his "disease" a more
or less long list of names and yet had not noted the one essential
fact of chronic defective nutrition and its cause--underfeeding.
Naturally their treatment was of no avail, but when he had been sent
to a nursing home and had put back the 20 lbs. of weight he had lost
he came slowly back to more normal standards and is now out of danger.
In this case there was marked loss of weight, and few people, one
would think, would overlook such a sign of under nutrition. But loss
of weight is not always present in these cases, at least not at first.
Some people tend to grow stout on deficient proteid, and then the fact
that some of the essential tissues of the body (the muscles, the heart
and the blood) are being dangerously impoverished is very likely to be
overlooked. In the case last mentioned the loss of weight was put down
to the dyspepsia, whereas the real fact was that the "dyspepsia" and
loss of weight were both results of a chronic deficiency in food.

It is evident that some care about food quantities must be taken by
all those who do not live on natural foods. For physiologists there is
no difficulty in settling the question of quantity in accordance with
the signs of the physiology of a normal body. That all, even
physiologists, may run into danger if, while living on unnatural or
partly unnatural foods, or while making any change of food, they do
not consider the question of quantity with sufficient care.

That the question of nutrition should be considered in relation to
_every illness_ even though it may appear on the surface to have no
direct connection with foods or quantities. As a matter of fact, the
nature of the food and its quantity controls all the phenomena of
life. Some twenty years ago most people lived fairly close to the old
physiological quantities, now they have been cut adrift from these and
completely unsettled and are floundering out of their depth. A most
unsatisfactory, even dangerous, condition of affairs.

For the public it will now probably suffice if they insist on raising
the question of quantity whenever they suffer in any way. If they are
unable to answer the question themselves let them go to a trained
physiologist who can do so, and not to a diet quack. But muscular
strength, endurance, mental and bodily energy, skin circulation,
temperature and blood colour are all things which the public can see
for themselves and from which they should in all cases be able to get
sufficient warning to save them from the worst forms of disaster.

Some people imagine that they eat very little, when as a matter of
fact they have good healthy appetites. Others again think they are
eating a great deal, when as a matter of fact they take very little.
In both cases a physiological test of the excreta will give accurate
information. I once had a medical patient who imagined that he
produced great amounts of force and performed feats of endurance on
wonderfully small quantities of food. His excreta showed, however,
that he was merely under-estimating the food he took. A fat man may
seem to be living on very little, but fat does not require to be fed,
and his real bone and muscle weight is not large. A thin man may seem
to require a large quantity of food, but he is really very heavy in
bone and muscle, the tissues that have to be nourished. In all these
ways appearances are apt to be deceptive for those who are ignorant of
science and who do not go down to the root of the matter.

It is not necessary to follow the given quantity of grains per pound
slavishly and without regard to consequences. It is necessary to see
that the required physiological results are obtained.

If a patient says he can live on less than I ordered for him and if
he can pass the physiological tests satisfactorily I know that his
bone and muscle weight has been over-estimated. On the other hand, if
a patient falls below the physiological tests, though taking and
digesting the quantities ordered for him, I conclude that his bone and
muscle weight has been under-estimated.

In all cases it is possible to obtain the best physiological results
and to say when quantities are just right, neither too much nor too
little.

The evil effects of too much are not serious; they entail perhaps a
little "gout" or some temporary loss of freedom from waste products.

The evil effects of too little, if persevered in and continued,
especially if some of these effects are attributed to causes which
have no real existence, are deadly and dangerous, for they bring on an
insidious deterioration both of function and structure which leads by
several avenues, often miscalled "diseases," to death itself.

M.D.




HEALTHY BRAINS.

_Comparatively few health enthusiasts or food reformers realise the
necessity for mental, as distinct from bodily, hygiene, yet all real
health has its roots in the mind. Moreover, it is only by studying the
hygiene of mind that we are enabled to do work in greater quantity and
of better quality than we should otherwise be capable of, and to do
this without risk of strain on the nerves or injury to health. The
articles under this heading put forward some of the elementary laws of
mental hygiene._--[EDS.]


IMAGINATION IN USE.

To some people any talk about the importance of training the
imagination of children through their toys, games and studies seems
fantastic and trivial. They compare it to feeding them on sweetmeats;
they think it means substituting story books for real life and
encouraging the easy exercise of fancy for the careful study of fact.

But imagination is not a mere ornament to a life-work; it is rather
one of its most valuable and necessary tools. If it did no more than
sweeten and adorn the world, it would be well worth having, well worth
making considerable sacrifices to attain. But it does more than this.
It bears much fruit as well as flowers; fruit that, if it ripens in
suitable weather, endures and can be used for the service of man.

There is a wonderful palm-tree, called the Tal or Palmyra palm, which
in India and Ceylon supports six or seven millions of people, and
"works" also in West Africa, where it is probably native. It gives its
young shoots and unripe seeds as food; its trunk makes a whole boat,
or a drum or a walking-stick, according to size; hats, mats, thread
and baskets--in fact, almost all kinds of clothing and utensils--are
made from the split and plaited leaves; gum comes from it, and certain
medicines, jaggery sugar too and an intoxicating drink for those who
desire it. In one of the museums at Kew--a wet day brings always
_something_ besides disappointment--there is a book made up of the
very leaves of the palm, containing a Tamil poem enumerating more than
eight hundred human uses to which this marvellous single plant can be
put.

Now the imagination is like a Palmyra palm. We stand a long way off
and, looking up, say "What a graceful tree! But what a pity it
produces that intoxicating 'toddy' and nothing else!" Yet all the
while food and clothing and shelter and travel and learning are all
wrapped up in it, if only we were not too ignorant to guess, or too
idle to seek.

We talk as if the poet and painter had need of imagination, but not
the student, the doctor, the philanthropist, the business man, whereas
none of these can do work at a really human standard without
imagination that is living, penetrating, active and yet trained and
disciplined.

A recent illuminating address to a body of students pointed out that
Germany's immense industrial strides have been made possible by an
education which draws men's minds out of narrow old grooves, and helps
them to see and grasp wider possibilities. But the same speaker went
on to point out that the English worker has far more real initiative
and imagination than the German, and that in our own country we have
not even to make elaborate plans for developing these qualities, but
rather to release them in our administrators so far as to prevent
actually checking them in the children now growing up.

Imagination in business, for instance, means new possibilities, fresh
sources of supply and fresh markets to demand, economy of working and
better adjustment of work to worker, so as to have less waste of our
greatest capital, human time and power. America has taught us
something in these respects; what we must do is to take what new light
she has developed, while keeping our long-grown, well-earned skill
which she has not had the chance to make.

In research work, again, we need perpetually the synthetic and
constructive imagination if individual work is not to become narrowly
specialised and shut off from other divergent or parallel lines which
would illuminate it. The other day I was told of a great surgeon who
not only has six or seven assistants to help him in his immediate
tasks, but also, since he is too busy in the service of humanity to
have time for reading, has eight trained assistants whose business it
is to read in many languages what is being done all over the civilised
world in his own line, and keep him informed as to the development of
experience. A wonderful advance on the crystallisation of individual
method, this, and yet it needed but the imaginative projection upon
scientific work of what every business firm and every political unit
has long done.

To transfer to our own concerns a method developed elsewhere is one of
the most valuable services imagination can render. Almost all
educational reform comes about thus, most mechanical inventions, a
great part of economy and comfort in individual homes. Also, besides
these particular advantages, the incessant coming and going between
the different fields of activity, the circulation of attention which
this use of the imagination involves, tends to vitalise and enrich
not only the individuals who carry it out, but the whole social
organism of which they form part.

Upon the moral side not much need be said. "Put yourself in his place"
is a very old and respectable recipe for growing justice in one's
conduct, consideration in one's speech, sympathy in one's heart. As
employer or magistrate, as teacher or nurse, as customer or shopman,
as parent or husband or child we must all deal somehow with our
fellow-men: honestly and truthfully, we mean, kindly and helpfully, we
hope. But is it not the more or the less of our imagination that makes
such dealings possible? Without it, we are cruel because of something
we do not feel, unjust because there is something we do not know,
unwittingly deceitful because there is something we do not understand.
With it, our justice will support, our kindness uplift, our attempt at
help will not be barren, but will awake response and raise the whole
level of our human intercourse into a region of higher possibilities.

E.M. COBHAM.




FUTURIST GARDENING.

TO-MORROW'S FLOWERS.


These three months of July, August and September are the second
seed-time. I think they must be the most proper sowing-time, for is it
not clear that Nature sows seed, not in spring, but in autumn? At any
rate, now we can do more towards making a perpetually beautiful flower
garden than in any other season. The biennials, those that blossom in
their second year of life and those jolly perennials that come up year
after year and always stronger than before, without any trouble on our
part, are best started in life not too long before the winter.
Spring-sown seed sometimes forgets that it is biennial and blossoms
rather futilely the same summer, and at other times it grows so lush
and large by winter that it cannot stand the frost.

Now we see the flowers in blossom in the vineyards of our friend
Naboth and we know which we should most like in our own garden. There
is an exquisite joy in begging or stealing a few seeds and bringing
them home to blossom for us as they did for Naboth. I carry at this
time a few small envelopes bought for a few pence a hundred at
Straker's, and whenever I see something nice in seed I bag it. In
another week it would drop beneath the plant it grew on and, not being
cared for by a gardener, would be smothered or hoed up. In a nice
little seed-bed all to itself it can unfold all manner of pleasure for
its abductor.

Plant your flower seeds on a nice ripe, rich bed--that is, one
compounded of old and even half-used manure. Keep the seedlings
watered as they grow and by judicious pricking-out give them the room
they need. About October you can plant the best of them in the place
where you want a good bush next year, and, if it is a perennial, you
have for many years to come a beautiful plant with a personal history.
Even if you have bought your penn'orth of seed there may be a pleasant
anecdote connected with it. My garden is at present amazingly blue
with Dropmore Alkanet (Anchusa). Three years ago I bought three seeds
for a penny. Two of them came up. I slashed up the plants and now I
have half-a-dozen clumps as well as a similar number left in the old
garden whence I have removed.

If you asked me what kinds of seed in particular you ought to plant
for perennial flowers just now, I might want many more pages to tell
you in. Let me give you a very short list of those that most appeal to
me on the spur of the moment. It will be enough to go on with:--

    Trollius (globe flower).
    Helianthemum (rock rose).
    Epilobium (willow herb).

    Hollyhock.
    Echinops (globe thistle).
    Anchusa Italica, Dropmore variety.

    Lupine.
    Tritoma (red-hot poker).
    Heuchera (coral-root).
    Yarrow.

    Lychnis (garden campion).
    Inula (Elecampane).
    Funkia (Plaintain lily).
    Eremurus.

This list is representative because it includes some species, such as
Eremurus, Trollius and Tritoma, that are not usually grown from seed
by the amateur. To raise these rather expensive monsters from
pennyworths of seed is a floral adventure which brings its own
abundant reward.

I should be very proud of a garden that consisted entirely of plants
that I had raised from seed. It might be one that had never had
anything else in or the seedlings might gradually oust the bulbs and
corms and grown plants with which the garden began. There would be
many things there intrinsically as well as extrinsically valuable.
Carnation seed, for example, is constantly producing new varieties,
and to grow rose seedlings is even to court fortune. It is a long time
before you see your rose. The seed takes sometimes two years to
germinate, and then you have to wait a year or two before you get a
typical blossom. The growers hurry matters by cutting a very tiny bud
from the first sprout and splicing that on to an older stock. One of
the advantages of having your roses grown from seed and on their own
stocks would be that they could not produce wild suckers.

I have just seen a wonderful grove of Aquilegias, the glorified
columbine which has the centre of one colour and the outside petals of
another--sulphur with mauve or yellow with pink, and many other
varieties. The nucleus was grown from shop seed and the rest from the
seed of the first-comers. The only thing to choose between them is
that the new ones have produced a least one variety not represented in
the first batch. You may be sure that I am going to get some seed
from here and raise some Aquilegias for myself. Good reader, go thou
and do likewise.

G.G. DESMOND.




MIDSUMMER MADNESS.


We had come, "3.7" and I, to the Boundary, a white, unpaved road which
winds across the full width of Wimbledon Common, from the old Roman
camp to the windmill. Simultaneously we cried a halt, I because I
never cross that road without some hesitation, he because he wanted to
get out of the folding go-cart in which he had been riding and turn
it, with the aid of a small piece of string and a big piece of
imagination, into a 40-horse-power motor car.

On the map the road is not called the Boundary. If you want to know
why I call it so I can only say that once you have crossed it things
are different; I do not mean a difference merely of country or
scenery, but a difference of atmosphere; better, and more literally, a
change of spirit. To put it bluntly, I never knew the reality of
fairyland until I blundered across that road one grey gusty evening
ten years ago, and heard the tall grasses whistling in the wind. Since
then the road has always been a frontier, not to be crossed without
preparation.

As "3.7" tumbled out of his go-cart I looked at my watch and saw it
lacked but a few minutes to noon. It was just such a cloudless June
day as must have inspired Shelley's _Hymn of Apollo_. No smallest
cloud to break the dazzling blue; and, high above our heads, Apollo,
standing "at noon upon the peak of heaven."

If it had been Midsummer Day I should have thought twice about
crossing the Boundary. As it was, we were quite near enough to the
24th of June to make it risky. So, as "3.7" bent a tangled head over
the bonnet of his Daimler, I flung myself down on the level turf
beside him and stared across the road.

Behind us and on either side were clumps of gorse bushes, and beyond
them the immense level expanse of the open heath. Immediately in front
was the road, sunk a foot beneath the turf, which comes right up to
it, both on this side and that.

"Another piece of string, please," said "3.7," rummaging in my pockets
without waiting for an answer, "and a pencil, and----"

And then I saw it. On the farther side of the road there is a stretch
of short turf, some hundred yards wide; and beyond that an irregular
line of silver birches; and beyond that the blue of distant hills, for
the Common slopes down where the trees begin. Between the silvery wood
and the road, through the midst of the wide belt of turf, and parallel
with the Boundary, ran a river. There was nothing to be much surprised
at, for it was just the kind of river you would expect to see running
through the fields of fairyland. It was a river of grass.

It was the slender-stalked, tufted, not very tall, grey-headed grass
that grows quite generally in open country and wild places. But the
wind and the sun now turned it into a river which ran fast between its
banks of green, its waves silvery grey, quick-flowing waves, gleaming
and dappled, an endless succession. It flowed from somewhere out of
sight in the west, and disappeared to the east over the edge of the
great slope that brings you down to the woods, vanishing, to all
intents and purposes, over the edge of the world.

Without taking my eyes off this astonishing spectacle I stretched out
a hand and, catching "3.7" by the edge of his white smock, told him to
run across the road to the grass and--paddle in it. I said it was
better than motor cars. He made no comment on this but, after glancing
warily up and down the road (for he has been brought up in wholesome
awe of the entire tribe of automobiles), he crossed the Boundary, ran
across the turf and plunged up to his knees in the river.

I cannot be certain, but it is my considered opinion that Apollo
stopped his golden chariot for the space of a whole minute to look
down at the golden-haired boy wading in that noiseless, fast-flowing
river.

In another minute "3.7" was back at my side, both hands full of the
tufted grass he had pulled. I regret to say he tickled my ear with it.

       *       *       *       *       *

Honest, solemn reader, ardent food reformer, keen educationist,
clear-headed moralist, practical-minded housewife, I tell you frankly
there is no moral to this little episode. It throws no light on what
to eat, or on the purchasing power of an English shilling, or on the
ethical training of young children, or on the nature of neurasthenia.
Fairyland, of course, is a childish fiction, Apollo a solar myth, a
road is a road, grass is grass and heaven is a state of mind. I quite
agree with you. But let me whisper something in your ear. If you
should ever blunder across your Boundary, don't be surprised if things
look queer on the other side; above all, whatever you do, don't let
any strange river you may find flowing there carry you away, or it may
bring you, spite of all your protests, through one of the gates of
pearl into the City of God.

EDGAR J. SAXON.




A SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR MENTAL HEALING.


There is a vast amount of loose talk, and innumerable assertions from
irresponsible individuals concerning the wonders that have been
achieved by Mental Healing, but naturally the scientist and physician,
when dealing with such a question as this, has to put aside, not all
enthusiasm, but certainly all emotionalism, and then, most carefully
sift the evidence laid before him. The scientist here wants hard, dry,
irrefutable facts; the responsible physician requires to know--by his
own careful diagnosis or by an array of tabulated facts--the condition
of the patient before and after treatment--that is, of the one who
claims to have been cured by mental means. Innumerable claims are
thus being made by patients and others, so that it is imperative for
the unbiased physician at all events to consider the above question;
this in order to give a reason for the faith that is in him, when he
is known to be one of those who favour the metaphysical means of
healing. Even the sciolist in the matter knows that in the case, say,
of blushing, or blanching of the face, the action of mind over
matter--of the body--is palpable; all admit that the quality of joy,
for instance, will prove a splendid tonic; that despair, on the other
hand, will pull down the bodily condition. But all this, we shall be
told, is unconscious action; true, but fortunately we are now aware
that by a forceful action of the will we can _consciously_ direct or
derivate, as the case may be, currents of nerve-force to any part of
the body. Occultists have known this for many centuries. Joy, hope,
faith: these are very potent factors in improving the health
conditions--simply because they act upon the sympathetic nervous
system, and this latter acts upon the circulation. Happiness dilates
the blood-vessels. Fear contracts them. Thus, unbounded faith; renewed
hope; sudden joy; enforced will-power; all have a marked effect upon
bringing about an equilibriated condition of the circulation--just the
same as a hot bath does, though not so rapidly or so perceptibly.
Further, we must remember that all disease more or less is a stasis, a
congestion, somewhere; we have only to dissipate this; to separate the
cells; to expand the part, as it were, and "resolution," as we call it
in congestion of the lungs, takes place. So that it seems to me that
we can fairly claim a strictly scientific basis for Mental Healing. I
have always, however, maintained that the attitude of the patient's
own mind has much to do with the result: in his consciousness there
must be faith and hope in order to get the best effect.

Judging, then, of the very remarkable and palpable changes which
anyone can see occur on such superficial parts as the face and
extremities, I can see no reason that, by an enforced mental action,
the deeper parts--including any hidden diseased part--should not be
altered for good. I am very confident that it is upon these lines,
coupled, as they can always be, with advice as to clean feeding and
right living generally, the physician of the future will largely
depend for his cures. Thus we are fully justified in not only trying
the system on "functional," but also for "organic," cases.

J. STENSON HOOKER, M.D.




A SIGNIFICANT CASE.

ACCOUNT OF A FAST, UNDERTAKEN FOR THE CURE OF A PROFOUND BLOOD
DISEASE.


The following account of a fast is worthy of attention. It is rigidly
accurate _in principle_, as far as I could make it so, and I am
responsible for its truthfulness. But the subject of it, feeling that
he is engaged in a duty and "labour of love," as he expresses it, is
yet naturally anxious to prevent his identity from being discovered;
and so, while the facts of the narrative are true in principle they
have been varied in a few details for the purpose of preventing the
recognition of the subject of them.

They occurred in the history of a man of about 40 years of age, who
fell ill of an infectious disease some 20 years ago, while living
abroad. The exact time of the infection is not known. The patient was
treated by qualified doctors living in the same country as himself,
and there is no reason to believe that he was not properly and
skilfully treated. He had, however, for years buoyed himself up with
the hope that he should be able to come to England for the best
treatment, and recently he found himself in this country for that
purpose. It goes without saying that the eminent men consulted treated
him after the most modern and approved methods, which were also, so
far as knowledge goes, the most likely to benefit him. Not only as to
treatment must it be assumed that the best was done, but the diagnosis
also is supported by the authority of the doctors seen, and was
confirmed by physiological and pathological investigation. This would
be recognised if it were possible to publish names, places and dates
which are withheld from the courteous reader for the reason already
given. I can only say that I entirely concur in the diagnosis and in
the suitability of the treatment.

The man came under my care on a Sunday, the fast, which is the subject
matter of this communication, having been commenced on the Friday six
weeks before that day, the last food having been taken on the Thursday
at 5 P.M. I saw him, therefore, on the forty-fifth day of the fast.
His pulse was 59, soft, steady, regular. Temp. 96.8 degrees, about 11
A.M. He was able to be up, and walked actively, all his bodily
movements being active and his mind quite clear and rational. His
weight on the day after I first saw him was, in the same clothes as
when weighed at the beginning of the fast, 129+1/2 lbs. He said he
weighed 171 lbs. on the machine at the commencement, and therefore the
loss of bodily weight up to that time was 41.5 lbs. The average loss
of weight during the 46 days of the fast was about nine-tenths of a
pound daily if the 41.5 lbs. loss is divided by the 46 days of the
continuance of the fast up to that time--41.5/46=.9 lbs. almost
exactly.

When he came to my consulting room on the forty-sixth day, about 2.15
P.M., the pulse was 64, temp. 95.6 degrees (thermometer 3 minutes
under tongue). He was much troubled with a nasty expectoration of
mucus. His breath was very offensive. No enlarged glands could be felt
in either groin--perhaps a trifling enlargement in the right. In
middle of front border of right tibia a little irregularity is felt,
and a small hollow, which he thinks is filling up; but it might be
that the exudation on the bone immediately above and below the hollow
is somewhat reduced, as this would equally give the suggestion that
the hollow is filling up. There is a similar but rather smaller
irregularity on the left tibia also. He felt rather weak that day,
which he attributed to not having had his usual walk the day before.
The nasal cavity consists of a large grey septumless cavern showing
dry crusts. The issuing breath is most offensive. Patient had drunk
freely of water, he said, to the extent of 4 or 5 quarts a day during
the fast but when I said--do you mean that you have been taking over a
gallon of water daily?--he rather hesitated, and did not think it was
so much as that. He had not measured it and had taken it cold usually,
though occasionally hot, and had taken it without stint as he wanted
it. On the forty-eighth day of the fast he complained of being weak
but worst of all, he said, his breath was very offensive to himself.
It was so to me also--faint, fetid, putrid. His sense of smell was
greatly impaired, so much so that he could not smell the offensiveness
of the bowel-excreta which came away every day on using the
gravitation-enema, and which were horrible to by-standers. It would
seem from this as if his distress at the bad smell of his breath was
probably due to a perversion of the sense of smell, which can be
easily understood if we reflect that the disease-process was going on
in the region where the smell-apparatus is specially located. The
temperature was 96.2 degrees that morning the patient said. At 2 P.M.
when I saw him the pulse was 68, regular, even, steady. He says he was
feverish last night. I suppose he felt hot. He sleeps well, but says
he hears the clogs of the mill-hands as they go to their work in the
mornings. Has lost 2 lbs. weight in last 2 days. Temp. 93.6 degrees to
my observation 2.30 P.M. Says he feels "done at the stomach." His
voice is poor. Expectorates somewhat freely. A small blob of green
thickish mucus in ordinary white mucus came away in my presence. Urine
acid 1010. No glucose. Faint trace of albumin to heat and picric
acid: also to nitric acid. The right lachrymal punctum is blocked; the
tears run down the cheek; and I failed to get even a hair-thick wire
into it. Evening, pulse 65, temp. 97.2 degrees in bed with hot-water
bottle. Faeces most offensive, no bowel-excreta coming away except to
enema. Forty-ninth day. In bed, temp. 97.2 degrees, pulse 65, soft,
steady, regular. No great emaciation of limbs. Showed me some green
expectoration. He says it is from Salvarsan as it is exactly like what
he was injected with! The motion to the enema as offensive as before,
but the breath is less offensive to me: not so fetid.

On this day patient completed 7 weeks of fasting. Feels sick and as if
he would vomit. About midday he did vomit about a teaspoonful of dark
green stuff, very bitter and acid (bile, I should call it, though he
calls it "pure citric acid") and immediately after that he got rid of
a motion without the use of the enema, brown, dark and very offensive
still. I think the breath, however, is rather less offensive; and so I
thought also two days ago. Temp. 97, pulse 67, soft, steady, regular;
about 1.30 P.M. In bed since fiftieth day of fast. Not feeling very
ill and not specially emaciated, though the buttocks are thinning; but
legs and thighs and arms and forearms not specially thin. He came to
me to be weighed on the forty-ninth day and weighed 127+1/2 lbs.
Fifty-second day of fast. Still in bed. Condition much the same as to
pulse, temperature, etc., and as to emaciation so far as observation
goes. Remained in bed, not because unable to be up, but because he
thought it would be better for him to be resting. On the fifty-fourth
day, as he still felt sick, I gave him, at his request, an emetic in
the form of 10 grains of copper-sulphate. This was followed by
sickness after about an hour, when he got rid of a very little of the
same green stuff as before. Bile? But the difficulty is to understand
how, after all this time of fasting, he should still feel sick and
with inclination to vomit. On the fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth days of
the fast he remained in bed, the condition being much the same. On
Thursday, the fifty-sixth day, he broke the fast at 5 P.M., just 8
weeks after beginning it. He had meant to go on for 60 days, and I did
not think that there would have been any danger in his doing so; but I
did not press him to continue any longer. He took 3 oranges on that
day; and on the Friday he took 5 more. I advised him not to increase
the quantity of food too quickly. The breath has been quite sweet
during the last two days. He has been too weak to take enemata, so we
cannot say if motions would still have been offensive. And as there is
no weighing machine in his room, we don't know the exact loss of
weight sustained during the fast, though there is no reason to think
that it has averaged more than .9 lb. a day. Up to the time of
stopping the enemata, pieces of mucous membrane and mucus itself came
away from the bowel, and the motions were very offensive. He seems to
have a mucous enteritis without fever.

On the fourth day after breaking the fast, patient took 6 oranges, 4
apples and a banana; and he ordered much more food, which, however, I
advised him not to take. On this day his bowels were opened naturally,
with a very offensive motion. But the breath was much sweeter, in fact
not offensive at all.

On the sixth day he came to my consulting-room and weighed 128 lbs.
Pulse 80, soft, steady, regular. He had not slept all night and had
had to be up no fewer than 6 times to have his bowels opened. No
diarrhoea, he said, but full motions, the first 3 very offensive.
Breath not offensive. Has dry pharyngitis and is complaining of sore
throat.

Next day. Weight 133 lbs. Bowels acted again, 1 A.M., 3 A.M., 6 A.M.,
9 A.M. and 1 P.M. Large motions. I told him I thought he was taking
too much food. Pulse 104. Not sleeping well. Complained of sore
throat.

Eighth day. Weight 138 lbs., a gain of 5 lbs. a day for 2 days. Pulse
80 at 7 A.M. (his own statement), at 2.30 P.M. pulse 100, temp. 99.4
degrees. Bowels acted at 12 midnight, 3.30 A.M. and about 11 A.M. Went
that day to have his photograph taken. The throat was better. Tongue
dry and leathery. It was plain to me that he was taking too much food.
He was having a mixed diet and taking much and often. He said his
"mouth was coming to pieces," and in fact the mucous membrane was
glazed and peeling; also the lips. On the ninth day he returned home.

The loss of weight can be seen from the following statement. On
commencing the fast the weight was 171 lbs.

    First day          weight was 171     lbs.
    Sixth day            "     "  165+1/2  "
    Seventh day          "     "  163+1/2  "
    Twelfth day          "     "  158      "
    Fifteenth day        "     "  155+1/2  "
    Eighteenth day       "     "  150+1/2  "
    Twenty-fifth day     "     "  142+1/2  "
    Forty-seventh day    "     "  129+1/2  "
    Forty-ninth day      "     "  127+1/2  "

Fast ended on fifty-sixth day. On the sixth day after breaking the
fast the weight was 128 lbs. On the next day it had risen to 133 lbs.
and on the following day to 138 lbs. In the first 47 days of the fast
the loss of weight was 43.5 lbs., or an average loss of .888 lbs.
daily (43.5/49=.888 lbs.) The loss of weight for the last 8 days
before the fast was broken is not known as patient was in bed, though
it probably was at much the same rate as during the other times of the
fast when the weight was taken on the scales.

The following comparative measurements are interesting. Of course he
had been eating for a week after the termination of his fast, so that
the measurements taken on that day would be higher probably than if
they had been taken seven days before, when he broke the fast.


BODILY MEASUREMENTS.

                 _At Commencement_       _At Termination_
                 _of Fast._              _of Fast._

    Forearm      11     inches              9+5/8  inches
    Arm          11+1/2   "                 8+3/4     "
    Hips         38       "                 32+1/2    "
    Thigh        21+1/4   "                 16        "
    Pelvis       37+1/2   "                 30+1/2    "
    Calf[1]      15+1/4   "                 13+1/2    "
    Neck         14+1/2   "                 12+1/2    "
    Chest        38       "          31+1/4 to 34+1/2 "

[1] There was a bundle of varicose veins behind right calf.

Patient kept a diary during his fast, but it does not seem necessary
to reproduce its statements here. It shows that he walked about during
the time, notes the state of the weather as foggy or very foggy or
freezing, mentions that water was taken, sometimes hot apparently, as
on 15th March, "after glass of hot water, pulse 70, temperature 98+1/2
degrees." No doubt drinking the hot water had elevated temporarily the
mouth-temperature, as it does. The diary also notes that he felt weak,
had a bath, or did not have a bath, notes the pulse-rate, etc., as
also the effects of the daily enemata. On the twenty-ninth day of the
fast he took a bottle of Apenta Water. Such are samples of statements
from the diary.

A. RABAGLIATI, M.A., M.D.

_The remainder of this article deals with conclusions of great
interest and value, and will appear in our next issue._--[EDS.]




HEALTHY LIFE RECIPES.

SALADS AND SALAD DRESSINGS.


For salads it is not necessary to depend entirely upon the usual salad
vegetables such as lettuce, watercress, mustard and cress.

The very finely shredded hearts of raw brussel sprouts are excellent,
and even the heart of a savoy cabbage. Then the finely chopped inside
sticks of a tender head of celery are very good; also young spinach
leaves, dandelion leaves, endive, sorrel and young nasturtium leaves.

Then there are the onion family (for those who can take them), the
tender kinds, such as spring onion, chive and shallot being very good
when chopped finely and used as a minor ingredient in any salad.

The root vegetables should also be added in their season, raw carrot,
turnip, beet, artichoke and leek, all finely grated.

A taste for all the above-mentioned vegetables, eaten raw, is not
acquired all at once. It is best to begin by making the salad of the
ingredients usually preferred and mixing in a small quantity of one or
two of the new ingredients.

For those who find salads very difficult to digest, it is best to
begin with French or cabbage lettuce and skinned tomatoes only, or, as
an alternative, a saucerful of watercress chopped very finely, as one
chops parsley.

Any salad, however made up, should be served in as dainty and pleasing
a fashion as possible. It is, perhaps, usually best to serve it ready
chopped and shredded, and to allow each person at the table to take
his or her own helping of "dressing."

English people seldom serve salad in the French fashion--that is,
quite dry, save that the dressing is well mixed in an hour before the
meal. Readers who have been to France may have seen French peasant
women whirling a wire salad-basket round their heads in order to dry
the materials after the cleansing has been done. When dry, the
green-stuff is torn with the hands, the dressing (and the French know
all about salad dressings) is added and the whole allowed to stand
some little time, so that by the time the meal is served there is a
complete blending of all flavours.

Not everyone likes this method; but it is certainly better than the
customary method here, which too often leaves a little puddle of water
at the bottom of the bowl.

There are many ways of preparing good salad dressing without resort to
vinegar, salt and pepper. The two prime necessities are (1) really
good oil and (2) some kind of fresh fruit juice. Most people prefer
lemon juice or the juice of fresh West Indian limes, well mixed into
either olive oil, nut oil or a blended oil such as the "Protoid Fruit
Oil" or Mapleton's Salad Oil. The ordinary "salad oils" obtainable at
grocers are seldom to be recommended; they almost invariably contain
chemical preservatives and other adulterants. It is better to have the
best oil and use it sparingly if need be, than take any faked product
just because it is cheap.

With most people the addition of pure oil assists the digestion of the
salad, as well as serving other purposes in the body.

Many excellent salad recipes and suggestions for novel yet simple
"dressings" will be found in _Unfired Food in Practice_, by Stanley
Gibbon.[2]

[2] 1s. net; 1s. 1+1/2d. post paid, from the office of _The Healthy
Life_, 3 Amen Corner, London, E.C.




PICKLED PEPPERCORNS.

_This, which is a regular feature of THE HEALTHY LIFE, is not intended
as a household guide or home-notes column, but rather as an
inconsequent commentary on current thought._--[EDS.]


    An interesting booklet by Raymond Blathwayt with samples of Bath
    Mustard will be sent free on application to J. & J. Colman, Ltd.
    (Dept. 49) Norwich.--Advt. in _Punch_.

Rumours are also afloat that G.K. Chesterton has written a brilliant
booklet on Eiffel Tower Lemonade, and that the Attorney General has
been commissioned to write a highly interesting brochure on American
macaroni.

       *       *       *       *       *

   "I enclose you a photo of my baby, Willie, aged fifteen months.
    He was given up by two doctors, and then I consulted another, who
    advised me to try ----'s Food, which I did, and he is still
    having it. You can see what a fine healthy boy he is now, and his
    flesh is as hard as iron."--From an advt. in _Lady's Companion_.

Evidently a case of advanced arterio-sclerosis.

       *       *       *       *       *

    HEALTH BISCUITS. Nice and Tasty, handled by our 55 salesmen
    daily.--Advt. in _Montreal Daily Star_.

One reason, perhaps, why both the public and the sales have
declined.

       *       *       *       *       *

            WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE FOR A PERFECT SKIN?
                        Is 3d. too much?
    Many perfect skins to-day are traced to a single sample.
                                 --Advt. in _Lady's Companion_.

The price is reasonable; but I think I would rather see a sample
first, wouldn't you?

       *       *       *       *       *

    OUR SPECIAL FILLING FAST--Headline in _Daily News_.

The correct antidote for the well-known "starvation of
over-repletion."

       *       *       *       *       *

    Cold Anniversary Raised Pie and New Potato Salad.--From the
    _Seventh Anniversary Menu of The Eustace Miles Restaurant_.

I am told that one old gentleman, misled by the chef's quite innocent
use of adjectives, protested to a waitress that the day was really
very warm; also that a youthful wag obliterated the initial C from his
menu with a pen-knife and then inquired which was the better vintage,
'06 or '09.

       *       *       *       *       *

    But to contend that there is no difference between a good yellow
    man and a good white man is like saying that a vegetarian chop of
    minced peas is like a chop of the chump variety.--_New Witness_.

Chop-chop--as the good yellow man might be tempted to say if he came
upon this specimen of white wisdom.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Canvassers can make a very good profit by selling a patent
    ladies' folding handbag, also wristlet watches.--Advt. in _Daily
    Mail_.

Nevertheless, the only place for a patent lady is a registry
office.

       *       *       *       *       *

    CAKEOMA PUDDING? You cannot know how delicious they are until you
    have tasted them.--Advt. in _Lady's Companion_.

One of the things that would never have occurred to you if you hadn't
seen it expressed so clearly.

       *       *       *       *       *

    SAXON.--How cruel of you. Although I have not the honour of cap
    and gown, I do possess a Classical Dictionary. If I can help
    further, write again. Regarding the recipe, it depends upon its
    nature. Perhaps VERA is the lady to whom you should address your
    question--_Lady's Companion_.

My colleague, Mr Edgar J. Saxon, denies all knowledge of this affair.
But I do wish he would be a little more careful in future.

PETER PIPER.




HEALTH QUERIES.

_Under this heading Dr Knaggs deals briefly month by month, and
according as space permits, with questions of general interest._

_Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on one side only of
the paper, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as a
guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a stamped
addressed envelope must be enclosed._--[EDS.]


CAN MALARIA BE PREVENTED?

    A. de L. (Lisbon) writes:--For five months I have been a strict
    "fruitarian," and as I am obliged now to go to Mozambique
    (Portuguese East Africa) to remain there five rears, I should be
    much obliged to you if you kindly let me know what I must do to
    prevent the African fever and biliousness which seem to afflict
    all Europeans in that part of the world. Any hints you could give
    me as to maintaining health in such a climate would be most
    gratefully acknowledged.

I do not think that it is possible for any European, whether he adopts
fruitarian or ordinary diet, to entirely escape malaria, since it is
caused by a minute parasite which is forced into the blood by a
certain form of biting mosquito.

The parasite will, however, surely gain less hold on one whose blood
is clean and pure and whose vital force is strong, than on one who
dissipates his strength by partaking of meat, alcohol, tea, coffee and
other stimulants, or who otherwise gets his blood into a bad state by
faulty diet generally.

Therefore, the thing this correspondent should do is to live as much
as possible upon the simple frugal fare of the natives. He can take
raw coker-nut freely and eat the fresh fruits which grow in this part
of Africa. If he can obtain pineapple or papaw he will find these
excellent to help him to retain his health and strength in this
country.


UNFIRED DIET FOR A CHILD: IS IT SUITABLE?

    Mrs L.B.F. writes:--My husband and I are much interested in _The
    Healthy Life_, deriving much benefit and good advice from its
    pages. It is the only magazine, we find, which answers questions
    that we have long been puzzling over. Reading a work of the
    "Montessori Method" of training children last night I was
    disturbed to find I had, according to that book, been feeding my
    little boy, aged three years, all wrong. It says: "Raw vegetables
    should not be given to a child and not many cooked ones. Nuts,
    dates, figs and all dried fruits should be withheld. Soups made
    with bread, oil, bread and butter, milk, eggs, etc., are the
    principal foods Dr Montessori recommends. She also advocates the
    use of sugar."

    Our boy has nuts, ground and whole, all the fresh fruits and
    dried ones, salads, brown bread and nut butter, sometimes dairy
    butter, no milk, his food mostly uncooked, as we ourselves
    believe in. If Dr Valentine Knaggs would give us his opinion on
    this I should be very grateful. The boy is healthy, but I notice
    a slight puffiness below the eyes of late in the morning. Also
    his temper does not improve as he gets older. Will he be having
    too much proteid (nuts) for one of his years, or is the temper
    natural as a result of bad discipline. His father is away all
    day, and mothers are, as a rule, soft marks, are they not?

It is difficult to answer fully a question of this sort, as so much
depends on the child's temperament and environment. A frail, delicate
child with the promise of high mental development requires a finer and
softer grade of nutriment than one of a coarse animal nature with
strong, well-developed digestive organs.

All healthy children, especially boys (as Mr Saxon will attest!), are
full of mischief and restlessness, which it is the duty of a mother or
a nurse to divert into right channels.[3] The display of temper is
probably an indication of this not being done, though it _may_ be due
in part to the raw diet not suiting the child.

[3] This correspondent, and all mothers of difficult children, should
study the works of Mary Everest Boole, published by C.W. Daniel, Ltd.;
also _The Children All Day Long_, by E.M. Cobham.--[EDS.]

The advice I would give would be to alter the diet and make it
lighter.

From my point of view, Dr Montessori has not given sufficient
attention to the other side of the diet question, preferring to remain
more on the side of orthodoxy. Moreover, her own work has been done in
Italy, where a climate prevails which does not call for so free a use
of vegetables and salads as is the case in our own cooler and bleaker
clime.

I suggest, as a beginning, the following diet might be tried, but it
is necessarily impossible to guarantee good results unless the cause
of the puffy eyes and temper have been definitely located by personal
examination:--

_On rising._--A raw ripe apple, finely grated, or simply scraped out
with a silver spoon.

_Breakfast at 8._--A scrambled egg on a Granose biscuit with a little
finely chopped salad or finely grated; raw roots appetisingly served
with a dressing of oil, lemon juice and a little honey. This to be
followed by an "Ixion" or "P.R." biscuit, with fresh butter.

_Dinner at 2._--Home-made cottage cheese, or cream cheese, or a nut
meat (served cold out of the tin, or, better still, home-made). Two
casserole-cooked vegetables, done with a little fruit juice and lemon
to retain colour. This to be followed by a baked apple with cream and
a little home-made, unfired pudding made of dried fruits.

_Supper at 5._--A slice of "Maltweat" bread, and butter, and a cupful
of clear vegetable soup, or some hot water with some lemon juice
added, and slightly sweetened with a little honey.


GIDDINESS AND HEAD TROUBLE.

    Mrs L.B.F. also writes:--I sometimes think I must make dietetic
    mistakes. My husband thinks I am perfectly healthy, so I do not
    say anything of the giddiness in the morning and after eating, a
    drowsiness and slight pain at the back of the head and underneath
    one of my ears. Also under my eyes is on some mornings quite
    swollen and puffed up. It is not so marked, but I am quite
    conscious of it. Our diet consists mostly of a salad, with bread
    or baked potato and cheese or ground nuts or cooked brussels
    sprouts and a nut meat pie, apple pie and cream, with brown bread
    and butter, or a raw fruit meal, nuts, apples, grapes, figs,
    dates and no bread.

    Two meals a day, first in the morning at eight o'clock, second at
    two or three in the afternoon. A glass of hot water with lemon at
    nine P.M., and the same in the morning. I do some exercises night
    and morning and am out in the fresh air often through the day. We
    live in the country and I have every chance of keeping myself
    healthy. Perhaps I should say I do not eat many nuts, finding
    them rather difficult to digest. Should I use an enema when I
    feel like this, or wait for natural results?

The symptoms of which L.B.F. complains are in all probability due to
flatulence and to general disturbances of the digestive process.

Perhaps it would be a good plan to make the diet lighter. The nuts
could be omitted and cheese or eggs substituted. An evening meal would
be helpful.

As to the bowels, some senna and camomile tea at bedtime would help to
clear them. Unless there is distinct evidence of faecal retention in
the colon it is better not to use the enema as a regular thing.

_On rising._--A tumblerful of Sanum Tonic Tea made with hot,
preferably distilled, water.

_Breakfast._--An all-fruit meal consisting of nothing but apples,
bananas, grapes, or orange, or any fresh ripe fruit that is in season.

_Dinner at 12.30._--A cooked meal consisting of two casserole-cooked
vegetables, with grated cheese as a sauce dressing, with some
twice-baked or well toasted bakers' bread, followed by a baked apple
and cream. (Omit nut meat pie and apple pie.)

_Tea meal at 5._--2 oz. of cottage cheese or cream cheese, wholemeal
bread and butter, small plateful of finely grated raw roots with an
appetising dressing containing some "Protoid Fruit-Oil."

_Bedtime._--Tumblerful of hot water (preferably distilled) to which
senna leaves and German camomile flowers (very little) have been
steeped to infuse; or a cupful of dandelion coffee could be taken if
the bowels are regularly acting.


LONG-STANDING GASTRIC TROUBLE.

    W.T. writes:--Having tried a diet, recommended in _The Healthy
    Life_, for a month I find the nuts and cheese are far too heavy
    for the apparent weak condition of my stomach, also that the
    salads and casserole-baked vegetables are too irritating to the
    membrane of the stomach. I have no desire to return to flesh food
    and ordinary feeding, which I feel would not be good for me. From
    eggs I cannot obtain any good results. The continuance of loss of
    weight is worrying me, being down to eight stone from eleven
    stone in twelve months. I feel satisfied it is only a question of
    diet, if I could only strike the correct one. I am naturally most
    anxious to regain some of my lost strength and weight. I am at
    present taking bread and butter, cooked fruit, and occasionally
    an egg, boiled rice, vegetables and a little dried fruit. No
    matter how light I make my diet I still suffer after every meal
    with dilated stomach and irregular working of the heart. Blood
    circulation is still bad and constipation is gradually getting
    worse. As before stated, I am anxious to succeed with the
    reformed diet, but I am really at a loss to know which way to
    proceed to make any progress. As I was in South Africa twenty
    years, and only returned to England just before this catarrh set
    in, is the climate here against my progress, do you think? I am
    so sorry to take up so much of your time, but shall be grateful
    for any help you can give me which will be greatly appreciated.

It is difficult to advise how best to proceed in this case as our
correspondent really ought to seek medical advice. Only in this way
can he obtain really satisfactory guidance. For without knowing the
state of his blood and the organs generally it is impossible to advise
correctly. Speaking generally, until salads and casserole-cooked
vegetables can be taken freely there can be no possible permanent
cure.

In many such cases the best way to train the digestive organs into a
healthy state is to keep to a diet consisting chiefly of dextrinised
cereals, which must be eaten dry, with some vegetables and as little
fresh fruit as possible. This to be continued until little by little
the raw salad vegetables are found to agree; then the rest is easy.

A diet on the following lines would probably be a good temporary
measure:--

_Breakfast._--One egg lightly boiled, poached or baked, with two
Granose biscuits and fresh butter, eaten dry.

_Dinner._--Brusson Jeune bread (one or two rolls) with butter, and
small helping of vegetables, cooked at _first_ in the orthodox way.

_Supper._--Plateful of boiled rice (cooked dry in the Indian
fashion[4]) with a tablespoonful of good malt extract.

No sugar, honey, stewed fruit, or dried fruit should be taken until
improvement has set in. As little fluid as possible should be taken
until the stomach has regained more tone and become more normal in
size.

[4] See _The Healthy Life Cook Book_. 1s. net (post free, 1s. 1+1/2d.).


SEVERE DIGESTIVE CATARRH.

    Miss S.L.P. writes:--I should like a little help as to diet. I
    have just had an attack of epidemic influenza with throat
    trouble, so that I feel very much run down and unfit for a diet
    too depleting in character. For over four years I have adopted a
    non-flesh diet on account of a tendency to chronic catarrh of the
    whole alimentary tract, due to rheumatic tendencies which affect
    me internally rather than externally. The continuous damp weather
    has produced much gastric irritation, and frequent acidity.

    I cannot discover a diet that is convenient and at the same time
    sufficiently nourishing. I lose flesh on what I take, and I have
    none to spare, though at one time I was inclined to be stout. My
    age is forty-eight.

    I take three meals a day. A light breakfast either of "Maltweat"
    bread or "P.R." Cracker biscuits and butter, with tomato or fresh
    fruit or occasionally an egg. For midday meal an egg or milled
    cheese, or nuts or cream cheese, with a baked potato and a
    conservatively cooked vegetable. Occasionally I have a little
    salad and grated carrot, but unless I am better than usual I
    cannot digest these. The evening meal consists of "Maltweat"
    bread or "P.R." Cracker biscuits or Granose flakes, with cream
    cheese. As a child I suffered constantly from colds in the head,
    but now my troubles are oftener internal.

    The action of the bowels is irregular. I depend chiefly upon an
    enema of warm water when constipation is present.

    I never drink tea, only hot water, or Emprote and water, or
    occasionally vegetable juices or fruit juices. I find I am better
    without much fluid.

So far as it is possible to judge from this letter, this correspondent
is suffering not only from stomach and bowel catarrh, but her
condition as a whole is unsatisfactory. The vital force is depleted
and the nervous system is not doing efficient work.

She needs suitable treatment to remove the acid and toxins with which
the system is evidently clogged. This is not an easy task, for as soon
as elimination begins trouble arises in the form of influenza or other
similar derangements. These are probably little else but attempts on
the part of nature to rouse the vital force of the body into action
with a view to clearing out the clogging poisons.

Waste clearing should be done gradually. The skin should be made to
act better by means of home Turkish baths, or by wet-sheet packs. Then
mustard poultices can be applied _along the course of the spine_ and
massage with suitable manipulations can be applied to the muscles and
bones which make up the spine. The daily practising of the excellent
and simple breathing and bending exercises described in Muller's _My
System for Ladies_[5] will be very helpful. By means such as these the
body will be gradually cleared of its poisons, and so the nervous
system will be made to do better work.

The diet specified can be continued.

H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.

[5] 2s. 8d. post free from the office of _The Healthy Life_, 3 Amen
Corner, London, E.C.

       *       *       *       *       *

_May we ask the co-operation of all our readers during the holiday
season in the following way. On holidays you are bound to meet fresh
people, and make new acquaintances, and even friends. We suggest you
purchase a few extra copies of _THE HEALTHY LIFE_ before you start and
hand them on to any likely to be interested. People tell us the
magazine is its own recommendation. This does not mean that you need
not add your own. The circulation grows steadily, but it is far short
of what it might easily be if every reader were to gain one fresh
reader every month._--[EDS.]


MORE APPRECIATIONS.

I want to say how very interesting and helpful I find _The Healthy
Life_, and it is always a pleasure to buy an extra copy to give to
friends, for I always feel it will do them good to read it, and
perhaps make regular subscribers of them.

H. BARTHOLOMEW, Knebworth.




                                 THE

                               HEALTHY

                                LIFE

                           The Independent
                           Health Magazine.

                      3 AMEN CORNER LONDON E.C.


              VOL. V                              AUGUST
              No. 25.                              1913


    _There will come a day when physiologists, poets, and
    philosophers will all speak the same language and understand one
    another._--CLAUDE BERNARD.




AN INDICATION.


The pursuit of health, considered from the negative standpoint, is the
flight from pain.

And pain is the great mystery of life.

James Hinton, himself a well-known physician of his time, attempted to
solve the mystery of pain by showing that it is the accompaniment of
imperfection. That what is now experienced as pain might be exquisite
pleasure given a higher stage of human development.

But this, after all, only shifts the mystery one step farther. Instead
of the mystery of pain we have the mystery of imperfection. Yet to
image perfection is always to image something incapable of growth or
further development.

Take, for example, a perfect circle. So long as it remains unbroken,
flawless, the line (or infinite number of lines) composing it cannot
be continued or extended. But given a break in the line and it may be
continued round and round, up and up (or down and down) into an
infinitely ascending spiral. This possibility of extension depends on
a break, on an imperfection.

It does not follow, of course, that every flaw in human nature is
always the starting-point of new growth, every failure a
stepping-stone to greater knowledge, but the possibility is there. It
is for men to see that they do not neglect their opportunities.--[EDS.]




IMAGINATION IN PLAY.

_Regular readers will recognise in this wonderfully simple and
suggestive article a continuation of the series previously entitled
"Healthy Brains." The author of "The Children All Day Long" is an
intimate disciple of one of the greatest living psychologists, and she
has a message of the first importance to all who realise that true
health depends as much on poise of mind as on physical fitness._--[EDS.]


The fruit of imagination ripens into deeds actually done in the
service of man: its flower brightens the whole of life and makes it
fragrant, from the budding-time of children's play and laughter to the
developed blossoms of the creative imagination which we call painting
or poetry or music.

Play and art have this in common, that they are activities pursued for
the sake of the activity itself, not as a means to any other object,
not aiming at any material usefulness. Actually, of course, there is
nothing more useful, on every scale of usefulness, than the
development of the individual in art or play, but these would never be
really themselves while an ulterior purpose formed a background to
them in consciousness.

Physical exercises devised for the sake of health are a more or less
pleasant form of work; they do not take the place of play. Our
ordinary work is usually more or less one-sided and unbalanced in the
demands it makes upon us; we therefore try to find what other set of
movements will undo this unbalancement and give us back unbiased
bodies. When that is done, and not till then, we get freedom, and it
is at that moment that real "play" begins--the use of the freed
muscles according to our own will and pleasure.

The same thing is perhaps true in connection with our minds. We all
see the fallacy of the old-fashioned hustlers' cry, "Make your work
your hobby; think of nothing else; let every moment be subordinated to
the dominating idea of your career; put aside all sentimentalism, all
laziness and self-will, all enthusiasm about things not in your own
line of work."

We have come to see that this kind of effort leads often to nervous
breakdown and early death; always to a certain narrowing of sympathy
and hardening of method even in the career itself. So we
conscientiously "take up" a hobby or a sport and set aside some hour
or day for indulgence in it. We make it a duty to lay aside for the
time being all idea of duties; part of our work is to learn to rest.

So far so good. But does all this go far enough?

Work imposed by any set of outer needs puts the whole being under a
certain strain. The aim of remedial exercises, prescribed rest-times
and legal holidays is to undo this strain, to unwind us from our coil
by twisting us the other way.

When this has been satisfactorily done, too often the person
responsible thinks that this is enough. But it is really and truly at
this moment that one is beginning one's real life.

When the body is freed from strain and weariness is the time to leap
and dance and sing and wrestle.

When the mind is free from prejudice and weariness is the time for its
original activity to begin; new thoughts spring up unbidden and the
creative imagination lives and grows.

(In the sphere of will, many great sages have said that an analogous
sequence holds good. When the whole emotional and moral nature has
thrown itself in a particular direction, and then an unwinding has
taken place, the moment of completed renunciation has been said to be
the dawn of some great new spiritual light.)

Who does not know the peaceful activity of a Sunday evening, the
fruitful quiet of a long railway journey or sea-voyage _at the end_ of
a holiday? Two friends walk slowly home together after an exciting
expedition or debate; two girls give each other their confidence while
brushing their hair after a dance.

Why is this so? Nowadays people are very ready to answer the question
by refusing the fact. It is waste of time not to be _doing_ something
strenuously. Rest is almost as strenuous as everything else; it is to
be thorough while it is the duty on hand and is to fit exactly on to
the work time, without overlapping but without interspace.

In this way too often the imagination, the really individual part of
the mind, is starved and atrophied. Especially in childhood there
ought to be a space left between useful work and ordered play for the
individually invented games, the pursuits that are not for any
definite end, for dreams and lived-out tales, when the child may make
what he likes, do what he likes, and in imagination be what he likes.
If we scrupulously respected this growing-time we should soon have a
race of sturdier mettle altogether. Just now this particular want is
probably most nearly supplied among elementary school children than
among those who have more "educational advantages"; they "go out to
play" in the streets for hours every day, and one cannot help thinking
that it is the vitality thus evolved that keeps most of them healthy
and happy in spite of many hardships.

In later life, if we really want to make something of our lives, we
shall do well to insist an keeping such a margin of free time to
ourselves. It need not be long. Five minutes, if one really sails away
in the ship of imagination, will take us to fairyland and back again.
But the five minutes (or the day in the country, or the week of quiet,
or whatever we take or can get) must really and truly be free; we
must have the courage to seek for what we really want, and we shall
have the inestimable reward of finding what we really are.

E.M. COBHAM.




HOW MUCH SHOULD WE EAT?[6]

[6] See July number.


For some years I lived according to the advice given by "M.D." with
regard to the quantity of proteid that should be taken. But experience
led me to believe that it was wrong. In recent years my diet has
consisted of the following quantities per annum:--

    Three to four bushels of wheat.
    Seventy pounds of oats.
    One bushel of nuts (measured in the shells).

And with these foods rich in proteid, I have taken plenty of raw
vegetables and fruit, and three to four gallons of olive oil.

I do not mention this as an ideal, in order to suggest another and
better standard than that of "M.D." I do not think any such thing as a
standard really exists or can exist. But I mention it to show how far
I have travelled away from where I was.

I take it that all food reformers will agree that the main reason for
food reform is to make the body a more harmonious instrument for the
true life of man, and that carries with it the belief that there is
some correspondence, if we cannot yet see absolute unity, between the
physical and the spiritual. Now the law of life, according to Christ,
is one of continual progress towards perfection and I do not see how
this will harmonise with the teaching of a fixed law for the body. All
my experience and observation point to a progressive law for the body,
and I do not know of a single fact contrary to it.

My first point, then, is that there is no such thing as a standard of
proteid needed by the body. All that can be said is this, that if you
take a man who has been fed on a certain quantity for such and such a
time and then feed him on a certain other quantity, alterations in
the physical condition will appear. But who can say whether these
changes are attributable merely to a deficiency or to a previous
excess? If "M.D." and his patients take excessive food they naturally
get trouble from stored poisons when they reduce the quantity. But why
put all the trouble down to present deficiency instead of to previous
excess? To this I can find no satisfactory answer.

If we have got our bodies into so hopeless a condition that we cannot
use our God-given instincts, tastes and feelings in the first place,
the wisdom of troubling much about the continuance of bodily life
would be doubtful; and, in the second place, one would need most
overwhelming signs of knowledge to substitute for them. But where are
they? There is no agreement between those who have been taught
physiology. On the one hand, "M.D." gives a proteid standard, now
impossible to myself, and I believe to many others, for it would
involve eating a nauseating quantity; and, on the other hand, another
doctor, presumably acquainted with the same physiology, tells me I
cannot eat too little, so long as I do not persistently violate true
hunger and taste. Then another doctor gives quite a different
standard, and a much lower one. If we discard our natural guides,
which of the claimants to knowledge is to be followed, and is there
any knowledge at all such as is claimed?

Imagine what a mockery it would have been to give such a standard as
that of "M.D." to the agricultural labourer about the middle of last
century, a typical one with a large family, and one who worked as men
do not work to-day, and had to rear his family on a few shillings a
week. How could such a one have provided more than a fraction of what
"M.D." says is necessary, either for himself or his children?

The broad fact is, that all the hardest work of the world has always
been done by those who get the least food. As one who has had some
experience of labour, I doubt if the workers could have done so much
if it had not been for a spare diet. Certain it is, that since they
have more to eat, they are much less inclined to work.

My contention, then, is that there is no fixed standard of proteid
needed by the body, but that the quantity depends on the development
that is in progress and is only discoverable by the natural guides of
appetite and taste, ruled by reason and love of others. Moreover, I
contend that even if there were such a standard as "M.D." says
physiology has found, it obviously is not known.

I cannot help recognising in "M.D." one whom I gratefully love and
respect. He helped me on the road, and now that I differ from him I do
not forget it, and I ask his forgiveness if I seem to be arrogant. He
thinks I cannot see what he sees because I am underfed, and I think he
cannot see what I see because he is overfed. In a sense we are both
right, and we form a beautiful illustration of the different states of
mind that belong to different physical conditions. I urge the laymen
like myself not to be afraid of that musty old ill-shaped monster
called Science[7] when he is up against the eternal truths that belong
to every simple untutored man. Shun the monster as you would a priest,
to whom he has a great likeness, and unite with me in a long strong
pull to get "M.D." out of the rut in which the monster holds him, so
that we may have him with us on the road, for he carries much treasure
and we cannot do without him.

A.A. VOYSEY.

[7] I do not wish to be misunderstood. No sane man despises real
science, but when the mixture of science and ignorance, which usually
stalks about in the name of science, wants to usurp our heaven-born
instincts we cannot but notice his ugly and monstrous shape. It is the
function of science, or a true knowledge of details, to fill in the
mosaic of the temple of wisdom, but the mosaic can never be the
structure itself and is only useful and good when it is subservient to
that structure and harmonious with it.




CAMPING OUT.

FOOD QUESTIONS.


"We have to consider," I said, "the question of what food to take and
how to cook it."

"Camping out," said Sylvia, "ought to be a complete holiday from the
food bother. Why not live on unfired food, such as tinned tongue,
sardines and bottled shrimps?"

Thereupon Felix laughed a great laugh, and said: "Just try and do a
thousand miles on sardines."

Felix is Sylvia's brother, who has spent some twenty years in America,
travelling for weeks through country that contained no people, and
spending nearly two years in a single journey to Dawson City and home
again. He plainly knows far more about bed-rock camping than anyone
else in the family and we allowed him to take the floor for a time.

"The first thing is bread." said Felix, "because you can't do without
bread. You must take some yeast or else some baking-powder with you to
make it rise, or you must bake it very quickly so that the steam
aerates it. You might take a Dutch oven with you, but it's nothing
like the Dutch oven that you know in this country. It is an iron pot
on three legs, with an iron lid. You stand it in the fire and cover
the lid with hot brands and you can cook anything inside it--ducks and
chunks of venison, and bread of course."

"But Mr Freeman has barred the oven," said Sylvia, "and if we are not
going a thousand miles from home perhaps we can do without it."

"As you like," answered Felix. "I only mention it so that you can get
hold of the general principle. You can make very good bread in a
frying-pan. You must mix the dough up stiff so that when the pan is
nearly upright it won't tumble out. You fix the pan up with a prop
behind it so that the dough faces the fire, quite close, and you draw
some more fire behind it so that the back is warmed as well. When it
burns a good crust on both sides it is done."

"What are flap-jacks," I asked.

"Just pan-cakes made without eggs or milk," said Felix. "You mix a
quart of flour with a tablespoonful of baking-powder and put in water
till it is just so thin that when you take up a spoonful and let it
drop back you can see the shape of it for a few seconds before it
melts into the rest. You fry the batter in bacon fat or butter just
like pan-cakes, and the cakes are very good."

[Illustration: _A Summer Idyll_]

"That's a good tip for us," I said, "and another good thing to take is
cuddy biscuits, a kind of captain's biscuit. Soak them a few minutes
in water or milk and fry them. They're nice with tomatoes or anything,
or by themselves."

"Mebbe," said Felix, and his tone said, "Mebbe not." "I'm only
discussing general principles, and you've got to work your own way out
in the light of them. I've known an outfit come away without a
frying-pan. How do you make bread then?"

We had to give it up, and Felix went on: "Open your flour sack, turn
down the edge like it is in a baker's shop, make a little hole in the
flour and pour in water to make a pond. Mix in what flour you want to
use and get your dough into the shape of a snake, wind it round a
stick and cook it like that. You've got your bread then like a French
roll, and very good it is."

We all liked the idea of making bread every day and eating it hot.
Here was something to be had in camp that you could not get at home.
And we liked the idea of learning our cooking by means of first
principles. Whether we liked it or not, Felix liked talking about it,
and he began to grow anecdotal.

"Once," he said, "I met a whole lot of men, ten of them I should
think, camped on a cold frosty night with nothing to eat. They were
trying to do a journey of thirty miles on rough prairie and their
horses were tired and they could not get on. They had brought their
lunch and eaten it long ago, and they told me they were starving. They
had nothing to eat, nothing to do any cooking with and no wood to make
a fire with. I never saw such hungry people. They were new settlers
just out from England and it was up to me to do something for them.

"'What have you got in that great waggon?' I asked. They told me they
had some sacks of flour and two frozen quarters of beef, but there was
nothing to cook it in and no wood to make a fire.

"There was any amount of cow-dung on the prairie, and it was dry as
chips. I set them collecting that and soon enough had a fire. I filled
a bucket with water and put it on to boil. I chopped off some meat and
put it in. Then I made some dumplings and put them in. You just put
them into boiling water, you know, and then they cook at once on the
outside and don't come to pieces. If they boil too much they get
pappy, and if not done through they're not good. Most dumplings you
eat in England are not done, but mine were just right and those ten
hungry men had just as good a supper as anyone could wish for."

"Tell us about the coffee you used to make," said Sylvia. "What
horrible stuff it must have been."

"The very best coffee ever I drank," said Felix.

"We used to make it in a pot that was nearly a yard high. We never
turned out the grounds, but let them settle and put in a little more
every time we made coffee, till the pot was so full that it wouldn't
hold any more water."

"I don't see anything against it," I said, when Sylvia and Gertrude
were both expressing their horror. "There is no tannin or other bad
principle in coffee and you never get anything worse out of it than
you do at the first soaking."

"The fellows that work the logs on the river have their own kind of
coffee that they call drip coffee," said Felix. "They have a tall pot
like ours was and they tie the coffee in a sack above the water, so
that the water never touches it, but the steam goes up and fetches it
out in drops. They don't change the sack every time, but keep adding
coffee till it won't hold any more."

"The moral of which is?" said Basil, who had for some time been
growing impatient.

"That there are plenty of ways of cooking an egg besides frying it,"
said Felix, "and that a bit of common-sense is about the best article
you can take with you out camping. Take your food as raw as you can
get it and know how to cook it. Also know a good herb when you see it,
and never overlook a chance of getting a meal from the country that
will save your stores."

C.R. FREEMAN.

_Food reformers will have their own opinion about a diet of shrimps,
sardines, tinned tongue and stale coffee when camping out: the most
important part of the outfit is doubtless an adequate supply of
common-sense._--[EDS.]




SEASICKNESS: SOME REMEDIES.

_In the April and May numbers of the present year we published an
article by Mr Hereward Carrington entitled "Seasickness: How Caused,
How Cured." The following supplementary suggestions by the same
well-known writer will be useful to many readers._--[EDS.]


A very good plan, when you think of undertaking a voyage, is to begin
to prepare for it several days in advance. For three or four days,
before embarking, eat only very simple and somewhat laxative
foods--such as fruits--so as to open the bowels well and tone up the
system. This simple diet should be followed for the first two or three
days aboard--of course not so rigidly, but taking care not to indulge
in many heavy, greasy dishes. Unfortunately, the food on board is
usually very rich and plentiful, and tempts one to eat. If one suffers
from seasickness, there is not this same temptation, to be sure; but
the malady may certainly be warded off, in the majority of cases, if
only reasonable care be taken of the diet before and during the
voyage, and if instructions herein laid down be followed.

As before stated, drugs are as a rule useless for the cure of
seasickness; but on occasion a "seasick cure" of some kind may prove
effective. The harm which results from the drug may perhaps be more
than counterbalanced by the benefits which the system derives from the
cessation of seasickness. A preparation of this kind which is very
highly recommended by many travellers is known as "Antimermal," and
though none of these remedies are to be recommended with assurance,
this one--and perhaps one or two others--might at least be tried, in
cases of dire necessity, when seasickness has already supervened.

It is hardly necessary to say that the patient should remain in the
open air continuously, until all symptoms of seasickness have paused.
_Live_ in your deck chair until you feel quite well and able to get
up and walk round. Do not attempt to go downstairs into the
dining-saloon to meals, if you feel in the slightest "squirmish."
Rather have some hot soup or broth of some kind sent up to you, and
drink it sitting in your chair. Do not be afraid to drink water at all
times, even if you feel ill--as the water is easily returned, and it
is less strain on the stomach to be able to bring up something than to
find nothing in the stomach when an effort is made to eject what is
not there. Water will serve to allay this strain, and thus serve a
useful purpose.

In very severe cases of seasickness, the stomach of the patient should
be emptied and washed out at once. This is usually an easy matter.
Have the patient drink one or two glasses of water, warm or cold, with
a little salt or bi-carbonate of soda added--say a teaspoonful to a
pint of water. This will have the desired result! In extreme cases of
seasickness, dry cold, such as ice-bags, placed behind and about the
ears, will sooth the patient, and help to allay his suffering. Cold
cloths to the forehead will also prove helpful. Full baths had best be
omitted, until the attack has worn off, as they are injudicious on
account of the reactions they induce.

In prolonged cases of seasickness, there is often a craving for acids
and fruit juices. The continued absence or diminution of the acid
contents of the stomach, and the privation from normal food, accounts
in part for this, and it is highly proper to satisfy such a
craving--providing due care is taken not to add to the stomach's
distress by taking too much juice, or the juice of unripe fruit, or by
swallowing the fibre of the fruit, which is allowable only when
recovery is complete.

HEREWARD CARRINGTON.




IMPORTANT.


If readers who possess copies of the first number of _The Healthy
Life_ (August 1911) will send them to the Editors, they will receive,
in exchange, booklets to the value of threepence for each copy.




A SYMPOSIUM ON UNFIRED FOOD.


_In the November number we published a letter from a reader containing
the excellent suggestion that readers who had experimented to any fair
extent with unfired diet should be invited to contribute to a
conference on the subject in _THE HEALTHY LIFE_, and that the
symposium should be gathered round the following points_:--

(1) The effect of the diet in curing chronic disease.

(2) Its effect on children so brought up--_e.g._ do they get the
so-called "inevitable" diseases of chicken-pox, measles, etc., and
_especially_ have they good (_i.e._ perfect) teeth?

(3) The effect of the diet in childbirth.

(4) The cost of maintaining a household in this way, as compared with
the cost under ordinary conditions.

(5) Is the diet satisfying, or is there a longing for conventional
dietary (often found amongst food reformers)?

(6) Is the diet quite satisfactory in winter?

_Two letters were published in the January number. Two more in
February. Others will appear in future issues. We are anxious to
receive a large number of personal experiences, but they must be
brief, and classified under the above heads as far as possible._--[EDS.]


   ST ALBANS.

   In response to your invitation I am sending you my experience with
   vegetarian dietary. Although, as you will see, this has not been
   altogether "unfired," I think it should be of interest to many.

   (1) I became a vegetarian at the time of my marriage, nearly three
   years ago, my husband being already a vegetarian of eleven years. I
   considered this a good opportunity to commence. Previous to this I
   had for some time suffered from indigestion, which continued for a
   few months after marriage. I attribute the cure to the change of
   diet, and drinking hot water after meals.

   (2) We have one child eighteen months old, totally breast fed for
   twelve months, and another four months: on breast and Ixion Food
   and some fruit juice.

   She has never had any disease whatever, and so far her teeth are
   perfect and she has cut them quite easily. She is a bonny, sturdy
   little girl, and very intelligent.

   (3) With regard to childbirth, I previously followed the advice of
   Dr Alice Stockholme in "Tokology," avoiding flesh meats and
   bone-making food and adopting a diet of fruit (chiefly lemons) and
   rice, brown bread and nut butter, wearing no corsets and taking
   frequent baths. The effect during pregnancy was highly
   satisfactory. I enjoyed perfect health the whole time, free from
   the usual discomforts, and at childbirth I received similar
   results: a speedy and safe delivery. Indeed, since marriage, my
   husband, baby and myself, have been singularly free from even
   minor complaints.

   (4) As we do not have the specially prepared, expensive vegetarian
   foods (supposed to substitute meat), but mainly the simple foods, I
   consider the diet less costly than the meat diet.

   (5) We are honestly quite free from the craving for meat or meat
   foods.

   (6) In the summer-time we live principally on salads, cheese,
   rissoles, etc., made from beans, peas, lentils, etc., fresh fruits,
   brown bread and nut butter. In the very cold weather we seem to
   need rather warmer stuffs, such as porridge (carefully cooked) and
   cooked vegetables, etc.

   D. GODMAN.

       *       *       *       *       *

   BRIGHTON.

   I have read with the greatest interest the correspondence in _The
   Healthy Life_ on the unfired diet. As the majority of your
   correspondents have not been living _exclusively_ on unfired food,
   or have only done so for short periods, may I suggest that some of
   your correspondents or contributors live on an _entirely_ unfired
   diet, _excluding dairy produce_, for a period of six or twelve
   months and then relate their experiences. In this way some valuable
   evidence would be obtained. At any rate I am prepared to do this
   myself.

   With reference to living on the unfired diet on 4d. a day, I have
   often had two unfired meals for less than 4d., and two meals a day
   are sufficient for anyone. Of course to do this one has to buy the
   food which is in season and therefore cheap. Dried fruit and nuts,
   followed by a cress salad with oil and lemon dressing, does not
   cost more than 2d. An unfired rissole made from grated carrot and
   flaked peanuts cost at most a penny, and if followed by dates or
   figs would be a sufficient meal, and 2d. would cover the cost.

   In conclusion, I have no difficulty in producing a "two course"
   unfired meal for 2d.--but perhaps I should have left the subject of
   cost for Dr Bell to deal with. Yours faithfully,

   ALFRED LE HURAY.




MORE ABOUT TWO MEALS A DAY.


With reference to my article, "Two Meals a Day," which appeared in the
May issue of _The Healthy Life_, several correspondents have asked me
to give more particulars about my life and diet. I do so gladly; but I
must be brief, as the demand upon space in this magazine is now very
great.

Resolved into a single sentence, what all my correspondents wish to
know is this: Is a two-meal dietary best for all?

To this question, however, a definite answer cannot be given, for the
simple reason that scientific experimentation with respect to food
quantities and times of meals, etc., has gone such a little way, so
that it would be presumptuous to set a limit in regard to meals and
food reduction. To my mind, apart from the question of the quantity of
food to be taken, there is a great and important field of inquiry open
with respect to the effect of rest upon the stomach and the
intestines, upon the digestive and assimilative powers of the body.

Now the whole purpose of my article was to show that a reduction of
one's dietary was a matter of training, of gradual adaptation, but
also--and this is the important fact-of gradual strengthening. My
theory is that the two-meal plan is possible owing to the immense
economy in digestive energy that is effected through giving the
stomach adequate rest, and also through keeping the blood stream pure
and unclogged, almost absolutely free from surfeit matter. A rested
stomach will get more nutriment out of a small amount of food-stuff
than an overworked stomach will get out of a much larger quantity. But
experimentation which is sudden and covers a few weeks only, is worse
than useless, as it tends to disprove the very principles that a saner
method of experimentation would probably establish. And if I can
impress this fact upon the reader I shall have performed a good
service.

Carefully undertaken, and properly graduated, I believe there are few
people in these days who would not greatly benefit by a reduction in
the number of meals and in the quantity of food they take. By means of
a healthy and cheerful habit of introspection--not morbid and
feverish--I am firmly convinced that by cutting down their meals most
people would not only greatly improve their health, but their mental
and spiritual condition as well, and also greatly increase their
capacity for work ... And if in this way we can effect such an
improvement in our life and condition it does not really matter
whether we get to the two or even one meal basis or not.

As to myself, my work is chiefly literary and my life moderately
sedentary. But the fact is that I now have two moderate meals a day
whereas I used to have four pretty good ones. But I have many friends
whose work is mechanical, and demands much muscular energy, who are
two-mealists. One lady I know, who is one of the healthiest, strongest
and best physically developed persons I have ever met, is a
two-mealist, and not only does she work at a mechanical occupation for
ten hours a day, but on several evenings each week conducts a ladies
gymnastics class as well. But in her case, as in mine, the two meal
was an ideal that was gradually and slowly attained, and not a sudden
reform. Indeed, the main thing to remember is that it is all a matter
of training, it being quite impossible to say where the limit is. For
of one thing I am quite sure--viz. that most people, were they to
adopt a slow process of food and meals reduction, on the lines I
suggested in my article, would be astonished at the result. The number
of people one meets, chiefly among those whose life is more or less
sedentary, who say they can't work as they should, are subject to
pains and heaviness in the head, constipation and indigestion, is
simply appalling; and on questioning such people I come to the
conclusion that in the majority of cases it is because they eat too
much or too often.

My meals are very simple, and the simpler they are the better I like
them. I like a cold lunch about noon, and a hot meal about six. I have
tried a wholly uncooked diet, but as yet my body does not seem ready
for it: perhaps it will be after a little while. The first meal
usually consists of wholemeal bread and fruit, green or vegetable
salads, just according to my needs at the time. In winter I take a
more liberal supply of dried fruits and nuts. Pulses I eschew
altogether. My second meal consists of a substantial entree with one
or two conservatively cooked vegetables--occasionally I have a soup
and a sweet in addition. But of course it is for everyone to find out
his or her own ideal diet; and let me say that it is worth while to do
so, even though it involves much confusion and perplexity during the
period of experimentation.

WILFRED WELLOCK.




A BALLADE OF SKYFARING.


    Ye whom bonds of the city chain,
       Yet whose heart must with Nature's be;
    Ye who, bound to a bed of pain,
       Dream there of torrent and tower and tree,
       Here behold them--the magic key,
    Turned by a thought in yon gates of blue,
       Even now has revealed to me
    Alps and Mediterranean too.

    Why of the bondage of earth complain?
       Wide as heaven is our liberty!
    Where are the streets and their smoke and stain
       When to the land of the lark we flee?
       Where is the sight that we may not see,
    Cloudland's citadel passing through?
       Switzerland beckons with Sicily,
    Alps and Mediterranean too.

    Here, 'twixt walls with the marble's vein,
       Oared on a river of gold are we;
    There we watch, on a sapphire main,
       White fleets voyage to victory.
       Day unto day flashes grief or glee;
    Night to night utters speech anew,
       Figuring forest and lane and lea--
    Alps and Mediterranean too.

                    ENVOY

    Prince whose course through the world is free,
       Fare you better than dreamers do?
    Here are the mountains and here the sea--
       Alps and Mediterranean too.

S. GERTRUDE FORD.

From _Lyric Leaves_, by S. Gertrude Ford. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net; 2s. 8d.
post free from _The Healthy Life_, 3 Amen Corner, E.C. This charmingly
bound book makes an excellent holiday companion, for it contains many
beautiful lyrics, all characterised by serious thought, generous human
sympathies and a delicate imaginative quality.




A REMEDY FOR LONGEVITY.


Once upon a time there was a little boy whose parents took things very
seriously. They answered all his questions with painstaking precision.
At a comparatively early age he could prove that fairies were
non-existent. At the same time his toys were marvels of mechanical
perfection.

At the age of seven he was sent to a very efficient school, where,
being naturally a bright boy, he gained high marks every term and
passed all the examinations, for he had a wonderful and well-trained
faculty for remembering exactly what his teachers had told him.

When he left school he entered a London merchant's office, where his
knowledge of arithmetic was of the greatest assistance in bringing him
to the front. Moreover, he could argue very tellingly with all the
clerks and warehousemen, and always knew what the morning papers were
saving about health, neck-ties or religion.

In course of time he grew a moustache, joined the Territorials, was
made a partner in the firm, married a well-educated young lady and
became a strong supporter of the local Liberal Club, where his
opinions were so well known that it was unnecessary for anyone
seriously to combat them. He was never known to vote for the
Conservative candidate or to lose his head. His concluding speech in
the historic debate on The National Health Insurance Act will always
be remembered, by those who heard it, for its earnest defence of the
medical profession. In fact, the Mayor, who was in the chair, and was
a doctor himself, warmly congratulated the speaker, who was evidently
very pleased.

Ten years later he became a Town Councillor, opened several Institutes
for the Care of the Poor, and sent his second son to join the eldest
at the same kind of school at which he (the father) had been so well
trained. About the same date he bought a new edition of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica and carefully compiled a list of facts and
figures showing that idealists and all new-fangled ideas were the
greatest danger to the increasing trade and expansion of the Empire.

At the age of fifty he took a house at Surbiton and was continually
congratulated on his hale and hearty appearance. His opinions were
known and respected by all who met him. His sons were models of what
the children of such a father should be, and they supported him in
every argument.

At the age of fifty-two he retired from business. A month later he had
an idea; and it so interfered with all his opinions, and so affected
his general health, that he died.

EDGAR J. SAXON.




A SIGNIFICANT CASE--II.


He stopped smoking tobacco on the second day, and does not mean to
resume its use. Of course he had no alcohol in any form during the
fast, but he never has taken much alcohol, although he was not a
pledged abstainer. The temperature was taken many times and seems to
have been almost always subnormal, about 97 degrees Fahr., but this is
not so unusual a condition as to call for comment. The chief cause of
a subnormal temperature, in my opinion, is blocking of the body with
too much food. No doubt in prolonged fasting the temperature may fall
also; but sometimes a fast will be the cause of raising a subnormal
bodily temperature, as happened in a case of mine in which on the
twenty-eighth day of the fast there was a large elimination of urates
by the kidneys and a rise of temperature from 96 degrees to 98.4
degrees. Subnormal bodily temperature has not received the attention
which it deserves. It is usually one of the forerunners, or prodromata
as they are called, of the onset of incurable diseases like cancer,
Bright's disease or apoplexy. The commonly accepted view that the heat
of the body depends upon the food, and that people eat blubber in the
Arctic and Antarctic regions to keep the bodily heat up, is one of the
chief causes for neglect of the study of subnormal temperature. And it
is quite surprising that physiologists have not thought it necessary
to explain why nature has provided sugar and palm oil and cocoa-nut
oil and ground-nut oil in the tropical regions, as well as abundance
of olive oil in the warm temperate regions of the earth if these foods
keep the bodily heat up. They ought to have been more abundantly
supplied in the Arctic and Antarctic regions if the accepted view is
correct. Besides, if we must eat blubber to keep bodily heat up in the
Arctic regions when the outside temperature is 50 or 100 or more
degrees lower than that of the body, what ought we to eat in the
tropics to keep bodily heat down when the outside temperature is 50 or
even 80 degrees above that of the body? Physiologists have not
explained this, although assuredly an explanation is wanted. But the
true explanation, the correct explanation, would have demolished the
doctrine that bodily heat is due to the food, and so it has not been
given. It is too simple to imagine that the bodily heat is, like the
body itself and all its functions, the effect of the life-force that
inhabits the body and builds up the body so that the body shall be a
fit dwelling-place for itself--this explanation is too simple and too
idealistic for modern science, which is less and less disposed, we are
told, to invoke the aid of a force of life to account for vital
phenomena, although it assumes an attracting force to account for
gravitating phenomena, and an electric and chemic force to account for
electric and chemic phenomena. Modern science (and ancient science,
too, apparently) which sees well enough that an idealistic or a
materialistic explanation would equally account for the nexus of the
phenomena of the universe, deliberately and almost invariably prefers
the materialistic explanation. She is anxious that we should be kept
free of superstition. But the superstition that forces are the effects
of things does not seem to distress her at all. And so we are told
that gravitation is a property of matter, and are forbidden to think
that perhaps gravitation, a force, procreates matter, a thing, in
order that the effects of the fore may be perceived by dull sense. We
are told that the function of the liver and the brain depends on the
structure of the liver and the brain respectively and we are not
allowed to think that perhaps the force of animal life, feeling the
need of an instrument to secrete bile, on the one hand, and to secrete
cerebral lymph to act as a vehicle for the conveyance of thought and
emotion and higher things, on the other, introduces the liver with its
elaborate structure and the brain with its still more complicated
structure, in order that both the one function and the other may be
well performed. And so, although all forms of kinetic energy (and
among them zoo-dynamic, or the force of animal life) manifest warmth
and luminosity as qualities, science attributes animal heat to chemic
force and refuses to consider that perhaps zoo-dynamic uses
chemico-dynamic for its own purposes, even if these purposes are
unconscious, because the higher force always dominates the lower.
Properly speaking, science is out of her sphere, though she does not
seem to know it, in making these suggestions. When she keeps herself
to the investigation of facts, their exposition, their sequence and
their laws, in her painstaking and accurate manner, we accept her
revelations thankfully, and beg her to allow us to make our own
philosophic and other explanations in attempting to account for the
existence, sequences and relations of the facts of life.

After his return home, patient continued to gain weight, as might have
been expected. On the seventeenth day after ending the fast he
weighed 140 lbs. and on the nineteenth day 144 lbs. On that day he
received from a hospital a report that the reaction of the
physiologico-pathological test was negative. This has naturally had a
great effect on the patient; and it is worthy of very careful
consideration. Of course one negative result may not be conclusive
although it was positive before the fast. But if the result should be
repeated, and especially if it should prove to be permanent, the
importance of the fact can hardly be exaggerated, since the suggestion
arises in our minds that perhaps we may be able to cure profound
blood-poisoning by fasting, neither the usual treatment nor the use of
Salvarsan enabling the investigator to say that the result of the
pathological reaction was negative; but this has followed after a
heroic fast of 56 days. The result if confirmed would not be unique.
Quite recently I saw a specific ulcer close to the ankle-joint for
which operation had been recommended. It seemed to me that operation
would be likely to open the joint, and that therefore it was a risky
proceeding. But under a restriction of the diet, putting the young man
on barley-water for a few days and then advising him to eat once a day
only, the ulcer became very much smaller, and no operation has had to
be performed. Blood-poisoning of this nature, of course, is not caused
by improper nutrition, but it may readily be believed to be aggravated
by the ordinary conventional over-feeding to which, so far as I can
see, we are all subjecting ourselves, especially as persons who put
themselves in the way of contracting blood-poisoning do not generally
belong to the class of those who are attracted by the suggestion that
it is noble to keep the body under, and that if we do not strive to
keep the body under, it will be very likely to keep us under. Although
we shall be liable to be infected, however we live, still we may
believe that we shall be more likely to be badly infected (if we put
ourselves in the way of contracting disease) if we have been
previously subjected to the bad effects of over-feeding. This
consideration renders a possible cure by fasting, a not impossible
suggestion. And if, therefore, we have in fasting the suggestion of a
remedy which offers us the hope of eradicating such a fearful disease
from the human system, it certainly behoves us to make use of it.

As a rule it seems to me that bad forms of blood-poisoning of this
nature are incurable. In three or four generations they destroy the
strain affected by it, do what we will. Meantime it shows all the
signs and symptoms of a hereditary disease, for the children are born
suffering, showing a coppery rash, and old before they are young. And
when they get a little older they have no bridges to their noses,
their teeth are ill-formed, their vision is imperfect, their
intellects dull. It seems as if nature could not forgive crimes of
this nature. She seems to treat them as the unpardonable sin. If we
find cancer appearing in a family at 55 years of age in 3 or 4
successive generations, there is no proof of heredity in that. Inquire
and see if like causes acting on like organisms in 3 or 4 successive
generations have not produced the disease each time. The children are
not born cancerous, and our efforts to prevent the disease may
succeed. But children often _are_ born with specific disease, and
there is no doubt at all about its being a hereditary disease. Even
now I should not like to sanction marriage in the case of this man who
has heroically fasted for 56 days, although he seems for the present
to have got rid of his disease. But the outlook is hopeful, more
hopeful than I thought, and in the hope that the suggestion may convey
a message of hope to those who are willing to do penance for crimes
against the body, I send out these remarks. The opinion expressed by
the patient that he was getting rid of the Salvarsan which had been
injected into his blood to cure his disease is, of course, his own
only. I offer no opinion upon it. But I think the whole case very
instructive, and it will be deeply interesting to follow it up with
special regard to the inquiry whether the pathological test remains
negative. The reflective reader of these remarks will need no hint
from me to suggest how a study of questions of this sort raises in our
minds all sorts of other questions, physical, metaphysical,
philosophical, social, religious; what are laws of nature, how they
come to be what they are, whether they can be disregarded without
paying the penalty, and whether we men are bond or free. Each of us
will settle these questions for ourselves, for each of us is
responsible for his own conclusion. But as to the inevitableness with
which such questions do rise in our minds, I take it there can be no
difference of opinion.

A. RABAGLIATI.




HEALTHY HOMEMAKING.


_For the benefit of new readers it seems well to explain that this
series of articles is not intended for the instruction of experienced
housewives. It was started at the special request of a reader who
asked for "a little book on housekeeping, for those of us who know
nothing at all about it; and put in all the little details that are
presumably regarded as too trivial or too obvious to be mentioned in
the ordinary books on domestic economy."_


XXI. HIRED HELP.

It does not seem proper to conclude the present series of articles
without touching upon the "servant problem," but I do not pretend to
be able to solve it. It is a problem usually very difficult of
solution by the homemaker of small means. If she has but few persons
to cater for, and is not the mother of a young family, she is often
very much better off without hired help, except for a periodical
charwoman. But it is not always indispensable to the woman who has
other duties besides housekeeping.

I am not here concerned with the housewife who can afford to keep more
than one efficient servant. Indeed, I am hardly concerned with one who
can employ a really good "general" at from L20 to L25 per annum. The
person I am concerned with is the homemaker who can afford at most to
employ an inexperienced young girl at from L10 to L14 per annum.

I will draw the worst side of the picture first, for although it _is_
the worst side it is true enough, as so many harassed housewives know.

The young "general" often comes straight from a council school where
domestic economy had no place in the curriculum, and from a home in
name only. Such an one is usually slatternly and careless in all her
ways, has no idea of personal cleanliness, and regards her "mistress"
as, more or less, her natural enemy! She is "in service" only under
compulsion, and envies those of her schoolmates whose more fortunate
circumstances have enabled them to become "young lady" shop
assistants, typists and even elementary school teachers. If she had
her choice she would prefer labour in a factory to domestic work; but
either a factory is not available, or the girl's parents consider
"service" more "respectable" in spite of its hardships. Its hardships?
Yes, it _is_ its hardships that account for its peculiar unpopularity.
For there are hardships connected with domestic service in small
households that do not apply to other forms of much harder labour.

Everyone who is familiar with the small lower middle-class household
knows how often the life of the little "general" resembles that of an
animal rather than a human being. All day long she drudges in a
muddling, inefficient way, continually scolded for her inefficiency
yet never really taught how to do anything properly. Her work is never
done, for she is always at the beck and call of her employers; yet
she lives apart in social isolation, is referred to contemptuously as
the "slavey," and even her food is dispensed to her grudgingly and
minus the special dainties bought for Sundays and holidays. This is
domestic service at its worst, of course, but the prevalence of such
"places" in actual fact is undoubtedly at the root of the young girl's
objection to it. How can she help gleaning the impression that such
work is "menial," when her employers more or less openly despise her?
Being human, how can she but envy those of her old friends who have
their evenings to themselves? What contentment can she find in a life
of drudgery unenlightened by intelligent interest in learning how to
do something well? What wonder that all her hopes and ambitions become
centred in the possession of a "young man," and that reason--stunted
from its birth for lack of room to grow--being entirely absent from
her choice, she marries badly and too young, and becomes the mother of
a numerous progeny as helpless, hopeless, stunted and inefficient as
herself?

Some conscientious women try to remedy this state of things by
treating the girls they take into their homes as "one of the family."
This _may_ answer well sometimes, but it has its drawbacks, both for
the girl and the "family." Husband and wife, brother and sister,
inevitably find the constant presence of a stranger with whom they
have little in common very irksome. While the girl herself is equally
conscious of restraint when forced to spend her leisure time with her
employers. She would usually infinitely prefer the solitude of the
kitchen, if combined with a good fire, a comfortable chair and a story
book.

Among the girls I have spoken to on the subject I have not found
"socialist" households popular. One girl I met refused to stay in such
a place for longer than three days, because she "never had the kitchen
to herself." Another told me that she found it intensely boring to
take meals with the family, because she was not interested in the
things they talked about.

I think that the ultimate solution of the "servant problem" will not
be that every woman will do all her own housework, but that domestic
work will become, on the one hand, very much simplified and, on the
other, will be put on the same footing as teaching, nursing or
secretarial work. That we are beginning to move in this direction is
evidenced by the coming into existence of schools of domestic economy,
to which "ladies" do not disdain to resort for training. This will
undoubtedly result in domestic labour becoming a much higher-priced
commodity than it is now, the housewife will have to pay at least as
much for three hours help per day as she now does for nine hours, but
the fact that the help will be skilled, combined with the greater
simplicity of housework, will surely more than compensate for this.

But what is the homemaker of limited means, who must have some help,
to do under present conditions? This we must consider next month.

FLORENCE DANIEL.




HEALTH QUERIES.

_Under this heading Dr Knaggs deals briefly month by month, and
according as space permits, with questions of general interest._

_Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on one side only of
the paper, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as a
guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a stamped
addressed envelope must be enclosed._--[EDS.]


BOILS: THEIR CAUSE AND CURE.

    Miss L.C. writes:--I should be deeply indebted to you if you
    would advise me in the following matter. I have been suffering
    from a recurrence of boils on different parts of my body during
    the last six months. I have consulted a local doctor, but he can
    find no reason for their appearance, but suggested I should try a
    mixed diet, to include some animal food, rather than adhere to
    vegetarianism as I have done for some two years past.

    My diet is about as follows:--

    _On rising._--Tumblerful of hot water.

    _Breakfast_ (eight o'clock).--One egg, toasted bread (wholemeal)
    and butter, with either a little lettuce or marmalade and either
    weak tea or cocoa.

    _Lunch_ (one o'clock).--Steamed green or root vegetable, with
    cheese sauce or macaroni cheese or similar savoury, or nuts.
    Boiled or baked pudding or stewed fruit with custard or blanc
    mange.

    _Tea_ (four o'clock).--Tea or cocoa, with or without a little
    bread and butter and cake.

    _Supper_ (7 o'clock).--Vegetable soup, milk pudding and a little
    cheese, butter and salad and wholemeal bread.

    I am forty-nine years of age, lead a fairly active life,
    frequently taking walking exercise. I am very tall and weigh
    twelve stone. Have had no serious illness, but been more or less
    anaemic all my life.

    If you can tell me whether there is anything wrong in connection
    with my diet and suggest the cause of, and treatment for, the
    boils I shall be exceedingly obliged.

In order to help this correspondent to permanently get rid of these
boils, we must first ascertain what those troublesome manifestations
are and look to the causes which produce them.

A boil is a small, tense, painful, inflammatory swelling appearing in
or upon the skin, and is due to the local death or gangrene of a small
portion of the skin's surface. This eventually comes away in the form
of a core, and, until this has cleared away, the boil will not heal or
cease to be painful.

Boils occur chiefly on the neck, arms or buttocks. If very large they
are known as carbuncles, and if they occur on the fingers or toes they
are described as whitlows. It is often the friction of a frayed-out
collar or cuff, of tight waist clothing, or, in the case of whitlows,
the introduction of some irritant or poison between the nail and the
skin that determines the precise site at which they will come.

Boils, although rarely dangerous to life, are usually accompanied by
pain severe out of all proportion to the extent of surface involved.
This gives rise to much broken rest and loss of vitality, which at
once ceases when the boil has finished its course. Boils usually occur
in series or crops.

Now large numbers of people wear collars and cuffs with frayed edges,
or handle irritants with their fingers, but they do not necessarily
contract boils or whitlows. Therefore, we see that there must be other
factors to be taken into consideration to account for their presence.
The orthodox germ-loving practitioner may tell you that a boil is a
purely local disorder and that a certain form of microbe, known as the
_Staphylococcus pyogenes_, is the cause of it. This germ, he asserts,
lives normally on the surface of the skin and, when this surface
becomes broken, it enters the part and infects it, thereby starting
the boil.

If this is true every person who wears old collars or dabbles his
hands in dirt should without exception contract boils. This is
obviously untrue.

The factor to be considered, then, is this. What is it that induces
boils in one person and not in another under identical circumstances?
The answer is obvious. The boil is not a local disease at all, but is
a manifestation of some constitutional defect, or of some impurity of
the blood stream, which enables this microbe to find a congenial
breeding ground.

The people who suffer most from boils are young or middle-aged adults,
and we usually find the two extremes among sufferers. There is the
full-blooded, often overfed, individual and there is the pale,
debilitated and emaciated person whose constitution is broken down by
worry, overwork, sexual troubles, unhealthy surroundings or badly
selected foods.

If we inquire into the constitutional history of these cases we shall
almost invariably discover that the digestive or assimilative
processes of the body are not working smoothly. This may be due to the
worry or overwork, or to unhealthy surroundings which dis-harmonise
the digestive and nutritive functions, or to nervous exhaustion from
one cause or another, or it may be due to the wrong diet, which is
filling the colon (or large bowel) with fermenting poisons.

When the body is clogged in this manner nature often proceeds to get
rid of the accumulating waste through the skin. By a vigorous effort
on the part of the life-force the impurity is thrown outwards to the
surface. Looked at in this light a boil is really a most salutary
cleansing agent, and the Nature-Cure practitioner, who calls it a
"Crisis," often does everything in his power to produce boils when
treating chronic diseases.

The alternative is often some more deeply seated form of elimination,
resulting in serious organic disease of the organs or tissues. One of
the first signs of improvement in disorders like diabetes,
consumption, arthritis, Bright's disease, or even cancer, is the
appearance of boils, showing that the vitality has improved to an
extent sufficient to enable the foreign matter to be expelled by means
of relatively harmless boils. The hydropathic expert also tries to
induce this condition by means of his mustard and water packs.

If our correspondent wants to rid herself of her boils she must adopt
all means to improve her vitality and to cleanse her body of its
impurities. She can do this along many lines. She can take a holiday
and rest from her work; or by positive thinking she can set to work to
get rid of her worries. She can learn to laugh as often as possible,
and to breathe deeply, slowly and fully. If her house is unsanitary
she should make it sanitary, or move elsewhere.

Then she must restrict her diet and take only those forms of food
which create a minimum amount of poison in the system. _She must
cleanse the colon daily_ with warm water enemas, and encourage the
action of the kidneys in doing their rightful part in the elimination
of poisons by the drinking of distilled water or a good herbal tea on
rising, and of clear vegetable broth at night.

Clay packs, applied cold, are the best form of treatment for
application to the boils themselves. They should never be cut or
squeezed, as this only intensifies the trouble. Hot applications, as
poultices, are bad, because they induce the boil to mature
prematurely, and also are conducive to reinfection of the skin in
other parts. Drugs or medicines are of very little use in the
treatment of boils, because they do not go to the root of the
trouble. The only remedy that I have found of any avail is yeast. In
former times this was taken in the form of fresh or dried brewers'
yeast, and it was, if unpleasant, a very effectual remedy. Yeast
yields a free supply of what is called nuclein and nucleinic acid.
These, chemically, are identical with the same substances found in the
human cells. Nuclein is a powerful antiseptic. It has been found that
the toxins or emanations from diphtheria and other deadly germs are
precipitated and destroyed by nucleinic acid.

It is for this reason that yeast extracts, such as Marmite, often have
a beneficial effect in disorders accompanied by the formation of pus
matter.

Our correspondent's diet should be amended as follows:--

_On rising._--A cupful of unseasoned Marmite.

_Breakfast._--One scrambled or lightly poached egg with stale,
yeast-made, wholemeal bread and nut butter, with lettuce or other
salad food. No marmalade; no tea or coffee.

_Lunch._--1 to 2 oz. of grated cheese or flaked pine kernels, finely
shredded raw cabbage, or grated radishes, or grated raw roots with oil
and lemon dressing. No cooked savouries, no puddings, nor stewed fruit
with custard or blanc mange should be taken.

_Tea Meal._--Cupful of Marmite, only.

_Supper._--Clear, unseasoned, vegetable broth, with Veda or wholemeal
bread, or Granose biscuits, with nut butter and some fresh fruit.

_At bedtime._--A cupful of Marmite.

NOTE.--The unseasoned Marmite should be used, as the ordinary kind is
rather heavily salted.


A BAD CASE OF SELF-POISONING.

    Mrs H.W. writes:--I should be very glad if you would give me
    enlightenment on one or two points about my diet. I am suffering
    from a somewhat dilated stomach, also a catarrhal condition of
    nose, throat and alimentary canal, with constipation and much
    flatulence in the bowels. My teeth are decaying quickly, my nails
    have got softer, and I have become anaemic and generally
    debilitated, being unable to properly assimilate my food. All my
    joints crack when moved, and the knee joints creak as well. Is
    this a uric acid condition, or do you think it merely due to a
    lack of nourishment, causing a lack of synovial fluid? The joints
    are not swollen and not painful, they merely crack. My whole
    system seems to be over-acid, and my mouth gets sore and
    ulcerated. I have got very thin, having lost a stone in twelve
    months.

    I notice that you always advise for dilated stomach greatly
    restricting the liquid part of the diet. Will you tell me just
    how much one _may_ drink in a day, because when I go without
    drinking my constipation and other troubles are worse and the
    urine gets thick and muddy.

    You also deprecate milk. This puzzled me until you explained to a
    correspondent last month in _The Healthy Life_. Will you tell me
    if the same applies to dried milk--will it tend to increase
    intestinal trouble? I am anxious to know this because I have been
    relying somewhat on Emprote and Hygiama lately, for I had got so
    that I could scarcely digest anything.

    Do you consider it better to use the enema than to take a mild
    aperient? I do not want to start with the enema again if I can
    possibly manage to do without, because I found that my bowels
    depended upon it. And that is why I want to ask if it is
    absolutely necessary when on an antiseptic diet to entirely avoid
    fruit. I find it so necessary to keep the bowels working
    naturally.

    I _do_ want you to answer me these questions, because I have got
    so worried and fearful (people's theories are so varied) that I
    scarcely dare eat any food at all. I am at present taking only
    two meals daily (I like the two-meal plan best): at eleven A.M.
    and 6 P.M. I take a cup of weak coffee on rising, without milk or
    sugar--this warm drink seems to start the peristaltic action and
    I then get bowel action. I think of changing the coffee for Sanum
    Tonic Tea or Dandelion Coffee.

    At eleven o'clock I have an egg with Winter's "Maltweat" bread
    and almond butter, and some conservatively cooked vegetable
    (celery or carrot or spinach).

    At six P.M. I have one or two baked apples, a teaspoonful or two
    of malted nuts, or Emprote, and more "Maltweat" bread and butter.

    At four P.M. I take a cup of barley water or carrot water, and at
    bedtime another cup of barley water.

    Do you think that if I went on to a milk diet for a time it would
    do good?

This correspondent seems to be suffering from auto-toxaemia, or
self-poisoning in a severe form, and a condition of what is termed
arterio-sclerosis or premature old age. Associated with it are
evidently symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, which is affecting her
joints and teeth. It is not one of ordinary gout or uric acid
poisoning. The trouble no doubt has been caused by past errors of
diet, so that the present efforts at reform have come too late to be
of service to her. Something more than diet is now needed to clear the
acids and toxins from the system. It is not a simple case of digestive
catarrh, for the whole body is affected. The present diet will answer
very well as it stands.

The first thing to do is to obtain a well-fitting dilatation belt.
This must have leg straps and firmly support the lower half of the
abdomen. The next thing is to promote skin action so as to
encourage the clearing out of poisons along this line of elimination.
Vapour baths, wet-sheet packs or alkaline hot baths can effect this
purpose. An alkaline hot bath should be of a temperature of 105
degrees Fahr. or more, and to the bath should be added 1/4 lb. of
bicarbonate of soda and 1/4 lb. packet of "Robin" starch. She should
remain as long as possible in this so as to well clear the acids from
the skin and induce as much skin action or perspiration as possible.
The _first_ baths must be of very short duration, and she should be
careful to avoid chill after the bath; it is best to lie prone and
completely relaxed for half-an-hour at least after the bath. Finally
massage and Swedish movements directed to the entire back will help to
disencumber the central nervous system, which is evidently very badly
depleted of its vital force. It is, of course, a pity the
correspondent cannot get away to a properly organised Nature-Cure home
and have the continuous attention and treatment which her condition
really necessitates.

H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.




CORRESPONDENCE.


   AMANZIMTOTI, NATAL.

   _To the Editors._

   SIRS,

   You will see that your little magazine finds its way even to this
   out-of-the-way corner of the globe, and you may be sure that it is
   appreciated. I am specially interested in Dr V. Knaggs'
   contributions and should like to ask him a few questions. May I
   say that I have some knowledge of chemistry and that I try and
   take an interest in the scientific aspects of food reform.

   (1) P. 237. What grounds has Dr Knaggs for speaking so definitely
   about human magnetism and that of vegetables? How would he
   recognise or test for either, and where can I get further
   information (scientific) on the question of food magnetism.

   (2) Same page. Dr Knaggs says salt added to cooking vegetables
   converts organic salts into inorganic. I cannot follow that. _What_
   organic salts are so converted? One or two examples would suffice.

   (3) I have been reading Dr Rabagliati's _Conversations with Women
   Concerning their Health and that of their Children_.[8] In it he
   says that food is not the source (cause) of body energy, but is
   used merely to replace waste material. Elsewhere I read that
   "Professor Atwater's investigations into nutrition have shown in a
   most convincing manner that the body derives _all_ its energy from
   the food consumed. This may be regarded as established." Which of
   these definite and contradictory assertions does Dr Knaggs support,
   and why? Where can I get information _re_ Professor Atwater's
   experiments and other recent works on similar subjects?

   To me the questions involved are intensely interesting, hence my
   queries. I hope they do not read as if I were hypercritical or
   sceptical.

   With all good wishes for the success of your healthy little
   magazine. I am, yours, etc.,

   W. BLEWETT.

[8] 5s. net. C.W. Daniel, Ltd., 3 Amen Corner, London.

We handed the above interesting letter to our contributor, Dr H.
Valentine Knaggs, and append his reply:--


HUMAN MAGNETISM.

There is very little information available from ordinary scientific
sources anent the question of the life-force or of the animal
magnetism which animates our bodies and is the motive force common to
all organic structures whether animal or vegetable. We do know that
fresh fruits and vegetables are strongly magnetic because the
magnetism which they emit can be gauged by means of delicate
galvanometers. It has been found that leaves, flowers and seeds are
positively, and roots negatively, charged. We also know that the same
conditions are found in the human subject, since Dr Baraduc, who is a
celebrated French Psycho-Therapeutist, in his book, "The Vibrations of
Human Vitality," tells us that he has invented a machine called a
biometer to test these very vibrations. I have had one of these
machines myself and have experimented with it a great deal. By its aid
we can make the machine work differently with different persons, and
by careful tabulation of records Dr Baraduc has been able to elicit
some very remarkable information about the magnetic currents which are
constantly flowing into and out of the human body. If our
correspondent really wants to know more about the wonders of human
magnetism he should read some of the voluminous literature upon the
subject published by the Theosophical Society. Just recently also a Dr
Kilner has invented a form of coloured screen by which he and others
who have some psychic sight can actually see the magnetic emanations
which flow through a person placed in a darkened room.


SALT-COOKED VEGETABLES.

The one object of the vegetable kingdom is to build up, for the use of
the animal or organic realm, the constituents found in the mineral or
inorganic kingdom. These mineral constituents are dissolved, sorted
out and built up in the right proportions for the use of animals when
taken as foods. Whenever these foods are not so eaten they are sent
back again to the earth by the aid of microbes during the process of
decay, to be again available for plant use. Cooking is a process
invented by man which is analogous to that of decay, for it dissolves
and disintegrates the structures which Nature has built up. When man
eats food that is partially disintegrated he does not obtain from it
the right sort of nutriment which Nature intended him to have. To
intensify the wrong-doings of the cook, man further hastens the
disintegrating process by adding to the things that he cooks a due
proportion of a common and very stable mineral, called salt. It is
powerful, because it is not easily disintegrated. The salt greatly
expedites the process of decay, whether in the natural form of
fermentation, or whether by the application of heat, as in cooking.
Salt is used in Nature to promote the flow of those electric and
magnetic currents which are a manifestation of the universal
life-force which pervades all things seen and unseen. It is an
essential constituent of the sea because the ocean is the life-blood
of the earth. It is an essential constituent of our own blood, because
it is needed to make the blood stream a good conductor of magnetic
currents. When you put this salt into water and then proceed to boil
vegetables in it, it quickly sucks out all the life-force from them,
and if persisted in reduces them to the state of minerals from which
they were originally constructed.


FOOD AND THE SOURCE OF BODILY ENERGY.

Dr Rabagliati and Professor Atwater are, I believe, both right, but
the former does not always explain himself clearly to the lay mind.
The life-force or animal magnetism is the real source of bodily
energy, and it manifests itself only when it has something that
resists or regulates its flow.

It does this just as certain forms of wire, or other materials, which
possess indifferent conducting power, resist the flow of electricity
through them.

Electricity cannot manifest as light in the usual electric lights used
in our houses, as heat in the electric culinary appliances or stoves,
or even as power in the motors which run our trams and trains, unless
it be given the requisite apparatus to bring about the manifestation
required.

In exactly the same way life cannot manifest itself as consciousness,
with its flow of thoughts, emotions and bodily activities, without the
food which is daily supplied to the body.

It consequently depends considerably upon how we select our daily
rations as to how this vital force will manifest within us.

H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.




HOLIDAY APHORISMS.


A Sun Bath needs no Soap.

       *       *       *       *       *

Man was made for the Weather, not the Weather for man.

       *       *       *       *       *

A long drink often makes a short walk.

       *       *       *       *       *

You may bring a man to the Sea, but you cannot make him think.

       *       *       *       *       *

A tanned face doesn't make a healthy body.

       *       *       *       *       *

Dew paddling should be done in the dark.

       *       *       *       *       *

The only things that bathing machines make are cowards.

       *       *       *       *       *

It is better to board yourself than let others be bored by you.

       *       *       *       *       *

"A bore is one who thinks his opinions of greater importance than your
own."

       *       *       *       *       *

People who throw pebbles into the sea shouldn't dive near shore.

       *       *       *       *       *

A toothbrush is what many forget but few should need.

       *       *       *       *       *

Scotland Yard is not in the Grampians.

       *       *       *       *       *

Cheap food is often dearly bought.

       *       *       *       *       *

Lyons have no depots in Skye.

       *       *       *       *       *

Orange-trees never yet sprang from scattered peel.

       *       *       *       *       *

A pear in the hand is worth two in the can.

PETER PIPER.




                                 THE

                               HEALTHY

                                LIFE

                           The Independent
                           Health Magazine.

                      3 AMEN CORNER LONDON E.C.


              VOL. V                            SEPTEMBER
              No. 26.                              1913


    _There will come a day when physiologists, poets, and
    philosophers will all speak the same language and understand one
    another._--CLAUDE BERNARD.




AN INDICATION.


Food reformers sometimes forget that "man does not live by bread
alone," not even when supplemented by an ample supply of fresh air and
physical exercise.

It has been pointed out by psychologists that the more highly
organised and highly developed the creature, the less it depends on
nervous energy obtained via the stomach and the more it depends on
energy generated by the brain. True, the brain must be healthy for
this, and one poisoned by impure blood, due to wrong feeding, cannot
be healthy. But something more than clean blood is necessary. For, as
change of physical posture is necessary to avoid cramped limbs, so
periodic reversal of mental attitude (consideration from other than
the one view-point) is necessary to the brain's health.

Again, change of air is often prescribed when the patient's real need
is a change of the personalities surrounding him. While for the
lonely country dweller a bath in the magnetism of a city crowd may be
a far more efficacious remedy than the medicinal baths prescribed by
his physician.

For man lives by _every_ word that proceeds out of the mouth of
God.--[EDS.]




FEAR AND IMAGINATION.

_Regular readers will recognise in this article a continuation of the
series previously entitled "Healthy Brains." The author of "The
Children All Day Long," is an intimate disciple of one of the greatest
living psychologists, and she has a message of the first importance to
all who realise that true health depends as much on poise of mind as
on physical fitness. We regret that in the previous article,
"Imagination in Play," the following misprints occurred:--P. 475, line
4 from top, "movement" should be "moment"; p. 475, line 5 from bottom,
"admiration" should be "imagination."_--[EDS.]


Some people are given to excusing their own uncharitable thoughts by
saying, "I suppose I ought not to have minded her rudeness; I am
afraid I am too sensitive." In the same way, people say, "Oh, I
_couldn't_ sleep in the house alone" (or let a child go on a
water-picnic, or nurse a case of delirium or do some other thing that
suggested itself), "I have too much imagination." In both cases the
claim, though put in deprecating form, is made complacently enough.
The correlative is: "You are so sensible, dear; I know you won't
mind," which is a formula under cover of which many kindnesses may be
shirked and many unpleasant duties passed on.

The sensible, practical people who listen to these sayings sometimes
attach importance to them, so that a habit has grown up of describing
morbidly neurotic people as "over-sensitive" and cowardly ones as "too
quick of imagination." Ultimately, this leads to the thought that both
sensitiveness and imagination are mental luxuries too costly for
ordinary folk to grow, and that it is safest to check, crush or uproot
them when we discover them springing up in others or in ourselves.

Is not this attitude of mind due to a misunderstanding? Imagination is
an _organ of activity_; it can be kept in the highest possible
condition of health by having plenty of exercise; it should be working
continually against resistance. A rabbit's gnawing tooth, if the
opposing tooth be broken, may grow inwards and cause the creature's
death, but the same activity of growth, if working under suitable
conditions, enables him to go on living and gnawing at his food year
after year without wearing his tools away.

The problem, then, in economy of effort is: How shall we use whatever
force of sensitiveness and imagination we have, so as to get its
maximum efficiency of usefulness and its minimum pain and
inconvenience?

For many ages man has been dominated by fear. His way to freedom, now,
is to step out through his cobweb chains and go right forward with
courage and in faith. So we are told with relentless and almost
tiresome reiteration. It is the fashion, one might almost say, to have
cast off fear, and the one thing an honest "modern thinker" is afraid
of is being afraid. (To less honest ones it is the thought of _being
thought_ afraid that is a very real and present fear.)

But, if this standpoint is right, is not fear at least a vestigial
organ, a survival of a mental activity which served its purpose in
times gone by? Is it not even truer to go further still and say, as
_each particular fear_ serves its purpose it may safely be discarded,
but that, as far as our present knowledge goes, other grades of
sensitiveness, finer shades of imagination of the type we have called
fear, must take its place, to be discarded in their turn for yet other
apprehensions?

For if we lost the kind of perception that we associate with fear, if
our imagination closed itself automatically to the suggestion of all
sorts of ugly possibilities, should we not find ourselves soon in the
midst of difficulties akin to those of the hero of the German tale of
the man who felt no pain? We accept the evidence of pain as a guide
to action; when we have decided on action we proceed to get rid of the
pain as expeditiously, safely and permanently as we can.

The same thing seems true of fear. Over and over again we laugh at
ourselves for fearing something that either never happened at all or
happened in such a way as to be softened out of all likeness to the
monstrous terror we had created. On the other hand, when misfortune
falls heavily because of our lack of imagination in not foreseeing
possible consequences of particular actions or events, we lament and
complain: "If I could only have guessed! If I had only known!"

Fear pure and simple--the imagination of possible trouble--is a stage
we can hardly yet afford to do without. But when it has roused our
attention to a danger, its work is done. Let us practise turning it
into action; taking due precautions against accident, guarding against
hurting a neighbour's feelings, watching some possibility of evil
tendency in ourselves. Then, and not till then, may we let it drop. It
may pass; it has done its work. It is no longer our responsibility to
foresee, it is our privilege to lay down the fear and live happily and
at peace.

Even the dread perceptions of eternal laws come under the same method.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," the _beginning_:
the end is faith and love.

E.M. COBHAM.


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HOW MUCH SHOULD WE EAT?

_The article (signed "M.D.") with the above title which we published
in the July number has, as we anticipated, aroused considerable
discussion. One interesting criticism appeared in the August number.
We now publish two further contributions, to be followed, in our next
issue, by two further articles by Dr Rabagliati and Mr Ernest
Starr._--[EDS.]


I

As one who has tried the low proteid diet, and came to grief on it, I
desire to set my experience against that of Mr Voysey,[9] and to
assert that, if it is true for him, it certainly is not true for me.
Mr Voysey indulges in many loose and generalised statements which do
not help the average man or woman in the least. I imagine it is these
that "M.D." has in mind when he advises a certain standard of diet,
below which it is not safe to go. If Mr Voysey can, as Horace Fletcher
can, exist on a very low proteid diet, that does not prove that all
men and women can do the same and be healthily active; it only shows
that he and Fletcher are exceptions to the average person, and that it
may be dangerous to follow their example. For most men, "M.D.'s"
proteid standard is not so nauseating as he finds it. Here is a
specimen dietary for a day, for a man of ten stone, following, as most
of us do, a sedentary occupation:--

    3 oz. cheese.
    9 oz. bread.
    8 oz. vegetables and salad.
    8 oz. fruit.
    1+1/2 pints milk.

Will any average person say that that quantity, divided into three
meals, would be nauseating to him? And is that diet so very expensive
that it would be beyond the means of an agricultural labourer in any
country? It is certainly no mockery. The cost to such a labourer would
probably not exceed 3d. or 4d. Of course the diet can be made as
expensive as one chooses, and widely varied.

[9] See August number.

Who amongst ordinary men and women has a reliable natural taste that
would be an infallible guide in all matters of food? And what a
misleading statement that is which asserts "that all the hardest work
of the world has always been done by those who get the least food."
Put it to the test on the average person and see where it leads to.

My contention is that the average person, throwing over his or her
accustomed meat diet, requires some definite guidance as to the
quantity of proteid, such as Dr Haig's wide experience and much
patient research have proved needful, or at least advisable, for the
continuance of a healthy and vigorous life; and I will say that it
does not help this average person in the least to put before him the
misty statement that "the quantity depends on the development that is
in progress, and is only discoverable by the natural guides of
appetite and taste, ruled by reason and love of others." All very
noble and very well in another place, but hardly meeting the case of
the ordinary person who is seeking a healthy diet. Nor can you "make
the body a more harmonious instrument for the true life of man" by
habitually underfeeding it. I thought that was a mediaeval notion that
had been knocked on the head long ago.

Is there any man, lay or scientific, Mr Voysey notwithstanding, who
can claim to have as wide an experience of diet in its relation to
health and disease as "M.D.," to say nothing of the trained mind and
long years of patient thought that have been exerted in dealing with
the facts of this wide experience. For myself, I have come to see
that, if "M.D." does not hold in his grasp the absolute truth in the
matter of diet, he is nearer to it, and is a safer guide, than all
your low proteid advisers, lay or otherwise, where they come much
below "M.D.'s" standard.

So, using Mr Voysey's phrases, I would urge laymen like myself to shun
that weak-kneed manikin, the low proteid diet, and unite with me in a
long strong pull to get him and others like him out of the rut in
which that sorry weakling holds him.

HY. BARTHOLOMEW.


II

The Editors were quite right in saying that the article under this
heading in the July issue would arouse discussion. My wife and I,
having discussed "M.D." and many others with the title, feel
constrained to put forth a warning against blind faith in anything
which the faculty have to say on dietetics.

There are of course brilliant exceptions, such as Dr Rabagliati, Dr
Knaggs, Dr Haig, the late Dr Keith and others, who give chapter and
verse for every statement made; but when we consider the excellent
work of laymen such as Albert Broadbent, Joseph Wallace, Horace
Fletcher, Alice Braithwaite, Eustace Miles, Hereward Carrington, Edgar
J. Saxon, Bernarr MacFadden, Arnold Eiloart, ordinary folks like
ourselves may be excused if we venture to give our experience as
against that of "qualified" men.

With your permission, then, we reply to "M.D.'s" five suggestions in
the order he gives them:--

1. Food qualities are _not_ of extreme importance.

2. Quantity tables may have been "settled" by physiologists to their
own satisfaction many years ago; but very good reasons have since been
given for altering, or even ignoring, them.

3. The particular number of grains of proteid to be consumed per day
is not of serious moment.

4. That departure from the quantity specified has not led to disaster
is proved by the fact that the human race still persists, in spite of
the very varying eating customs found in different nations. The great
majority being poor or ignorant, or both, know neither "tables" nor
the need for them.

5. There can be no reply to such a general statement as: "The nature
of this disaster may appear to be very various, and its real cause is
thus frequently overlooked."

In such matters an ounce of personal experience is worth a pound of
cut-and-dried theory. We--my wife and I--have been reared in an
atmosphere suspicious of doctors, both sets of grandparents having
relied rather on herbs, water treatment, goodness of heart and faith
in God; and their children have had too many evidences of medical
ignorance to accept any dogmas. We are anti-vaccinators, nearly
vegetarian, and, to come to the point, we have four children who will
persist in thriving on a basis of always too little rather than too
much of food. The respective ages are girl 13, boy 10, girl 6, boy 2.

All have been brought up on these lines: never pressed to eat, but
continually asked to chew thoroughly. Foods "rich in proteid" put
sparingly before them. Milk has been well watered; and eggs, bacon and
other tempting and rich foods only on rare occasions given to them.

We would ask readers who can to make the following experiment: Let
your children have a good drink to start the day, and then run and
play; don't offer food till asked for. You will almost to a certainty
find, if you start this plan immediately after weaning, that day by
day and year after year it is twelve to one o'clock before they
inquire for "something to eat." We have done this for twelve years,
with children of entirely different temperament and of both sexes.
They go to school, poor things! breakfastless. During these twelve
years light breakfast for father has been on the table--he goes
without lunch--and not once in fifty do they ask to join him. Nor, if
invited, will they after three or four years of age.

The have never had a fever which lasted more than a day or two, and
they are all above average height and weight.

They get fruit in season just as asked for, and as much to drink as
they like, _but not at meal-times_.

Our experience is over a period of twelve years, and we have come to
the conclusion that the infectious diseases so prevalent and
death-dealing amongst children of all classes, rich or poor, are, in
the main, the result of over-feeding. We find it wise to keep highly
nutritious foods (like eggs, cheese, meat, etc.) away from
children--that is, for regular consumption; a little occasionally may
do no harm.

You will have it borne in on our minds year by year, as your children
grow up under such a plan, that Dr Rabagliati, Hereward Carrington and
others are quite right. We do not get our strength, nor heat, from
food. Let the force of animal life (zoo-dynamic, I believe Dr
Rabagliati calls it) have free play, and your children can't help
growing up well and strong.

In to-day's _London Daily Chronicle_ I see a special article by Dr
Saleeby, under this heading: WORLD'S DOCTORS VERSUS DISEASE. 5000
MEDICAL MEN MEET TO-DAY. THE TRIUMPHS OF THREE DECADES. We know how
much this wonderful faculty knew thirty years ago about, _e.g._, fresh
air for consumptives. There is not a word said in this article (which
is a sort of programme of the weighty matters for discussion) on the
relation of food to the body. That question probably 4950 of them
believe was settled by the eminent physiologists who compiled those
"food-tables" years ago--and in so doing went far to pave the way for
the modern frightful increase of cancer, Bright's disease, etc., as
well as for "scientific" horrors like anti-toxin, tuberculin--not to
mention compulsory eugenics!

J. METHUEN.




HEALTH THROUGH READING.


Do many people consider reading from the point of view of health of
mind and body--of refreshment in times of struggle--of recuperation
after knock-down blows of sorrow, disappointment or misfortune?

Let us begin by saying that some of the greatest books are not to be
read by everybody at all seasons. When one's heart or ankles are weak,
one does not start to climb mountains, or one may end as a corpse or
a cripple. So with one's soul under shock or stress. Personally, I can
imagine nothing more cruel than the action of two women, one a
story-teller of great repute among the "goody," who, to a specially
stricken and lonely young widow, tendered as "bed-side books," Victor
Hugo's _Les Miserables_ and Browning's poignant _The Ring and the
Book_. If they had wished to make her realise to the bitterest depths
the awfulness of the world wherein she was left alone, and the
blackest depravity of the human nature around her, they could not have
done differently. _Les Miserables_ she read till she reached the
dreadful scene where a vicious cad hurls snowballs at the helpless
Fantine. Then the strong instinct of self-preservation made her put
the book aside--not to touch it again for nearly thirty years. With
_The Ring and the Book_ her mind was too wrung and too weary to
wrestle--all it could receive was a picture of wronged innocence, and
especially of the rampant forces of evil with which she was left to
contend. With the same want of tact and judgment, if with unconscious
cruelty, the gloomy, fateful _Bride of Lammermoor_ was selected out of
all Scott's novels for the reading of a very homesick youth, solitary
in a strange country!

Yet we must always remember that, as in affairs of the body so of the
spirit, "what is one man's meat may be another man's poison." Some of
the wisest and most successful nurses or doctors will occasionally
permit an invalid to indulge in a longed-for diet which would
certainly never be prescribed. They know that idiosyncrasy follows no
exactly known rule. So we could tell of one who, amid the dry
agnosticism of the later half of last century, had felt her faith, not
indeed extinguished, but obscured and darkened. From the perusal of
certain writers she had shrunk, perhaps with cowardice. They were put
on such a pinnacle that she feared she would find no arguments fit to
oppose to theirs. Weakly, she locked the skeleton cupboard. Then she
was attacked by a malady which, while leaving her mind free and
strong, she knew might be very speedily fatal. Straightway she said
to her husband: "In two or three days I shall probably 'know'--or
cease from all knowing. There will not be long to wait. Therefore
bring me three books," which she named, works of authors of extreme
agnostic views. Rather reluctantly he complied with her wish. She went
steadily through the joyless pages, turned the last with the
significant remark: "If this is all they can say, well!--" The
skeleton cupboard, once opened, was speedily swept out. She quickly
recovered, but never forgot her experience. Yet it must be remembered
that this was the patient's own prescription, and was permitted by one
who thoroughly understood her temperament. Therefore, though one would
never wish to overrule a strong personal desire, that is quite
different from offering counsel and furtherance--or proving
experiments upon oneself.

A celebrated woman writer of the middle of last century was of opinion
that young people of both sexes should not indulge in reading "minor
poetry." "Let them keep to the great poets, made of granite," was her
graphic phrase. A woman of singularly self-controlled nature has
confessed that the only time in her whole life that she experienced an
unwholesome moral and emotional disturbance, after reading a book, was
when, at about twenty-two years of age, she read Emily Bronte's
_Wuthering Heights_. She dared not finish it: and when, some time
later, a copy was presented to her, she caused it to be exchanged for
another book, not wishing it even to be in the house with her. Years
afterwards, she read it again, quite unmoved. It may be added that her
first reading was made in the course of a systematic study of English
literature, which had already led her through the works of Chaucer and
Fielding. She has herself asked: "Is it possible that the strong and
unpleasant effect was produced because the book was the production of
another young woman, perhaps of somewhat 'sympathetic' temperament?"

Taken as a whole, probably most fiction and all highly emotional work
of any sort should be indulged in sparingly by those in the
danger-zone of life, or by any under special mental or moral stress.
History, philosophy (with sustained chains of reasoning) and
biographies (best, autobiographies) of active and strenuous lives,
should be resorted to by those temporarily doomed to spells of
suspense and involuntary inaction. Invalids should be encouraged to
read Plutarch's _Lives_ rather than the _Memorials_ of other
sufferers, however saintly!

It may be broadly stated that, during the tragic episodes which seem
to occur in all lives, the most wholesome reading is to be found in
the books of the great World-Religions--the Bible, and the teachings
of Buddha, Confucius and Mahomet. The Bible is of course a library in
itself, and many of its books are suited to very widely different
circumstances and temperaments. The Psalms, the Gospels, the Epistle
of St James, and parts of those great poems known as the "prophetical
books" and the more personal and less doctrinal portions of Paul's
epistles are perhaps of widest application. From the words of Buddha,
Confucius and Mahomet there are many admirable selections--and one
remembers a wonderful compilation of more than thirty years ago,
called _The Sacred Anthology_, and wonders if it be out of print. It
does not follow that these works should not be studied at other times
than "tragic episodes." If this were more often the case, perhaps
there would be fewer "tragic episodes"!

Next to these come such wonderful books of spiritual experience as A
Kempis's _Imitation of Christ_, the _Pilgrim's Progress_, the _Devout
Life_ of Francis of Sales and others which will occur to the memory.

Allusion to the _Pilgrim's Progress_ brings us to the remark that no
books are more truly wholesome than some that can be enjoyed by those
of all ages, and of very varied types of "culture": in which the
children can delight, and which refresh the aged and weary. Like
Nature herself, they have hedgerows where the little ones can gather
flowers, little witting of the farther horizons of earth and sky
lifted up for the eyes of the elders. Let the children read the
_Pilgrim's Progress_ simply as "a story," its eternal verities will
sink into their souls to reappear when they too are in _Vanity Fair_
or in bitter conflict with _Apollyon_.

For the same reason, the Book of Proverbs should be commended to
youthful study. Under wise supervision--or rather, in mutual study--it
becomes at once a series of vivid pictures of primitive Eastern
life--for all allusions should be explained, where possible,
pictorially--while at the same time the memory will be insensibly
stored with shrewd common sense and knowledge of the world, to be
turned to, and drawn upon, as needed.

And then, while the children revel in the fun and the fancy of Hans
Andersen's _Fairy Tales_, let the sorrowful or sore or wounded heart
turn to them for solace, soothing or healing. Hans Andersen enjoys a
very special "popularity" and yet some, who have learned to love and
value him, doubt whether justice has yet been done to his work.
Because it is matchless for the young, it may be easily forgotten that
it can be so, only by some quality which makes it matchless for all
others. Perhaps some of his most popular stories are not his most
wonderful, but have simply caught the popular fancy, because of some
artist's illustration, or some personal application to the writer's
own history, as in the case of his _Ugly Duckling_. How many--or
rather, how few!--can readily recall the pathos and wit of his
_Portuguese Duck_ or the deep philosophy of his _Girl Who Trod on a
Loaf_?

It is told of Hans Andersen, a gentle soul in a homely exterior, which
attracted the snubs and neglect which "patient merit of the unworthy
takes," on some such occasion was once heard to murmur: "And yet I am
the greatest man now in the world!" It was very naive of him to say
so, even in a whisper, probably wrung from him only in self-defence,
but perhaps he might have thought it, in solemn silence--and--not been
so very wrong! It may have been part of the very transparency of his
inspired genius that he could not keep the secret to himself!

There is at least one reader who declares that she finds the seeds of
all vital philosophy--ancient or modern--in his stories. How much he
derived from those who went before him, it is not for us to say, but
this disciple, herself a devoted student and admirer of the world's
latest teacher, Leo Tolstoy, yet puts Hans Andersen above him, as
having attained in practically all his work what Tolstoy attained only
occasionally--_i.e._ Tolstoy's own ideal of what Art should be and do.

In such a paper as this little can be done beyond indicating on the
broadest lines the kind of reading which tends to preserve or to
restore mental health. Away with your "problem" novels and "realistic"
poems stated in the filthy material of moral gutters! Hans Andersen
will take some birds, some flowers, some toys, and will state the same
problems, and get the same eternal solutions, without making the
inquirer run any risk of meanwhile catching moral malaria. Isaiah will
help us to build "castles" for the human race and for our own future,
but he will take care that we shall remember that righteousness and
unceasing vigilance and unflagging repair must go into the laying of
foundations and the upholding of walls. David, even in his "cursing
psalms," will exemplify for you the power of hate and vengeance in
your own heart, and as he holds it up before you, you will see how
small a thing it is, how mean, how ludicrous!

As a man eats and drinks, so is his body: if he is a gross feeder, his
body will be gross and sensual; if his food lacks nourishment, he will
pine and fade. So it is with our minds and our morals. With whatever
original "spiritual body" we may start, it needs spiritual sustenance,
spiritual discipline, spiritual sufficiency and spiritual abstinence.
Too often we ill-use it, as bodies are ill-used, goading its weakness
with fiery excitement, or gorging its greed with sickly sentiment, or
emasculating it by empty frivolity.

All who desire spiritual health must find out what books best promote
it in themselves: and sometimes they are found, like wholesome herbs,
in very lowly places. One good rule is never to recommend what we have
not seen proved in ourselves, or on others.

ISABELLA FYVIE MAYO.




THE SWAN-SONG OF SEPTEMBER.


    This fine sonnet is from _Lyric Leaves_, poems by S. Gertrude
    Ford. 2s. 6d. net (postage 2d.). (C.W. Daniel, Ltd., 3 Tudor
    Street, London, E.C.)

    Sing out thy swan-song with full throat, September,
      From a full heart, with golden notes and clear!
      No rose will wreathe thee; yet the harebell's here,
    And still thy crown of heath the hills remember.
    Bright burns thy fire, e'en to its latest ember,
      The sunset fire that lights thee to thy bier,
      Flaming and failing not, albeit so near
    Dun-robed October waits, and grey November.
    And though, at sight of thee, a chill change passes
    Through wood and wold, on leaves and flowers and grasses,
      Thy beauty wanes not; thou hast ne'er grown old;
    Death-crowned as Cleopatra, lovely lying
    Even to the end; magnificently dying
      In pomp of purple and in glare of gold.

S. GERTRUDE FORD.




THE QUEST FOR BEAUTY.


If you have travelled at all frequently on certain of the London
"tube" railways you may occasionally have noticed, facing you in the
carriage, a small framed poster which for beauty and imaginative power
has, I should think, never been surpassed in advertising art. If the
first sight of it did not make you catch your breath you will not, I
am afraid, be interested in this article.

The poster represents a rich landscape, in which noble tree-forms show
sombre against a tumultuous sky--the latter an architectural mass of
pale cloud, spanned by a vivid rainbow. Across the lower part of the
picture is a scroll, on which are written, in musical notation, two
bars from Chopin's Twentieth Prelude. At the top are the words,
_Studies in Harmony_: it is an advertisement of Somebody & Co.'s
wall-papers.

In both colour and design this poster is very beautiful. It would be
scarcely less so without the rainbow; but "the dazzling prism of the
sky" not only intensifies the subtle harmony of colour throughout the
picture: it turns the poster into a symbol. And the artist might well
have stopped there; only, you see, he had an inspiration. When he
wrote across the picture those eight descending chords from the
immortal _Largo_ he made of the poster--a poem.

I do not know anything about the artist who conceived this
advertisement of wall-papers. I do not even know his name. But I
believe him to be the herald of an invasion.

The invasion of life by beauty.

Do you think it a degradation of art that it should be enlisted by the
makers of wall-papers? Are there not too many ugly and discordant
posters? Do you consider trade and manufacture so sordid that they are
beneath the ministrations of beauty? It doesn't matter a new penny
whether you answer such questions with a nod or a no: the invasion has
begun. It is irresistible. Beauty is stooping--stooping to conquer.

Your ardent social reformer is too often obsessed with one idea.
Across his mental firmament he sees only one blazing word: INJUSTICE.
And, fine fellow though he often is, he is inclined to be impatient
with any talk of art or beauty. "How can beauty grow in these vile
cities?" he cries. "What is the use of your music, your statuary, your
fine pictures, your poetry, to the starving and the oppressed?" And he
does not see that his passionate desire for justice is at root the
quest for beauty, for fullness and harmony of life. His stormy sky
shows no rainbow: yet it is there. And so is the stately music, the
transmutation of colour into sound. And if his eyes could be opened to
one and his ears to the other, there would be more power to his elbow.
For beauty is inspiration and courage--

   "My heart leaps up when I behold
    A rainbow in the sky...."

And there is more than that in it. The cultivation of a sense of
beauty, of harmony, makes reformers less harsh in their judgments,
broadens their sympathies and helps to save them from becoming mere
doctrinaires. If you have any love for the beautiful you simply cannot
be happy about most Utopias, though they be Justice itself in civic
form; and, when our "scientific" Fabian has demonstrated to you how to
organise the national life in all its parts into one vast smoothly
working State mechanism you will shudder, and then laugh. And then,
without any rudeness, you will say: "Hang mechanism and a minimum
wage! Live men and women want living crafts, liberty and a maximum
beauty!"

And really, I am coming to see that there are a great many
health-culture enthusiasts (not to mention food reformers) who see no
rainbow in the sky and hear no music in the wind; and even if they
did, ten to one they would see no connection between the two. I verily
believe there are some poor souls who have studied food questions so
closely that they cannot see the sun for proteid nor the sea for
salts. In all meekness, and knowing the frailty of the human mind (I
have written dozens of articles on diet!), I would prescribe for them
a course of artistic wall-paper advertisements, combined with the
letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. He, poor fellow, had to battle
against disease all his short life; but he managed to end one of his
letters something like this (I quote from memory): "_Sursum Corda_!
Heave ahead! Art and blue heaven! April and God's larks! A stately
music.... Enter God."

A somewhat ecstatic utterance. A trifle too exclamatory. Perhaps. You
and I don't end our letters like that. (Or do you?) More likely we say
something about the weather down here being miserably cold (or damp,
or dull, or changeable, or hot) and brave out the lie with "yours
truly." But O for one little spark from the fire that shone in the
soul of R.L.S. Better to die young with a broken heart, if it were a
heart as brave and gay as his, than beat Methuselah by means of a
mincing, calculating, cold-blooded attention to irritating self-made
little rules.

Oh yes, I know well the value of little rules. And I know also that
Nature offers us only two alternatives--obedience or death (either
sudden or slow). But then Nature is something more than Mistress and
Lawgiver. She is Beauty. And in that aspect, as in all other aspects,
Nature is unescapable. We turn our backs on her only to find her
awaiting us at the next turn in the road. Looking at the matter all
round, I don't think we can come to any other conclusion than that
Nature (or whatever you like to call It, Her or Him) is aiming at
beauty all the time. So that we who are literally, if not
figuratively, the children of Nature, had best do likewise.

Some mystic or other has said that man's search for God is God's
search for man. If he was right--and I think he was--it follows that
man's quest for beauty is Beauty invading life; and that the only
healthy life worth the having is that which begins with "Lift up your
hearts!" and issues in "a stately music. Enter God."

EDGAR J. SAXON.

       *       *       *       *       *




_SEMPER FIDELIS._


    Do two things worth doing, every day.
    Be scrupulously polite and kind, rather than witty or entertaining.
    Cherish cleanliness, sobriety, frugality and contentment.
    Cultivate sweetness of disposition and tranquillity of mind.
    Think before speaking, and so reduce your causes of regret.
    Seek peace and be peaceable for _lis litem generat_.
    Begin at home, let home always find you faithfully on duty.
    Care carefully for those whom Providence has entrusted to your care.
    And the reward of the faithful will abundantly yours,
    And your heaven will go with you wherever you go.

"A.R."




MORE HOLIDAY APHORISMS.


Two's company, three's fun.

       *       *       *       *       *

Levity is the bane of wit.

       *       *       *       *       *

Braggers mustn't be losers.

       *       *       *       *       *

Never put on to-day what you can't put on to-morrow.

       *       *       *       *       *

It's an ill mind that finds no one any good.

       *       *       *       *       *

It's no use crying over spilt milk: you're better without it.

       *       *       *       *       *

Look before you sleep.

       *       *       *       *       *

Never put an excursion ticket in the mouth.

       *       *       *       *       *

Long hair never made true poets.

       *       *       *       *       *

Obesity always carries weight.

       *       *       *       *       *

Look after your manners and your friends will look after themselves.

       *       *       *       *       *

Cranks of a feather fight together.

       *       *       *       *       *

All is not toil that blisters.

       *       *       *       *       *

_To Sea Anglers_:

A live catch is no better than a dead fish.

       *       *       *       *       *

Better a place in the sun than a plaice on a hook.

PETER PIPER.




HEALTHY HOMEMAKING.


XXI. HIRED HELP (_continued_).

What is the homemaker of limited means, who must have some help, to do
under present conditions? Well, meantime, there is only the young
"general" for her, either the "daily girl" or one who "lives in." Of
the two I prefer the "daily girl," when she can be obtained. And the
younger she can be obtained, other things equal, the better. She will
have fewer bad habits to overcome. Some housewives object to the daily
girl on the score that she may bring dirt or infection from her home,
and also because she can seldom arrive early enough to help get
breakfast. But a little management overnight can reduce the labour of
breakfast getting to a minimum, and if the "outings" of the girl who
lives in are as frequent as they ought to be the risk of her carrying
infection, etc., will always apply.

The "daily girl" has definitely fixed hours of work and the same
chance of enjoying a measure of home life, of keeping her friends and
individual interests, as the typist or factory worker whose lot the
domestic servant so often envies; while her employers are not faced
with the alternatives of condemning a young fellow-creature to a
solitary existence or forcing an unreal companionship which is equally
irksome on both sides. It is true that the wages of the "daily girl"
do not equal, in actual money, those of the factory worker, neither
does she obtain the Saturday half-holiday or the whole of Sunday free.
But to set against this she receives her entire board and, with a
kindly mistress, is not tied down to staying her full time on days
when she is "forward" with her work.

The life of the young "daily girl," if her employer is a conscientious
woman, need not be hard nor unpleasant; very little harder and no more
unpleasant than the lot of the young "lady" who is paying from L60 to
L80 per annum to learn cookery, laundry and housework at a school of
domestic economy. Properly conducted, the relations between employer
and employee, "mistress" and "servant," are those of mutual aid. Such
relations _may_ be, and too often _are_, those of an inefficient
little drudge for a "mistress" almost equally ignorant and
inefficient. But when the employer is an intelligent woman with a
sense of justice (I prefer a sense of justice to sentimental theories
about sisterhood--people do not always treat their sisters justly) the
weekly money payment and food will be but a small part of the girl's
wage. In addition she will receive a training that will equip her for
the "higher" branches of domestic service, or for homemaking on her
own account. Not every girl has the sense to appreciate this when she
gets it, nor the intelligence to profit by it; while it is certainly
rather trying to the employer when the girl is "all agog" to "better
herself" as soon as she has gained a bare smattering of how to do
certain things properly. But all this is "the fortune of war." Some
girls never cease to be grateful to their first teachers and leave
them reluctantly, while other girls never realise that they have
anything to be grateful for. When gratitude and affection come they
are pleasant to receive. But the motive power of the really
conscientious woman is not the expectation of gratitude or affection.

A word to the unconventional homemaker. The young "general" is a bird
of passage. Age and experience bring with them the necessity of
earning more, and if her first employer cannot periodically raise the
girl's wages the latter must in time seek better paid employment,
probably with a mistress who is not unconventional. It is unkind,
therefore, to refrain from teaching the girl how she will be expected
to do things in the ordinary conventional house. I do not mean that
the employer ought to slavishly run her home on conventional lines for
the instruction of her "help." But it is kinder, for instance, to help
a girl regard a cap and apron with good-humoured indifference, or as
on a par with a nurse's uniform, rather than as "a badge of
servitude." It is kinder, too, to show her that it is not only
"servants" who are expected to address their employers as "Sir" and
"Ma'am," but that well-mannered young people in all conditions of life
can be found who use this form of address to persons older than
themselves. I do not suggest for one moment that any attempt should be
made to delude a girl into the belief that she will not be expected,
in conventional households, to behave with equal deference to persons
younger than herself. Such deception would be unpardonable. But it is
anything but kind to allow a young girl to drift into careless and
familiar habits of speech bound to lead to dismissal for "impudence"
in her next "place." There is a type of person, for example, who seems
to believe that, in order to show that he is "as good as anybody
else," it is necessary to be rude and familiar. But good manners are
not necessarily associated with servility. And it is no kindness to
help to unfit a girl for getting her living in the world as it is.

It may seem that, in this article, I am more concerned for the "hired
help" than the homemaker for whom I am ostensibly writing. But the
points I have touched on are just those about which I know many
thoughtful women are puzzled. I cannot solve their individual problems
for them, of course, I can only just barely indicate some of the
thoughts that have come to me on a subject that is so intimately bound
up with the whole of our present unsatisfactory social and economic
conditions that it cannot be adequately discussed in a little tract
upon domestic economy.

FLORENCE DANIEL.


THE CARE OF CUPBOARDS.

There are three methods in general use of caring for cupboards. Some
housewives prefer their cupboard shelves of bare wood, to be well
scrubbed with soap and water at the periodical "turn-out." Others
cover all shelves with white American cloth, which only needs wiping
over with a wet house-flannel; while still others prefer to dispense
with the necessity for wetting the shelves and line them with white
kitchen paper, or even clean newspaper, which is periodically renewed.

Of the three methods I prefer the last, with the addition of a good
scrubbing at the spring clean. The weekly or fortnightly scrubbing is
apt to result in permanently damp cupboards, unless they can be left
empty to dry for a longer time than is usually convenient. The use of
American cloth is perhaps the easiest, most labour-saving method, but
the cloth soon gets superficially marked and worn long before its real
usefulness is impaired, so that the cupboard shelves never look quite
so neat as after scrubbing or relining with white paper.

The larder should be thoroughly "turned out" once a week. Once a
fortnight is enough for the store-cupboard and for china cupboards in
daily use. While cupboards in which superfluous china and other
non-perishable goods are stored, and that are seldom opened, need not
be touched oftener than once or twice a year.

In very small houses one cupboard often must house both china and
groceries, thus combining the offices of storeroom and china cupboard.
The larder, strictly speaking, is for the food consumed daily. But
when larder and store-cupboard have to be combined, the groceries may
be packed away on the upper shelves, which can be tidied once a
fortnight; but the shelves doing duty for the larder proper should
never be left for longer than a week.

Nothing betrays the careless housewife like an ill-smelling larder.
All food should be examined daily and kept well covered. Hot food
should be allowed to cool before storing in the larder. In the summer
time special precautions must be taken against flies, all receptacles
for food which are minus well-fitting lids being covered with
wire-gauze covers or clean butter muslin. If the shelves are lined
with paper, care should be taken at the weekly change to examine the
wood for stains caused by spilt food that has penetrated through the
paper. These should not be just left and covered over, but well washed
off. With ordinary carefulness, however, they need not occur.

F.D.




BOOK REVIEWS.


_The New Suggestion Treatment._ By J. Stenson Hooker, M.D. Cloth 1s.
    net (postage 1+1/2d.) C.W. Daniel, Ltd., 3 Tudor Street, E.C.

This book is a striking example of the new synthetic movement in the
medical profession. It is an exposition for the general reader of
certain basic principles of mental treatment and of the author's
methods of applying these; it is also, in reality, an appeal to
doctors generally to put aside prejudice and examine the immense
potentialities of rational "suggestion" healing methods.

After examining the main features and disadvantages of mere hypnotic
treatment and passing under review present-day "mental science," the
author explains wherein his method of mental treatment both avoids the
dangers of hypnotism and reinforces ordinary self-suggestion.
Throughout there is the frank recognition that few forms of dis-ease
are curable by one means alone; on the other hand, it is contended
that most disorders, both mental and physical, are remarkably amenable
to a rightly directed course of the new suggestion treatment,
supplemented by other natural means.

The narrowness of view that too often characterises the specialist is
entirely absent from this book. It is throughout thoroughly broad,
refreshingly sensible and profoundly convincing.

_The Cottage Farm Month by Month_ (illustrated with original
    photographs). By F.E. Green. Cloth, 1s. net (postage 2d.). C.W.
    Daniel, Ltd., 3 Tudor Street, London, E.C.

Here is a book of immediate social interest, of great practical value,
and of uncommon literary quality.

In the course of twelve chapters, bearing the titles of the months of
the year, it reveals a welding together of two things which in many
minds have unfortunately become divorced: the practical problems and
arduous labour which no tiller of the soil can escape and--the keen
delight of a poetical temperament in the ever-changing, yet annually
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It escapes the dry technicalities of the agricultural text-book, while
at the same time conveying innumerable valuable hints on practically
every branch of "small farming"--advice which springs from the
author's thorough knowledge based on long and often hard experience.

On the other hand, while entirely free from that all too common defect
of "nature-books"--hot-house enthusiasm--it will delight the most
incurable townsman (providing his sense of beauty is not withered) by
its joyous yet restrained pictures of open-air things.

_Simple Rules of Health._ By Philip Oyler, M.A. (2nd ed.). 3d. net.
    Post free from the author, Morshin School, Headley, Hants.

An admirable epitome of what might be called "advanced health culture
without crankiness." The author is an ardent advocate of simplicity in
all things and--practises what he preaches. Moreover, he is one of
those who sees health from all points of view: he is as much concerned
with what the English Bible calls "a right spirit" as with a fit body
and a responsive mind. It is a little book deserving of a wide
circulation.




CORRESPONDENCE.


A REMEDY FOR SLEEPLESSNESS.

    To the Editors

    SIRS,

    Would you care to publish the following experience of a cure for
    sleeplessness:--

    I had no difficulty in going to sleep, but usually awoke again at
    about two A.M. with palpitation, and it often took me two or
    three hours to go to sleep again.

    I cured myself in the following way: I left off supper and
    reduced my tea meal by half, and the result was continuous sleep;
    the symptoms, however, began to come back again after a time, so
    I gradually cut the tea meal right away, and half of the midday
    meal as well. The cure was then permanent and after a time I
    found that I could resume the tea meal again. At the present time
    I am having a tea meal of fruit only.

    In addition I should advise those who suffer from this complaint
    to keep cheerful, and to avoid excessive physical or mental
    fatigue and worry. Yours faithfully,

    "A SIX MONTHS' READER."


IS PURE LIME JUICE OBTAINABLE?

The Editors have received the following letter from Messrs Rowntree &
Co., Ltd.:--

   "We note in your issue of July 1913 under the heading of 'Lemon
    or Orange Squash' a note to the effect that bottled lemon
    squashes and lime cordials 'are not pure in the strict sense of
    the term, since they are bound to contain 10 per cent. alcoholic
    pure spirit by Government regulations.' We should be glad to know
    what is your authority for this statement. Possibly it is a
    misprint, because obviously the Government does not require
    anything of the kind. Our own lemon squash and lime juice cordial
    are entirely free from any form of preservative, including
    alcohol. They are made up from pure lemon juice and lime juice
    respectively, with sugar, and contain no foreign ingredient."

The statement complained of was based on an article entitled
"Fortified Lime Juice" which appeared in _The Chemist and Druggist_,
13th May 1911 (page 51). On again referring to this article we find
that the Government regulation applies only to _exported_ Lime Juice.

We regret having made this error, and are genuinely glad to have
Messrs Rowntree's assurance that their own "Lime Juice Cordial" and
"Lemon Squash" are "entirely free from any form of preservative,
including alcohol."

Nevertheless, we think our suspicions regarding the presence of
preservatives in such articles are justifiable in view of the
following authoritative statements made by _The Chemist and Druggist_
in the article referred to:--

   "The British Revenue authorities have drawn the line a little
    tighter in the discharge of their responsibility respecting the
    soundness of lime-juice intended for exportation or for use on
    board ship. The new rule henceforth is to grant a 'pass'
    certificate for unfortified lime-juice to last for fourteen days
    only, at the end of which time another certificate must be
    obtained. As this new regulation affects lime-juice in its
    natural condition before rum or any other spirit is added to it,
    only lime-juice manufacturers or importers are concerned in the
    matter.... _With such rapidly deteriorating liquid as lime or
    lemon juice the addition of the preservative spirit is a
    necessity, hence the sooner it is fortified the better._ The
    Revenue authorities permit duty-free spirit to be used for this
    purpose, but in order that lime-juice manufacturers shall have
    this advantage of not paying duty on the spirit used the Revenue
    authorities insist on approval of the juice and its subsequent
    fortification in bond under supervision of the Crown.... In
    reference to the proportion of spirit used, previously the
    regulation was expressed in a permissive sense, but now the
    emphatic "must" is used. In the last Government Laboratory report
    it was stated that 396 samples were examined, most of which were
    lime-juice, representing nearly 50,000 gallons. Even the
    fortified article is re-tested if more than three months old in
    cask or two years old in bottle, and this re-testing resulted
    last year in a condemnation of several hundred gallons owing to
    deterioration during storage. This juice is principally for use
    in the Mercantile Marine to combat scurvy."

From which it would appear that the use of _some_ kind of preservative
is essential with such a rapidly deteriorating liquid as lime or lemon
juice; and if not alcohol, there are innumerable chemical
preservatives available. We wish we could rely on receiving assurances
from other "Lime Juice" importers and manufacturers similar to that we
have received from Messrs Rowntree.

       *       *       *       *       *

_To People with Strong Convictions:_

A holiday is the best of all opportunities for appreciating the
opposite point of view to our own: this is why everyone needs a day's
holiday once a week.




HEALTH QUERIES.

_Under this heading our contributor, Dr Valentine Knaggs, deals
briefly month by month, and according as space permits, with questions
of general interest to health seekers and others._

_In all Queries relating to health difficulties it is essential that
full details of the correspondent's customary diet should be clearly
given._

_Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on _one side only of
the paper_, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as
a guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a
stamped addressed envelope must be enclosed._--[EDS.]


FAULTY FOOD COMBINATIONS.

    H.E.H. writes.--I should like your opinion of the statement of
    the late Mr A. Broadbent, that fruit when taken with starchy food
    by dyspeptics delays digestion, and that the digestion of starchy
    foods and vegetables occupied only one-third of the time needed
    for the digestion of starch with fruit. I have lived on a strict
    vegetarian diet and observed the laws of hygiene for two and a
    half years, to rid myself of dyspepsia, with great success,
    having increased my weight by thirty-six pounds; for the last
    nine months of this time I have lived on a largely "unfired"
    diet, but am still troubled with acid risings and flatulence and
    cannot account for it. Will you kindly enlighten me on the
    subject?

    I am a carpenter by trade and get eight hours in the open air
    every day. I take a tumbler of distilled water hot with the juice
    of one orange at 6 A.M., breakfast at 7.30 A.M., dinner at 12
    noon and tea at 6 P.M., all consisting of Wallace unfermented
    bread and biscuits, various fruits (mostly apples, bananas and
    tomatoes) and nuts, about 1/2oz. at a meal; also a little cheese,
    about 1 oz. at a meal.

The late Mr A. Broadbent was quite right, in my opinion, when he
asserted that fruit taken with starchy foods delayed digestion.

To reap the true benefit from fruit it must be taken alone.

The dominant element in fruit is oxygen and the feature of oxygen is
its power to start the process of oxidation in decomposing and
disintegrating substances. It follows that when the stomach is filled
with fermenting food-stuffs, or the tissues are clogged with the
products derived from such, the oxidising action of fruit will be
correspondingly intense.

The Naturist who applies the Schroth Cure for the purpose of curing
chronic diseases uses fruit as his chief eliminating agent. The reader
will remember that the peasant healer, Schroth, made his patients take
dry stale rolls alone for three whole days, with nothing whatever to
drink, and on the fourth day, he gave them a full bottle of white
wine, which then caused intense oxidation, with marked elimination of
poisons. His methods, if successful, were drastic and weakening, and
so the latter-day exponents of Schrothism have modified this and give
their patients zweiback or twice-baked bread instead of rolls, and on
the third or fourth day make the patient partake freely of fresh
fruit. This process of alternate dry days and fluid days is continued
for some weeks until the cure is complete.

I have merely referred to this matter to show the part played by fruit
in the body. To a healthy person fruit is in truth a splendid
regenerating food, but it should, whenever possible, be eaten alone.
To a dyspeptic, fruit is often equally good, if _taken by itself_.

The case of vegetables is different, and I hold with Broadbent that
salad or properly cooked vegetables do go well with cereals, because
they contain, not oxygen and oxygen acids, but mineral elements like
soda, lime and magnesia, which neutralise the acids and toxins which
form in the body as a result of its work. The vegetable is just as
active as the fruit as an eliminant, but it works on different lines.
Cereal foods, if eaten slowly in a dry condition are made alkaline by
the saliva, so that the vegetables, which are also naturally alkaline,
would harmonise well with cereals if eaten with them.

Our correspondent should modify his diet as follows, and then, I
anticipate, he will cease to be troubled with his acid dyspepsia and
flatulence. He should take his fruit alone, and take any of the crisp
unsweetened Wallace "P.R." Biscuits in preference to the unfermented
bread, which latter is often difficult to digest:--

_On rising._--A tumblerful of hot distilled water.

_Breakfast_ (at 7.30).--Fresh fruit only.

_Lunch_ (at 12).--1 to 2 oz. of cheese, preferably home-made curd
cheese; salad of green leaf vegetables; "P.R." or Ixion biscuits with
fresh butter, or nut butter.

_Dinner_ (at 6).--1 to 2 oz. of flaked pine kernels, finely grated raw
roots or tomatoes, with pure olive oil; Granose biscuits, or Shredded
Wheat biscuits, and fresh butter.

_At bedtime._--Cupful of dandelion coffee or hot distilled water.


NEURITIS.

    E.M.A. writes.--At the age of five years I had an attack of
    rheumatic fever through taking a severe cold, and have been
    troubled more or less with pains since that time, which I feel
    sure are caused through rheumatism of the nerves. I am now
    fifty-eight years of age and have been a vegetarian for six
    years.

    My diet is:--8 A.M., cup of Sanum Tonic Tea; 9 A.M., Cup of dried
    milk; 10 A.M., half of an apple and a little crust of wholemeal
    bread; 1 P.M. conservatively cooked vegetable, using "Emprote"
    for sauce; 4 P.M., cup of dried milk; 6 P.M., a little green
    salad with St Ivel lactic cheese (size of one large walnut); 9
    P.M., cup of dried milk. Do you think dried milk is harmful to
    me? I should miss it very much were I to leave it off. I must
    mention how great a help _The Healthy Life_ magazine is to me in
    many ways.

Neuritis is a painful and wearying form of nerve trouble which mostly
affects the arms and legs. It can, however, originate in any other
part of the body through the spinal nerve centres. It may sometimes be
due to injury, but the usual cause is some form of thickening or
misplacement of the spinal structures, which induces pressure upon the
nerves as they emerge through the apertures between the spinal bones.
A careful examination of the back will show the site, and often the
nature, of the thickening or encumbrance which is present.

In our correspondent's case the thickening process doubtless occurred
as an after effect of the attack of rheumatic fever.

The best remedy is suitable osteopathic treatment for the spine,
supplemented by _either very_ hot or _quite_ cold spinal sitz baths,
by acetic acid skin treatment, or by any other means which will have
the effect of disencumbering the spine. By means of our treatment we
free the painful nerves from harmful pressure and promote an increased
blood circulation in the parts affected. In this way the cause of the
disorder is removed.

A diet along the following lines would be better than the present
one:--

8 A.M.--Tumblerful of hot distilled water.

9.30.--One raw egg beaten up with cream and vegetable juice or clear
vegetable soup made without salt. Wholemeal bread with plenty of
butter and some celery or watercress.

1.30 P.M.--Two conservatively cooked vegetables done without salt,
with grated cheese as sauce and a Granose biscuit with butter.

4.--Tumblerful of hot distilled water only.

6.30.--2 oz. of cottage cheese or cream cheese, salad and Granose
biscuits, or "P.R." crackers, with butter.

9.30.--A raw egg beaten up with cream and vegetable juice or soup.

I think dried milk preparations are inadvisable in such cases as these
(especially when taken as beverages, as the "milk sugars" present are
very prone to ferment and to hinder the cleansing of the digestive
tract), and that the required proteid is best obtained from eggs and
curd cheese. Fat is very necessary in nervous troubles; hence plenty
of cream, fresh butter and cream cheese should be taken; also pure oil
with the salad.


MALT EXTRACT.

    L.F.H. writes.--Is malt extract a good thing to take daily with
    an ordinary non-flesh diet, two teaspoonfuls or so at breakfast?
    And is the desiccated or dry malt extract to be preferred to the
    ordinary sticky article?

Malt extract of good quality, containing an active form of diastase,
is a good form of relish to take with meals. The diastase promotes
starch digestion and makes a good addition to foods of the cereal
order. The thick sticky form is the best because the diastase is then
in an active condition. Dried malt usually will have this diastase
destroyed, hence, although much more convenient to handle, it is not
so good dietetically as the sticky original extract.


ABOUT SUGAR.

    C.T. writes.--I have read the article on sugar with considerable
    interest. I have noted nervous disorders, etc., manifest in cases
    of excessive consumption of manufactured sugar. I have been an
    abstainer from cane sugar (all commercial sugars, though _I do
    not know of any objection to milk, sugar_) for many years,
    regarding it as an unnatural excitant and stimulant as well as
    being inimical to digestion. As a physiologist I have taken
    immense interest in longevity, feeling that an active life past
    the age of ninety-five or a hundred, and upwards, carries with
    it, in evidence of right living, the force of demonstration, and
    more conclusively, in direct ratio to the advance of years. I
    firmly believe that all anomalies will ultimately admit of
    resolution. In this connection I could mention a number of
    strange and paradoxical cases for which, as yet, I have obtained
    no solution. I know of centenarians who began using "sugar"
    freely late in life. In one case, when past eighty, a new set of
    teeth (not odd "supernumeraries") appeared all round! How is it,
    again, that the natives of the West Indies, when living on sugar
    (in its crude state, I suppose) have excellent teeth and perfect
    health? Is not raw sugar better the less manufactured it is? On
    the other side, Captain Diamond, at 114, attributes his health in
    great measure to abstinence from sugar.

Most of these queries are answered in the completed book[10] published
this year. The point about "milk sugar" not being injurious he will
find answered on page 72.

[10] _The Truth about Sugar_, 1s. net. (C.W. Daniel, Ltd.)

"Milk sugars" taken to excess with a mixed diet, or in the form of
milk as a beverage, break down into lactic, butyric and other
destructive acids under the influence of intestinal germs and thus do
harm to the body.

The natives of the West Indies (page 39) take the sugar cane in its
natural state as a living vegetable food--a very different thing from
the isolated and chemicalised sugar on our tables at home. Moreover,
the chewing required helps digestion. This is very different to the
drinking rapidly of sugared beverages, which do not receive this
necessary mouth preparation.

One is quite prepared to admit that paradoxical cases do occur where
sugar seems to agree well even with octogenarians, but they are, in my
opinion, the exceptions, and I am constantly coming across cases where
the free consumption of table sugars has proved very harmful to both
old and young.


ULCERATION OF THE STOMACH.

    A.L.M. writes.--Our domestic servant, a girl aged twenty-four, is
    suffering from ulceration of the stomach and has had periodical
    attacks for the past six years. She has apparently, until she
    came to us, eaten and drunk very unwisely. She has been with us
    seven months and has been fed on a non-flesh diet since she came.
    For the last four weeks tea, coffee and cocoa have been
    forbidden, and as little sugar is consumed as possible. She had a
    very bad attack in August and we had to call in a doctor is we
    did not like the responsibility. He strongly recommended the
    hospital and an operation, which would ensure that there would be
    no repetition of the complaint. She decided to go and was there
    six weeks. After much experimenting there, inoculating and
    wondering whether it was tuberculosis, they operated and in due
    course she came back. We went to the sea for three weeks and
    shortly after our return the vomiting of blood and pains
    recommenced. After four days in bed she returned to light dishes,
    and a fortnight after another slighter attack came on, which in
    twenty-four hours. She takes hot boiled water five times a day.
    She suffers also from a horny skin on the palms of her hands,
    with deep cracks where the natural lines are. These periodically
    bleed. This skin exists also on her heels and the soles of her
    feet. Before and after, an attack this skin seems to be worse
    than ever.

    I mentioned the fact of the recurring attacks since the operation
    to the doctor and he seemed surprised and said the matter must be
    constitutional and there was no hope for her.

    My own opinion is that pure food will put her right eventually,
    and that these attacks will recur in diminishing force until the
    poisons are eliminated front the system.

    Her diet is at present as follows:--

    _On rising._--Half-pint of boiled water (hot).

    _Breakfast._--Either Shredded Wheat softened in hot milk or
    breakfast flakes and cold milk: followed by either bananas or
    apples. Half-pint boiled water (hot).

    _Lunch._--Ordinary vegetarian cooked dishes, vegetables
    conservatively cooked, some fruit. Half-pint boiled water (hot).

    _Tea meal._--Wholemeal bread (Artox flour), usually non-yeast,
    nut butter. Lettuces and radishes when obtainable. Half-pint
    boiled water (hot).

    _Before retiring._--Half-pint of boiled water (hot).

It has been shown by Brandl and other investigators that ulceration of
the stomach can always be produced in animals by feeding them with an
excess of sugar foods. The same thing applies to human beings, who, if
fed with an excess of sweetmeats, sugar, milk or soft mushy cereals,
will first contract catarrh of the stomach, which will ultimately
deepen into a condition of ulceration.

The rationale of the process is this: Fermentation and putrefaction of
the foods eaten to excess produce in the stomach various acids and
toxins. These become absorbed and pass into the liver. Then the liver
becomes clogged, its flow of blood is obstructed and this naturally
retards the flow of food from the stomach. That organ becomes
congested and inflamed and, when the lower end, or pylorus, is
obstructed, this congested state may easily deepen into ulceration. We
also nearly always find a tender spine, showing that the nervous
system has equally participated in the conditions produced, and this
nervous factor intensifies the trouble by retarding the due working of
the digestive functions.

What we have to do to cure a case of ulcerated stomach is _to withhold
the foods which create fermentation_. Then the liver will be allowed
time to work off the poisons which are clogging its substance and when
this has come about the stomach will slowly return to its normal
condition.

The diet which our correspondent cites is badly arranged. It is a
mistake to give fluid _with_ the meals, and the mushy food at
breakfast and the soft food at dinner should be changed to drier and
crisper forms of nutriment.

The following diet would be a distinct improvement:--

_On rising._--Half-pint of boiled hot water, sipped slowly; or
quarter-pint Sanum Tonic Tea, taken hot.

_Breakfast._--A Shredded Wheat biscuit _eaten dry_ and well buttered;
a lightly boiled egg and some finely grated raw roots, especially
carrots and turnips.

In a case of this sort it is best not to mix cereals with fruits.

An alternative breakfast would consist of _fruit alone_ such as two
apples, finely grated at first, or two bananas mashed and mixed with
pure olive oil and sprinkled with flaked nuts but care must be taken
that the pulped banana is well chewed.

_Lunch._--Grated cheese, or cream cheese, with some finely chopped
salad, or grated raw roots, or conservatively cooked vegetables
(preferably roots or onions baked fairly dry by the casserole method)
can be taken at this repast. Follow with a slice or two of cold
ordinary toast or rusks with butter.

_Tea meal._--Half-pint of hot boiled water with a little lemon or
orange juice added to it for flavouring.

_Supper_ (about 6.30).--Stale standard bread with butter and curd
cheese or an egg. The non-yeast bread should be avoided as in the weak
state of the stomach it will not be properly digested; besides, the
bran may irritate the lining in the present condition of the stomach.
As soon as the stomach has regained its power of digesting food, and
the ulcers have healed, then fine wholemeal biscuits of the Wallace or
Ixion kind can be taken, but the unfermented bread had better be
avoided.

_At bedtime._--A half-pint of hot water.


GOING TO EXTREMES IN THE UNFIRED DIET.

    W.O.C. writes.--As a bachelor who (not believing in, and
    therefore doing without domestic help) is anxious to reduce time
    spent on cooking to a minimum, I shall be glad if Dr Knaggs will
    tell me whether the use of the oven, pan and kettle are necessary
    to healthy diet. For instance (1) would a diet of bread and
    butter, biscuits, cheese, fruit (fresh and dried), ordinary cold
    water and cold milk, be as healthy as a diet of hot vegetables,
    puddings, cocoashell, etc.? (2) Are cooked lentils,
    butter-beans, macaroni, etc., more beneficial taken hot than
    after they have cooled? (3) Could uncooked vegetables _of
    sufficient nutriment_ be substituted for these? I shall be glad
    if it is quite safe to live entirely on raw foods, whether fresh
    or "prepared."

The use of the oven, pan and kettle is not essential to a healthy
diet, but few people in this changeable, and often cold, depressing
climate are willing to forgo their occasional use. One cannot get hot
water for a drink without a kettle or a small saucepan and a gas ring,
and hot water is often a very comforting and useful drink, especially
where an effort is being made to break off the tea and coffee habit.

A diet of bread and butter, biscuits, cheese, fresh and dried fruits
is excellent, provided our correspondent also includes grated raw
roots and salads as the medicinal part of the regimen, and keeps the
fresh fruit to itself as one meal of the day. Cold water or cold milk
could also be taken in the place of hot water or hot milk, although I
deprecate the use of milk as a beverage unless a person is willing to
live entirely on milk like a baby does. The hot vegetables are
uncalled for, provided the raw vegetables are substituted for them.
The puddings can well be discarded. Cocoashell beverages are useful in
very many cases.

Beans or lentils can be eaten sparingly in a raw state if first
soaked, then flaked in a Dana machine, and afterwards flavoured with
herbs or parsley. I certainly think that, if they _are_ to be cooked,
the taste is better if eaten hot; but there is no reason why cold
cooked lentils should not be eaten any more than is the case with an
other form of cooked food. Uncooked vegetables will not take the place
of lentils, because they are of a different order of food-stuff. The
uncooked vegetable would go well with the lentils as neutralising
agents of the acids into which all nitrogenous foods break down in the
body. Most people will find that nuts, cheese and eggs are better
sources of proteid than lentils or other "pulse foods."

H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.




                                 THE

                               HEALTHY

                                LIFE

                           The Independent
                           Health Magazine.

                      3 AMEN CORNER LONDON E.C.


              VOL. V                             OCTOBER
              No. 27.                              1913


    _There will come a day when physiologists, poets, and
    philosophers will all speak the same language and understand one
    another._--CLAUDE BERNARD.




AN INDICATION.


Just as there is a pride that apes humility, so there is an egotism
that apes selfishness, a cowardice that apes stoicism and an indolence
that apes effort. This is especially apparent in matters pertaining to
health.

How often, on the plea of not causing worry or expense to others, does
a man or woman not put off taking necessary rest, or consulting a
doctor, until a slight ailment that once would have yielded to
treatment becomes an irreparable injury.

Such conduct is often admired as unselfish, but for unselfishness and
stoicism a psychologist would read fear, indolence and egotism. Fear
of being thought hypochondriacal and fear of facing facts; shrinking
from the exertion involved in the effort to become healthy and from
the pain involved in witnessing the possible distress and anxiety of
friends should the complaint prove serious--regardless of the fact
that its neglect and resultant incurability would cause infinitely
more distress; above all, that mental egotism which breeds in its
victim an unreadiness to acknowledge that he does not _know_ what may
be wrong and to take prompt steps to remedy his ignorance.

It is not fair, of course, to attach too much blame to the patient.
Such faults as those cited above are in themselves symptoms of nervous
disease. Body and mind act and react upon one another. Nevertheless,
the practice of the virtues loses its meaning when there is no pull in
the opposite direction.--[EDS.]




IMAGINATION IN INSURANCE.


_Regular readers will recognise in this article a continuation of the
series previously entitled "Healthy Brains." The author of "The
Children All Day Long" is an intimate disciple of one of the greatest
living psychologists, and she has a message of the first importance to
all who realise that true health depends as much on poise of mind as
on physical fitness._

It is an unpleasant subject, but have you ever faced the fact that
your widow might be left in poverty?

We all know the phrases that come so glibly from the lips of the
insurance agent. Perhaps the very fact that it pays companies to spend
thousands a year on the salaries of agents, and other thousands on
broadcast eye-catching advertisements, shows that there are many
things which our imagination only accepts "against the grain." Fire,
storm, loss by theft or burglary, sickness, disablement and death we
do not, by choice, dwell on these things in thought.

Now some people are inclined to pet this impulse of turning away. "Do
not think dark thoughts," they tell us, "the best insurance is
unconsciousness, insouciance, denial. Misfortune will pass you by if
you do not look for it."

Perhaps there is something to be said for this method when it comes
with absolute spontaneity from the innermost nature. But if for the
radiant apprehension of beauty and health we substitute an effort to
cling to the picture of good when our very bodies and nerves are
warning us with suggestions of evil, we run grave risks. By adopting
someone else's sense of freedom from danger and repressing our own
conviction that for us a certain danger, more or less remote, exists,
we are putting great pressure upon ourselves. At times of ill-health
or accidental worry, a sleepless night may bring us an agonising
succession of imaginative pictures, those very pictures which we have
attempted to banish from our daily life. If we have still greater
power of repression these grim images, forbidden throughout every
moment of waking life, may reappear in dreams.

(Of the still more serious dangers of repression and of its relation
to various forms of insanity, this is hardly the place to speak.[11]
It ought not to be necessary to appeal to alarming instances in order
to make us attend to a suggested warning.)

[11] See Bernard Hart's illuminating treatment of the whole subject in
_The Psychology of Insanity_, Cambridge Manuals of Science.

Now if we decide to regard all fear as a suggestion of precaution, the
emotional part of it to be laid aside as soon as it has fulfilled its
function of arousing interest and directing action, it is easy to see
the psychological justification for insurance.

Of course pecuniary insurance is but one instance of such sequences of
action, though it happens to be a rather obvious one. In a different
field, most of us know the delightful feeling of relief experienced
after consulting a doctor about some symptom that has perhaps been
troubling us for a long time. "May I safely do this? Ought I to
refrain from that?" and such perpetually recurring irritations to the
attention are replaced by the knowledge that it is now the doctor's
business to decide whether this or that is "serious," and that as
long as we carry out his orders we may lay aside all worry about the
matter.

So in the case of fire insurance, what we are really buying with our
annual premium is freedom from haunting questions as to the loss that
would ensue if our house or shop or office were burnt down or damaged.
Whenever the thought comes, it may, as far as the money loss is
concerned, be dismissed.

We see then that instead of keeping the suggestion of such misfortunes
before us, as some people might allege, the act of insurance
substitutes for vague and recurrent fears a formal and periodical
recognition of possibilities, a recognition, too, that contains within
itself a precaution against some of the results of the misfortune
should it ever occur. What we buy, at the cost of a fixed number of
pounds or shillings of money and a few minutes of time once a year, is
the right to put the dangers out of our consciousness altogether and
yet leave no residuum of repressed fear to split up our personality or
give us indigestion.

If we choose, for some reason or other, to let our imagination dwell
on the objective side of the possibility we have insured against, we
shall find a pleasure in thinking of what can be done by many people
working together. If we need help to meet some misfortune, it is ours
as a right, not doled out to us through others' pity. And every year
that we have made no claim we have the delight of knowing that we are
helping those who need.

The art of working together is yet in its infancy. But if even the
present standard of method devised for money insurance were to be
adopted in the deeper matters which we so often allow to trouble us,
what an advance in mental development we should have made and what new
possibilities of safe action would be opened up!

E.M. COBHAM.

       *       *       *       *       *

Every youth should learn to do something finely and thoroughly with
his hands.--_Ruskin._




THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF VEGETALISM.

This article has been translated from the French of Prof. H. Labbe,
the head of the _laboratoire a la Faculte de Medecine_, in Paris. It
reflects a rather characteristic aloofness to any considerations other
than scientific or economic. But it will well repay careful
study.--[EDS.]


I

Vegetarianism has been the object of many attacks, and has also been
warmly defended. Most of its adepts have sought to give the value of a
dogma to its practice.

For quite a number of people "vegetarianism" is a kind of religion,
requiring of its votaries a sort of baptism, and the sacrifice of many
pleasures. It is this which justifies the infatuation of some, and the
systematic disparagement of others.

"Vegetalism"[12] cannot pretend to play a similar part, or to lend
itself to ambiguity. To be a "vegetalist" is to choose in the
vegetable kingdom, with a justified preference, foods susceptible of
filling the energy-producing needs, and the needs of the reparation of
the human system.

"Vegetalism" is a chapter of dietetic physiology which must utilise
the precise methods and recent discoveries of the science of
nutrition.

[12] The word "Vegetarianism" implies a judgment of the qualities
which such a diet entails. This word is derived, in fact, from the
Latin adjective "Vegetus" (strong). The word "Vegetalism," which we
oppose to the preceding one, admits only the establishing of a fact,
that of the choice--exclusive or preferred--of the nutritious matters
in the vegetable kingdom.


II

Before putting "vegetalism" into practice the first point is to know
whether the foods of "vegetal" origin contain, and are susceptible of
producing regularly, the divers nutritive principles indispensable to
the organisation of an alimentary diet. The principles are the
following:--Proteid or albuminoid substances; hydrocarbonated and
sweet substances fatty substances; mineral matters, alkalis, lime,
magnesia, phosphates and chlorides, etc. In most compound foods, no
matter of what origin, mineral materials almost always exist in
sufficient quantities. The most important amongst them, at all events,
are found combined in liberal, even superabundant, portions in dishes
of vegetal origin. The analysis of the ashes of our most common table
vegetables fixes us immediately to this subject: Leguminous plants
supply from about three to six per cent. of ashes, rich in alkalis,
lime and phosphates. Potatoes, green vegetables and fruit as a whole
absorbing considerable quantities of mineral elements. These are the
elements of a nature to allow a precise reply to this question which
we propose to expound briefly.


III

In order to examine a food thoroughly, for the purpose of ascertaining
if it can be advantageously introduced for consumption, whether
albumins, fats, hydrate of carbon, or sugar, etc., or again an
association of these principles in a composite article of food are in
question, divers researches must be carried out before giving a final
judgment.

If a more or less complex article of food is in question, before
considering it as a good nutriment, its centesimal composition, or its
immediate composition, should be established; its theoretic calorific
power should be known, and it should be measured if this has not yet
been done.

Besides the calorific yield thus estimated _in vitro_, the real
utilisation in the human organism of articles of food alone or mixed
with other foods should be determined, taking simultaneously into
account their effects, whether tonic, stimulating or depressing.

From a different point of view it is no longer allowable to neglect
before judging whether such and such a nutritive substance is
advantageous, the valuation of what we have called, with Prof.
Landouzy, the economic yield--that is to say, the price of the
energy, provided by the unity of weight of the article of food.

It is only in reviewing "vegetal" substances, taking these divers
titles into consideration, that we shall be justified in attributing
to the practice of "vegetalism," integral or mitigated, its definite
value.


IV

Only a few years ago, when Schutzenberger, emulator and forerunner of
Fischer, Armand Gautier, Kossel, first disjointed the albuminoid
molecule, to examine one by one its divers parts, the composition of
the various albumins was very little known. Whether, therefore,
albumins of the blood, or those of meat or eggs, were in question,
these bodies were hardly ever separated, except through physical
circumstances, amongst others by constant quantities of different
coagulation. As to the centesimal formula and the intimate structure
of the different protoid substances, they could be considered as
closely brought together.

From this fact, the physiological problem of the utilisation of
albumin was simpler. No matter which article of food contained this
albumin, its nutritive power by unity of weight remained the same. At
the present time the number of albumins is no longer limited. It is
not now physical characteristics founded difficult separations which
arbitrarily distinguish those bodies from each other. The
individuality of each of the albumins results from its formula of
deterioration, under the influence of digestive ferments, or of
chemical bodies acting in a similar way, as do mineral acids and
alkalis. For want of constituary formula this methodical deterioration
makes known the number of molecules (acids or other bodies) which are
responsible for the structure of each albumin. These deleterious
formula of proteid matter are not less suggestive than composition
ones. They reveal notable differences between "vegetal" and animal
albumins.

To be sure, animal albumins (beef, veal, mutton, pork, etc.) which we
are offered in an alimentary flesh diet, resemble more nearly the
structure of our own bodily albumins than do the gluten of bread or
the albumin of vegetables. This fact seems actually the best support
of the theory which affirms the superiority of the flesh over the
vegetable diet. Such a remark is therefore well worth discussing by
showing that the consequences which can be deduced from it are
paradoxical, and rest upon hypothesis which, not very acceptable in
theory, are hardly verified in practice.

Admitting that albumin plays in alimentary diet only the plastic part
of reconstruction of used-up corporal matter, it might be advantageous
to ingest but one albumin the composition of which is very similar to
our own. By virtue of the law of least effort such a one in equal
weights ought to be of more service than a foreign albumin, as it
requires less organic work. For man, albumin of animal origin ought to
be more profitable in equal weight than vegetable albumin. In the
organism, indeed, albumin passes through a double labour. After the
intestinal deterioration, followed by a passage through the digestive
mucus membrane, a re-welding of the liberated acids takes place, with
a formation of new albumin.

If, therefore, alimentary albumin's mission is, not to be definitely
burnt up in the organism, but to help in the plastication of the
individual, the more its initial formula approaches the definite one
to which it must attain, the more profitable it becomes, giving out
less useless fragments and waste. Animal albumin approaching more
nearly to human albumin, is also the one whose introduction into the
daily alimentary diet is most rational. This statement seems to be the
defeat of vegetal albumin. But let there be no mistake. It consecrates
at the same time the triumph of anthropophagy, for there could not be
for man a more profitable albumin than his own, or that of his
fellow-man! This should make us pause and reflect, before allowing
this deduction to be accepted.

Besides, these arguments _ad hominem_ do not appear to us necessary
for repelling such an interpretation of facts. Modern works have
shown us that the greater proportion of ingested albumin played, in
fact, a calorific, and not a plastic, part. Under these conditions one
is justified in doubting whether there takes place with regard to the
total albumins ingested a work of reconstruction thus complicated in
the organism, after their first deterioration. Evidently one may come
to believe that this complicated labour applies only to the more or
less feeble portion of albumin really integrated.

Practically speaking, the best criterion for judging the utilisation
of an ingested albumin lies in the persistence of the corporal weight,
allied to the ascertained fact of a stable equilibrium in the total
azotized balance-sheet which is provided by the comparison of the
"Ingesta" with the "Excreta." From this point of view there exists the
closest similitude between the albumins of animal and those of
vegetable origin; both, in fact, are capable of assuring good health
and corporal and cellular equilibrium.

However, the digestibility of vegetable albumins seems to remain
slightly inferior to that of animal albumins. 97 per cent. of the
animal fibrine given in a meal are digested, where 88 to 90 per cent.
only of vegetable albumins are absorbed and utilised. It is a small
difference, but not one to be overlooked. We must say, however, that
the method one employs in determining these digestibilities takes from
them a part of their value, and renders difficult the comparison of
results obtained. Sensibly pure albumins are too often compared in an
artificial diet. One deviates thus from the conditions of practical
physiology. In fact, in ordinary meals, all varieties of foods are
mixed together, acting and reacting upon each other, reciprocally
modifying their digestibility. If one conforms to this way of acting
towards alimentary albumins, the results change sensibly. In the
presence of an excess of starch, under the shape of bread, for
example, vegetable albumin seems to be absorbed in about the same
proportions as animal albumin.

If, in a flesh diet, animal albumins are always consumed nearly pure
(lean meat containing hardly anything but albumin, besides a little
fat, and an inferior quantity of glycogen) vegetable albumin is
always, on the contrary, mixed with a number of other substances. This
is doubtless one of the reasons which causes the digestibility of
vegetable albumins to vary, the foreign nutritive matters being able
to bring about, under certain circumstances, and in cases of
superabundant ingestions, a real albuminous "saving" in the newest
sense of the word.

Besides, a prejudicial question makes the debate almost vain. When it
was admitted by such physiologists as Voit, Rubner and their school
that from 140 to 150 grammes of albumin in the minimum were daily
necessaries in the human diet, a variation of a few units in the
digestive power presented some importance. Nowadays the real utility
of albumins is differently appreciated. The need of them seems to have
been singularly exaggerated; first lowered to about 75 gr. by A.
Gautier, it has dropped successively with Lapicque, Chittenden,
Landergreen, Morchoisne and Labbe, by virtue of considerations both
ethnological and physiological, to 50 grs., 30 grs. and even to 25 or
20 grammes. The "nutritive relation"--that is to say, the yield from
albuminoid matters to the total nutritive matters of diet--is thus
brought down from 1/3 its primitive value to 1/15 or 1/20 at most. It
follows that the slight inferiority found in the digestive powers of
vegetable albumin appears unimportant. It is sufficient to add 2 or 3
more grammes of albumin to a ration already superabundant of from 40
to 50 grammes of vegetable proteins to bring back a complete
equilibrium in the use of vegetable and animal varieties. The
theoretical inferiority of vegetable albumin thus almost completely
disappears.

H. LABBE.

(_To be continued._)

       *       *       *       *       *

If your system has become clogged, go slow--and fast.




ODE TO THE WEST WIND.


    O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
      Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
    Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
      Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
    Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thou
      Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
    The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
      Each like a corpse within its grave, until
    Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
      Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
    (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
      With living hues and odours plain and hill
    Wild Spirit which art moving everywhere;
    Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!

    Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,
      Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
    Shook from the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean,
      Angels of rain and lightning! there are spread
    On the blue surface of thine airy surge,
      Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
    Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
      Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
    The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
      Of the dying year, to which this closing night
    Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
      Vaulted with all thy congregated might
    Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
    Black rain, and fire, and hail, will burst: Oh hear!

    Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
      The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
    Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,
      Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,
    And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
      Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
    All overgrown with azure moss, and flowers
      So sweet the sense faints picturing them! Thou
    For whose path the Atlantic's level powers
      Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
    The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
      The sapless foliage of the ocean know
    Thy voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear,
    And tremble and despoil themselves: Oh, hear!

    If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
      If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
    A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
      The impulse of thy strength, only less free
    Than thou, O uncontrollable! if even
      I were as in my boyhood, and could be
    The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,
      As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
    Scarce seemed a vision,--I would ne'er have striven
      As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
    Oh lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
      I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
    A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
    One too like thee--tameless, and swift, and proud.

    Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
      What if my leaves are falling like its own?
    The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
      Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,
    Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
      My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
    Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,
      Like withered leaves, to quicken a new birth;
    And, by the incantation of this verse,
      Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
    Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
      Be through my lips to unawakened earth
    The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
    If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.




WHAT MAKES A HOLIDAY?


What is it makes a holiday? Some people want Paris, some Monte Carlo,
one man cannot be satisfied without big game to hunt, another must
have a grouse moor. The student has his sailing boat, the young
wage-earner his bicycle, three girl friends look forward to their week
in a Hastings boarding-house. Almost anything may be "a change"; most
things, to someone or other, are "a holiday." What does it all mean?

The sands of West Sussex are wide and free, firm and smooth for
walking with bare feet, lovely with little shells and sea-worm curves
and ripple marks and the pits of razor-shells. Above them are the
slopes of shingle, gleaming with all colours in the September sun.
Farther up again, the low, brown crumbling cliffs crowned with green
wreaths of tamarisk. The sea comes creeping up, or else the wind
raises great white breakers; if the waves are quiet, old breakwaters,
long ago broken themselves, smashed fragments here and there of
concrete protections put by man, gaps in the cliff and changes in the
coast-line, remind us of the vast force behind the gentle and
persistent lap of water. The beach itself reminds us of it; there a
flint and here a rounded pebble made out of brick or glass, worn down
from man's rubbish to sea's proof of power.

Over it all are the children, brown-legged and bare-headed. (Is it
something in the weather this year that has given us the particular
red-brown, suggestive of shrimp and lobster, that is the
colour-vintage of 1913?) Babies with oilskin waders, bathers, girls in
vividly coloured coats walking along the sands; all make up the
picture and give us once again the thrill of holiday.

Inland, the Sussex lanes are green and the trees are broad and shady.
Thatched cottages are everywhere, and barns with heavy brows;
yesterday I saw some pots put for shelter from the sun under the
far-projecting thatch of a farmhouse. The gardens are full of
sun-flowers and hollyhocks, fuchsia and golden rod; the walls are
covered with jasmine and passion-flowers. Old, old churches make us
feel like day-flies. The yew in the churchyard five minutes' walk from
here is said to be 900 years old; the church itself is thirteenth
century, but into its walls were built fragments of a former church,
far older, on the same site. It carries us more than half-way back to
the foundation of Christianity. Dim tales of heathen earls and Norman
kings hang around the villages, and the very floor of the sea beyond
the land is richly laden with stores of half-forgotten memories.

Which of all these things makes these days my holiday?

All of them, perhaps. Present moving life, and long-past history, the
mighty movement of nature and the changes of geologic time: sheer
beauty too and the gaiety of amusements and excursions; do not all
have their place in unwinding us from the tight coils we make for our
working days?

Freedom to take from the world whatever is there of beauty and of
interest--it really hardly matters what or where; freedom enhanced by
sympathy, perhaps, for we seem to need some comrade in our play; so
many days and nights following each other--no matter exactly how
many--for letting ourselves go, and letting the world and all its
power and wonder flow into us; that, whatever be place, time and
conditions, is the making of a holiday.

C


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HEALTHY LIFE ABROAD.


"HYGIE."

_A New Definition of Neurasthenia._

We cull the following definition of neurasthenia from our French
contemporary: Neurasthenia is discouragement of the soul. Being in a
state of discouragement the soul ceases to take care of the body and
allows it to become encumbered with waste products. The body in its
turn becomes so defective that the soul is incapable of repairing the
enfeebled organs and throws the body away into the water or leaves it
somewhere to be crushed or abandons it by some other means.
Neurasthenia may be compared to an indolent mechanic. He neglects to
oil his engine. It runs off the rails and is smashed.


_Fresh Departures._

The Vegetarian Society of France has introduced three new sections
into its organisation. The first is documentary, and aims at the
collection, centralisation and classification of all information
bearing on food reform. The second deals with domestic economy and
hygiene. A number of ladies willing to devote themselves to the
popularisation of the leading ideas of vegetarianism have joined this
section. They offer advice and instruction to all who wish to
familiarise themselves with food reform principles. The third section
is concerned with physical training and outdoor games, with special
reference to the relationship between these things and a non-flesh
regimen.


"VEGETARISCHE WARTE."

_Nietzsche as Fruitarian._

"A simple life," wrote Nietzsche in 1879, "is very difficult at the
present time," and went on to explain its difficulties and to suggest
that even the most determined would be obliged to leave the discovery
of the way to a wiser generation. He himself, however, took some
steps upon the way during his stay in Genoa, when he lived on bread
and fruit and spent but a few shillings a week. Eggs were occasionally
included, and artichokes--and the little cookery he needed was done by
himself over a spirit lamp. His winter in Genoa, he declares, was the
happiest in his life and saw the production of his "Twilight of the
Gods."


_Food Reform in Russia._

The movement goes ahead rapidly in Russia. Hardly a town of any size
but has now its vegetarian restaurant. This year the first Russian
Vegetarian Congress has been held. It seems to have been a very
successful gathering. "Seldom," writes one who was present, "have I
experienced such a strong impression as was made upon me by this first
vegetarian congress in Moscow." Unity seems to have been the
prevailing note. Papers were read on the general significance and the
various aspects of vegetarianism, followed by discussions. Amongst the
various excursions undertaken was a pilgrimage to Yasnaya Polyana,
including a visit to Tolstoy's grave.

A Vegetarian Exhibition has also been held in Moscow. It included a
fine show of fruits and vegetables, exhibits of various substitutes
for leather, soaps made of vegetable oils, an abundance of Russian and
foreign vegetarian literature of all sorts, from the noblest reaches
of theory to the most invaluable details of practice. The next
Congress is arranged for Easter 1914, at Kiev.


_A Hopeful Sign._

Fifteen years ago the Berlin municipal authorities stoutly refused
Professor Baron's offer to found an orphanage which should be
conducted on vegetarian principles. At the present moment it is being
arranged that all school children shall be taught the value of
vegetables and leguminous preparations and the wholesomeness of a diet
that is relatively non-stimulating and practically meatless.

D.M. RICHARDSON.




THE CURTAINED DOORWAYS.


In George Macdonald's _Phantastes: a Faery Romance for Men and Women_
it is told how a man found himself in the midst of a great circular
hall built entirely of black marble. On every side and at regular
intervals there were archways, all heavily curtained. Hearing a faint
sound of music proceeding from one of these hidden doorways he went
towards it and, drawing aside the hangings, found a large room crowded
with statuary, but no sign of an living creature. Yet he was certain
the music had proceeded from that particular archway. Greatly puzzled,
he let the curtain fall and stepped back a few paces. At once the
music continued. Stepping stealthily and quickly to the curtain, he
again lifted it, and received a vivid impression of a crowd of dancing
forms suddenly arrested: something told him beyond dispute that at the
moment he had drawn the hangings aside what were now lovely but
motionless statues had sprung each to its pedestal out of the mazes of
an intricate dance. Sound and movement had been frozen, in a flash of
time, into a crowd of beautiful forms--in stone. No statue but seemed
to tremble into immobility as the intruder's gaze turned this way and
that no marble face but seemed to be aglow with the music that had
died with his entry; no white limb but seemed to be tremulous with the
rhythm of the dance that had ceased so suddenly.

If the subtlety and imaginative truth of this story should lead you to
read the whole book, I shall have had the privilege of introducing you
to what is surely one of the finest and most delicately wrought
fantasies in the English language, a fantasy so permeated with beauty
and truth that you will neither wish nor need to look for the "moral".

But whether you read _Phantastes_ or not, I may be allowed to suggest
that the incident I have attempted to describe conveys one of the
secrets of healthy living.

It is a trite saying, that health is harmony. But I plead for a much
wider and fuller interpretation of harmony than is customary. _Mens
sana in corpore sano_--a sane mind in a healthy body--does not fill
all the requirements of a healthy life. It is but an excellent theme,
wanting orchestration.

It is good to aim at a harmonious working of one's internal
arrangements if one has had the misfortune or the folly to break that
harmony. The physical basis of life must be attended to if we would be
well. Only, you cannot stop there without imperilling the whole
scheme.

Again, it is good to train the body by means of exercise, play,
singing and handicraft; all these things react both upwards and
downwards, outwards and inwards. For example, one of the special
virtues of tennis, if it be played at all keenly, is the necessity for
making one's feet (those neglected members!) quick and responsive to
the messages of eye and brain. In an increasingly sedentary age the
rapidly growing popularity of tennis is, for this one reason alone, a
good omen. But if you play tennis, or any other healthy outdoor sport,
or learn how to sing, or how to breathe, or if you do Muller's
exercises daily, for the sole purpose of benefiting your liver or
developing your muscles, or of "keeping fit," you will miss the real
prize.

It is good, also, to train the mind to be logical, critical and
balanced: it is good to cultivate a retentive memory and to store up
useful facts. But if while you are aiming at intellectual fitness and
alertness you allow these good things to obscure other and better
things, if, in short, you let means become ends, you will never be
healthy, because you will miss half the joys of living.

There are many very skilful performers on musical instruments. They
have set themselves, or their parents have set them, to gain certain
prizes, distinctions or qualifications. No music is now too difficult
for them to execute. But that is exactly what they do--they execute
it: destroy its head and heart by sheer mechanical perfection. They
have mastered the piano, or the organ, or the violin, or their own
voice; but music eludes them.

You see why I began with that tale of the curtained doors, the
mysterious music, and the quivering statuary. There is an elusive,
haunting quality about life and all living things which, if we look
for it and listen to it, imparts a glamour, a rhythm, a beauty to
everything that is worth doing. The great danger is that in the
pressure of work, the hurry of play, the pursuit of health, or the
training of the mind we miss the very thing which can give meaning and
value to all these things. The severely matter-of-fact people don't go
near the curtained doors, and if they did, would discover only a lot
of cold, lifeless statues. Whoever heard of statues dancing? Whoever
heard of music without instruments? And yet this very sense of a
lyrical movement imperfectly seen, and of a temporarily frozen music,
is not only the very secret of all art: it is a slender guiding clue
to the centre of everything....

And in the house of every man, and of every woman, are the curtained
doorways.

EDGAR J. SAXON.




HOW MUCH SHOULD WE EAT?

_This discussion arose out of the article with above title, by "M.D.,"
which was published in our July number._--[EDS.]


III

I lift my hat to M.D. and trust that, as I don't know him, the
somewhat jarring difference that I have with his views will not be put
down to personal feeling. A.A. Voysey has put my first objection quite
well from the layman's point of view. He says "there is no agreement
between those who have been taught physiology." This is true.
Playfair's full diet is different from Voit's. Voit's is different
from Atwater's. Atwater's is different from Chittenden's.

The custom of reducing the diets to calories, inasmuch as it
introduces a false theory, has had a disastrous effect on progress,
and has been a great hindrance to the attainment of knowledge. If the
coal in the fireplace _were_ the cause of the heat of the fire (but is
it?), there is no analogy between the elevation of the heat by
hundreds and even thousands of degrees when the fire is lighted, and
the elevation of half-a-degree or a degree which occurs when food is
taken into the body, especially when we remember that a similar
elevation of temperature occurs when work is performed by means of the
body without eating or drinking at all.

It is quite evident to every clear seer, or it ought to be, that the
force of animal life or zoo-dynamic is the cause of the heat of the
body, just as the electric force is the cause of the liberation of
heat through the battery, and the chemic force is the cause of the
heat of the fire, and that zoo-dynamic and electro-dynamic and
chemico-dynamic are forms or species or varieties of the one
omnipotent and eternal energy by which all things in this universe
consist. The aggregate of all the particular forces makes up the
eternal energy which is one. They are all species of the one, but it
is convenient and even necessary for our limited intellects to
consider them separately, for the indefinite number of the facts and
also their intricacy and complexity stagger and overwhelm us unless we
do; and indeed they stagger us even when we try to treat them and take
them up separately for consideration and examination. But now for the
proof of A.A. Voysey's statement.

Ranke found he required 100 grammes proteid; fat 100 grammes;
carbo-hydrate 240 grammes to keep him going. These he could have got
from 9 oz. of lean meat or 250 grammes, 18 oz. of bread or 500
grammes, 12 oz. or 55 grammes of butter and 1 oz of fat (I do not, of
course, suggest that it would have been wise for him to get them so).
Moleschott's demands are: proteid 120 grammes, fat 90 grammes,
carbo-hydrate 333 grammes. Voit demands for hard work: proteid 145
grammes, fat 100 grammes, carbo-hydrate 450 grammes. Atwater demands
for hard work the following:--proteid 177 grammes, fat 250 grammes,
carbo-hydrate 650 grammes. Horace Fletcher, we are told by Professor
Chittenden, took for a time, when everything was accurately measured
and weighed: proteid 44.9 grammes, fat 38 grammes, carbo-hydrate 253
grammes. Cornaro lived on 12 oz. of solid food and 14 oz. of red wine
a day for a period of something like 60 years, from 38 years of age to
about 97, and had vigorous health during the time except when he
transgressed his rule. Of course, he was not a hard physical
worker--_i.e._ he did not do the work of a navvy. But how, in view of
these differences, can M.D. say: "These quantities were settled by
physiologists many years ago, and no good reasons have since been
adduced for altering them"? It is amazing to me to read such a
statement. It reminds me of a statement by a distinguished physician
in London during last year to the effect that we could not give a
growing schoolboy too much food--we could not over-feed him. My
opinion, on the other hand, after a long experience, during which time
my eyes have not been shut, is that the large majority of the diseases
of humanity are due to mal-nutrition and that the form of that
mal-nutrition is over-feeding--not under-feeding. This opinion should
be taken for what it is worth. But to test it we should ask ourselves:
What is the reason for the necessity to take food into the body? Is it
to give strength and heat to the body? Or is it to restore the waste
of the body sustained by the action on it of the force of life or
zoo-dynamic which inhabits it? The demands for food will vary and vary
much according to the way in which we answer this question. As you
allowed me to discuss this question in _Healthy Life_ in July and
August of last year I must not take up your space by discussing it
again. But the answer we give determines the amounts of food that we
require to take, since, obviously, if the strength and heat of the
body depend upon the food, the more food we take the more strength and
heat shall we have; while, if the function of food in the adult or
grown body is only to restore the waste of the body, the question is
how much is the waste. There are various ways in which this question
can be answered and I cannot go into them now; but I say, in my
opinion, the waste is very much less than is commonly supposed. The
body, I take it, is made by zoo-dynamic or the life-force to be a fit
habitation for itself. The body must waste when the life-force acts
through it, and that waste must be restored by food and sleep, or the
body will die; since things (the body) cannot act as the medium of
conveying forces (zoo-dynamic or the life-force) without wasting under
their action. But so beautifully has the body been made by zoo-dynamic
that it wastes very little, much less than is commonly supposed, by
the action of zoo-dynamic through it. Not seeing this, we ingest into
the body far more than is required to restore its waste, and so we
fall ill, for, obviously, if we ingest more than the quantity
necessary for this purpose we choke the body up and render it
inefficient for its purpose as an instrument for work.

Now this is precisely what seems to me to happen in life. As we are
all under the double delusion that the strength of the body and its
heat come from the food, we all with one accord put far too much food
into the body, and when we find that we die, all of us, generation
after generation, at from 50 to 70 years of age, we make up little
proverbs to justify our unphysiological conduct and say that three
score years and ten are the measure of the duration of life. M.D. says
that "some twenty years ago most people lived fairly close to the old
physiological quantities" (but what are these? for we have seen how
they vary), "now they have been cut adrift from these and are
floundering out of their depth." May I remind M.D. that people are now
living longer than they did twenty years ago. How does he account for
that? No doubt some of the increase in the length of life is due to
the diminution of the birth rate, but still I suppose M.D. would
admit that there is an increase in the duration of life over and above
what can be accounted for in this way. If so, how does he account for
it?

M.D. says, further: "For the public it will now probably suffice if
they insist on raising (or considering, A.R.) the question of
quantity" (of food, A.R.) "wherever they suffer in any way." I agree
with all my heart. But M.D. implies, if I read him aright, that the
public should increase the quantity of their food when they suffer in
any way. I, on the other hand, and rather unhappily for myself, am
convinced that the raising of this question implies that it should be
answered in the exact opposite way to that of M.D. and that we should
diminish our food if we "suffer in any way." And I can point to
Nature's own plan as a corroboration of the truth of my view, for her
plan when we suffer in any way is to fling us into bed and take away
our appetite, or at least to diminish our appetite if we are not so
ill as to require to remain in bed.

The whole question of medical practice depends on the answer we give
to this question, and therefore one might go on indefinitely with its
discussion. Neither the Editors' space and patience nor my time allow
of this; but I should like to ask M.D., with all respect, if he
remembers what Dr King Chambers said of the starvation that comes of
over-repletion? Dr King Chambers occupied one of the most prominent
places as a consultant in London (very probably, I suppose) when M.D.
was a very young man. My late lamented friend, Dr Dewey of Meadville,
Pennsylvania, used the phrase "starvation from over-feeding," not
knowing that Dr King Chambers had used practically the same expression
before him. That I made the same discovery myself, and independently,
is not, I take it, a sign of acuteness of intellect or of observation.
The amazing thing is that every practitioner is not compelled to make
the same discovery. But if it is a true discovery, then it follows
that all the signs of lowered vitality referred to by M.D., while
they _may_ be caused by under-feeding, may also be caused by
over-feeding and may therefore require for proper treatment, not
increase of the diet, but diminution of it. A low temperature,
therefore, a slow pulse, languor, pallor, inanition, fatigue,
good-for-nothingness, inefficiency, anorexia, anaemia, neurasthenia,
etc., etc., may all be due to blocking of the body with too much food
as well as to supplying it with too little. Fires may be put out by
heaping up too much coal on them. To make them burn briskly we ought
to push the poker in and gently lift the coal so as to admit of the
entrance of air. Then in a while our fire will become brisk and
bright. And so it may be in the body. Nay, my opinion is that almost
always these marks of depression are caused by blocking up of the body
and that therefore the proper treatment is, as a rule, not increase
but diminution of the diet. The place in the body in which the
blocking first occurs is the connective tissues or the tissues that
connect every part with every other. It is here that the lymph is
secreted, and as the lymph joins the thoracic duct which conveys the
products of digestion to the blood, it is obvious that lymph-secretion
is a complementary digestive process and it is also obvious how
blocking up of the connective tissues, which is the immediate cause of
anorexia and inanition, usually comes to exist in the body.

M.D. talks of "natural food." He seems to be a vegetarian? Good. But
is not the question of how much food we ought to eat equally urgent
whether we are vegetarian or omnivorous? I think it is. I do not think
that the chief cause of our illnesses to-day is taking wrong or
unsuitable food. In my opinion we are ill mainly because we take
suitable food too often and because we take too much of it. My answer
to the question, therefore--"How Much Should We Eat?--A
Warning"--turns on the previous question: What is the Function
performed by Food in the Body? As I think that this function in the
grown body is only to restore the waste, the warning in my mind is
far rather that we should take less than that we should (as M.D.
advises us) take more. I agree with him in the view that "chronic
starvation is insidious." But, as I believe that "chronic starvation"
is usually a form of Dr King Chambers's "starvation from
over-repletion" and of Dr Dewey's "starvation from over-feeding," I am
bound to be of the consequent opinion that it is to be met, not by
increase, but by diminution of the diet. This is one of my reasons for
thinking that none of us ought ever to eat oftener than twice a day,
under fifty years of age, and that after that we would do well to eat
once a day only. I feel sure that if we altered our habits in these
ways, we should add very much both to the duration and to the
efficiency of life. This is not a question of dietetics only. The
issue is of the most practical character. What an addition of five or
ten or fifteen or twenty or twenty-five years to the average duration
of life might mean to this people and still more to the people of the
whole globe is unpredictable by mortal man. But it is evident that it
would be of the very greatest import to humanity. This is the great
issue of the discussion of this subject. It seems to me that illness
might be enormously diminished and health and efficiency and happiness
immensely increased. But I think that these boons might be obtained,
not by indulging the body and its appetites, but only by the exercise
of a wise restraint and government over it. It is at least very much
to be desired that more agreement might be manifested in the opinions
and practice of qualified physiologists so that the public might have
clear guidance, and not as at present, be advised in ways so
conflicting that they do not know what or whom to believe.

A. RABAGLIATI, M.D.

       *       *       *       *       *

_To Tourists:_

Every little village has a little shop where you can buy nasty little
sweets.




PICKLED PEPPERCORNS.


    He was a native of Liverpool, but had liver for many years in the
    Isle of Wight--_Edmonton_ (Canada) _Journal_.

Funny he didn't go to Poole and leave his liver behind him.

       *       *       *       *       *

    REAL FLESH FOOD FOUND AT LAST.
    --From an advt. in daily papers.

Evidently we have all been vegetarians and knew it not.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Nothing can replace salt.--From an advt. in _Punch_.

Many food reformers advantageously replace salt with nothing.

       *       *       *       *       *

    The golf craze has been greater this autumn than in any previous
    year. Nobody is quite safe from the fever. It seizes those who
    mocked at it, and pays no respect to sex or age.--_British
    Weekly_.

By the time the next Medical Congress comes round it is expected that
at least three distinguished bacteriologists will have discovered the
golf-fever microbe. They will probably agree to call it _Mashilococcus
Caddes_.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Between lunch and dinner take another tumbler of water cold. Take
    a glass of cold water half-an-hour after lunch, half-an-hour
    after tea, half-an-hour after dinner, and before going to bed at
    night. Never drink between meals.--_Woman's Life_.

All other methods failing, try putting your watch half-an-hour on
after each meal.

       *       *       *       *       *

    I once got a circular from a man who grew potatoes containing his
    photograph, and, I think, an autobiography.--_Musical Standard_.

Not nearly so convenient as one of those automatic egg-stamping
hens.

       *       *       *       *       *

    _Stop-Press News._

    A "pocket clipper" has been invented (according to a certain
    catalogue) which can be used for the beard or hair at back of
    neck.

But surely people who can do anything so clever as grow a beard
on the back of the neck ought not to be tempted to clip it off.

PETER PIPER.




HEALTHY LIFE RECIPES.


MORE EGG DISHES.

In our issue of May 1912 we published a number of special recipes for
eggs. These were much appreciated. And even now this and other back
numbers are asked for. We now give some further recipes.

It should be remembered that eggs are a simple form of animal food and
much purer than meat. They are also easily digested by most people.
They therefore form a very useful substitute for flesh-foods,
especially where the latter have only recently been discarded.

The normal progress towards a more or less ideal diet involves, of
course, the elimination of eggs as well as of other dairy products.
But wise food reform proceeds always by steps.


SAVOURY BAKED EGGS.

Melt a little butter, or vegetable fat, in an open earthenware baking
dish; break into this as many eggs as required. Cover thinly with
grated cheese; add a knob of butter and bake till set. The dish can be
placed direct on the table.


EGG ON TOMATO.[13]

    One egg, two medium-sized tomatoes, butter.

Skin the tomatoes; cut in halves and put them, with a small piece of
butter, into a small stewpan. Close lightly, and cook slowly until
reduced to a pulp. Break the egg into a cup, and slide it gently on to
the tomato. Replace the pan lid and the egg will poach in the steam
rising from the tomato.

[13] This recipe is from _The Healthy Life Cook Book_, a new and
revised edition of which is in contemplation.


SAVOURY EGG FRITTERS.

    Six eggs, two large tomatoes, half-teaspoon mixed dried herbs,
    about three tablespoons ground biscuits ("Ixion" or any of the
    unsweetened "P.R." kinds).

Hard boil three of the eggs and chop them finely. Skin the tomatoes,
mash them and add to the chopped eggs with the remaining eggs (well
beaten), herbs and biscuit powder. Should the mixture be too moist to
mould add more biscuit powder; if too dry add a little water. Cut and
shape into finger shapes and either fry in olive oil or bake on
buttered tin or open earthenware baking dish. (The last-mentioned is
the best method, as the baking dish can be brought to the table as it
is, and there is only one dish instead of two to wash up afterwards.)


SAVOURY EGG PATTIES.

The above Egg Fritter mixture made rather moist may be used as a
filling for savoury patties.

Make for these a short crust with 1/2 lb. of Artox meal, 3 oz. of
Nutter and water. Slightly bake the shells of pastry (made thin)
before adding the filling, and finish to a golden brown.

Serve these and the fritters with either brown gravy or white sauce.


SWEET EGG SOUFFLE.

    Five eggs, 3/4 lb. soft cane sugar, 1 oz. ground rice, 2 oz. of
    butter, rind of half a lemon.

Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs. Beat up the yolks and sift
in the ground rice, sugar and grated rind of the lemon. To this batter
add the well-whisked whites. Well heat the butter in a frying pan,
turn in the batter and fry over gentle heat till set. Fold over the
edges and place on well-greased flat dish and bake for barely a
quarter of an hour. Sift over some soft cane sugar and serve very hot.


SNOW EGGS.

    Three eggs, one and a quarter pints of milk, a teaspoon of soft
    cane sugar, vanilla flavouring.

Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs and whisk the whites to a
very stiff froth with the sugar. Put the milk into a saucepan and when
it boils drop in whites of eggs in small pieces shaped between two
dessert spoons. Only a little should be cooked at a time in this way,
and each should be allowed to poach for two minutes, and when done
should be taken out with a slice and put on a sieve to drain. When all
the whites are used in this way, strain the milk and add it to the
well-beaten yolks. Pour into a double saucepan and stir over the fire
till the custard thickens; flavour with vanilla to taste.

When _cold_ pour into a dish and lay the snow eggs on top.

(Kindly supplied by Mrs Edith Wilkinson.)


EGG-RAISED CHERRY CAKE.

    9 oz. good "standard" flour, 5 oz. Nutter (or other nut fat), 5
    oz. cane castor sugar, 2 oz. preserved cherries (glace), 2 oz.
    well-washed sultanas, 2 oz. ground almonds, four eggs, outer rind
    of lemon (grated).

Beat Nutter and sugar to a cream; add eggs one by one, beating all the
time; have ready the flour, with the fruit, grated lemon rind and
ground almonds mixed in, and add gradually to the above mixture,
beating all the time, and until of even consistency throughout. Line a
cake tin with double thickness of buttered paper, pour in the mixture
and bake in moderate oven about one and a half hours.

_Any housewife who doubts the possibility of making light and dainty
cakes without the now customary baking powder and baking soda, etc.,
should try the above recipe. No one could wish for a more excellent
cake._


NOTE ON CASSEROLES.

Now that casserole cookery (_i.e._ cooking in earthenware dishes, both
open and covered) is becoming more widely known and practised, readers
will be glad to know that many housewives believe in boiling new
earthenware before using it, as this effectually toughens and hardens
it. This is particularly efficacious in the case of ordinary brown
kitchenware, the articles being placed in a large pan of cold water
which is then brought slowly to the boil. After being allowed to boil
for ten minutes remove the pan and allow the water to cool before
taking out the ware.




HEALTH QUERIES.

_Under this heading our contributor, Dr Valentine Knaggs, deals
briefly month by month, and according as space permits, with questions
of general interest to health seekers and others._

_In all Queries relating to health difficulties it is essential that
full details of the correspondent's customary diet should be clearly
given._

_Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on _one side only of
the paper_, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as
a guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a
stamped addressed envelope must be enclosed._--[EDS.]


EXCESSIVE PERSPIRATION.

    Miss R.E.N. writes.--I am troubled with excessive perspiration. I
    neither eat meat nor drink tea. I have a cold sponge bath down to
    my waist every morning, and I change all my clothes when I go to
    bed. My diet is, roughly, as follows:

    _Breakfast._--Oatmeal porridge with toast or bread and jam or
    golden syrup. Hot water.

    _Lunch._--Peas, beans or lentils, eggs, cheese. Vegetables:
    potatoes and onions, or carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips.
    Puddings, fruit or milk wholemeal bread, not much sugar except
    for sweetening fruits, etc.

    _Tea meal._--Wholemeal bread and butter, nuts, jam, cake, pastry;
    hot water.

    _At bedtime._--Hot water or coffee.

If our correspondent wishes to remedy this excessive perspiration she
must get a hot towel-bath daily (all over),[14] wearing porous
linen-mesh underclothing next the skin. She should also discontinue
the soft sugary and starchy foods, and not mix fruit with other foods
(it is best taken by itself, say, for breakfast). She needs more of
the cooling salad vegetables. The following diet would be a great
improvement:--

_On rising._--Half-pint of hot boiled water, sipped slowly.

_Breakfast._--Wholemeal bread or biscuits and butter (all made
without salt), with salad or grated raw roots. Stop porridge, jam and
golden syrup. Avoid drinking at meals.

_Lunch._--Two eggs, or 2 oz. of curd cheese. Two vegetables cooked in
casserole without salt; wholemeal bread or biscuits and butter; a few
figs, prunes, dried bananas, or raisins, washed but not cooked. Avoid
milk puddings or stewed fruits as too fermentative and heating.

_Supper meal._--1 to 2 oz. flaked nuts, some crisp "P.R." or "Ixion"
biscuits with nut butter. Some fresh salad or grated roots. Stop jam,
cake and pastry.

_At bedtime._--Half-pint of hot boiled water, or clear vegetable soup,
sipped slowly.

[14] The Sanum Oxygen Baths are also excellent in a case of this kind.


DIET FOR ULCERATED THROAT.

    Mrs L.B. writes.--Do you think it would be wise for a person
    suffering from ulcers in the throat and on other mucous membranes
    to adopt a diet devoid of meat, yeast and salt?

It would certainly be wise to discard meat and salt in a case of this
kind, but yeast is sometimes useful taken as "unflavoured Marmite."
The chief cause of ulcers is the abuse of the soft cereal and sugary
foods. In a case of this sort I should advise a diet consisting
exclusively of well-dextrinised cereals--_e.g._ Granose, Melarvi,
etc.--with plenty of grated raw roots and finely chopped salads and
tomatoes. This can be combined with curd cheese, raw or lightly cooked
eggs, flaked nuts or Brusson Jeune bread as the proteid part of the
diet.


FARMING AND SCIATICA.

    Mrs A.C.B. writes.--For two months my husband, who leads an
    active open-air life, has had severe pain all down the back of
    his left leg. It is like neuralgia, and comes on worse when
    sitting. He has been a farmer all his life, but is anything but
    strong and constantly taking cold. Are these pains likely to be
    due to wrong food?

This pain is evidence of sciatica. Chills alone will not produce
sciatica, which has its real cause in the system being choked up with
acids and toxins of various kinds. In such a case as this, warm water
enemas should be taken freely to clear the colon well; sugar, milk and
all starchy mushy foods should be strictly avoided; vegetables should
be taken either as baked roots or as fresh salads; eggs and cheese
should be substituted for meat; and plenty of fresh butter should be
taken. Boiled water, _between meals_, will be good, but nothing should
be given to drink with food. Salt, pickles, and greasy or highly
flavoured foods should be avoided.


TEMPORARY "BRIGHT'S DISEASE" AND HOW TO DEAL WITH IT.

    Miss E. would like to know what kind of diet is suitable for one
    who has been suffering from Bright's Disease following a serious
    illness. Why should meat have any bad effect upon the kidneys?
    She does not take it, although her medical man advises the use of
    it at once.

It is not an uncommon thing for people who have suffered from an acute
septic fever to find albumen temporarily present in the urine. This is
due to the irritant action of the toxins and other poisons (which the
fever is the means of ejecting) upon the structure of the kidneys. The
kidneys are filters and they remove the bulk of the soluble waste of
the body.

The practitioner frequently finds albumenuria in cases of scarlet
fever, typhoid fever, diphtheria, etc., and the object of his
treatment is to prevent this condition of kidney irritation from
becoming an established disease (Bright's disease).

Flesh foods, and especially meat extracts and meat soups, are the
worst possible wherewith to feed these fever cases, because they throw
so much extra work upon the kidneys. Meat is composed mainly of
proteids. It also contains the urinary wastes and the toxins (due to
fear) which were in the animal's body and on the way to elimination
when it was killed.

This sufferer should take one meal per day consisting of fresh fruit
only; the rest of the diet should consist of salad vegetables and
finely grated raw roots, home-made curd cheese, dextrinised cereals
(such as Melarvi biscuits, Shredded Wheat, "P.R." crackers, Granose
biscuits, Grape-Nuts, twice-baked standard bread, etc.) and fresh or
nut butter.


PHOSPHORUS AND THE NERVES.

    W.H.H. writes:--I should be very grateful if Dr Knaggs could help
    me with any information or hints regarding phosphaturia. I suffer
    much from this troublesome complaint.

We have to remember that the nervous system is two-fold. The one, or
conscious portion, consists of the brain and spinal cord, from which
all the nerves or branches travel to all parts of the body and give us
dominion over them. The other, or subconscious, called the sympathetic
nervous system, lies on either side of the front of the spine as two
long chains with centres, or ganglia, at intervals. This second system
is not within our control and has to do with the regulation of our
vegetative functions, including the bulk of the digestive process.

All nerves, whether they come from the brain or from the sympathetic
system, ranging to their smallest terminals, are built alike of cells,
and these cells secrete a complex _fatty_ substance, called
_lecithin_, whose dominant element is phosphorus. This phosphorus has
to be supplied to the body with food, and as food, and it cannot be
properly utilised or assimilated by the body or used by the nerves to
build up their _lecithin_ unless it is eaten in the form of organic
compounds.

The tissues of the body are continually dying, as a result of work
done, and are continually being replaced by fresh young tissues as
needed. It is the function of the nerves to manage this work for us as
well as to similarly arrange for reproduction.

In order to control the functions of the various organs and tissues
and to regulate the rate at which they reproduce themselves, the
nerves extend their terminal branches, not only into every tissue, but
into every microscopical unit of such tissue, and the part of the cell
which represents the nerve terminal is the inner structure called the
nucleus.

Now it will be obvious that the more the two nervous systems are
worked the greater will be their depletion of _lecithin_ and the more
need there will be for fresh supplies of phosphorus in the daily food
rations.

The person who works hard, whether it be manual labour or brain work,
needs food and rest at intervals in order that the nerves may
recuperate and replenish their stocks of _lecithin_.

A goodly proportion of uncooked foods rich in phosphorus must be
supplied to make good the wear and tear, and the digestion must
equally be efficient if these food-stuffs are to become assimilated.

Cooking of food to a large extent breaks down the organic phosphorus
salts and makes them inorganic. In this state they are of but little
use to the body. Poor digestion associated with putrefactive
fermentation equally converts the organic salts into inorganic ones.
These pass into the blood and are promptly eliminated by the kidneys
as waste (_phosphaturia_) and thus they never reach the nerves at all.

We must remember that phosphorus is usually found in natural foods
bound up with the proteid and especially with that proteid which has
to do with the reproduction of the species. For this reason man
instinctively resorts to the use of egg-yolks, and to the various
seeds (such as nuts, wheat, barley, etc.) because of their rich
phosphorus content.

These proteid-bound phosphorus salts can only be properly utilised
when the hydrochloric acid of the stomach juice is well formed, for it
converts them into acid salts which are readily absorbed. Therefore to
ensure free absorption we must always remember to give the
phosphorus-containing foods with such meals as will cause free
secretion of the gastric acid.

When fermentation is active and the stomach juices are weakened the
germs of the intestines rapidly break up the phosphorus constituents
of the proteids and make them inorganic. Therefore the first thing to
do when a person is found to be suffering from _phosphaturia_ is to
stop the intestinal fermentation by a right diet, clear the bowels of
their accumulated waste poisons and give the nerves plenty of rest.
Another consideration to bear in mind is that the nerves need fat
wherewith to build up the _lecithin_. An excessive fermentative
sourness of the stomach makes the food so acid when sent into the
bowels that the bile, pancreatic and other intestinal juices cannot
neutralise them, and so the fats themselves are not emulsified and
digested, which fully accounts for the mental depression and debility
of which these patients complain.

People who are suffering from "nerves" in any form need plenty of pure
fat (fresh dairy butter, cream, nut butter, fruit-oils, etc.) and an
abundance of natural fresh vegetable products at once rich in
phosphorus and iron and in organic alkaline acid-neutralising earthy
salts. These arrest fermentation and so enable the phosphorus and the
fat to become duly assimilated.


CANARY _VERSUS_ JAMAICA BANANAS.

    R.B., Lincoln, would like to know if there is very much
    difference, as regards food value, between the Jamaica and Canary
    banana. "I have heard it said that the Jamaica is only fit for
    the dust-heap. Well, I cannot very easily think it is so useless,
    and at the same time I have an idea that the Canary is the better
    of the two. I should be very pleased to know if you think there
    is much difference between them."

The difference between Jamaica and Canary bananas is due to the length
of time necessary for them to reach us from their place of growth. It
takes, I believe, nearly twice as long for a ship to travel from
Jamaica as from the Canary Islands. Hence the fruit imported from the
latter place can be picked in a much riper condition than would be the
case with the Jamaica article. This probably accounts for the better
quality and flavour of the Canary banana. Besides this the climate may
have some determining influence. To say that the Jamaica bananas
should be discarded because they are of a less satisfactory food value
or because their flavour is less developed is uncalled for. The
disparity in price is also very marked, so that the poor can readily
procure the Jamaica banana where they would not be in a position to
afford the better class of fruit coming from the Canaries. I have
discussed this subject in p.34 of my book, _The Truth about Sugar_.

H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.




CORRESPONDENCE.


    LEYTONSTONE

    _To the Editors._

    SIRS,

    Enclosed please find P.O. for a copy of _The Healthy Life_ to be
    sent to Carnegie Public Library, close to Midland Station,
    Leytonstone, also to The Alexandra Holiday Home, Y.W.C.A.,
    Alexandra Road, Southend-on-Sea. At the latter home there are
    something like 500 to 600 visitors every year, many of whom are
    semi-invalids. No doubt the magazine will be scorned by many, yet
    I am quite certain that there are others amongst the number there
    who will gladly welcome the truths it teaches, and if only one or
    two are helped to live a more healthy and therefore more happy
    life, it will be quite worth while. Please do not mention my name
    in either case. Yours, etc., X.

There is every reason why _The Healthy Life_ should be known and
read in every public library in the United Kingdom. In this we
are entirely dependent upon those readers who are ready to follow
the excellent example of the above correspondent. A year's
subscription--2s.--is a very small price to pay for bringing the
message of this magazine before the public in this way. We should
like to hear from readers in all parts.--[EDS.]


 +--------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                              |
 | #Back Numbers#                                               |
 |                                                              |
 | If readers who possess copies of the first number of _The    |
 | Healthy Life_ (August 1911) will send them to the Editors,   |
 | they will receive, in exchange, booklets to the value of     |
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 +--------------------------------------------------------------+




                                 THE

                               HEALTHY

                                LIFE

                           The Independent
                           Health Magazine.

                      3 AMEN CORNER LONDON E.C.


              VOL. V                             NOVEMBER
              No. 28.                              1913


    _There will come a day when physiologists, poets, and
    philosophers will all speak the same language and understand one
    another._--CLAUDE BERNARD.




AN INDICATION.


It was the slave-woman who laid her child under a bush that she might
spare herself the pain of seeing it die!

One of the commonest sources of mental and moral confusion is to
mistake the egotistic shrinking from the sight of suffering with the
altruistic shrinking from causing it and desire to relieve it.

The so-called sensitive person is too often only sensitive to his or
her own pain and, therefore, finds it difficult in the presence of
another's suffering to do what is needed to relieve it.

The healer, the health-bringer, the truly sympathetic person, does not
even hesitate to inflict pain when to do so means to restore
health.--[EDS.]




CASTLES IN THE AIR.

_Regular readers will recognise in this wonderfully simple and
suggestive article a continuation of the series previously entitled
"Healthy Brains." The author of "The Children All Day Long" is an
intimate disciple of one of the greatest living psychologists, and she
has a message of the first importance to all who realise that true
health depends as much on poise of mind as on physical fitness._--[EDS.]


Of all the occupations which imagination gives us, surely none is more
popular or more delightful than the planning out of future days.
Pleasure and fame and honour, work and rest, comfort and adventure:
all things take their turn in our romances.

Not all the castles are for ourselves alone. In childhood it is our
school, our club, our town that is to be the centre of great events.
The young man's castle is a nest to which he hopes to bring a mate.
The mother sees the future coronet or laurel-wreath round the soft
hair of her baby's head. And we all build castles for the world
sometimes--at least for our own country or our own race. Sometimes we
knock them down and rebuild again in rather different shape--Mr Wells
has taught us what a fascinating game it is.

Sometimes, especially perhaps in little, unimportant things, our
imagination does centre chiefly around our own activities. What we
mean to do, what we might do, what we would like to do: there must be
something else besides selfishness and waste of time in the constantly
recurring thoughts.

Who does not know the charm of looking down the theatre-list of the
morning paper? One may be too busy or two poor to go often to the
play, but the very suggestion of all the colour and interest is
pleasant. Who does not like looking over prospectuses of lectures and
classes at the beginning of the winter session? "I _should_ like to go
to that course on Greek Art. Oh, it is on Mondays, then that is no
good. German, elementary and conversation. How useful that would be!
Gymnasium and physical culture; how I wish I had another evening in
the week to spare!"

Railway books, again, and guides and travel bills--how delightful they
are! It is easy to plan out tours for one's holidays up to the age of
100. "Brittany; oh yes, I must go there one day. And Norway, that must
really be my next trip." The Rockies, the cities of the East, coral
islands of the Pacific--they all seem to enrich our lives by the very
thought of their possibilities.

Again, who does not love a library catalogue? To go through with a
pencil, noting down the names of books one wants to read is a form of
castle-building by no means to be despised.

Some people get the same pleasure out of house-hunting; they see an
empty house and go and get the key in order to see over it. The
chances of their ever living there are practically none, but the view
gives a stimulus to their inventive activity: they plan out how they
would furnish the rooms and fill the empty hearths with dreams.

Is not the same thing the explanation of shop-gazing? The woman who
has bought her winter coat and hat does not as a rule refrain from
looking any more into shop windows till the spring; instead, she
clothes herself in imagination in all the beautiful stuffs she sees
displayed, and if some of the things demand ballroom, racecourse, golf
links or perhaps the Alps for the background, why, so much the better,
the suggestion puts, as it were, a view from the windows of her castle
in the air.

A garden--a dozen square yards or reckoned in acres--is full of
material for our imagination; indeed, a seedsman's catalogue or a copy
of "Amateur Gardening" will often be enough to start us; long lines of
greenhouses will build themselves for us, or rockeries, or wild glens
with streams in them, and the world will blossom round about us.

Sometimes it is ambition that calls us, personal or professional; we
get beforehand the sweet taste of power upon the tongue. It may
perhaps be sometimes the rewards of work, riches and honour and so on,
but more often, I think, the dreams of youth circle round the work
itself. We will be of use in the world, we will find new paths and
make them safe for those coming after us to walk in, we will get rid
of that evil and set up a ladder towards that good; we will heal,
teach, feed, amuse, uplift or cherish the other human beings round
about us. We will store only for the sake of distributing; we will
climb only to be better able to give a helping hand.

Well, there are some danger signals at cross-roads of our dream-way,
some precautions to be observed if we would not let romance obscure
and hinder us in our search after reality. But none of these "castles"
are bad in themselves. In so far as they quicken our attention power,
deepen our thoughtfulness, make our activities more elastic and keep
us from carelessness or sloth, they are surely all to the good as
episodes in our development.

E.M. COBHAM.




THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF VEGETALISM.

This article, the earlier part of which appeared in the October
number, is from the French of Prof. H. Labbe, the head of the
_laboratoire a la Faculte de Medecine_, in Paris. It reflects a
characteristic aloofness to a any considerations other than scientific
or economic. But it will well repay careful study.--[EDS.]


V

Though the consumption of vegetable foods seems to offer a slight
disadvantage from the point of view of albuminoid matters, this is not
the case touching hydro-carbonated matters and sugars. The vegetable
kingdom constitutes the almost exclusive source of these alimentary
principles. One cannot indeed take much account of the consumption of
the .5-.6 per cent, of glycogen which exists in the animal muscle
partaken of under the shape of butcher's meat. There is hardly enough
in this for a large eater of between 200 and 250 grammes of meat, to
find in hydrocarbonated matters the 1/300 or the 1/400 of the daily
ration. Hydrocarbons are necessarily borrowed from the vegetable
foods. This is also the case with sugars which do not exist in the
animal kingdom in appreciable quantities. It is the same thing with
alcohol which is obtained only from the vegetable kingdom.


VI

As to fatty matters, animal foods, like vegetable products, are
abundantly provided with them. Moreover, from the point of view of
digestibility and capability of assimilating, one may say that there
is a quasi-absolute identity between animal and vegetable fats. The
reason which would induce us to prefer either would not seem to be of
a physiological nature. The economics, which we shall see further on,
take this upon themselves, as the most serious reproach which can be
made against the use of animal dishes is doubtless their dearness, and
the reason which militates most in favour of the predominance of a
vegetable diet is to a certainty its cheapness.


VII

Such are, briefly expounded and refuted, the fundamental objections
which can be brought against the vegetarian diet and the "vegetalian"
customs. There exists, in fact, no serious physiological or chemical
reason for not satisfying our needs solely with foods of vegetable
origin. It may be interesting to note that, in reality, the most
confirmed flesh eaters support their energy-producing needs mainly
with vegetable products. In the mixed diet universally practised meat
plays but a small part.

In meat the waste in preparation and consecutive waste at table is
considerable. To really introduce 200 grammes of meat into the
stomach, nearly 400 grammes must be purchased, and expensively put
into use. What do these 200 grammes really bring in nutritive
elements?

    Meat.

    200 gr. (mod. fat.) at 18% albumin = 36 gr. album., about.
         "       "          5% fat     = 10 gr. fat, about.
                                         -----
                                         46 gr.

These 46 grs. constitute barely the 8 per cent. of the total weight of
a ration, averaged in nutritive elements, calculated as follows:--

    Albumin               80
    Fatty matters         70
    Hydrates of carbon   350

This is a very feeble proportion.

If one turns to the calorific point of view, in order to estimate the
share of energy useful to the organism, we arrive at much the same
conclusion. The 46 grs. of nutritive animal elements barely provide
230 thermal units which can be utilised, while the total diet which we
are considering brings a power of disposal of nearly 2,350 thermal
units. It is, even then, barely 10 per cent. of the total energy. The
most convinced flesh eaters, those who buy 400 grs. of meat a day for
their consumption, must learn, willingly or unwillingly, that the
animal element enters only in an infinitesimal part into their real
substance and reparation.


VIII

Beyond this very feeble nutritive help is there, then, in meat,
anything else which makes the use of this article of food necessary,
agreeable or particularly strengthening? It is incontestible that meat
contains stimulating substances, which, as Prof. Armand Gautier has
said, play the part of nerve tonics, and have perhaps a direct action
on the circulation.

These special meat matters are found concentrated in the gravy. Meat
gravy, in fact, beside a feeble proportion of albuminoid matters, or
solubly derived quantities, polypeptides, etc., in notable proportion
of liberated acids, contains a certain quantity of matters, qualified
by the generic name of extractives; a notable quantity of these
extractive matters being creatine and creatinine, as well as
substances of which the fundamental nucleus is the puric grouping.
These purins, by the name which E. Fischer attributes to them, derive
from a special grouping which it would be supposed exists in a
hypothetic body, but which is not known in a state of liberty, purin.
This first term gives rise to a series of bodies in lateral groups, of
which the most interesting are caffeine and theobromine. Amongst these
substances the one which has the maximum of oxidation is no other than
uric acid. Caffeine and theobromine enjoy nervine properties and
energetic vascular actions. These properties minutely studied are
utilised every day for therapeutic purposes. It is probable that the
other bodies of the series which are met with in the extract of meat
enjoy analogous physiological properties. These substances are
ingested without discernment, often in great excess, and daily, by
people who consume meat.

Amongst these latter, many would not dare to drug themselves with a
centigramme of pharmaceutic caffeine, whereas they absorb each day gr.
5 and more, of its homologous constituents.

Therefore, in the same way as chocolate, tea and coffee, meat has a
stimulating effect on the system. He who is accidentally deprived of
it finds that he experiences a passing depression. This obviously
proves that by the exaggerated use of meat, one drugs and doctors
oneself without discernment. However this may be, the judicious part
played by meat must apparently be reduced to that of a condiment food
destined to produce in a measure the whipping-up which is useful, and
sometimes indispensable to the system. We cannot here discuss the
expediency of action and the harmlessness of the dose of substances
reputed stimulating. But one can ask oneself whether, to attain this
object of stimulation, carnivorous feeding is indispensable, and if
vegetarianism could not supply the need.

The reply is easy: the vegetable kingdom disposes of a variety of
stimulating articles, such as tea, coffee, kola and cocoa. Through
their active substances these foods are nerve tonics of the first
order, less dangerous in their use than meat, because more easily
assimilated, of far more continuous effects, less mixed with other
substances, sometimes noxious, and consequently more measurable.
Besides, in pulse food, quantities of purins are found as important as
in meat. If the part they play has not been systematically studied
from the point of view of their effects on the nervous organism, they
still give rise to the same terminal products, such as uric acid. One
can quite well argue that the pulse purins have physiological effects
comparable to those of meat purins. On the other hand, vegetable
purins have the considerable advantage of being less easily
precipitated in the urine, after the human interorganic metabolism,
than those resulting from the metabolism of flesh material.

This explains why a frequent use of a vegetable diet offers
appreciable advantages in the amelioration of arthritic diatheses so
common amongst us. Certain effects observed in these diatheses arise
from the purins, from their localisation in the system, and their
vitiated metabolism. The use of a moderate vegetable diet is the best
means of treatment in order to relieve, to ameliorate, even to cure,
arthritic diathesis.


IX

Such are the certain physiological advantages which the predominant
use of vegetable products are capable of offering. If one takes the
pure energy-producing point of view, the superiority of the vegetarian
diet becomes greater still. From the fine works of A. Chauveau, modern
physiology has shown us that muscle, in working, consumes sugary
materials. These are provided by ingestions of sugar in a natural
state, of dextrine or of starch; for a less important part, the
glycogen of the system may also arise from hydrocarbonated cords
existing in the molecule of certain albumins. Therefore it is only in
an infinitesimal part, due to the fibrine of meat, and to the small
proportions of glycogen which it contains, that flesh diet intervenes
in the direct production of kinetic energy.

The demonstrations which have been essayed, touching the muscular
superiority of vegetarians, appear superfluous to us. Such experiments
could only have a positive value if they were made on both series of
antagonistic subjects, with alimentary powers of energy-producing
equality.

It should be distinctly understood that the vegetarian does not profit
by any mysterious forces. The habit of preferring to nourish oneself
with vegetable foods, can, at most, or at least, favour the
physiological integrity of the subject, shield him against disease and
assure his revictualment with foods recognised as active and easily
measurable.

One cannot leave alcohol out of the list of advantageous vegetable
foods. In fact, provided one keeps to strictly limited doses, it may
be included among the alimentary foods, on a footing comparable to
that of sugar. If one knew how to use without misusing it, alcohol
might become a daily food.


X

Another order of ideas which one cannot pass by in silence at the
present time militates in favour of vegetable alimentation. Dietetics
cannot neglect economic problems. A flesh diet is very costly. In
large towns, like Paris, at a time when everything is increasing in
cost, one must be favoured by fortune to be able to indulge in the
real luxury of consuming the calories of meat. As we said in 1905,
with Prof. Landouzy and M. Labbe, in our inquiry into popular
Parisian alimentation, the calorific energy of meat comes, on an
average, to between 15 to 20 times dearer than that of bread or pulse
foods.

The diet with a vegetable predominance may therefore, by those who
adopt it, be considered as much less costly than a mixed one. Does not
this fact, then, deserve to be taken into consideration and
compared--startlingly illustrative--to the ingenious calculation
recently made by Lefevre in his examination of vegetarianism? One
acre of land planted for the purpose of breeding cattle produces three
times less living strength than an acre planted with wheat!

Is it not criminal, or at any rate ill-judged, for the richness and
health of the country to have, by the laws of a draconian
protectionism, spurred the French agricultural population along the
road to the breeding of cattle, thus turning it away from cultivation?
These laws are the cause, on the one hand, of the high price of wheat,
owing to the abandonment of its culture and the barriers opposed to
its entrance, and on the other, of the dearness of meat, owing to the
stock and the land which the cattle require.

Under these facts economists have indeed a direct responsibility, as
for more than fifty years economic orthodoxy has presented meat as a
necessity, whereas it is the least advantageous particle amongst so
many others.

In conclusion, let us hope that future distinctions of "Vegetalists,"
vegetarians or flesh eaters may be completely abolished. _In medio
stat virtus._ The dietetic regimen, the general adoption of which must
henceforth be desired, must reject all preconceived and hereditary
ideas, and unite in one harmonious use all foods with a hygienic end
in view. The place of each one amongst them and its predominance over
the others should be determined only by conforming to reasons at the
same time physiological and economic.

H. LABBE.


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HEALTH AND JOY IN HAND-WEAVING.

_This article gains additional interest from the fact that it has been
written by one who works her own loom and teaches others the ancient
and healthy art of hand-weaving._--[EDS.]


Hand-weaving is an art, a handicraft, one aspect of which we are apt
to forget--namely, that it is a splendid health-giver. Indeed, all who
have felt the rhythm of the loom, as they throw the shuttle to and
fro, and in blending colours and seeing the material grow thread by
thread, can witness to the power of the work to banish both the large
and small worries that eat away our health of mind and body. The
hand-weaver learns to look upon his (or her) loom as a very good
friend.

The possibilities in weaving are immense, and the great difficulty
that always confronts the weaver is the impossibility of letting
gussets into the day: the end of the week comes all too soon.

One very satisfactory thing about weaving is the fact that from the
very first we can use the things woven, even those we learn on.

First, there is plain weaving, with which we can make dress materials
and many things for household use. Then come fancy and striped
materials, which require more knowledge and ingenuity.

There are endless varieties in bands of different patterns thrown in
with the shuttle, or shuttles, sometimes as many as a dozen of which
may be in use at a time. These can be used for the purpose of
ornamentation. In weaving these no end of play of colour can be made,
by using many colours in rotation, either as the groundwork of plain
material, under the patterns, or as the pattern itself.

Metal threads can also be used of various kinds, either as an entire
texture, or to enrich the fancy bands.

Lastly, there is inlay weaving, by which we can put in by hand, with
little separate bobbins, as we go along, any cross-stitch design,
lettering, monograms, figures and designs of every description.

Anyone with a knowledge of carpentry can make his own loom, the
construction being of a very simple nature. In fact, the Orientals
erect a few sticks, dig a hole in the ground to sit in, tie their warp
up to a tree, and then produce the most charming work, both in texture
and colour.

The warp can also be made as these people often make theirs, by fixing
it to sticks stuck into the ground, and walking backwards and forwards
with the thread, singing as they go. Yes, singing! I think we English
folk might learn from them to put more joy into our work, that
fountainhead of life and health. We are apt to take such a serious
view of ourselves and of all we do. So often, too, we only feel the
dull and quiet colours, instead of using the many brilliant ones that
nature loves so well. Once we begin working in, and appreciating,
these we realise the exhilarating effect on our spirits. Indeed, I
think we are only beginning to realise what a great influence colour
has upon us, and all that colour signifies, each colour having various
meanings of its own.

Many people are now realising that we are surrounded by a halo of
colour woven by our character--the most highly developed people being
surrounded by clear, bright colours. It is strictly true that we are
all weavers, every day of our lives. By following the laws of nature
we make the finest texture composed of all the most glorious colours
or qualities in the Universe, so by degrees bringing ourselves, and
others, into perfect harmony and peace.

MINNIE BROWN.




HOW MUCH SHOULD WE EAT?

_This discussion arose out of the article with above title, by "M.D.,"
which was published in our July number._--[EDS.]


IV

In dealing with this vitally important question, we shall most of us,
I take it, agree upon certain points. In the light of recent knowledge
upon, and extended experience of the subject, one such point which now
appears incontrovertible is that there are thousands die
annually--directly or indirectly--through overfeeding where one dies
through insufficient nourishment. And it may at once be said that, as
regards these thousands, the death certificates are practically
valueless as data in relation to erroneous dieting, so that in this
way we can never get at a correct estimate as to the actual number of
deaths due to overfeeding. Bright's disease, gastric and intestinal
affections, growths of various kinds, cancer, etc., are each in their
turn certified as the "Cause of Death." Most often, however, the
initial cause is the overloading of the system with an amount of food
beyond that which is necessary or healthful--and thereby clogging up
the tissues, the organs and smaller bloodvessels.

But it may be said: "How can you substantiate such a general and
sweeping statement?" In the first place--and this is profoundly
significant--other things being equal, it must be acknowledged by all
unbiased people that the small and moderate feeders do not contract
disease in anything like the proportion that big feeders do, and as a
natural consequence live longer lives.

Further, it must surely be quite evident by this time that there is a
sufficiently large enough number of people who are thus existing in
good health--and steadily regaining it where it has been lost--on the
lines of moderate feeding. And the number is accumulating at a rapid
pace; more and more are coming into line with those of us who, having
thus found health in themselves, their patients and friends, are
preaching the practice of two meals a day, and sometimes only one
where there is serious organic disease to combat--thus defying the
dicta of those eminent physiologists who "settled" the question years
ago.

Now I quite admit--it would be impertinence to do otherwise--that
"M.D.'s" statements and views must not be ignored, must indeed be
respected. And he tells us that he "heard of," in one day, three cases
which "went wrong" through underfeeding; well, for those three cases
we can point to hundreds who are _going right_ through eating just
enough and not too much. I am prepared, on the other hand, to admit
the danger of a continued semi-starvation diet; our difficulty
is to define in each individual case what exactly would be a
semi-starvation, and what a sufficient diet. It is impossible to have
a fixed standard for everybody. After all, "the proof of the pudding
is in the eating"; often it is a matter of experimenting for some
little time, and in this way we could judge largely of the result of
our dieting by our state of general health.

On some main points of the question I am now absolutely
convinced--viz.:

1. Excessive bulk is always dangerous, often disastrous, causing
sudden death in a large number of cases.

2. Starchy foods are best strictly limited as we get along towards
middle age and beyond.

3. A life which is largely mental or sedentary will be healthier and
longer on a strictly moderate diet.

4. A life largely of physical labour must be dealt with on its own
particular conditions.

5. At all times due regard, of course, must be paid to age, weight,
etc.

6. On the whole, "eminent physiologists" have erred on the side of
excess of proteid being advised.

7. Middle age is the critical time of life in respect to a man's diet
in other words, I would say in axiomatic form that as a man feeds at
or about middle age, so will he be for the rest of his life.

J. STENSON HOOKER, M.D.


V

As a very interested reader of this discussion I should be very glad
to know exactly what "M.D." means by _each pound_ of _bone_ and
_muscle_ in the body weight? What proportion (approximately) is it to
total body weight? I have been trying to keep up to Dr Haig's 9 grains
per lb. of "body weight" and find that it is too much for my digestive
powers, which are very weak owing to chronic nervous dyspepsia. If I
take 15 per cent. or 20 per cent. _less_ proteid my troubles are so
greatly lessened that I feel that to continue to take the lower amount
would mean perpetual relief. But there have been so many warnings,
including M.D.'s, of the dangers of under-nutrition, that I am in a
quandary; and others of your readers too.

If M.D. means grains per lb. of _something less_ than total body
weight, a lesser amount of proteid than I try to take may have his
sanction, and be safe for me.

JNO. A. COOKSON.

       *       *       *       *       *

There appears to be a sincere attempt in "M.D.'s" article to prove
that a physiologist is the best guide in diet. But, as one can get the
degree of M.D. without any scientific knowledge of dietetics, the
inference that one would be likely to make from such an alarming
article is erroneous. I say "alarming" because vague statements are
made as to patients who were rescued just in time to be stimulated by
over-feeding into a semblance of health, and we are treated to a list
of very alarming symptoms in the last paragraph on p. 443.

"M.D." says, "Suppose that the animal fed for years on unnatural food
has become so pathological that it can no longer take or digest its
natural food." How grateful to M.D. for this statement will be those
who long for an excuse to cling to the spoiled, boiled and unnatural
dishes of which the popular diet mainly consists! And how they will
continue to overeat themselves, content to avoid the truth regarding
food quantities.

Living on a right and natural diet, a man or woman will correct the
effects of wrong living. This will bring crises, and unless they know
that this is Nature's attempt to rid the body of unwanted and effete
matter they may be duped into returning to their high feeding, either
by those whom "M.D." calls diet quacks or by qualified quacks.

I do not believe it possible for anyone to die for lack of indication
that they were eating too little.

The opposite is what people die of. If we carefully read Dr
Rabagliati's article in the same issue we shall rightly ask what would
be the results of analyses and measurements in such a case.

About a year ago we had a young woman under our care who had suffered
with deafness and other troubles for years. She had tried dietetic
treatments, "uric-acid-free" and otherwise, and had at last been told
that her deafness was incurable, being due to heredity and deficiency
in the organs of hearing. She was extremely thin when she came to us,
but we did not measure her, nor analyse unclean excreta, nor weigh
her.

She saw an M.D. who was in sympathy with the philosophy of fasting,
and she fasted (taking water only) for 28 days. She then had four days
of fruit juice, and was so disappointed at having broken her fast
prematurely that she continued it for another 12 days, making 44 in
all--40 days actual fasting.

[_During this period she was living an almost complete out-door
life._--EDS.]

During the fast many interesting phenomena were witnessed, chief among
which was the discharge from ears and nose--significant indeed to all
who study Nature's ways. Result: normal hearing restored. This was
nearly twelve months ago; and, having heard of her recently, we find
that, though she had had a cold, there has been no recurrence of
deafness. I wonder what assistance measurements would have been in
this true cure. The patient (an adult) weighed 4st. 8 lbs. at the end
of her fast and could then walk short distances.

The way in which "M.D." dismisses "a little gout" in his last
paragraph but one almost leads one to think that he is unaware of the
failure of the natural defences of the body that must have gone on in
a very serious degree before the manifestation of gout became
possible.

I respectfully submit this problem to "M.D.":--If a very thin patient
can go without food entirely for 40 days, with only benefit accruing,
_how many centuries_ will it take for a fairly fat person to die
through slightly under-eating?

As Dr Haddon has said, the proteid myth will die hard, but there are
physiologists who, with their faces to the light, are finding the
truth of man's requirements in food and who know that absolute purity
and simplicity are the ideals to be sought and that all food we eat
more than is absolutely necessary is a diversion of energy to carnal
channels.

ERNEST STARR.




A DOCTOR'S REASONS FOR OPPOSING VACCINATION.


In opposing vaccination I am aware that it is a thankless task to
brave the abuse and antagonism which everyone who attempts to move
forward in the work of medical progress is sure to encounter.

In order that I may not be regarded as prejudiced against the dogma of
vaccination, I will preface my remarks with the confession that I was
at one time myself a confiding dupe of the "tradition of the
dairymaids." While attending medical college I was told that
inoculation with cow pox virus was a certain preventive of small-pox,
and like most other medical students I accepted with childlike faith
and credulity the dictum of my teachers as so much infallible wisdom.
After an experience derived from treating a number of cases of
post-vaccinal small-pox in patients who gave evidence of having been
recently and successfully vaccinated, I awoke to a realisation of the
unpleasant fact that "protective vaccination" was not all that was
claimed for it. I thereupon began a study of the vaccination problem
in all its bearings. After several years of reading, observation and
experience I became fully convinced that "successful" vaccination not
only fails to protect its subjects from small-pox, but that, in
reality, it renders them more susceptible to this disease by impairing
their health and vitality, and by diminishing their power of
resistance.

Personally, I have known of recently vaccinated patients dying from
small-pox while having the plainest foveated vaccine marks upon their
bodies, and I have seen other individuals who had never submitted to
vaccine inoculation have variola in its mildest and most benign type.

In view of such experience I refused to ignore the evidence of my own
senses, and determined to follow the dictates of reason instead of the
dogmas of faith, and have, consequently, for the past fifteen years
refused to pollute the blood of a single person with vaccine virus.

I oppose vaccination because I believe that health is always
preferable to disease. The principle and practice of vaccination
involves the introduction of the contagion of disease at least twice,
and, according to numerous authorities, many times, into the human
organism. The disease conveyed by vaccination causes an undeniable
impairment of health and vitality, it being a distinctly vaccine
"lymph," is taken from a lesion on the body of a diseased beast, and
inserted by the vaccinator into the circulation of healthy children.
The performance of such an insanitary operation, in the very nature of
the case, is a violation of the cardinal principles of hygiene and of
sanitary science.... Moreover, this operation is in direct
controversion of the basic principles of aseptic surgery, the
legitimate aim of which is to _remove_ from the organism the products
of disease, but never to _introduce_ them.

The prime aim of the modern surgeon is to make every wound aseptic and
to keep it so. The careful operator employs every means at his command
to clear the field of operations of all bacteria. He utilises every
particle of the marvellously minute and intricate technique of asepsis
to prevent the entrance through the wounded tissues of any disease
elements before, during or after the operation. He fears sepsis
equally with death, and yet, under the blighting and blinding
influence of an ancient and venerated myth inherited from his ignorant
and superstitious forbears of a pre-scientific age, he will
deliberately inoculate the virulent infective products of diseased
animal tissues into the circulation of a healthy person. And as if to
cap the climax of his stupidity and inconsistency, he performs the
operation under "aseptic precautions."

The poisonous matter which nature wisely eliminates from the body of a
diseased calf in an effort to save its life and restore it to health
is seized upon by the vaccinator and implanted into the wholesome body
of a helpless child. Think of the unparalleled absurdity of purposely
infecting the body of a healthy person in this era of sanitary science
with the poison from a diseased beast, under the senseless pretext of
protecting the victim of the ingrafted disease from the contagion of
another disease! Can inconsistency go further?

I oppose the practice of vaccination because it is not known what
vaccine virus is, except that it is a mixed contagion of disease. We
hear much these days about "pure" virus and "pure calf lymph." Nothing
could be more absurd and meaningless than the flippant talk indulged
in by vaccinators and the purveyors of vaccine virus about "pure calf
lymph," a hybrid product of diseased animal tissues. "Pure virus"
translated into plain English is pure "animal poison." The phrase
"pure calf lymph" is applied to an brand of vaccine virus now in use
is a misnomer for two reasons. It is not "pure" and it is not "calf
lymph."

Calf lymph is the normal nutrient fluid which circulates in the
lymphatic vessels of the calf. Lymph is described by physiologists as
a "transparent, colourless, nutrient alkaline fluid which circulates
in the lymphatic vessels and thoracic ducts of animal bodies." Lymph
is a physiological product, while the so-called "pure calf lymph" used
by vaccinators is a pathological product, derived from a lesion on a
diseased calf. The difference between calf lymph and so-called "pure
calf lymph" is as great as is the difference between a food and a
poison. The vaccine mixture now most generally used by the medical
profession is known under the name of "glycerinized vaccine lymph,"
but it is not _lymph_ at all. It is made by utilising practically the
entire lesion or pock on the heifer when it is in the vesicular stage.
Such a lesion is broken open and scraped with a Volkmann spoon until
the whole of the tissue is forcibly and roughly curetted away,
consisting of pus, morbid serum, epithelium, fibrous tissue of the
skin, and any foreign matter on or in it, constituting what is called
"pulp." This pulp is then passed between glass rollers for trituration
and afterwards mixed with a definite amount of glycerine and distilled
water. This complex pathologic product of unknown origin is injected
into the wholesome bodies of helpless children under the false but
plausible name of "pure calf lymph." ...

I oppose the practice of vaccination because under whatever pretext
performed the implantation of disease elements into the healthy human
organism is irrational and injurious. It is subversive of the
fundamental principles of sanitary science, while the attainment of
health as a prophylactic measure is rational and in harmony with the
ascertained laws of hygiene and consistent with the canons of
common-sense. I am firmly convinced that the absurd and unreasonable
dogma which assumes to conserve health by propagating disease should
receive the open condemnation of every scientific sanitarian. That
this health-blighting delusion conceived in the ignorance of a past
generation should find lodgment in the minds of intelligent people
enjoying the light of the world's highest civilisation is to my mind
inexplicable....

Sanitation and isolation of the infected offer the only rational and
effective antidote for these disorders. Away, then, with the
abominable and filthy subterfuge! Give us health instead of disease.
Health is the great prophylactic.

No man in perfect health can be truly said to be susceptible to the
infection of small-pox, nor to that of any other zymotic disease.
Vigorous health confers immunity from disease-producing agents as
nothing else can. It is usually after the vital functions have become
impaired by the effects of vaccination or some other injurious cause
that individuals become susceptible to small-pox infection.

J.W. HODGE, M.D.

[_The above article can be obtained in pamphlet form from the
publisher. Wm. J. Furnival, Stone. Staffs._--EDS.]




THE NEW RACE.

(_Specially written for THE HEALTHY LIFE._)


    A new race on the ruins of the old
      Build we: a temple of the human form
      Fairer than marble, since with life-blood warm,
    Well crowned with its appointed crown of gold,
    Russet or ebony; lines clear and bold
      Beneath--a citadel no ills can storm,
      Buttressed with health; a type to be the norm
    In that great age the world shall yet behold.

    For now the laws of Health and Heaven are seen
      In their identity, life's body and soul;
    Though, like divorce, disease may come between
      What God hath joined; but at the human goal,
    Where the New Race rules, splendid and serene,
      Sit Health and Holiness, made one and whole.

S. GERTRUDE FORD.




THE PLAY SPIRIT.


We all long for reality. Most of the amusements in the world are
imitations of the reality for which we long. They promise a
satisfaction they are unable to give. Drink, mechanical love-making,
all snatched gratification of the senses, religious excitement,
revivalist meetings, and so forth, most theatre-going and sports, all
simulate the real glory of life. They bring an illusion of well-being.
They produce a glow in the nervous system. They cause the outlines of
everyday life as we know it to grow suffused. They give us a momentary
sense of heightened power and freedom. We float easily in a happy
world. A sort of relaxation has been achieved. The less common forms
of amusement bring us nearer to the gateway of reality. For some, they
have been the rivers leading to the ocean of truth itself.

Art, for instance, the interpretation of life in terms of beauty; the
"artist," the man in whom sensuous perception is supreme, offers us a
sublime aspect of reality. He dwells in the universe constructed for
him by his senses and tells us of its glories. He achieves "freedom."
The veil covering reality is woven for him far thinner than for common
men. He sees life moving eternally behind the forms he separates and
"creates." And to those of us who are akin to him, who are
temperamentally artistic, he offers freedom of a kind. The
contemplation of a work of art releases the tension of the nerves. To
use the language of psychology it "arrests" us, suspends the functions
of our everyday surface personality, abolishes for a moment time and
space, allows the "free," generally suppressed subconscious self to
come up and flood the surface intelligence, allows us for a moment to
be ourselves. But, still, this momentary relaxation, this momentary
"play," this holiday from the surface "I," remains an affair dependent
upon suggestive symbols coming from "without." The supreme artist
achieves freedom. We, who in matters of art are the imitative mass,
can only have "change," a new heaven and earth, a fresh "culture."

Then there is love. That promises, at the outset, complete escape into
freedom and reality. And supreme lovers, both of individuals and of
"Humanity," have indeed found freedom and the pathway to reality in
love. But ordinary everyday people rushing idolatrously out to find
themselves in others find in the end only another I. The religions
perhaps work best and longest. But even here average humanity, where
the mystical sense is feeble, are thrown back in the end upon
ethics--and go somewhat grimly through life doing their duty, living
upon the husks of doctrine, the notions and reports of other men.

If the play spirit within us, that longing for the real joy of life,
for real relaxation and re-creation, fares so poorly for most of us in
the amusements large and small that life offers to our leisure
moments, is it any better in the "games" the individual chooses for
himself--hobbies, for instance? Can these generally "instructive" and
"useful," generally also solitary, occupations be called play? Are
they not merely a reversal of life's engine, rather than an unmaking
and a remaking. They are merely a variant of life. They are very truly
called a "change of occupation." They are led and dominated, commonly,
by the intelligence. They contain no element of freedom. The same
defect is found in all organised "games."

       *       *       *       *       *

Real play, like every other reality, comes from what our mechanical
and practical intelligences have called "within."

Real play arises when the "I" is in direct contact with the myself,
with Life, with God, with the actuality moving beneath all symbolic
representations.

It is only when "I," the practical, intelligent, abstract-making,
idealising, generalising, clever, separated "I," the "I" which has a
past, a present and a future, renounces its usurpation of the
steering apparatus, that play can be. "I," to play or to pray or to
love, must be born again. "I" must relinquish all. "I" must have
neither experience nor knowledge, neither loves nor hates, neither
"thought" nor "feeling" nor "will"--nor anything that can arrest the
action of the inner life. When this complete relaxation, which has its
physical as well as its mental aspect, is achieved, then and then only
can "I" rise up and play. Then "I" shall rediscover all the plays in
the world in their origin. "I" shall understand the war-dance of the
"savage." "I" shall know something about the physical convulsions of
primitive "conversion." The arts may begin to be open doors to me. "I"
shall have stood "under," understood my universe, in the brief moment
when "I" abandoned myself to the inner reality. The words of the great
"teachers" will grow full of meaning. My own "experiences" will be
re-read. I shall see more clearly with my surface intelligence what I
must do. I shall be personal in everything, personal in my play.
Surface self-consciousness which holds me back from all spontaneous
activity will disappear in proportion as "I" am immersed in the
greater "me."

Look at that woman walking primly down the lane to the sea with her
bathing-dress. She is a worker on a holiday. But she cannot play. She
goes down every day to bathe in the Cornish sea, the sea that on a
calm sunny day is like liquid Venetian glass and flings at you, under
the least breeze, long, green, foam-crested billows that carry you off
our feet if you stand even waist-high. She potters in the shallows and
splashes herself to avoid taking cold. Her intelligent "I" is
uppermost. Her world of every day never leaves her. She will go back
to it as she came, unchanged. Her wistful face betrays the seeker lost
amidst unrealities. If the "I" were a little more intelligent, she
might try to defy the surrounding ocean, to pit her powers against it,
to swim. She would learn a most practical and useful and withal
invigorating accomplishment. If her busy, watchful "I" could be
arrested she might "see" the billows, the sky and the headlands reared
on either side of her bay. She might dance into the water, and see her
world dance back. She would fling herself amongst the wavelets where
she stands and splashes. She might give herself up and know nothing
but the beauty and strength around her. It would not teach her to
swim, but she would have taken a step towards the great game of
walking upon the waters.

D.M. RICHARDSON.




TRAVELS IN TWO COLOURS.


One is often tempted to suspect that in some schools there is a
deep-laid plot to destroy in the bud any love for poetry which
children may possess. Otherwise how is it that little boys and girls
are made to commit to memory William Blake at his highest reach of
mystical fire, as in _Tiger, Tiger, burning bright_, or William
Wordsworth at his lowest ebb of uninspired simplicity, as in _We are
seven_? These are very popular, apparently, as poems for children to
recite; yet in the one case it is beyond any teacher's power to show
children the unearthly flaming beauty which alone gives the poem its
peculiar quality and undefinable power; and in the other the maudlin
sentimentalism and almost priggish piety of the verses are positively
dangerous to the child's health of mind. Both types of recitation work
out in the end to this--that when the child attains adolescence, and
the great world of literature dawns on the hungry mind, an evil
association of ideas has been established--the association of poetry,
the highest of all arts, either with the saying of lines without
meaning, or with the learning of "poems" devoid of what wholesome
youth really desires or enjoys.

People may wrangle all night as to whether the normal healthy child is
at heart a mystic or a realist; whether he likes fairy tales because
they show him a magical world where flowers can talk and umbrellas are
turned into black geese, or because they tell of strange romantic
things happening to a real human boy like himself; but there can be no
shadow of doubt that much of the verse intended for children is either
too clever in its humour to make them laugh, or too bald in its matter
or tone to stir the romance that is never quite asleep in their
hearts. There are really surprisingly few versifiers who have
altogether avoided these errors. Some of George Macdonald's _Poems for
Children_ are almost perfect, both as regards lyrical form, simplicity
of language and in the unobtrusiveness of the inner truth they convey.
For example,

   "The lightning and thunder
      They go and they come;
    But the stars and the stillness
      Are always at home."

But others come perilously near mere versified moralising. Lewis
Carroll's nonsense verses in the two famous _Alice_ books are supreme
among their kind; but are they not sometimes just a shade too
ingenious, or too adult in wit? Probably Stevenson, in those seemingly
artless poems in _A Child's Book of Verse_, comes nearest to a level
perfection. Who has ever approached him in his power to understand and
express the small child's world, desires and delights, without a trace
of the grown-up's condescension or self-consciousness?

Well, these great ones are no longer in the world; yet, with the
recognition of their genius, there is the usual danger of bemoaning
the lack of worthy successors. Not but what there is some excuse for
such lamentation; for this reason that every Christmas there is a
veritable flood of children's verse, a great deal of which is either
painfully didactic, painfully sentimental, painfully funny or
painfully foolish.

What I wish to do at the moment is to call attention to the fact that
there is one man alive in England--one of many, I do not doubt: but
one at a time!--who is doing "nonsense verses" for children which are
guiltless of all the faults I have indicated above.

Jack Goring is known among some of his friends as "The Jolly
Rhymster." He writes his verses first for his own children, and then
publishes them from time to time for the pleasure of other children.
The secret of his success is partly that he knows that even small
children like a story to be an adventure; partly that he understands
how their own romances, the things they picture or hum to themselves
when well-meaning adults are not worrying them, or rather, trying to
amuse them, begin--wherever they may end!--with a perfectly tangible
object, such as a pillar-box, a rag-doll or a toy locomotive. One of
"The Jolly Rhymster's" best things begins--

   "Finger-post, finger-post, why do you stand
    Pointing all day with your silly flat hand?"

--which is exactly the sort of question that a very small child in all
probability does really ask itself when it has seen a finger-post day
after day at a cross-roads. How the poem continues and where it ends
you must find out for yourself. It's all in a book called _The Ballad
of Lake Laloo_.

In the recently published volume[15] that now lies before me, this
telling of a tale of wonder which begins with an ordinary thing is
again evident. Nip and Flip, aged six and four respectively, are the
adventurers; and they make three voyages in this little book. In the
first, _The Fourpenny-Ha'penny Ship_, they circumnavigate the world.
Now please note how Mr Goring strikes the right note at the very
outset:

   "Nip and Flip
    Took a holiday trip
    On a beautiful fourpenny-ha'penny ship
    With a dear little handkerchief sail;
    And they sang, 'Yo ho!
    We shall certainly go
    To the end of the world and back, you know,
    And capture the great Seakale.'"

[15] _Nip and Flip._ By Jack Goring. Illustrated by Caterina
Patricchio. 1s. net (postage 1+1/2d.). C.W. Daniel, Ltd., 3 Tudor Street,
London, E.C.

And there follows a picture (in black and gold) of this strange
monster, just to make sure that no one will suppose they were out
after a vegetable.

The tale moves along, as such stories should, very rapidly. Thus--

   "And when they came to the end of the world,
    Their dear little handkerchief sail they furled
    And put on the kettle for tea."

But you have only just time to look at the tea things when--

   "But alas! and alack
    About six o'clock
    The good ship strack
    On the Almond Rock
    And split like a little split pea."

So the story goes on, through divers adventures,

   "From Timbuctoo to Timbucthree"

and so at last home again.

The next voyage is to the land of Make-Believe on a Christmas Eve, "in
a long, long train of thought." In the course of this tale we are
given a little picture of Flip herself, and here it is for you to look
at. Only, in the book her shoes and stockings, the inside of her
skirt, and the squiggly things on the top of her head are a bright
golden colour.

[Illustration]

The third voyage is all the fault of a toy monkey--"six
three-farthings and cheap at the price"--and takes them among whales,
mermaids, sea-serpents and other deep-sea creatures.

Here, then, are delightful little pictures on every page, which even a
two-year-old will enjoy. And here are verses which most boys and girls
under seven or eight will like to learn. And the best of it is that it
doesn't matter a bit if they do "sing-song" them, for they are the
kind of verses which only sound right from the lips of quite small
children who have never been taught elocution.

EDGAR J. SAXON




PICKLED PEPPERCORNS.


    SOUP.--Oxtail from 10 A.M.--From a Restaurant Menu.

What it was in the early morning it would be indiscreet to inquire.

       *       *       *       *       *

I learn that a serum for mumps is now being made at the Pasteur
Institute. "A number of monkeys were inoculated with the serum," says
_The Times_ (30th July), "and a mild form of the disease was
produced." It is an age of scientific progress, so we may expect news
shortly of sera for toothache, hiccough, and the hump. It will not be
necessary to inoculate camels for the last.

       *       *       *       *       *

    You will say--with Mr Arnold Bennett, the distinguished
    playwright and novelist--"the tonic effect of ********* on me is
    simply _wonderful_."--From an advt. in _Punch_.

You may join in the chorus if you like, but you mustn't all expect to
be simply _wonderful_ playwrights and testimonialists.

       *       *       *       *       *

    A STRANGE SHAMPOO.... "I make my chemist get the stallax for me,"
    said she. "It comes only in sealed packages, enough to make up
    twenty-five or thirty individual shampoos, and it smells so good
    I could almost eat it."--_Secrets of Beauty_ column in _The Daily
    Sketch_.

Which only shows how careful one has to be.

       *       *       *       *       *

    In the days to come every army will fight on bloodless
    food.--_Herald of the Golden Age_.

When every army fights on bloodless food, we may be just as far from
the Golden Age as we are now.

       *       *       *       *       *

I am told that an obscure practitioner who sent up an account of some
interesting discoveries, addressed to

    MEDICAL CONGRESS,
      DIETETICS SECTION,
        LONDON.

has had his communication returned by the Post Office, marked _Not
Known_.

       *       *       *       *       *

There is no truth, it is said, in the rumour that a secret meeting was
held during the Congress to discuss the proposed raising of the rate
of commission payable by surgeons to physicians.

PETER PIPER.




HEALTHY LIFE RECIPES.

SOME "EMPROTE" RECIPES.


Exaggeration is popularly regarded as one of the vices of food
reformers; but it is certainly no exaggeration whatever to say that Mr
Eustace Miles and the restaurant associated with his name have had a
large share in bringing about the more sympathetic attitude towards
"food reform" noticeable on all sides to-day.

Mr Miles is no amateur in the gentle art of self-advertisement: he
would be the first to admit it. But the advertisements have resulted
undoubtedly in a very large number of people taking the first steps
towards food reform, people who are repelled by the out-and-out
"vegetarian" propaganda.

There are those who view with disfavour the introduction of
manufactured or artificial foods into the health movement; they think
it hinders simplicity. There is a truth in this; but, on the other
hand, it must be recognised that the great majority cannot be reached
save by meeting them half-way. This applies to the flavours of foods,
the digestibility of foods and the convenience of foods. Few can go
straight from beef to nuts. After generations of abuse the human
digestive system has to be humoured if the ideal is to be approached.
And in this invaluable work of meeting people half-way and of
humouring their tastes and digestions, the restaurant in Chandos
Street, London, the specially prepared foods made and sold there and
the strongly individual, thoroughly sane and pleasantly
straightforward advocacy of Mr. Eustace Miles have been a very
important factor.

The idea behind "Emprote"--the Eustace Miles Proteid Food--is that,
being a blend, in powder form, of various kinds of proteid (the
proteids of milk, of wheat, and so forth) it supplies the right kind
of substitute for flesh foods not only because it is so easily
assimilated, but because it is in a very convenient and easily kept
form.

We believe such foods have a very definite and necessary part in the
progress of the individual from the customary unhealthy diet to the
better ways of feeding. The following recipes illustrate some of the
methods of using "Emprote." They are taken from the booklet _45 Quick
and Easy Recipes for Healthy, Meatless Meals_, to be obtained for 2+1/2d.
post free from 40 Chandos Street, London, W.C.--


SAVOURY CHEESE SANDWICHES.

_NOTE.--These Savoury Sandwiches can form a complete meal with a
little salad (dressed with oil and lemon juice), or celery or lettuce
or watercress or other salad material._

    3 oz. of cheddar cheese; 1 oz. of "Emprote"; the juice of half a
    lemon; two tablespoonfuls of fresh tomato pulp or tomato chutney;
    a pinch of celery salt.

Prepare some slices of not too new bread and butter. Mill the cheese,
add to it the "Emprote" and the celery salt, then add the tomato pulp
or chutney and the lemon juice. Mix all well together into a smooth
stiff paste, and spread upon the slices, and form sandwiches, which
may be eaten with watercress or lettuce or cucumber. If the material
is too moist, mix in a little more "Emprote," or else "Procrums."


MACARONI CHEESE.

    One teacupful of macaroni; two tablespoonfuls of milled cheese
    one tablespoonful of butter; one dessertspoonful of flour; one
    tablespoonful of "Emprote"; one large cupful of milk.

Boil the macaroni for half-an-hour in a little water. Strain the
macaroni and put it in the bottom of a buttered dish. (Put the liquid
in the stock-pot, to thicken a soup.) Mill the cheese, and put half of
it over the macaroni. In the small saucepan make a sauce of the
butter, flour, milk and "Emprote." Pour this over the macaroni and
cheese, sprinkle the rest of the cheese on the top, put in the pan to
brown, then serve.


STUFFED VEGETABLE MARROW.

Mince two large onions very fine, and fry in 1 oz. of butter; add 3
oz. of "Proto-Savoury," one dessertspoonful of Nutril, 1 oz. of
breadcrumbs (or "Procrums"), and one egg. Scoop the seeds from one
large vegetable marrow, fill with the mixture, and bake for one hour.
Serve with Apple Sauce.

_NOTE.--"Proto-Savoury," "Nutril," and "Procrums" are special "E.M."
products and are readily obtainable from health Food Stores, etc._


A NOURISHING GRAVY READY IN A MINUTE.

When cutlets or croquettes are heated up, or when macaroni or
vegetables or a vegetable stew (none of which are really adequate
substitutes for meat) are to be made nourishing, mix some of the E.M.
Savoury (or Mulligatawny, or Blended) Gravy Powder, with hot water, to
the thickness of gravy, and add to the dish.

       *       *       *       *       *


NEW METHOD OF PREPARING FRUIT FOR THE DINNER-TABLE.

In cold weather fruit is often cold, and if heated in an oven may be
injured partially or wholly. Here is, perhaps, a new way of warming
fruit which has been tried and proves satisfactory. Wash the apples,
pears, oranges, bananas and wipe them and place on a dish on the
dinner-table. Also place a jug of boiling water and a bowl upon the
table. Then when the fruit is required pour the hot water into the
bowl and place the fruit in it and cover with a plate until warm
enough to eat comfortably. Bananas should be peeled before placing in
hot water.

"A.R."




HEALTH QUERIES.

_Under this heading our contributor, Dr Valentine Knaggs, deals
briefly month by month, and according as space permits, with questions
of general interest to health seekers and others._

_In all Queries relating to health difficulties it is essential that
full details of the correspondent's customary diet should be clearly
given._

_Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on _one side only of
the paper_, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as
a guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a
stamped addressed envelope must be enclosed._--[EDS.]


ECZEMA AS A SIGN OF RETURNING HEALTH.

    Mrs M.K. writes:--Until the last few years I have been subject to
    sciatica and a certain amount of dry eczema. About a year ago my
    health greatly improved, with the exception of the eczema, which
    has much increased the last year, coming out in large angry
    spots which irritate. I am 69, small, spare and white, have never
    been strong until a year ago, have led a sedentary life, being an
    artist. Three years ago I left off eating meat. My diet at
    present is:

    _On rising._--Cup of hot rain-water.

    _Breakfast_ (8 A.M.)--Unfired Bread with butter and pine nuts;
    cup of weak tea, no sugar.

    _At 11._--One raw apple.

    _Dinner_ (1 P.M.)--One lightly boiled egg or an omelette, with
    "Artox" home-made bread, and butter conservatively cooked celery
    or broccoli; stiff milk pudding with eggs in it, or "Artox"
    pastry.

    _Tea_ (5 P.M.).--Weak China tea "Artox" bread, and butter, and
    home-made plain cake.

    _Supper_ (8.30).--Slice of bread and butter; tumblerful of hot
    rain-water sipped at bedtime.

    I have not been able to digest uncooked vegetables, excepting
    lettuce; nor do I eat other fruit than apples; any sweet things
    cause acidity. I do not suffer with constipation.

In this case it will be noted that the skin disease occurred
simultaneously with a marked improvement in health. This shows that
Nature was adopting her usual plan of forcing the impurities outwards
to the surface and that the change of diet made this possible. With
her body less encumbered with waste a return of health became
possible.

The plan now to adopt is not to check this skin trouble but to cure it
along safe lines by amending the diet and purifying the skin itself by
means of warm alkaline baths.

These baths, which should be taken twice a week at first, are made by
adding a 1/4lb. of bicarbonate of soda and a 1/4lb. of "Robin" starch
to an ordinary hot bath at a temperature of 105 degrees, which can be
gradually increased to 110 degrees as the correspondent can bear it.
In this the bather stays for from ten to twenty minutes to well soak
out the acids and the oily greasy waste from the surface. The starch
is added because it moderates the action of the alkali and leaves a
comfortable gloss on the skin after the bath is finished. The bath
gradually clears the poisons from the skin and encourages the free
action of perspiration, thus promoting the further elimination of
waste acid poisons and at the same time clearing the skin and making
it healthy.

The next thing to do is to amend the diet so that as little waste as
possible shall be formed. Rice is the cereal that contains the least
amount of waste of any kind and this should therefore be the cereal
selected. The wholemeal, although good for most people, is not suited
to this case. A strict salt-free diet is also necessary, as it is
often the retention of salt in the system that leads to the presence
of eczema. The following amended diet should suit the case, and it
should be continued until the skin has quite cleared itself:--

_On rising._--Cup of filtered boiled rain-water.

_Breakfast._--Cottage cheese, 2 oz.; rice, boiled or steamed without
salt (large plateful), with Granose biscuits or toasted "Maltweat"
bread.

_At_ 11 A.M.--More rain-water (not fruit).

_Lunch._--The same as breakfast.

_Tea._--Hot rain-water only.

_Supper, 6.30._--The same as breakfast.

When the skin is quite clear the correspondent can return to the
wholemeal bread (but biscuits made with "Artox" would be better than
the yeastless bread), and also to a more varied diet generally, as at
present.


DEAFNESS.

    J.G. writes:--My hearing got bad about twenty years ago, caused I
    think by a cold in the head. When in bed I can hear the tick of a
    watch with the left ear but the other is almost stone deaf. I am
    not much at a loss in ordinary conversation, but in trying to
    hear people speak I lose much of what is said. Although I have no
    real pain, my head is rarely clear, feeling full and congested. I
    have now and again a slight sensation of giddiness or reeling.
    The right ear runs some offensive matter, and there is always a
    hissing sound. I live what is, I think, a simple life, but I must
    confess to a little smoking. My general health is good. I am a
    working farmer and fairly active for one of my age (69). My diet
    is generally as follows:

    _On rising._--One or two cups of warm water, sometimes with lemon
    juice.

    _Breakfast._--An apple or orange, oatcake and dairy butter.
    Baker's bread and one cup of tea.

    _Lunch._--Nil, or perhaps I should say that I eat an apple or
    orange before each meal or a bit of turnip or even cabbage.

    _Supper._--Potatoes with fish, and milk pudding. On some days it
    may be broth with meat cooked in it.

    _Before retiring._--Nothing but water, or at other times oatcake
    and one cup of milk.

There does not seem to be much prospect of this correspondent
recovering the hearing of his right ear, as the conditions have lasted
so long. He might, however, certainly try by diet and hygiene to get
rid of the unpleasant discharge and the noises. To effect this he
should carefully syringe the ear once or twice a day with a weak
solution (1 grain to the ounce) of permanganate of potash, using an
all-rubber ear-syringe.

Then he should get someone to well stretch the upper bones of the
spine and to massage well the muscles at the back of the neck to
induce, thereby, a better circulation in the nerves and blood-vessels
which proceed from that part of the spine into the ears. In this way
he will be able to ensure a removal of the clogging poisons which are
lurking in the bad ear and thus promote less noises and a better
health state of the ears generally. The diet should be amended as
follows:--

_On rising._--One or two cups of warm water, with lemon juice added.

_At 8. Breakfast_.--Apples, oranges or other fruit only. _Take plenty
of fruit at this meal and eat it at no other time._

_At 12. Lunch._--One boiled egg or some cream cheese: Oatcakes and
butter or good wholemeal biscuits ("P.R." or "Ixion" kinds) and
butter, and a plateful of finely grated raw roots (carrots, turnip,
etc.).

_Tea meal._--One cupful of Hygiama, using water in place of milk.

_Dinner._--Cheddar cheese or cottage cheese (the latter is best);
potatoes and a green vegetable, cooked by baking or steaming, without
salt. No broth or meat. (Meat and especially meat broths are very
undesirable in this case.)

_Before retiring._--Hot water only.


ANOTHER CASE OF DEAFNESS.

    J.A.B. writes:--I have been a reader of _The Healthy Life_ for
    the last six months, and am suffering from a complaint since I
    was three years old. When three years old I was attacked by
    scarlet fever and on getting better I had a discharge from my
    right ear. This continued for several years, then it would
    disappear and reappear at short intervals of say a few weeks.
    This last few years the discharge has disappeared for six months,
    only to reappear again for a week with severe pains in back over
    right shoulder and right side of neck. I always feel weak and
    tired when discharge reappears and sometimes experience pains in
    the head and cannot remember anything for a few minutes.

This correspondent needs a suitable diet in order to purify his blood
stream and to promote elimination of bodily poisons which are
evidently affecting his ears. He also needs suitable massage and
stretching movements applied to the upper part of the spine, which is
functioning badly. Then he can supplement this by taking Turkish baths
or wet sheet packs to promote a free action of the skin and thus clear
away poisonous waste from the system. The same diet as recommended to
the previous correspondent should be tried.


CONCERNING COTTAGE CHEESE.

    Mrs C.E.J. writes:--I have been making cottage cheese curdling
    the milk with lemon juice, as recommended in _The Healthy Life_.
    Suppose the milk contains disease germs, would not this cheese be
    injurious, as the milk is not sterilised by being brought to
    boiling point? I have also been drinking the whey from the same,
    as it as given in _The Healthy Life Beverage Book_. I notice in a
    reply given in this month's issue that Dr Knaggs states that the
    whey of the milk is the dangerous element. Since reading this
    answer I have been somewhat in doubt as to drinking the whey. I
    should like to know if it can be taken without harmful effects.

Ordinary unboiled milk, free from preservatives, is far less dangerous
to health than boiled milk, because Nature inserts in the raw milk
certain germs known as the lactic-acid-producing bacilli, which
protect us from the injurious germs. These lactic germs cause the milk
to go sour and produce in this way the much-extolled soured or curdled
milk. They convert the sugar of the whey into lactic acid by a process
of fermentation. If milk is boiled it cannot go sour because the germs
natural to it have been destroyed by the heat and it becomes necessary
to introduce fresh lactic germs into the boiled milk as is done in the
artificial production of curdled milk. Failing this, milk will
undergo, not lactic fermentation, but _putrefaction_, and thereby
develop highly dangerous qualities.

When a person takes soured milk its lactic acid acts as a powerful
germ destroyer and in a certain concentration it actually kills the
lactic germs as well. It also keeps down the disease-producing germs
of putrefaction which work in an alkaline medium (opposite to acid) by
depriving them of the sugar of the whey.

Boiled milk, if set on one side, in warm weather, speedily becomes
alkaline and putrid or putrefactive. It is in this condition that,
when babies take it, they are made dreadfully ill with diarrhoea and
inflammation of the stomach and bowels. Hence it is the chief cause of
the appalling mortality among infants in hot weather.

Mrs F.K.J. need have no fear of any harm coming to her as a result of
eating cottage cheese, but she should not take the whey unless she has
decided to undergo a whey cure and take _nothing but whey_; in this
latter case, there being no other foods taken, there will be no germs
to act harmfully upon it. If there is much flatulence and stomach or
bowel trouble sweet milk or whey will simply feed the germs which are
the cause of the digestive trouble, or self-poisoning, and are thus
far better discarded.


DIET FOR OBSTINATE COUGH.

    Miss N.S. writes:--For the last three weeks I have been troubled
    with a very bad cough It started in the first place with a cold
    in the head and then it got on my chest, and do what will I
    cannot get rid of it. I have been having honey and lemon juice,
    and also each morning have taken olive oil and lemon juice beaten
    up together, but without (apparently) any effect. I have bad
    coughing fits in the night and the next morning I do not feel up
    to much.

    I may say that I have not taken meat for about six years, and I
    try to follow the kind of diet advocated in _The Healthy Life_.

    I am 23 years of age and a typist in an office, which is about 4
    miles from my home. I try to get out in the fresh air as much as
    possible to counteract any bad effects which may arise from my
    work. My people at home are very much opposed to my food reform
    sympathies and efforts.

This correspondent should consult a sensible doctor about this cough
and thus be on the safe side. It is unwise to allow a cough to become
chronic without ascertaining the cause of it. Coughs are often due to
stomach and liver trouble, as distinguished from lung trouble. In
either case a salt-free diet will greatly help. Thus

_Breakfast._--All fresh fruit, nothing else but fruit. Apples best.
(_Not_ stewed fruit).

_Lunch._--Boiled or steamed rice, done without salt; about 2 oz.
cottage cheese or a poached egg; a little raw carrot, turnip or
artichoke, finely grated, with dressing of fruit-oil beaten up with a
raw egg. The grated roots must be well chewed; as a change they may
be cut up and cooked in a casserole with very little water.

_Dinner._--Potato baked in skin, with fresh butter, a little cheese,
or flaked nuts, and a few plain rusks, or a saucer of P.R. Breakfast
Food, dry, with cream. The honey and lemon juice should be disgarded
in favour of liquorice (little bits being sucked at intervals) or of
linseed tea. I have often found an obstinate cough yield to a diet
which contains lactic acid buttermilk, combined with the use of the
new oxygen baths. The lactic acid buttermilk can be obtained from any
good dairy and should be taken in the morning fasting and at bedtime.


WATER GRAPES.

    W.G.B. writes:--Referring to article in January number entitled
    "Grape juice for all," I think perhaps it would interest others
    besides myself if Dr Knaggs would give us his opinion on the
    value of what are commonly termed "Water Grapes," as compared
    with more expensive kinds.

On the Continent the grape cure is a popular method of treatment. It
is especially good for those who are anaemic and underfed as well as
for those who suffer in the opposite way from over-feeding. It depends
upon which condition is present as to the kind of grapes selected for
the cure.

Fully ripe grapes with but little acidity (water grapes) are best
suited for persons suffering from anaemia and malnutrition. The unripe
or sour grapes answer best for cases of over-eating associated with
constipation, gout and allied disorders of nutrition. The excess of
acid and cellulose helps the bowels and promotes elimination of the
gouty poisons.

Our correspondent will note that for thin people who are pale and
deficient in vitality the water grapes will be found most salutary.
They are best taken alone at breakfast without the addition of any
other form of food.


CEREAL FOOD IN THE TREATMENT OF NEURITIS.

    E.J.H. writes:--A friend of mine who is suffering from an attack
    of neuritis (not badly) is desirous of trying the diet of
    twice-baked standard bread as recommended by Dr Knaggs in an
    answer to a query in _The Healthy Life_ some months since. She
    has asked me if Dr Knaggs would limit the quantity of this bread
    taken in the course of the day. If Dr Knaggs will very kindly
    tell me this I shall be greatly obliged.

Neuritis is a form of rheumatism or gout which involves the nerves.
Its usual starting centre is the spine itself, from which all the
nerves of the body spring. The diet needs to be greatly restricted so
that the poisons can be eliminated. The most important foods to cut
down are the cereals because they are very slow to digest and are apt
to cause constipation with its attendant self-poisoning of the system
with uric and other acids. Horses and animals suffer from neuritis
from over-feeding with cereals and beans, and the stockbreeder or
horse expert usually restricts these foods and gives plenty of grass,
hay, chaff and green clover, which corrects the trouble.

The same thing applies equally to man. He should take his cereals in
the form they are the most easily assimilated--namely, twice-baked or
dextrinised. Thus "pulled" or twice-baked bread, Granose or Melarvi
biscuits, or rusks, or toasted "Maltweat" bread are the best form of
cereal for people suffering from neuritis. Other treatment besides
diet restriction is, of course, needed to cure neuritis, because we
have to clear the clogged tissues of the poisons which are interfering
with right nerve action. Thus we can resort hot alkaline baths,
Turkish baths, massage and Osteopathic stretching movements to help in
this respect.

H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.


 +--------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                                                              |
 | #Back Numbers#                                               |
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                                 THE

                               HEALTHY

                                LIFE

                           The Independent
                           Health Magazine.

                      3 AMEN CORNER LONDON E.C.


              VOL. V                             DECEMBER
              No. 29.                              1913


    _There will come a day when physiologists, poets, and
    philosophers will all speak the same language and understand one
    another._--CLAUDE BERNARD.




AN INDICATION.


There are some statements, the very simplicity and truth of which
create a shock--for some people. For instance, there are certain
seekers after health who ignore and are shocked by the very obvious
truth that "brain is flesh." A brain poisoned by impure blood is no
fit instrument for the spirit to manifest through, and "mental
suggestion" must inevitably prove of no avail as a cure if the origin
of the impure blood be purely material.

It is just as futile, on the other hand, to treat the chronic
indigestion that arises from persistent worry, or indulgence in
passion, by one change after another in the dietary. The founder of
homoeopathy insisted that there was no such thing as a physical
"symptom" without corresponding mental and moral symptoms. "Not soul
helps flesh more than flesh helps soul." Thus the Scientist and the
Poet come to the same truth, albeit by different ways.--[EDS.]




PLAIN WORDS AND COLOURED PICTURES.


While most of us would at first sight find fault with Mr G.K.
Chesterton's sweeping advice--

   "And don't believe in anything
    That can't be told in coloured pictures,"

many would probably end by endorsing it. But we should do so only
because we were able to give a very wide and varied meaning to
"coloured pictures."

No one ever made a coloured picture of the "wild west wind"; but there
are plenty of coloured pictures in which there is no mistaking its
presence. We all believe in wireless telegraphy (now that it is an
accomplished fact) which is, in itself, untranslatable into colour or
line; but its mechanism can be photographed, and its results in the
world of men and ships are in all the illustrated papers. Music, which
is pure sound, is to some the surest path to the Reality behind this
outward show things; yet to some at least of such music is indeed form
and colour, even though the colours be beyond the rainbow. For in
truth, everything worth believing in, all those things, those ideas,
which renew the springs of our life, have form and they have colour.
Even to the colour-blind one word differeth from another in glory.

This is no idle fancy, no mere subject for academic debate: it is the
most practical subject in the world. For even as the body is fed not
by food alone but by the living air, so is the spirit nourished not
alone by right action but by inspiring ideas. Ideas are pictures; and
the best ideas are coloured pictures.

Hence the great value of words. It is idle to speak of "words, idle
words," as though they were the transient froth on the permanent ocean
of thought. They are the vehicle, the body of thought. If the thought
be shallow or silly, the words will indeed be "idle." But if the idea
be inspiring the words will be the channel of that inspiration.

The greater part of this power in words is lost to us to-day.
Everything tempts us to hurry over words. We talk too quickly to be
able to pay that respect to words which they deserve; and we read the
newspaper, the magazine, the novel, the play, the poem, with the same
disastrous haste. We devour the words but lose their essence. Hence
there is a grave danger that through this neglect we shut out one of
the main streams by which our life must be fed if it is not to shrink
into mere fretful existence.

There is a curious idea in some minds that fine language consists of
long words difficult to understand. Nothing could be farther from the
truth. Most of the great words--the words of power, as the old
Kabalists called them--are short words, words in common use. And how
common is the sound of them in the mouth of the preacher! Not long ago
I heard an intelligent and cultured man reading one of the many
beautiful passages from the English Bible:--

   "Ye dragons, and all deeps;
    Fire and hail, snow and vapour;
    Stormy wind fulfilling his word;
    Mountains and all hills;
    Fruitful trees and all cedars, ..."

and he read it as though it were a draper's sale bill. And yet it
needs but a very little imagination for such a passage to become a
series of vivid pictures. Fire, hail, snow, vapour, hills, mountains,
cedars, dragons and deeps--every word is "a word of power" if only
there is no hurry, if only each word as it comes is given time to call
up the picture of the real thing before the inward eye.

And you may hear children of fourteen and fifteen who have passed
examinations in "English" recite line after line of, say, Matthew
Arnold's _The Forsaken Merman_ with a glib self-assured colourlessness
due solely to the fact that no teacher has ever taught them respect
for simple words. And what simpler words could there be than these,
for example--

   "Where great whales come sailing by,
    Sail and sail, with unshut eye,
    Round the world, for ever and aye"?

Simple, common words; yet if there is that leisurely attention to each
one as it comes what an exhilarating picture arises of the great
sea-beasts, and of "the round ocean and the living air."

I am not pleading for the stylist's concentration on words which
exalts them above the things they body forth. The most vivid and
beautiful description of dawn in the English language--

   "Night's candles are burned out, and jocund morn
    Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops"

though spoken by the most sensitively vibrant voice in the world, can
never come near the real dawn breaking across real mountains. But the
point is that those two lines composed of simple English words have
power, if we pay them respect, to create the dawn within the mind, and
to supply the spirit with that beauty which is its very breath.

If this patience with words, this respect for the familiar fine things
of our native tongue, this desire to make them yield up their strength
and beauty, if this has nothing to do with healthy living I don't know
what has. William Wordsworth's--

   "And vital feelings of delight
    Shall rear her form to stately height"

is only a metrical expression of a great and practical truth. You do
not need to be a "Christian Scientist" to know that ideas and emotions
can affect the stoop of the shoulders or the lines of the mouth. Other
people besides "Eugenists" have observed that ugly or mean-spirited
parents seldom have beautiful children.

But though the power of ideas is a commonplace, and though
psychologists tell us how much we may improve mental concentration by
letting the words of any sentence call up each its own picture, what
they a omit to do is to recognise the need of the human spirit for
beauty. You can concentrate your thought on the list of pickles in a
grocer's price list: it is doubtless a good exercise. But the same
exercise directed to some great phrase, such as Emerson's _Trust
thyself: ever' heart vibrates to that iron string_; or some vivid
lyrical image such as _All the trees of the field shall clap their
hands_, or even a complete poem of simple words but permanent beauty,
such as that one of Wordsworth's beginning _I wandered lonely as a
Cloud_; this will not only improve concentration and sharpen memory:
it will enrich the mind with ever-available sources of inspiration,
courage and joy.

EDGAR J. SAXON.




THE WORLD'S WANDERERS.


    Tell me, thou star, whose wings of light
    Speed thee in thy fiery flight,
    In what cavern of the night
        Will thy pinions close now?

    Tell me, moon, thou pale and grey
    Pilgrim of heaven's homeless way,
    In what depth of night or day.
        Seekest thou repose now?

    Weary wind, who wanderest
    Like the world's rejected guest,
    Hast thou still some secret nest
        On the tree or billow?

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.




CLOUD-CAPPED TOWERS.


Building castles in the air has always been one of the favourite
amusements of mankind. To it we owe much, not only of the zest of
life, but also of motive power for overcoming difficulties and
reaching out towards new possibilities. Yet all literature, and
tradition that is earlier than any written literature, is full of a
deep note of warning; over and over again we see in the dim past the
shadow of a tower that was built in vain, of walls that were piled too
high and toppled into ruin, of crests that tapped the thunder-clouds
and drew down lightning to their own destruction. Evidently man has
seen danger in his own desire! The castle must be built with wisdom as
well as with industry and boldness if it is to escape disaster and to
become a storehouse, a safe defence or a vantage-ground for surveying
earth and sky.

There is one obvious precaution we should observe in building our
castles, and that is to realise that all which we imagine and think
about tends sooner or later to externalise itself and pass into
action. Every idea tends to glide into an ideal. Nearly all thinkers
have recognised this, and have seen that morality lies much farther
back than action, farther back than conscious will. Banquo had dreams
of ambition, as had Macbeth, but they dealt differently with them;
while Macbeth allowed his visions to lead him on to treachery and
murder, Banquo prayed against the temptations that came to him in
sleep. To most of us imagination, sleeping or waking, comes in less
dramatic form, but we should all think more sanely and act more wisely
if we interposed a definite revision by the conscious mind and will of
all our plans and ideals between their (perhaps quite automatic)
formation in our imagination and their translation into fact. Slack
muscle should go with the daydream or picture of the future; we should
not strike or clench or lift until we have decided that the action is
right and just and wise. The girl who counted her chickens and broke
the eggs is a true enough example: every doctor and coroner knows many
instances of results far more tragic.

But sometimes the vision has nothing in it but what is pure and good
and noble. Are there any dangers even here?

There is this danger always, that we find the picture so lovely and so
satisfying that we cannot summon up courage and energy to turn away
from it towards the serious work which it suggests. The castle in the
air is radiant and tall, but it is generally meant as a model for a
tougher building made out of common earth, by toil and pain, amidst
mud and dust. It is so much easier, as Sordello knew, to imagine than
to do. Actual circumstances, real life, other people all this that
lies round us is sterner stuff than our easily moulded material of
dreams. Who has not at some time or other lain sleepily in bed of a
morning and gone through in thought the processes of getting up, until
a louder call or an alarum bell has awakened the realisation that the
task is not yet begun? Who has not been tempted to shirk practice of
some sort in thinking of a prize? Who has not sometimes built
expectation higher and higher until his demands of fate have become so
great that, in despair of making good, he has let the whole plan slip
away into the valley of forgotten dreams?

These dangers, the almost involuntary carrying out of unworthy aims
that have been cherished in thought and the loss of vigour for real
achievement, due to too easy an indulgence in blameless aspiration,
are fairly obvious and have long been recognised.

There is another that has been seen from time to time and occasionally
expressed.[16] We have seen that too loose a dream-world may make the
world in which we live seem dull and ordinary. But is not the converse
at least as often true? If our thought-world is too narrow, too
selfish or too weak, all our ordinary work, sound and compact though
it may be, is stultified, misdirected, often wasted. We all know how
in the industrial world something more than industry is needed; in the
emotional world something more than a clumsy and unapprehending
goodwill. We need a certain insight to turn these solid qualities of
labour and feeling to the best account. "A man's reach should exceed
his grasp," a great poet tells us, and even the birds or beavers do
not go on quite blindly with their building, but, when effort on
effort has been destroyed by wind and water or man's interference,
they at last accommodate their instinct to circumstances so as to give
themselves a better chance of fulfilling their deeper purpose. In many
ways we have hardly outgrown the beaver stage: wars, accidents,
disease, disputes--how many times must we try over again the same path
which has led us before into trouble and disaster before we put our
imagination seriously to work on the problem and try to find some more
complete solution?

Of all the dangers of the use of the imagination, perhaps the greatest
of all is the neglect to use it, the denial of it and its consequent
starvation.

E.M. COBHAM.

[16] Mrs Book sees an allusion to this danger, as well as to the
first, in the warnings against covetousness in the Tenth Commandment.




THE PLAY SPIRIT[17]: A CRITICISM.

[17] See the article, "The Play Spirit," in the November issue.


With your contributor's description of the play spirit, that happy
leisure from self and its responsibilities in order that time and
thought and heart may be filled with wider inspiration, most of your
readers will, I think, entirely agree, and all of us will be grateful
for the spirited claim on behalf of "play."

The one criticism that occurs to the mind is that a touch of
professionalism, of patronage towards the ordinary person, has crept
into the author's thought and peeps out through many of the sentences.

"Common men" ... "ordinary everyday people" ... "average humanity,"
... "a worker" who ... "cannot play"; does the writer of the Play
Spirit really show us what is in their hearts? He is an artist in
words, he is a keen admirer of other arts, he is interested in
thinking; it seems all but impossible to him that anyone can have
"freedom" without the power of expressing it, without even the
consciousness of its possession.

We are all too apt, I think, to imagine that our own discoveries of
the mystery and magic of life are peculiar to ourselves, or shared
only with a sympathetic few, passed on sometimes (by the _very_ few
who have both will and power to do so) to such of the outsiders as are
interested enough to enter into that enchanted garden and take gifts
from it. But has not the supreme discovery of the greatest artists,
philosophers and teachers been that the "everyday people" _do_ live as
deeply and broadly as the thinkers and artists? They are inarticulate
and cannot tell what they see, but to them life is made amusing, or
interesting, or consecrated according to their temperament.

Who can say what the Cornish sea means to that tired worker? At least
it seems a boldness that is almost insolence to decide what it did
_not_ mean to her!

Has not every life its revelations? Is it not because we do _not_ see
as God does that some one particular life which strikes across our
path cannot reveal its revelation over again to us?

Surely "the commonplace is the highest place." Or rather, there are no
hierarchies of the soul. Artist or seamstress or carpenter, we live by
the glory that flows to us through whatever curtains of environment
are round us.

I have not a word of criticism for the writer's ideal. All that I
would suggest is that the ideal is really present in the world,
"common" as the "everyday" flowers at his feet. Not all can sing or
paint or write, but many more can laugh or run and all, perhaps, can
love and pray.

L.E. HAWKS.




ON LEARNING TO BREATHE.[18]

[18] This is article has been specially written as a preface for
_Health Through Breathing_, by Olga Lazarus, shortly to be published
(1s. net).


To breathe correctly and sufficiently is to live more healthily. This
dictum is incontrovertible, and it becomes my pleasant duty herein to
demonstrate its truthfulness. And, after a careful perusal of the
hundred exercises which the authoress has so clearly and succinctly
described, I am still more convinced of the very great, one might
almost say of the tremendous, importance of deep-breathing exercises.
What has struck me so forcibly in this little book is the fact that
there is no undue enthusiasm evident; no embellishment of the subject;
no extravagant claims for the system advocated; just a plain sane,
sober and intelligent description of procedures of immense value to
all who would either keep, or improve, their health. The authoress
has, as it were, laid before the reader a feast of good things in the
way of physical culture, and leaves it at that. She seems to have
brought into purview a splendid variation of the exercises, and indeed
every mode of breathing and exercise likely to be beneficial--to those
in health as out of it.

Reverting for a moment to the supreme importance of the subject, I may
say that it has of late years come home to me more than ever, and with
greater insistency, that innumerable ills of to-day are due to faulty
breathing and lack of correct physical exercises generally. I wonder
how many of us could conscientiously say that we devote fifteen or
twenty minutes regularly every day to the system? And yet such a great
deal could be done for health in that time! No, we "haven't time," or
we "oversleep ourselves so often," or we make some such other flimsy
excuse; but of course we ought to "make time," we ought not to
"oversleep ourselves." The fact is, rather, that most of us are too
lazy to go through the exercises, even though we may know of their
transcendent benefit. In the words of the poet: "Let us, then, be up
and doing"--that is, up in time in the morning in order to be going
through exercises such as described in this little volume.

It is within my personal knowledge, and must be within the personal
knowledge of every actively engaged physician, that but very few of us
yet have any idea, in spite of all the teaching and the advocacy of
it, of really deep and scientific breathing. If the system could be
made quite general and enforced upon us--especially when young or
adolescent--we should not see, as we do now, _thousands_ walking about
the streets whose nostrils are too narrow through insufficient
breathing, whose lungs are not properly inflated as they inspire; and,
as a consequence, who have neither the bloom nor the carriage of
health.

Perhaps if I show here how vastly important it is for us to have our
blood well oxygenated, it may be some sort of encouragement for Mrs
Lazarus's readers to persevere with and _work into their lives_ the
system she advocates and describes.

If we did not renew the oxygen in our lungs to a sufficient extent, we
should die in a few minutes. We can do without food for many days;
without water for less days, but only for a few minutes without
oxygen. Anything which tends to increase the intake of this vitally
important element, whether deeper breathing or exercises, will have a
very pronounced effect upon our general health. Now deep breathing is,
_par excellence_, the way to bring about this desirable condition. It
may interest the readers of this little book if I remind them that in
the ordinary way the total capacity of the lungs is about 340 cubic
inches; as a rule, the amount of air breathed amounts only to some 20
or 30 cubic inches, but this, by special effort, can be increased by
some 110 cubic inches. Thus it is demonstrated how much more air we
could take into the lungs by better and deeper breathing, thereby
securing, sooner or later, a greater natural expansion of the lungs,
with the result, of course, of improved health generally.

It would surprise most people if they tested their breathing capacity
by the aid of the spirometer, to discover how inefficiently they did
breathe; in other words, how much below the normal was the amount of
air they were usually inspiring. Encouragement might also be found in
the matter--incentive, that is, to learn how to breathe and exercise
correctly and scientifically--if mention were here made categorically
of the very profound influences upon certain physiological processes
of our organisation which are brought about if we would but mend our
ways in this respect. Space will only allow of a few such to be
detailed.

1. The circulation is improved and equalised. This implies much more
than appears on the surface: it means that the blood is made to flow
from any congested internal organ (such as the liver, stomach, etc.)
towards the peripheries--that is, the extremities and everywhere where
there is the capillary system--the changing-place between the venous
and the arterial blood; thus we at the same time warm our extremities
and relieve internal congestion. In other words, "to bring the blood
to the surface" in many conditions of ill-health is of paramount
importance.

2. It will strengthen the action of the heart and lungs. For lack of
proper breathing exercises the heart's walls get thin, the expansive
power of the lungs' tissue gets less, and as a consequence, when any
little extra strain is thrown upon either, permanent damage is often
the result.

3. In any tendency to constipation, indigestion and similar
conditions, such exercises are especially beneficial, and that both by
flushing the system with more oxygen and by mechanically exerting
pressure on the different organs--thus giving those latter what is
actually a good massaging!

4. Indirectly, such exercises must of necessity be splendid for
"nerves," as we thus get these supplied with a larger amount of
purified blood, and of course this must result in better and
heightened nerve and brain action.

And all this--and much more which we have not space enough to deal
with--being so, it might now be well asked, who and what class of
individuals would benefit by these exercises. The list is a long one,
and would include practically all growing children and adolescents--in
order that adenoids, narrow chests, debility in general, malnutrition
and a host of other abnormal states might be either cured or
prevented. Innumerable adults would also benefit by such exercises:
those who are in health, in order to keep so; those who are depressed
mentally, or who are suffering from constipation, dyspepsia, anaemia,
obesity, debility, etc.

Even those who are "getting on" in years could, with care and caution,
go through such exercises to advantage, providing, that is, that their
heart, lungs and blood vessels are fairly normal; it is only where
there is serious organic disease such exercises must be withheld.

Thus we have a big field for such a system which Mrs Lazarus has
described so fully in this little work of hers; it deserves wide
recognition, and my final word to the reader is not only to keep the
book as a "boon companion," but to encourage others to purchase it and
to carry out its most excellent teachings.

J. STENSON HOOKER, M.D.




LETTERS OF A LAYMAN.

1.--DOCTORS AND HEALTH.


Medicine is a progressive science--and art, if we judge by the
statistics given of the fall in the rate of mortality. Even this,
however, must be carefully analysed, because a good deal of the fall
of mortality is due to the great reduction in the birthrate which has
taken place in the last twenty years. Still, after this has been
allowed for, there is probably a balance in the doctors'
favour--something to the good of the science and art of medicine.
Doubtless the science is improved and the practical advice offered by
medical men is better and more effectual than it used to be.

A layman, nevertheless, may be forgiven if, with all due deference, he
is tempted to believe that many of the benefits attributed to medicine
have been achieved through attention to sanitation--cleanliness and
ventilation. Of course this is due to the work of science, which
necessarily includes the members of the medical profession, but it is
not due to medical science _qua_ medical science.

The terms 'sanitation' and 'sanitary' nearly always connote only ideas
associated with cleanliness, free ventilation, etc. They scarcely
connote ideas of food management, or, if they do, it is only to the
extent of inferring that food shall not be adulterated or of bad
quality--and perhaps that there shall be enough of it.

Such questions as what food shall we eat, and how much; what are the
real reasons for taking food into the body, whether it is to give
strength and heat to the body or only to supply the body's waste, as
Dr Rabagliati contends--these and other relevant questions are usually
left to unorthodox members of the medical profession to declare upon.
They seem to be very important questions, but we do not find that they
were discussed--or ever mentioned--at the thirty-fourth International
Medical Congress, which completed its sittings several months ago.

Obviously, the practical questions of food supply are answered very
differently, according as one _believes_ they must be answered one way
or another, as, for instance, in Dr Rabagliati's or Dr Haig's way. But
that they are questions not worthy of consideration by doctors in
congress may be taken as an ominous sign.

It must not be forgotten that we owe many valuable discoveries of
medical science to qualified members of the profession, just as
discoveries of mechanical science are made by men working at their
respective trades. We have sorrowfully to admit, however, that nearly
all the great achievements upon which medicine plumes herself are in
the direction of increasing the doctors' power over his patient, and
seldom of giving his patient power over disease. It is also true that
the advocacy by unorthodox members of the profession of simple and
natural remedies often involves them in a charge of charlatanism, and
subjects them to persecution by medical associations.

If the medical profession were all that it is supposed to be, it might
be good that the reformer should suffer in solitude while his
experiments and methods were subjected to adequate tests and
criticism. If the associated physicians and surgeons jealously guarded
the public from quackery while they impartially investigated every
fresh discovery, the true reformer would welcome the protection
afforded him from the "counter-currents of senseless clamour" within
the doctors' own ranks, occasioned by party and vested interests.

It may be true that "loneliness tends to save the Seer from becoming a
charlatan and to make of him a true Reformer." But it is not that
peculiar loneliness of the Seer that the medical trade unions afford
the reforming physician. That is inevitably and sufficiently accorded
him by the "unwillingness of the masses to enter into the thoughts of
the Seers."[19] An ignorant and inert people will always follow a
charlatan, because they like to do things which are mysterious and
involve no trouble on their part.

[19] The reason "Why the Prophet should be lonely" is perfectly
elaborated in a chapter under that title in _Logic Taught by Love_,
from which I have quoted.

The Seer among doctors is boycotted by his fellow medicos _after_ he
and his co-workers have tested their experiments for themselves,
weeded out what is false from what is true, and proved their methods
to be right. Not only that, but too often it turns out that it is
proper food selection, cleanliness, personal effort and restraint
advocated by doctors as substitutes for serums and drugs, which
excites the opprobrium of medical coteries. Whereas, the misguided
Serum Specialist, who ought to be saved from himself, and from whom
the public ought to be protected, is given full medical honours--and
facilities to become that most dangerous type of charlatan, the
licensed one.

There are doubtless many abstract questions of health and disease
which orthodox and unorthodox doctors alike are unable satisfactorily
to settle. But if that be admitted, then it is certainly not in the
public interest that serum treatments should be accepted as almost the
last words in medical science. More anti-social still is it to attempt
to justify the compulsory orders of Parliament that expensive
sanatoria shall be built to cope with disease that might be more
economically and more satisfactorily treated.

Is there not too little consideration given to theoretical issues
underlying practical experience of disease? Is there not too great an
anxiety to force remedies at the public expense before all the
bearings of the different questions and their phases have been
considered? All new methods savour too much of compulsion. They all
require the provision of large armies of officials to carry them out.
It is interesting to note that the successors of the men who told us
how grievously the Church has failed because she is established,
should be so anxious to more firmly establish the medical priesthood.

Modern statecraft calls out to us: 'we will appoint officials to
inquire into and decide upon what is to be done, but we will make no
inquiries into the real nature of this disease and that: we will find
out remedies which, in the form of serums to be injected into the
blood, shall counteract the effects of disease: we will also appoint,
at your expense, doctors to perform these operations: we will force
the man whose family may have the misfortune to contract a disease,
which the doctors have not told him how to prevent, to submit them to
such treatment.' But nothing is said about the desirability of
exercising government over oneself, one's body and one's mind! And
nothing is _said_ either, but it is suggested, that, if one accepts
meekly coercive treatment by official doctors, one may probably be
able to ignore the laws of life and health without having to pay the
penalty.

No sane and properly instructed citizens would be satisfied to have
State officials compel them to do what they ought to do for
themselves. It is because of this and because the suggestions and
compulsions of modern medicine are in keeping with the prevailing
philosophy that accumulates knowledge without wisdom, that we need
such counteracting influences as are afforded by journals like _The
Healthy Life._

LAYMAN.




A DOCTOR ON DOCTORS.


"I charge that whereas the first duty of a physician is to instruct
the people in the laws of health and thus prevent disease, the
tendency has ever been towards a conspiracy of mystery, humbug, and
silence."

"I charge that the general tendency of the profession has been to
depreciate the importance of personal and municipal cleanliness, and
to inculcate a reliance on drug medicines, vaccination, and other
unscientific expedients."

ALEXANDER ROSS, M.D., F.R.S.


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MODERN GERM MANIA: A CASE IN POINT.


Under the sensational heading, _Doomed to Carry Germs: Woman Typhoid
Victim for Life_, the following account appeared recently in _News of
the World_:--

    Almost unique in medical history is the case of a woman typhoid
    carrier, who, it is said, will carry the bacilli with her through
    life. The case is described by Dr Barbara Cunningham in a report
    of the Manchester Medical Officer of Health. In order that the
    woman shall cease to be a source of danger--as she has been
    keeping lodgers--the health authorities are giving her 7s. a
    week, and that, with her old-age pension of 5s., will be
    sufficient to keep her without lodgers. The case has aroused much
    interest in Manchester. The principal restrictions on the part of
    the Health Department are that she must not cook or wash for
    anyone. Anyone can, however, cook for her. In discussing the case
    Dr Martin, who for 25 years was Medical Officer of Health for
    Gorton, remarked that in some cases of typhoid carriers the
    infection ceased to exist for a time, but it was unusual for it
    to exist year after year. "The reason for the woman referred to
    carrying the typhoid bacilli with her through life is," he added,
    "because of a peculiarity of constitution. There is no remedy to
    be found for it at present, and no means of freeing her from the
    germs, hence the reward offered by an American to anyone who can
    find a remedy for such cases. The germs themselves are proof
    against remedies, and they go on multiplying. The woman is
    incurable, and you cannot kill the germs without killing the
    woman. It is the first case, to my knowledge, where the health
    authorities have taken such measures to prevent a spread of the
    infection." The history of the affair is interesting. The woman's
    case had been reported to the authorities, and when her lodger
    became ill with typhus she was suspected, and was found to be
    giving off large numbers of typhoid bacilli. She was placed in
    Monsall Hospital for two months, during which time she was
    treated with gradually increasing doses of vaccine prepared in
    the Public Health Laboratory, York Place. When discharged, three
    separate tests were made as regards the typhoid bacilli. For one
    week after her discharge the organisms did not reappear, but
    during the second week a few colonies were grown, and in the
    third and fourth weeks the number increased. Shortly after that
    her lodger developed enteric fever.

This case is instructive, because it shows very clearly the utter
futility of the modern method of treating infectious diseases by means
of drugs and vaccines.

It is well known that the infecting agent or microbe found in cases of
typhoid fever originates in man himself, that, in fact, it is
essentially a man-made disorder. Dr Budd, who was the first to fully
investigate this important subject, brought together the most
convincing considerations to show this.

We know further that impure water and milk, shellfish and certain
foods which are contaminated with sewage are capable of giving rise to
epidemics of this complaint.

This was shown in Paris in May last, when a plumber carelessly
connected a pipe along which Seine water flowed to a drinking-water
pipe. The typhoid germ is always present in Seine water and this
mistake cost the lives of twenty people.

Dr Freeman, an American doctor, who has studied the habits of the
typhoid germ, tells us that it does not survive so well outside the
human body as does the tubercle microbe, but it can, nevertheless, do
an incalculable amount of mischief when the local authorities are
careless about the matter of sewage disposal.

A great deal has been heard of late of what are termed Typhoid
Carriers. There are apparently numbers of people who, while they
appear to be in good health, yet harbour these germs and are thus
liable to infect others with them; and the problem is what to do with
them.

The orthodox authorities, as happened in the case cited above, would
like to isolate them indefinitely and even to pension them off for
life, but this seems to be a hopeless way out of the difficulty.

The remedy seems obvious to me. Let us stop the drugs and serums and
use common-sense hygiene of the body instead. This must be patent to
anyone who has any knowledge of the subject; but why the authorities
do not put it into execution I am at a loss to imagine. Surely the
right thing to do is to clear away the impurities in which the typhoid
germs live. _By depriving them of the material or soil in which they
grow and propagate we should practically starve them out of
existence._

Moreover, this seems to me to be a perfectly easy procedure. If this
woman were handed over to me for treatment I should at once place her
on an antiseptic diet consisting solely of salads, grated roots, fresh
fruits, sour buttermilk and dextrinised cereals. The effect of this
diet would be to cleanse and sterilise the entire digestive tract, and
thus break up and clear away the soil in which the microbes are
living. Supplementary to this cleansing diet other means could be
adopted to effect a general purification of the whole body. Thus
vapour baths could be used to promote skin action; beverages could be
taken morning and night, consisting of distilled water with lemon
juice or suitable herbal "teas" to promote free action of the kidneys;
and colon-flushing treatment could be used to fully cleanse the colon,
or large bowel.

By combined treatment of this rational order, I am convinced that this
woman would speedily become freed from her unpleasant visitors and
would be enabled to return to her relations without, as it were, a
stain upon her character.

H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.




BURIED TALENT COMPETITION.


The Editors of _The Healthy Life_ are convinced that there are many
men and women who can write well and interestingly on subjects
relating to health in its many aspects; and they wish to unearth this
talent.

They therefore offer a _First Prize_ of _Two Guineas_, a _Second
Prize_ of _One Guinea_, and a _Third Prize_ of _Books_ (published at
_The Healthy Life_ Office) to the value of Half-a-Guinea, for the best
ESSAY, SKETCH or SHORT STORY appropriate to the pages of _The Healthy
Life._

Please read the following Conditions carefully:--

CONDITIONS.

    1. Each Essay, Short Story, or Sketch must contain _not less than
    1000 words_, and _not more than 2000 words._

    2. Each Essay, Short Story, or Sketch must be written (or typed)
    on one side of the paper only, leaving at least one inch of
    margin on which each 100 words must be indicated in figures.

    3. Each attempt must be accompanied by the front cover (or top
    part of cover showing date) of either the December or January
    numbers. (Where more than one MS. is sent in by one contributor,
    extra covers in proportion must be enclosed.)

    4. The full name and address of the competitor must be written at
    the foot of last page, in addition to the competitor's _nom de
    plume_ (if any).

    5. All Essays, Short Stories or Sketches must be sent in not
    later than the 31st of January 1914, addressed _Buried Talent_,
    _The Healthy Life_, 3 Tudor Street, London, E.C.

    6. No one who is at present, or has ever been, a regular
    contributor to _The Healthy Life_ is eligible for a prize.

    7. The Editors reserve the right to publish any contribution sent
    in under this Competition.

    8. The decision of the Editors will be final and no
    correspondence can be entered into with unsuccessful competitors.

Competitors are asked to note that legibility of handwriting will
carry weight as well as intrinsic merit.




HEALTHY LIFE RECIPES.


SOUPS.

Many cases of ill-health demand that the meals should be as dry as
possible. Having granted this, it will be admitted that there is quite
a proper place for soups in ordinary everyday food reform catering.

The chief objection to ordinary soups is that they are made on a basis
of meat stock and flavoured with one of various "meat extract"
preparations. Meat stock, meat gravy and meat extract all alike
represent the least desirable elements in flesh food, namely, the
acids and tissue-wastes of the living animal at the moment of its
death--acids and tissue-debris which were on their way to normal
excretion via the lymph channels, veins, etc.

It is therefore only common-sense to avoid such soup-bases,
especially as the most excellent soups can be made without recourse to
any animal product.

The juices of vegetables, being rich in alkaline "salts" and other
organic elements, are the natural cleansing agents in a rational diet.
Hence to obtain a maximum _remedial_ effect, vegetable soup should be
taken in the form of a clear, unflavoured broth, quite apart from the
solid meals, and preferably on retiring. But for the dinner or supper
soup, some richness of flavour and creaminess of substance are
pleasing and legitimate.

The following recipes explain, first, how to prepare vegetable
"stock," and then how to make rich, creamy nourishing soups, on the
basis of that "stock." Each recipe will, of course, suggest
variations.


HOW TO MAKE VEGETABLE STOCK.

Put any fresh vegetables in season in a large stewpot--being careful
not to include _overmuch_ cabbage or other coarse green leaves, as
these give a rather strong flavour--with a quart or more of water,
cover, and simmer gently for at least two hours. The outer leaves
discarded when preparing vegetables for the table, the stalks and
stems, and the peelings of apples, potatoes, etc., should all be used
for stock, care being taken, of course, to cleanse them well first,
cutting out any insect-eaten or decayed parts.


ALMOND CREAM SOUP.

Mix two tablespoonfuls of fine wholemeal or good "standard" flour into
a smooth paste with a little water, add this to the hot stock (as
above), and stir till soup is thickened. Just before serving stir in a
tablespoonful of Almond Cream (either "P.R." or Mapleton's).

_The addition of the almond cream gives the above a nutritive value,
apart from the tonic and cleansing elements in the stock._


NOURISHING ARTICHOKE SOUP.

Pare, scrub and cut into small pieces, 1 lb. of artichokes and put
immediately into a pan with a pint of water or milk and water. Boil
till soft, then rub through a wire sieve, using a wooden spoon. Put
back in pan, add a little more water, a little chopped parsley, and a
small piece of butter (or nut butter). Bring to the boil, stirring
well; stir in a tablespoonful of Pinekernel Cream ("P.R." or
Mapleton's), and serve at once.


LEEK AND CELERY SOUP.

Put four well-cleansed medium-sized leeks (cut up small), the outer
parts of a head of celery (chopped), a quart of water and 2 oz.
unpolished Japan rice, into a pan and simmer for two hours. Rub
through wire sieve, return to pan, bring to the boil, and serve.

_This soup is not so much nutritive as cleansing and antiseptic._




TASTE OR THEORY?

FRUIT AND THE OXALIC ACID BOGEY.


Many and varied are the creeds of Health Reformers, but all may be
included within two main camps. And the opposing battle-cries are
Instinct _versus_ Intellect, Taste _versus_ Theory, _a priori versus a
posteriori_, Motives _versus_ Purposes. Some overlapping and confusion
of creed may be found in both camps, but in the main one is filled
with lovers of Nature, the other with devotees of Science.

"We believe in simplicity," cries the Nature-lover from the meadow
where he is taking a sun-bath; "you are so complex, so artificial."

"We believe in being 'sensible,'" retorts the devotee of Science from
the cabinet where he is taking an electric light bath, "you are so
extreme."

"Not extreme--consistent. Your treatment varies every month as the
decrees of 'Science' change."

"But your treatment varies every minute as the wind and clouds change.
I can keep mine constant with mathematical accuracy, or vary the light
to a nicety by pressing a button."

And so also is it with regard to diet. The person who talks learnedly
about germs and calories (though he never saw a germ or measured a
calorie in his life) will be found in the same camp with the electric
light advocate, while this other who cultivates a taste in harmony
with Nature by consuming what he likes best of her unaltered products,
he is found arm in arm with the sun-bather. But Science will by no
means allow him to eat his uncooked food in peace. "If we all adopt
_that_ diet," her pseudo-disciples cry, "what is to become of the
potatoes?"

Now, with regard to uncooked foods, it would seem that as little fault
can be found with ripe fruit in its natural state as with any article
of diet. Yet even here "Science" holds up a warning hand and is
succeeding in scaring people away from one of the most harmless, most
wholesome and most neglected of foods.

Leaving generalities, let us come to a specific case, an actual
difficulty propounded to me by a sufferer, one who had spent her
substance till she could spend no more in having various parts of
herself examined and in learned prescriptions and processes of cure,
but who found herself as far from health as ever. Obsessed by certain
theories of "Science," this lady had acquired a dread of sugar _in
every form_. Hence her query addressed to me: "In your book, _No
Rheumatism_, you say that sugar is to be avoided. Why, then, do you
recommend fruit, which is mostly sugar?"

I replied as follows: "The reason I recommend ripe uncooked fruit--in
spite of its containing a certain quantity of sugar--is that it
contains also purifying salts, and that for most people it is the
pleasantest form in which these salts can be taken. Moreover, fruit
sugar appears to be more wholesome than that formed from starch. When
you say that 'fruit is mostly sugar,' are you not leaving the water of
the fruit out of account? As the water often amounts to 90 per cent.
this makes all the difference. Taking the fruits generally grown in
this country the average proportion of sugar is seven per cent.

[This statement is based on the following figures given in Goodale's
Physiological Botany:--

    Apples contain       7.73 per cent. sugar
    Pears     "          8.26    "        "
    Plums     "          3.56    "        "
    Strawberries         6.28    "        "
    Gooseberries         7.03    "        "

Grapes are stated to contain 24.36 per cent, but often contain much
less and sometimes even more.]

"Now a person eating fruit _ad lib._, but allowed other foods, will
hardly ever eat more than a pound or two a day (generally less). But
suppose him to eat two pounds. Seven per cent. of this is 2+1/4 oz. If he
eats only 1 lb. he takes 1+1/8 oz. sugar. Now compare this with
the amount he gets from starchy foods, say, bread, which contains
fifty per cent. of starch and sugar. As the starch, if it is to be
assimilated, must be (and as a general rule practically all is)
converted into sugar during digestion, we get from 1 lb. of bread 8
oz. of sugar (to be exact, nearly 9 oz., because starch forms rather
more than its own weight of sugar). But the weight of bread allowed
for daily food, if no other starchy or sugary food is taken,
is--according to orthodox physiology books--1 lb., 11 oz., yielding
over 14 oz. of sugar. Now I reduce the starchy food to 8 oz. or less
(_No Rheumatism_, p. 34), yielding at most about 4+1/2 oz. of sugar. You
see, then, that the patient can now afford to take even 2 lbs. of
fruit, because this will bring his total of sugar up to only 6+3/4 oz.,
as against 14 oz. allowed by the orthodox. And if, as I recommend (p.
33), fruits containing but little sugar (especially cucumbers) are
taken, his total sugar under my regime will be even less than 6+3/4 oz.

"As so many people fail to distinguish between fruit sugar occurring
naturally in fruit and ordinary separated and concentrated cane sugar,
or even beet sugar separated by various chemicals--'shop sugar,' in
fact--I translate for you a passage from Dr Carton's _Trois Aliments
Meurtriers_[20]:--

[20] _Some Popular Foodstuffs Exposed_, translated by D.M. Richardson.
1s. net. Daniel.

"'Let us proceed now to the study of the third deadly food. The sugar
contained in vegetables and raw fruits is a living aliment,
physiologically combined with the protoplasm of the vegetable cells,
associated with ferments and with vitalised chemical salts. The
absorption of this natural sugar is effected by a harmonious contact,
by an exchange of energy between the living vegetable cells and our
living digestive cells.

"'The sugar of commerce, on the contrary, is a dead food which has
lost all association with vegetable protoplasm, with vitalised mineral
salts and with oxidising ferments which would render it physiological.
It is nothing more than a drug, a dangerous chemical, because Nature
has nowhere presented it to us in this form.... Its absorption
involves an anti-physiological irritation which over-excites the
viscera, and when repeated ends by profoundly altering them.'"

"This is all very well," cries Pseudo-Science, "but people may eat too
much fruit."

"Certainly, but then I warn them at once," quoth Taste.

"But they have an idea it is good for them, and they disregard your
warnings."

"If they 'have an idea' which runs counter to my warnings and my
penalties, to say nothing of my promises and my rewards, then they can
only get that idea from you, Mr Pseudo-Science, with your theories and
your figures and your long words."

"Why not from your relative, Unnatural Taste? Anyhow, it is my duty to
warn them."

"If they don't heed my warning, they certainly won't heed yours," says
Taste.

"But I can paint such a picture of the trouble they store up for the
future if they persist in excessive fruit eating!"

"Never mind about persisting and storing up for the future. I punish
excess in fruit eating as in everything else by prompt discomfort and
pain."

"But what do you know about oxalic acid?"

"Enough to avoid it. Like every other poison it is repugnant to me."

"Yet fruit which is so nice in the mouth may ferment in the intestines
and form that very poison. Then what are you going to do about it?"

"Take care that not too much fruit is eaten another time."

"But in the meantime the oxalic acid already formed must be
neutralised at once."

"No, no! It would be a pity to do that. Oxalic acid is the latest
fashion. What would your patients do without it? And what would you do
without your patients?"

"It must be neutralised at once. It can only be neutralised at the
cost of abstracting lime from the system. Result: oxalate of lime,
forming calculus, or 'stone,' which you don't want, and tissues
depleted of lime which you do want."

"So you get your patients after all. In fact, having 'neutralised
their oxalic acid' to escape you, they come back to you with two
diseases instead of one. It seems to me you are a very profitable
investment, Mr Pseudo-Science."

"Really, Mr Taste, you would not, I presume, have me suppress the
truth simply because it happens to be profitable?"

"But is it the truth? What proof have you?"

"I presume you are ignorant of the fact that animals have died with
all the symptoms of oxalic acid poisoning, simply through taking too
much sugar."

"What kind of animals? You chose such as are used to taking shop sugar
as part of their ordinary food, of course?"

"Well--no; not in that form. The subjects of the experiment were
rabbits."

"Ah! And from these you draw deductions about man who has been eating
artificial sugar for ages. How like a vivisectionist! But what doses
of sugar did the rabbits get?"

"About one-fortieth of the body-weight."

"That would be as if a man of 150 lbs. weight should take 3+3/4 lbs.
sugar at a meal! And since it is excessive fruit you are warning us
against, can you tell me how many pounds of fruit--say, apples--one
must take in order to get that amount of sugar in a day? No less than
sixty pounds. Really your warning seems a little superfluous."

"It is all very well for you to scoff, Mr Taste, but if it were not
for me you would know nothing about the latest diseases. I really
believe you would be content to go right through life without knowing
that you had a duodenum or an appendix."

"Quite" assented Taste cheerfully.

ARNOLD EILOART, B.SC.




A SYMPOSIUM ON UNFIRED FOOD.


_In November, 1912, we published a letter from a reader containing the
excellent suggestion that readers who had experimented to any fair
extent with unfired diet should be invited to contribute to a
conference on the subject in_ THE HEALTHY LIFE, _and that the
symposium should be gathered round the following points:--_

(1) The effect of the diet in curing chronic disease.

(2) Its effect on children so brought up--_e.g._ do they get the
so-called "inevitable" diseases of chicken-pox, measles, etc., and
especially have they good (_i.e._ perfect) teeth?

(3) The effect of the diet in childbirth.

(4) The cost of maintaining a household in this way, as compared with
the cost under ordinary conditions.

(5) Is the diet satisfying, or is there a longing for conventional
dietary (often found amongst food reformers)?

(6) Is the diet quite satisfactory in winter?

_A number of interesting letters have been published this year, and we
shall be glad to receive a large number of personal experiences, but
they must be brief, and classified under the above heads as far as
possible. The following is a striking piece of personal
evidence._--[EDS.]

    BUCKHURST HILL, ESSEX,

    _28th April 1913._

    To the Editors of _The Healthy Life._

    DEAR SIRS,

    As a slight contribution to the interesting discussion which is
    taking place in your magazine, will you allow me to give you a
    short summary of nearly sixty years experience of the effects,
    in my own case, of flesh eating, vegetarianism and the uncooked
    food diet.

    This is not a fairy tale, as some may be inclined to think, but a
    plain unvarnished statement of facts.

    The flesh-eating period lasted for seventeen years. When three
    months old I was the unfortunate victim of vaccination poisoning,
    and for years afterwards was continually in the doctor's hands.
    The best medical men in this country and America were consulted;
    for months daily visits were paid to a noted Chicago specialist
    in the hope that he might be able to effect a cure, but it was a
    case of "love's labour lost," and, instead of improving, my
    condition grew steadily worse.

    During all these years, drugging was constantly going on, the
    pills and potions ordered were religiously swallowed, and,
    strange as it may seem, the ordeal was survived. Flesh meat was
    eaten daily, and, of all the members of the medical profession
    consulted, not one of them ever hinted that a change of diet
    might be beneficial.

    When 17 years of age my attention was drawn to an article in _The
    Phonetic Journal_ on the advantages of a non-flesh diet. By this
    time, being thoroughly tired of taking endless quantities of
    useless, poisonous and expensive drugs, I decided, there and
    then, to throw "physic to the dogs," making up my mind that if
    death did come, and it seemed to be staring me in the face, I
    would, at any rate, die a vegetarian.

    Within six months the most dangerous symptom had completely
    disappeared and has never recurred, but, although greatly
    benefitting by the new diet, and enjoying on the whole fairly
    good health, yet there were frequent attacks of rheumatism,
    lumbago and neuralgia; dyspepsia, with its attendant pain and
    flatulence, often made life miserable; now and again the liver
    would rise up in rebellion, bringing in its train vertigo,
    blurred vision and severe headaches; constipation, that bane of
    modern life, was a source of endless trouble, in fact, for many
    years the enema had to be used once or twice a week, and last,
    but worst of all, came those sharp, shooting, lancinating pains,
    one of the premonitory symptoms of cancer.

    Obviously, there was still something radically wrong somewhere,
    and on retiring from practice, a great deal of time and attention
    was devoted to the subject, innumerable experiments were made,
    and, ultimately, results obtained, the value of which cannot be
    exaggerated.

    Five years ago the uncooked food diet was commenced, and from the
    very first week a steady improvement took place. The constipation
    vanished as if by magic; there has not been the slightest touch
    of rheumatism or neuralgia for at least three years the liver is
    now an unknown quantity, the dyspepsia is a thing of the past,
    and, most important of all, the cancer symptoms are entirely
    gone, and in their place has come an abounding health, vigour and
    vitality that is marvellous. The years seem to have "rolled back
    in their flight"; all the centres of life are rejuvenated; and
    the hopes, feelings and aspirations of youth sway me now as they
    did nearly half-a-century ago. Work, mental or physical, is a
    perfect pleasure, and to feel fatigue is almost unknown.

    What a glorious gift life really is has never been realised till
    now, and the wealth of the Indies would not induce me to go back
    to the flesh-pots, or live on cooked foods again. This diet gives
    two important advantages: firstly, the elimination of all excess
    of starchy matter prevents the formation of needless fat, and,
    secondly, the entire absence of artificially sweetened food
    removes one of the main causes of over-eating.

    Will people ever learn that fat, instead of being a sign of
    health, is the very reverse, that every ounce of superfluous
    adipose tissue means more work for the heart, diminished
    vitality, lessened energy, and, when excessive, is not only a
    distinct menace to longevity, but to life itself?

    I never take more than two meals a day and very often only one,
    which consists of raw vegetables, nuts, olive oil and unfired
    bread; the second meal, when required, is a simple fruit salad.

    When a vegetarian the writer lived for years on a shilling a
    week; it costs rather more now, the oil, nuts, fruit and bread
    being more expensive than beans, rice, meal, etc., but the
    difference is so trifling that it is not worth talking about.

    Whilst "Fletcherising," deep breathing, distilled water, olive
    oil, fasting, saltless food, the open-air life, regular exercise,
    etc., were valuable allies, it was not until the powerful aid of
    uncooked food was invoked that the real benefits began to appear
    and life became a real joy. Yours, etc.,

    JOHN REID, M.B., C.M.




HEALTH QUERIES.

_Under this heading our contributor, Dr Valentine Knaggs, deals
briefly month by month, and according as space permits, with questions
of general interest to health seekers and others._

_In all Queries relating to health difficulties it is essential that
full details of the correspondent's customary diet should be clearly
given._

_Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on _one side only of
the paper_, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as
a guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a
stamped addressed envelope must be enclosed._--[EDS.]

_Every inquiry must be accompanied by the front cover (or upper part
of same showing date) of a recent number_ of _The Healthy Life_.


ONION JUICE AS HAIR RESTORER.

    Mrs M. McC. writes:--In your book, _Onions and Cress_,[21] on p.
    49, it is stated that the juice of onions mixed with honey will
    change the colour of hair from grey to black. Will you be kind
    enough to tell me in what proportion these should be mixed, as,
    of course, if not in a proper mixture, the hair would become so
    clogged. And will you also kindly tell me how one is to extract
    the juice from the onions, whether they are to be boiled or
    squeezed when raw.

With regard to the use of a mixture of onion juice and honey as a hair
restorative the reader of my little book must remember that it is
largely a compilation of quotations from old herbal books, and it
gives the history, use and folklore of these interesting edibles. I am
not responsible for this recipe and cannot therefore vouch for its
utility. We know, however, that onions contain a wonderful sulphured
oil and that sulphur in one form or another is an important ingredient
of most hair preparations which restore colour. The raw juice
evidently should be used, and this can be extracted either by pounding
and grating and then extracting the juice under pressure, or it can be
readily obtained in any quantity by putting onions through the
Enterprise Juice Press. The amount of honey, I think, to be added to
this juice should be very small, otherwise, as our correspondent
surmises, the preparation would be very sticky and objectionable.
Would any reader care to try this and report upon it?

[21] _Onions and Cress_, 6d. net (postage 1d).


SCIATICA.

    Mrs M.G. writes:--My husband is a sufferer from sciatica; has had
    it for some years, on and off, but just lately he seems is to get
    it constantly--sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. He has been
    taking some salicylate of soda, and I have tried to persuade him
    to give it up. His age is 42. For his meals he takes, on rising,
    an apple or a cup of apple tea; an hour afterwards his breakfast,
    which consists of two tablespoonfuls of a proteid food mixed with
    distilled water, and a hard biscuit, two slices of whole meal
    brown bread, nut butter, and watercress or lettuce. During the
    morning he drinks barley water. For dinner, a salad and a few
    ground nuts and hard biscuits and an apple; sometimes home-made
    nut meat and spinach, hard biscuits and dried or fresh fruit.
    For tea, a salad or lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cress, and
    Shredded Wheat and wholemeal bread. Last thing at night, a few
    steamed onions and distilled water. His bowels are in good
    condition, very regular, but he has this constant gnawing pain.
    If you can help me in any way as to a change in his diet, it will
    be a relief to me. I do not mind the trouble of preparing things
    for him. It is about two months ago that he has taken to drinking
    distilled water, which I make myself. His occupation is very
    sedentary, with long hours, sometimes from six in the morning
    till nine at night. He has a bicycle, and gets as much exercise
    as possible.

From the description given one would assume that the sedentary
occupation and long hours of work have caused this correspondent to
fall into bad postural habits of sitting and standing, coupled with
excessive depletion of his nervous energy. The diet given is on good
lines and, with the addition of home-made curd cheese and eggs as
proteid, might certainly be continued as it stands, especially as the
bowel action is regular. What the correspondent does need is less
hours of work; more physical exercises of a brisk back-stretching
nature, and certain spinal stretching manipulations of an Osteopathic
nature. Full deep breathing in fresh air will also be beneficial. The
lower part of the spine, from which the sciatic nerves originate,
needs the most attention.


REFINED PARAFFIN AS A CONSTIPATION REMEDY.

    Mr E.H. writes:--Will Dr Knaggs very kindly say whether Refined
    Paraffin, now being given so generally for the relief of
    constipation, may be regarded as a harmless method of overcoming
    this trouble or whether its use might lead to harmful results. I
    am told that this preparation of oil is not assimilated, and is
    therefore harmless, but I should much appreciate Dr Knaggs'
    opinion on this matter.

The use of refined paraffin as a remedy for constipation is just now
all the rage with the orthodox medical profession. There is nothing
really to be said against its right use, provided it is made to serve
as one of the means to an end. It has been proved that this paraffin,
which is quite tasteless, odourless and easy to swallow, is not
absorbed by the system but passes unchanged and unaltered through it.
It acts therefore as a mere mechanical lubricant. The one thing to
remember is that its use should be combined with a curative diet, so
that it need not be taken indefinitely.


(1) DRY THROAT; (2) SACCHARINE; (3) DILATED HEART.

    Mr L.S. writes:--I have read _The Healthy Life_ from the
    appearance of the first number, and I have studied the Answers to
    Correspondents, but have not observed a case identical with my
    own, hence my reason for troubling you.

    (1) The back part of mouth next throat has a curious glazed
    appearance--no cough or expectoration. I am inclined to think it
    extends to and includes the stomach. I have always a good
    appetite, but am not well nourished; much under weight. Age 44
    years; school officer; cycle 25 miles a week.

    Eat meat sparingly, not a pound a week. Live principally upon
    eggs and bread and butter--(three eggs a day): "Digestive Tea"
    two and three times a day.

    2. Is saccharine less harmful than sugar for sweetening?

    3. As the result of a nervous breakdown I had five years ago I
    suffer from a dilated heart, consequently--I suppose--I have
    palpitation occasionally, oftener when in bed. I don't think my
    heart is really normal since my breakdown five years ago.

    4. Would bathing myself with cold water over the region of the
    heart strengthen the muscles? Would you please suggest anything
    for strengthening heart. Are lemons or eggs injurious to the
    heart?

1. The throat symptoms indicate a dry, irritable, heated condition of
the mouth and throat which, as the correspondent surmises, equally
affects the stomach and the rest of the digestive organs. He should
have a breakfast of fresh fruit only, take salads and grated raw roots
with his meals and stop tea altogether. He can drink distilled water
and vegetable or lemon drinks (unsweetened) instead.

2. Saccharine is a mineral substance, a fossilised product of
putrefactive action in the coal age. It is closely analogous to
carbolic acid, which equally originates from microbic action. By
leaving off sugar and replacing it by saccharine our correspondent
gains nothing. He is simply leaping from the frying pan into the fire.
It is best for him to cultivate a taste for unsweetened or even acid
drinks.

3. A dilated heart is usually an after effect of a dilated stomach,
which strains it, just as it does every other organ, whether in the
chest or the abdomen.

4. Bathing the chest with cold water is not desirable. What is needed
is that the correspondent should drink as little fluid as possible and
pay close attention to the condition of his digestive mechanism. If
the organs are dilated or misplaced he should wear a belt and take
suitable gentle Osteopathic exercises.


TREATMENT FOR STAMMERING.

    A.M.D. writes:--Could you kindly give in _The Healthy Life_
    magazine some suggestions as to the best method to follow in a
    case of stammering (slight) in a boy of ten or eleven years who
    has been rather left to himself, the hesitancy in speech being
    regarded as incurable?

This boy should be trained by someone who understands how to cure
stammering. The correspondent would do well to consult Miss Behncke of
18 Earl's Court Square, S.W., who makes a speciality of treating such
cases.


WHY THE RED CORPUSCLES ARE DEFICIENT IN ANAEMIA.

    A.M.D. writes:--Is there any way, independent of diet, of
    increasing the red corpuscles in the blood? I have tried walking
    nine miles a day, thus getting up free perspirations. What of
    this method? I did imagine that this resulted in a better
    condition of the skin, the latter losing in a measure the white
    and parched appearance.

A deficiency of red corpuscles in the blood, which shows in anaemia, is
usually caused by self-poisoning. When food ferments or putrifies in
the colon, owing to faulty diet and other causes, certain toxins are
created. These become absorbed into the blood and there destroy the
red corpuscles. Walking is a good form of exercise, but it will not
suffice alone to remedy this type of anaemia unless the diet and
general habits of the patient are so arranged that the unsanitary
condition of the colon is also remedied. The correspondent will find,
if she studies the replies to others in this magazine, many details as
to diet, etc., for rectifying bad conditions in the bowels.


THE CORRECT BLENDING OF FOODS.

    T.B.W. writes:--Is it inadvisable for a dyspeptic (and sufferer
    from constipation) to eat salad, or cooked vegetables, and stewed
    fruit at the same meal; also, do I do right in eating bread and
    butter (preferably crust) or hard biscuits with stewed fruit or
    soft vegetables, etc.? Would you please inform me the best Still
    that I can obtain--preferably one that does not require much
    attention, and is fairly portable, and that does not cost much to
    work?

I do not believe that it is right to mix salads or cooked vegetables
with stewed fruits. It is better to take them at separate meals.

It is, in my view, equally bad to take cereals (_i.e._ bread,
biscuits, etc.) with stewed fruits. The reason is that cereals call
for an alkaline form of digestion in the mouth which the acid fruits
or the added sugar greatly retard.

I believe strongly in the all-fruit breakfast or all-fruit supper,
when fresh, dried, or even stewed dried fruits (possibly with some
fresh cream) can be taken alone, without either cereals or vegetables.

Cereals go best with salads and cooked vegetables, because of the
alkalinity of the latter which harmonises with the salivary secretion
intended for the digestion of grains.

The Gem Still is the best to buy. It is well made and does not need
much attention. The large automatic commercial size is, however, the
best if any quantity is needed, as it works throughout the day with
practically no attention when properly adjusted.


DIFFICULTIES IN CHANGING TO NON-FLESH DIET.

    F.C.W. writes:--I shall be glad if you will inform me from your
    experience whether, after one has broken from the customary meat
    diet and adopted a "reform" diet, there is any real difficulty in
    reverting to the former state. I have seen it stated that
    vegetarian diet did not call into action all the natural powers
    of the digestive organs, and, this being so, the tendency was for
    them to become weakened so that the food reformer eventually
    found himself unable to digest meat. I believe some health
    culturists make practice of taking meat twice a week. I have been
    about seven or eight weeks on reform diet, and though better in
    some ways have to confess to a feeling of deficient energy and
    nerve power. I was once told by a doctor that I could not afford
    to do without the stimulating effect derived from meat. I
    propose making a test of the two methods, but should like to hear
    from you in reply to the above query. Another new feature I have
    noticed on the new diet is a thinness of the teeth and a feeling
    of weakness in them generally.

This correspondent omitted to supply his amended diet, so this was
asked for and is as follows:--

    _On rising_ (6.40).--Cup of cold water.

    _Breakfast_ (8 A.M.).--Porridge, boiled egg or white fish done in
    oven. Turog brown bread and butter; a banana; cup of coffee.

    _Lunch_ (12.45, _at The Home Restaurant_)--Nut or cheese savoury
    and one vegetable, a sweet dish, a few dates or a nut and fruit
    cake.

    _Tea meal (in office at 5)._--Bread and butter, piece of cake,
    large cup of cocoa.

    _Supper._--One of following:--

    (a) "Force" with stewed prunes and junket; small piece of cheese
    with wholemeal biscuit.

    (b) Milk pudding and stewed fruit; small piece of cheese and
    biscuit.

    (c) Vegetable soup with toast.

    (d) Bread and milk and fruit cake.

    _On retiring_ (10 P.M.).--Cup of hot milk.

The correspondent adds further:--

    I have only been about eight weeks on food reform and the general
    result, so far, is less susceptibility to draughts and ability to
    sleep with windows open top and bottom, which I could not do
    before, and a feeling of lightness and freshness. On the other
    hand, I have not the same nerve force or power. I am of a highly
    sensitive nervous disposition, and the latest trouble is with my
    teeth. I was told yesterday by a dentist that a non-flesh diet is
    harmful to them and that were one to eat meat only, there would
    be no trouble! Perhaps it is owing to the dates and nut-and-fruit
    cakes which I have been eating, or to a general weakened
    condition due to want of finding my natural diet. I have a friend
    who is a fine specimen of physical development, and on his going
    on to food reform he had to have his teeth seen to. I suppose it
    would not be the softer diet giving his teeth less to do. I am at
    a disadvantage as I can get nothing specially prepared at home
    and can only add to my diet articles which I can prepare myself.
    I like my liquids fairly sweet and I like liquid foods. I am a
    catarrhal subject and when this starts at the back of the nose
    the hearing is affected.

Whenever a person changes from a meat diet to one that is of the
non-flesh order the digestive organs have to learn how to adjust their
secretions to the altered diet. This applies just as forcibly when a
food reformer wishes to return to the "flesh-pots." After a long
course of abstinence from meat the food reformer does find it
difficult to return to it. This is due not so much to the difficulty
in digesting it as to the violent stimulation and grossening of the
body which it induces.

I have never heard of any food reformer who discarded meat for ethical
or humane reasons who willingly returned to meat so that he could if
necessary be in a position to digest it.

With regard to the loss of energy and nerve power the correspondent
must distinguish between real weakness and absence of stimulation. The
first effects of discarding meat show a deficient energy due to the
absence of stimulation. When this has passed it gives place to a
feeling of buoyancy and energy which is permanent.

The dental weakness is aggravated, if indeed it is not actually
_caused_, by the milk puddings, porridge, cake and sugared beverages
which are a feature of this correspondent's diet, and to the absence
of salad vegetables. If he amended his diet somewhat as follows he
should make steady progress in energy and general fitness:--

_On rising._--Tumblerful of cold water.

_Breakfast_ (7.15).--One lightly boiled, baked or poached egg; Veda
bread and butter, a little watercress or other salad. A small cup of
Hygiama in place of the sugared cocoa.

_Lunch_ (12.45).--Nut or cheese savoury and one vegetable; baked
pudding by preference for second course, or simply a nut and fruit
cake; no dates.

_Or_ salad with grated cheese or cream cheese, or flaked pine nuts;
followed by a piece of the excellent wholemeal cake supplied at the
restaurant this correspondent frequents.

_Tea meal._--One cup of Salfon cocoa (unsweetened), preferably without
other food.

_Supper_ (6 to 7) (This meal is at present far too mushy).--Cream
cheese, Veda bread with fresh butter or nut butter, salad, tomatoes,
cucumber, etc., with dressing of pure oil and lemon juice.

_Or_ simply fresh ripe fruit, with dried fruit and cream; no cereals.

_On retiring._--Cupful of hot unsweetened lemon water, or weak barley
water; no milk.

H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.




CORRESPONDENCE.


_All Correspondence should be addressed (and all contributions
submitted) to the Editors, _THE HEALTHY LIFE_, 3 Tudor Street, London,
E.C._


COTTAGE CHEESE.

    WILDERTON, BOURNEMOUTH.
    BOURNEMOUTH.

    _To the Editors_,

    DEAR SIRS,

    _Re_ Mrs C.E.J.'s letter and the reply thereto: I should be
    inclined to doubt the wisdom of making this from unboiled or
    uncooked milk unless one had it from one's own cows and could
    supervise the dairy oneself. The average milk that comes into
    towns from country farms is--well, it's unthinkable. There's a
    saying that what the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve
    over, but that doesn't alter the fact that the average cow is
    none too clean, the average milker's hands and clothes (to say
    nothing of his face, hat and head) none too clean, the
    milking-place none too clean, and the circumstances of transit
    such as don't make for cleanliness. I have put it very
    moderately, as those who know country dairy farms will admit.
    Those who particularly want clean cheese from uncooked milk
    should buy it from a County Council dairy farm or similar
    institution. Yours truly,

    B.C. FORDER.


WILL OTHER READERS DO LIKEWISE?

Mrs E. BUMPUS writes (7th October 1913):--

    I am ordering two copies each month from my local newsagent.... I
    thought he might be induced to show copies of your publication in
    his window.

[An attractive blue poster is supplied each month free by the
Publishers to all genuine agents who apply for the same.--EDS.]


_THE HEALTHY LIFE_ IN THE LIBRARIES.

Mr C.H. GRINLING writes (25th October 1913):--

    I note the suggestion on p. 580 of the October number of _The
    Healthy Life_. A friend enables me to ask you to send _The
    Healthy Life_ regularly for one year to the Woolwich Public
    Library, William Street, Woolwich. I enclose 2s. The librarian
    will see that it appears on the magazine-room table regularly.

[There is every reason why _The Healthy Life_ should be known and read
in every public library in the United Kingdom. In this we are entirely
dependent upon those readers who are ready to follow the excellent
example of the above and other correspondents. A year's
subscription--2s.--is a very small price to pay for bringing the
message of this magazine before the public in this way. We should like
to hear from readers in all parts.--EDS.]


FRUIT-OILS AND NUTS.

    WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA, 22nd Oct. 1913.

    _To the Editors_,

    SIRS,

    With reference to the last paragraph of "Phosphorus and the
    Nerves" on p. 579 of the October number, I should be obliged if I
    could be informed through your correspondence columns (1) what
    are the "fruit oils" recommended therein and (2) how they are to
    be taken. (3) Is olive oil good to take? (4) Is it good for
    children? If so how is it to be administered? (5) What nuts are
    richest in phosphorus? I enclose my card, and remain, yours
    truly,

    W.W.

(1) Any olive oil that bears a thorough guarantee of purity (such as
"Minerva" Olive Oil, "Creme d'Or" Olive Oil, etc.); also any pure nut
oil (such as supplied by Mapleton's or The London Nut Food Co.); also
the pure blended oil sold as "Protoid Fruit Oil." Our advertisement
pages should be studied for further details.

(2) Suggestions were given on pp. xxxiii and xxxv of the November
number.

(3) Yes, excellent.

(4) Yes, they usually take it more readily than adults, for the
latters' palates are generally spoilt. For its use see _Right Diet for
Children_, by Edgar J. Saxon, 1s. net.

(5) Almonds and walnuts. If the nuts are found difficult to digest try
them in a finely prepared form, as in Mapleton's Almond Cream, "P.R."
Walnut Butter, or "Protoid" Almond Butter.--[EDS.]




PICKLED PEPPERCORNS.


    Lady Cheylesmore was wearing a magnificent cock pheasant's plume.
    The eagle eye of the customs official caught sight of it and
    handed her a pair of scissors to help her detach it.--_Daily
    News._

Now we know what a really well-trained eagle eye can do.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Perhaps the only remnant of the awful sameness characteristic of
    the typically English kitchen is the bacon and egg breakfast to
    which the average Briton clings with wonderful tenacity. The mere
    possibility of infidelity to that national dish is enough to make
    one shudder. No one could be such an iconoclast as to suggest a
    variant from the traditional breakfast; it would be table-treason
    of the worst kind.--_Daily Telegraph._

    A middle-aged Briton named Leary,
    Of bacon and eggs got so weary,
      That for no other reason
      He committed high treason--
    But whether he shuddered's a query.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Silver-fox furs are rapidly becoming more and more rare, and this
    fact lends a special interest to the wonderful collection of
    these skins now being shown this week by Revillon Freres at 180
    Regent Street. These beautiful silver foxes, to the number of
    over a hundred, are grouped in eight large showcases on the
    ground floor, and represent the latest arrivals from Revillon's
    Canadian outposts, where they have special facilities for
    securing these rare skins.--_Daily Chronicle._

A ninth large showcase containing specimens of the steel traps in
which "these beautiful silver foxes" are caught, and in which they
remain till "collected," would give added interest to the collection
at 180 Regent Street.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Sixty-six persons banqueted at Gorleston on a single "sea-pie,"
    which weighed 200 lbs. Prepared by an old smack skipper, it was
    built in three stories. The foundation consisted of beef bones,
    and inside were six large rabbits, half-a-dozen kidneys, thirty
    pounds of beef steak.--_Daily Chronicle._

Not to be confused with the Gorleston Mausoleum.

PETER PIPER.







