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Title: The New Glutton or Epicure
Author: Fletcher, Horace
Language: English
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THE NEW
GLUTTON OR EPICURE
HORACE FLETCHER'S WORKS
THE A. B.-Z. OF OUR OWN NUTRITION.
462 pp.
THE NEW MENTICULTURE; OR,
THE A-B-C OF TRUE LIVING. Forty-fifth
thousand. 310 pp.
THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE;
OR, ECONOMIC NUTRITION.
344 pp.
HAPPINESS AS FOUND IN FORETHOUGHT
MINUS FEARTHOUGHT. Tenth thousand.
251 pp.
THAT LAST WAIF; OR, SOCIAL
QUARANTINE. 270 pp.
THE
NEW GLUTTON
OR
EPICURE
BY
HORACE FLETCHER
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
1906
COPYRIGHT, 1899, 1903
BY HORACE FLETCHER
Published November, 1903
Reprinted October, 1904, September, 1905
December, 1905
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE · U. S. A.
PREFACE
The original "Glutton or Epicure" has been completely revised and
much enlarged, including considerable new matter added in the form
of testimony by competent investigators, which confirms the original
claims of the book and supplements them with important suggestions.
The "New Glutton or Epicure" is now issued as a companion volume to
the "A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition," in the "A. B. C. Series," and is
intended to broaden the illustration of the necessity of dietetic
economy in the pursuit of an easy way to successful living, in a manner
calculated to appeal to a variety of readers; and wherein it may
suggest the scrappiness and extravagance of an intemperate screed, the
author joins in the criticism of the purists and offers in apology the
excuse that so-called screeds sometimes attract attention where more
sober statement fails to be heard.
Especial attention is invited to the "Explanation of the A.B.C.
Series," at the back of this volume, as showing the desirability of
regard for environment in all its phases; and also to the section,
"Tell-tale Excreta," on page 142, an evidence of right or faulty
feeding persistently neglected heretofore, but of utmost importance in
a broad study of the nutrition problem.
The professional approval of Drs. Van Someren, Higgins, Kellogg, and
Dewey, representing wide differences of points of view and opportunity
of application, are most valuable contributions to the subject.
The confirmation of high physiological authority strengthens this
professional endorsement. The testimony of lay colleagues given is
equally valuable and comes from widely separated experiences, and
from observers whose evidence carries great weight. The commandante
of a battleship cruising in foreign waters and representing the
national descent of Luigi Cornaro; a general manager of one of the
largest insurance companies of the world; a cosmopolitan artist of
American farm birth and French matrimonial choice and residence; and a
distinguished _bon vivant_, each with a world of experience, testifying
in their own manner of expression, is appreciated as most valuable
assistance to the cause of economic dietetic reform.
During the original experiments in Chicago, and in Dayton, Ohio,
the originator was much indebted to James H. Lacey, Esquire, of New
Orleans, La., and Cedar Rapids, for helpful suggestions, which his
early training as a pharmaceutical chemist rendered him able to give.
There are also numerous altruistic, self-sacrificing women, who have
been active colleagues of the author in testing the virtues of an
economic nutrition, and who have greatly assisted in making the
economy an added new pleasure of life, instead of being a restraint
or a deprivation. This is accomplished easily by a change of attitude
towards the question, and in such reform women must have an important
part to play. To their kindly meant, but hygienically unwise,
aggressive hospitality, in begging friends to eat and drink more than
they want, just to satisfy their own generous impulses, is due much of
the milder gluttony that is prevalent.
Imposition upon the body of any excess of food or drink is one of
the most dangerous and far-reaching of self-abuses; because whatever
the body has no need of at the moment must be gotten rid of at the
expense of much valuable energy taken away from brain-service. Hence
it is that when there is intestinal constipation the energy-reserve is
lowered enormously, and even where there is no painful obstruction,
the mere passage of waste through some twenty to twenty-five feet of
convoluted intestinal canal is a great tax upon available mental and
physical power; and this disability is often imposed on innocent men by
well-meaning women in the exercise of a too aggressive hospitality.
Mention of constipation suggests another reference to one of the
specially new features of this discussion, insisted upon by a truly
economic and æsthetic nutrition, and herein lifted out of the depths of
a morbid prejudice to testify to the necessity of care in the manner
of taking food for the maintenance of a respectable self-respect.
So firmly rooted is the fallacy that a daily generous defecation is
necessary to health that less frequent periodicity is looked upon
with alarm, whereas a normally economic nutrition is _proven_ by
greater infrequency, accompanied by an entire absence of difficulty in
defecating and by escape from the usual putridity due to the necessity
of bacterial decomposition.
To illustrate the prevailing ignorance relative to this most important
necessity of self-care, and also a traditional prejudice, even among
physicians, the following extract from a letter just received is given:
"You ask me to define more exactly what I mean by constipation; this
is not at all difficult; I mean skipping a day in having a call to
stool. There was no trouble about it, and the quantity was not large,
but when I mentioned it to my doctor he advised me to stop chewing
if it interfered with the regular daily stools. I must confess that
I never felt so well as while I was chewing and sipping, instead of
the hasty bolting and gulping which one is apt to do on thoughtless
or busy occasions, but I don't think it is worth while for a chap to
monkey with his hygienic department when he is employing a professional
regularly to tell him the latest kink about health." To this surprising
state of ... the evidence of "professionals" like Van Someren, Kellogg,
Higgins, and Dewey, as well as that of the great men of physiology who
have spoken herein, and in the "A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition," gives
hopeful answer, but suggests a warning.
The author has noticed that immediately folk begin to give attention
to any new _régime_ relative to diet, exercise, mental discipline,
or whatever else, they begin to charge all unusual happenings to
the change of habit, whereas before the same things were common but
unnoticed. Even among men of scientific habit of thought, unduly
constipated by stale conservatism, the old, old corpse of tradition,
"The accumulated experience of the whole race must be correct," is
revived and used in argument contentiously; but to this relapse
into non-scientific reasoning comes the reply: "If the accumulated
experience of the human race is evidence that crime and disease are
natural, then disease and crime are good things and should not be
discouraged."
There are many sorts of constipation, the worst of which are
constipation of affection, of appreciation, of gratitude, and of all
the constructive virtues which constitute true altruism. Let us avoid
sinning in this regard! In pursuit of this thought the following is
_àpropos_:
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
The author wishes here, also, to express gratitude to many who have
not figured by name in the "A.B.-Z.," or elsewhere herein, but whose
assistance, encouragement, criticism, and example have helped the
cause along in one way or another. Of these many friends a few are
quickly recalled, but not necessarily in the order of their friendly
service. To John H. Patterson, Esquire, of Dayton, Ohio; Col. James F.
O'Shaughnessy, of New York; Stewart Chisholm, Esquire, of Cleveland,
Ohio; Fred E. Wadsworth, Esquire, of Detroit, Michigan; and Henry C.
Butcher, Esquire, of Philadelphia, are due much for encouragement
in pursuing the investigation at critical moments of the struggle;
as well as to Hon. William J. Van Patten, of Burlington, Vermont,
whose interest in the "A.B.C. Series" began with "Menticulture" and
has continued unabated. In Dr. Swan M. Burnett, of Washington, D. C.,
has been enjoyed a mentor with great scientific discrimination and
a sympathy in the refinements of art and sentiment, as expressed in
Japanese æsthetic civilisation, which has been extremely encouraging
and most inspiring in relation to the whole A.B.C. idea.
From Gervais Kerr, Esquire, of Venice, came one of the important
suggestions incorporated in the A.B.-Z. Primer; and the young Venetian
artist, E. C. Leon Boehm, rendered great service in studying habits of
dietetics among the peoples of the Balkan Peninsular, in Turkey, along
the Dalmatian Coast, and in Croatia.
Prof. William James, of Harvard University, in his Gifford Lectures
at the University of Edinburg, Scotland, published under the title
of "The Varieties of Religious Experience," gave the practical
reformatory effort of the "A.B.C. Series" a great impetus by quoting
approvingly from "Menticulture" and "Happiness." Coming from a teacher
of philosophy and psychology, with a physiological training and an
M.D. degree to support the approval, recognition is much appreciated;
but, in addition to his published utterances, Dr. James has followed
the psycho-physiological studies of the movement with interest, and
has given much valued encouragement.
This does not begin to complete the list of those to whom the author
owes a debt of especial gratitude. The argus-eyed vigilance of the
collectors and doctors of world-news, who mould public opinion
in a great measure, has brought to the cause of dietetic reform
established upon an æsthetic basis their kindly assistance, but, as
usual, they prefer to remain _incog._ In this seclusion, however,
Ralph D. Blumenfeld, Esquire, of London, and Roswell Martin Field,
Esquire, of Chicago, cannot be included; neither can Charles Jay
Taylor, the originator of the Taylor-Maid girl. James P. Reilly,
Esquire, of New York, has lightened the labours of the investigator,
and has strengthened his arm in many ways; as have also Messrs. B.
F. Stevens and Brown, of London, not alone as most efficient agents,
but as friends interested in the cause in hand. In the various books
of the series opportunity has occurred to express appreciation of
many sympathetic friendships, and in heart and memory they hold
perpetual carnival. To Major Thomas E. Davis, of the _New Orleans
Picayune_, is due more than mere expression of gratitude for excellent
editorials on our subject; and across the ocean, Sir Thomas Barlow,
the private physician of King Edward VII, Dr. Leonard Huxley, Prof.
Alfred Marshall, of Cambridge University, and Reginald Barratt,
Esquire, of London, have been most sympathetic and assistful. On both
sides of the waters, William Dana Orcutt, Esquire, of The University
Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Frederick A. Stokes, Esquire,
of New York, have added friendship for the cause to much appreciated
practical assistance.
These and many others are preferred-creditors of gratitude, in
addition to those whose mention is embodied elsewhere in the various
books of the "Series."
As attempted to be shown in the "A.B.-Z.," under the caption "Bunching
Hits and Personal Umpiring," this study of menticulture from the
basis of economic and epicurean nutrition, in connection with a
purified exterior and interior environment, is "team-work," as in
football, cricket, or base-ball, and a laudable enthusiasm is an
important feature of the game; hence, to conclude, this especial
book, being a personal confession, relaxation, effusion, expansion,
as it were, of the practical benefits of economic body nutrition and
_menti-nutrition_, it seems the appropriate place to offer personal
tribute outside and inside the intimate family relations, as freely as
menticultural impulse may suggest.
HORACE FLETCHER.
PREFACE
TO 1906 EDITIONS
Since the former introductions were written much success has been
attained in further advancing the reforms advocated in the _A. B. C.
Life Series_. Professor Chittenden has published his report on the
Yale experiments in book form in both America[1] and England,[2] and
his results have been accepted in scientific circles the world over as
authoritatively conclusive.
[Footnote 1: Physiological Economy in Nutrition: The Frederick A.
Stokes Company, New York.]
[Footnote 2: William Heinemann: London.]
At the present writing the most important Health Boards of Europe[3]
are planning to put the new standards of dietary economy into practical
use among public charges in a manner that can only result in benefit
to the wards of the nations as well as make an important saving to
the taxpayers. In the most important of these foreign public health
departments the Health Officer of the Board has himself practised the
newly established economy for two years, and his plans are formulated
on personal experience which fully confirms Professor Chittenden's
report and that of the author as herein related.
[Footnote 3: The author is not yet permitted to publish the particulars
of these reforms in process, but he has official information regarding
them and is in full sympathy with them.]
At a missionary agricultural college, situated near Nashville, Tenn.,
where the students earn their tuition and their board while pursuing
their studies, a six months' test of what is termed "Fletcherism"
resulted in a saving of about one half of the drafts on the commissary,
immunity from illness, increased energy, strength and endurance, and
general adoption of the suggestions published in the several books of
the author included in the _A. B. C. Life Series_.
In the various departments and branches of the Battle Creek Sanitarium
in America, and widely scattered over the world, some eight hundred
employees and thousands of patients have been accumulating evidence of
the efficacy of "Fletcherism" for more than three years, and scarce a
month passes without a letter from Dr. Kellogg to the author containing
new testimony confirming the _A. B. C._ selections and suggestions.
The author has received within the past two years more than a thousand
letters bearing the approval of the writers with report of benefits
received which seem almost miraculous, and these include the leaders in
many branches of human occupation--physiologists, surgeons, medical
practitioners, artists, business men, literary workers, athletes,
working men and women, and almost every degree of mental and physical
activity.
One of the medical advisers of King Edward, of whom the King once said:
"He is a splendid doctor but a poor courtier," follows the suggestions
of these books in prescribing to his sumptuous clients.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE i
SPECIAL RECOGNITION xii
THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 1
THE PERSONAL CASE AND ENDORSEMENT OF
DR. ERNEST VAN SOMEREN 10
EXPERIMENTS UPON HUMAN NUTRITION. NOTE
BY SIR MICHAEL FOSTER, K.C.B., M.P.,
F.R.S. 18
PROFESSOR CHITTENDEN'S REPORT ON THE
AUTHOR 25
'VARSITY-CREW EXERCISES UNDER DR. WILLIAM
G. ANDERSON, OF YALE UNIVERSITY
GYMNASIUM 32
THE ATWATER-BENEDICT CALORIMETER-MEASUREMENT 39
MILITARY-SCIENTIFIC COÖPERATION 42
DR. KELLOGG'S APPRECIATION 46
EXTRACTS FROM DR. EDWARD HOOKER DEWEY 73
AN AGREEABLE ENDURANCE TEST 84
EDWARD W. REDFIELD'S EVIDENCE 90
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 101
OUR NATURAL GUARDIANS 106
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED 117
THE MIND POWER-PLANT 132
TELL-TALE EXCRETA 142
SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION OF A LITERARY
TEST-SUBJECT 147
WHAT SENSE? TASTE 151
DR. MONKS, BOSTON; AND PROF. METCHNIKOFF,
PARIS;--ELONGATED INTESTINES 176
AUTHOR'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 188
SOME PERTINENT QUERIES 195
IMPORTANT CONFIRMATION:
COMMANDANTE CESARE AGNELLI 206
CLARENCE F. LOW, ESQUIRE 211
A FIVE YEARS' LAY EXPERIENCE:
BARON RANDOLPH NATILI 215
DR. HUBERT HIGGINS' CASE AND COMMENT 226
QUARANTINE 236
GIVE THE BABIES A CHANCE 265
"MUNCHING PARTIES" AND THE "CHEWING
FAD" 270
SPECIMEN ECONOMIC DINNER 283
DIET IN THE YALE EXAMINATION OF THE AUTHOR 296
INFLUENCE OF SUGGESTION 300
"FLETCHERISING:" COMPLETE MEANING 308
EXPLANATION OF THE A. B. C. SERIES 315
THE NEW
GLUTTON OR EPICURE
It is now five years since the first section of this crude little
announcement of a great physiological discovery was published; and
while the author has spent all the intervening years in unremitting
study of the subject of which it treats, with the heads of many of the
great physiological laboratories of the world assisting him with their
best facilities and information, as to the "reasons for things," there
is but small correction to make.
This does not imply that the "last word" upon the subject has been
herein stated, or that corrections may not be made as the study
progresses, but it means, that as an honest description of an effort
to get to understand the natural requirements in our own nutrition,
it is perhaps better put than the same author could now do; that is,
if intended for the enlightenment of persons whose curiosity has not
yet been excited, or whose interest in their nutritive welfare is still
young and inexperienced.
With regard to the statement that "whatever has no taste is not
nutritious," copied from a high educational authority, correction
certainly must be made. Pure proteid has no perceptible taste as
measured by taste-bud appreciation, any more than pure water has
specific taste, and yet who may not say that "water tastes good" when
one is really thirsty. Taste is a very subtle sense and is closely
allied to feeling. Things are often said to taste good because they
feel good in the mouth or to the throat as they descend to the stomach.
Regarding also the advice to remove from the mouth refractory substance
that the teeth and saliva cannot reduce to a condition to excite the
Swallowing Impulse. There is theoretical and actual nutriment in the
cottony fibre of tough lobster, or poor fish, or lean pork, and there
is good reason to believe that a strong digestive apparatus _can_ take
care of such tough substance _after a fashion_ and get nutriment out of
it. In the same way the hard, woody fibre of old nuts is the identical
material that was rich in juicy oils and proteid when the nuts were
fresh, but if swallowed in the toughened condition that age brings to
nuts, it is but slowly reduced in the stomach and intestines and only
at enormous expense. If putrifactive bacterial decomposition has to be
resorted to to get rid of the stuff the process is then poisonous as
well as difficult.
According to physiological authority which we must, for the moment,
accept, proteid is a vitally-necessary material and we cannot afford
to waste it. Our life depends upon proteid to replace the waste of
muscular tissue which occurs with every movement, but when even
good proteid is found by the mouth to be in a form that is too
refractory for the teeth to handle, it is poor policy to send it on
to the toothless stomach and intestines for the accomplishment of the
reduction. If the mouth cannot handle what its guardian senses don't
like, it can spit it out and get rid of it immediately; but if the
stomach or intestines are afflicted with something that is harder than
they can easily take care of, they have to call in the assistance of
bacterial scavengers whose method is poisonous decomposition, and whose
fee is putridity of odour penetrating the whole system and issuing at
every pore, making Cologne water a large commodity even in so-called
Polite Society.
There are discernible in the mouth distinct senses of discrimination
against substance that is undesirable for the system. If the mouth
senses are permitted to express an opinion, their antipathy is easily
read. It is far safer to spit out what the natural impulse of
swallowing hesitates at, or fails to suck up with avidity, than it is
to force a swallowing to get rid of it simply to satisfy a prudish
"table manner" objection. To avoid "impolite" condemnation we really
make "hogs of ourselves" "on the sly," and vulgar slang alone is
appropriate to express the shameful confession.
As a matter of fact, if one faithfully practise mouth thoroughness in
connection with all his food for a term of a few weeks, he will find
that the appetite ceases to invite the sort of things that have to be
spit out. The appetite gradually but unfailingly inclines to foods that
are profitable all the way through, and in which there is little or no
waste. This revelation alone shows a delicate usefulness of Appetite
that has escaped students of the human senses.
In the matter of the insalivation of liquids, evidence continues to
accumulate to show that in the present prevalence of liquid or soft
foods lies the great danger to the digestive economy of man. Through
them, mouth work becomes neglected, and the tendency is to force the
stomach and intestines to take on the work of the powerful mouth
muscles and glands in addition to their own work, and in the straining
that ensues trouble begins.
There is _now_ no doubt but that taste is evidence of a chemical
process going on that should not be interrupted or transferred to the
interior of the body. Tried upon milk for so long a period as seventeen
days, during which nothing was taken but milk, not even water, thorough
insalivation secured more than a twenty-five per cent economy in actual
assimilation; not alone with one subject, but with no less than five
persons, living on milk from the same cow, and all of whose strict
test history was recorded. It seems also to be the only way in which
a practically odourless solid excreta is obtainable, and this is
certainly evidence worth considering and a desideratum worth striving
for.
While it is an excellent thing to give thorough mouth attention to
anything taken into the body, to solids alone, even if liquids are
neglected, the best economic and cleanly results are only obtained when
all substances, both liquid and solid, are either munched or tasted out
of existence, as it were, and have been absorbed into a waiting and
willing body; a body with an _earned_ appetite.
With liquids one simply has to do as the wine-tasters and the
tea-tasters do. Small sips are intaken and the liquid is tasted between
the top of the tongue (the spoon end) and the roof of the mouth until
all the taste is tasted out of it, and the Swallowing Impulse has
claimed it. This is by no means a disagreeable task, and as soon as
the unnaturally acquired habit of greed and impatience is conquered,
the reward of following this natural requirement is very great and
increases with practice. Five years of experience has taught the author
that a really keen appreciation of taste and its delicacy of possible
refinement is not known to persons of ordinary habits of life. The
pleasure which comes with conformity with the natural requirements is
truly Epicurean and disregard of them is as surely gluttonous.
The author still claims discovery of a distinct physiological function
which he first named "Nature's Food Filter." Van Someren preferred the
name of a "New Reflex of Deglutition." It is, in fact, the "Natural
Swallowing Impulse," _invited only_ by food mechanically and chemically
_prepared_ for passing on to the interior, call it by whatever name you
like or may.
At the time this little book was first published, the only note in
favour of giving special attention to "buccal digestion," that had been
sounded, was the advice of Mr. Gladstone to his children, "Chew your
food thirty-two times to each mouthful," or words to that effect. The
"Masticate well" prescription of the physician when given at all, had
meant little or nothing, to either the patient or to the prescriber,
except that one must not swallow hard food whole.
For two years after its publication little heed was given to the
suggestion because the author happened not to be a medical man, but,
finally, the reserve of indifference was broken, first by Dr. Joseph
Blumfeld, in a review of the book in the London _Lancet_, and soon
after by Dr. Ernest Van Someren of Venice, Italy, an English physician
residing and practising in Venice. Dr. Van Someren's interest and
experience are best stated in his _own words_, as follows:
THE PERSONAL "CASE" AND "ENDORSEMENT"
OF
DR. ERNEST VAN SOMEREN
AN
ENGLISH PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON, PRACTISING IN VENICE, ITALY
"MY DEAR MR. FLETCHER:
"It would be almost _àpropos_ to send you, as an endorsement of
your principles, the dictum of the ragged and dirty tramp in the
advertisement of Pear's soap. I would have to amend it slightly and
say: 'I used your {principles} three years {soap} ago; since when I
have used no other.' I say '_almost àpropos_' advisedly, for, while
the soap claims to keep the outer man clean, the practice of your
principles justly claims to keep the inner man sweet and clean, so
lessening the need to cleanse the outer man!
"A well-known English surgeon (I think Sir Wm. Mitchell Banks)
recommends physicians and surgeons to take a leaf from the book of
patent-medicine vendors, and make their patients testify to their
successful treatment. I will take the hint and give you, as my
'doctor,' a testimonial of how personally I am benefited by your advice.
"Three years ago, when I first met you, though under thirty years of
age, and myself a practising physician and surgeon, I was suffering
from gout, and had been under the _régime_ of a London specialist
for the treatment of that malady. Though vigorously adhering to the
prescribed diet, I suffered from time to time. My symptoms were
typical--paroxysmal pain in my right great toe and in the last
joints of both little fingers, the right one being tumefied with
the well-known 'node.' From time to time, generally once a month, I
suffered from incapacitating headaches. Frequent colds, boils on the
neck and face, chronic eczema of the toes, and frequent acid dyspepsia
were other and painful signs that the life I was leading was not
a healthy one. Yet I was accounted a healthy person by my friends,
and was, withal, athletic. I fenced an hour daily, took calisthenic
exercises every morning, forcing myself to do them, and I rowed
when I obtained leisure to do so. In spite of this exercise and an
inherent love of fresh air, which kept all the windows of my house open
throughout the year, I suffered as above. Worse still, I was losing
interest in life and in my work.
"In one or two conversations you laid down your simple principles of
economic nutrition. You told me that my food ought to be masticated
thoroughly, until taste was eliminated, and that (my) liquid
nourishment, if taken, ought to be similarly treated. You also told me
that, taking food in this way, I might, without fear of consequences,
give free rein to my appetite. To shorten my story, I'll say that in
three months after the practice of these principles my symptoms had
disappeared. Not only had my interest in my life and work returned,
but my whole point of view had changed, and I found a pleasure in both
living and working that was a constant surprise to me. For this, my
dear Mr. Fletcher, I can never repay you. My only desire has been and
is, to try and do for others in my practice what you did for me.
"Now I have since that time had occasional colds, headaches, and gouty
pains; but, whereas formerly I could not explain their causes, I can
now invariably trace them to carelessness in the buccal digestion of my
food, and can soon shake them off. So much for my testimonial. Now for
other matters.
"I do not know what may be the extent of the claims you are advancing
in regard to the benefits accruing from the practice of your
principles. If you, as you in justice may, claim even the widest
benefits as surely following the practice of these principles, many
will relegate these claims to the limbo where all such 'panaceas' are
soon forgotten. They will err greatly if they do so. The seemingly
simple procedure of insalivating one's food most carefully is not
calculated to impress people with the fact that great permanent benefit
follows. The subtlety of the changes that occur is due to the greatly
increased action of a vital process, _i. e._, of the admixture with
the food-stuffs of saliva, in such quantities as to alter the chemical
reaction of the initial stage of digestion. This initial change
causes a consequent change of all the processes following it, and a
change also in the final products of the entire process of digestion;
the greatest change being, perhaps, the elimination of last-resort
digestion by the intestinal flora (digestion by decomposition caused
by bacteria), and consequent elimination from the body, of the toxins
they produce. The life of an organism has been defined as 'the sum of
all those inter-actions which take place between the various cells
constituting the organism and their several environments.' (Harry
Campbell.) The final products of digestion are absorbed into the blood
stream, and go to form part of the 'several environments' of the
cells. The individual cell, the various groups of specialised cells,
such as the brain, nerves, muscles, bones, etc., in short, the whole
organism is beneficially influenced and made more resistent to disease
by the purity of a blood stream that no longer contains the toxins of
bacterially digested food.
"The further investigation of your discovery by those competent will,
I am confident, result in such a simplification of the rules for a
healthy life that the medical profession, at present forced by a
lack of knowledge of the vital processes of nutrition to base their
treatment on the veriest empiricism, will then be able to teach all and
sundry how to live. At present, all we can do is to treat and perchance
cure for a time certain symptoms, allowing the patient to return
afterwards to a mode of life that is really responsible for his malady.
'Disease is an abnormal mode of life.' (Harry Campbell.) The three
factors in its causation are:
"(_a_) Cell structure.
"(_b_) Internal cell environment.
"(_c_) External body environment.
"Heredity determines, to a very large extent, our cell structure, and
consequently our body structure.
"Sanitary science regulates our external body environment as much as
the artificial and noxious habits of so-called civilisation will allow.
The mental and physical external body environments have also their
effect on the organism.
"Your discovery of simple rules for an Economic Nutrition will control
the internal cell environment. In doing this, the predisposition to
disease is materially affected. The internal cell environment being
free from toxic material, and the cell itself better nourished, the
cell's resistance to disease is increased, the possible source of
disease being limited to the external body environment.
"In concluding this endorsement I can promise, to each and all who may
intelligently practise the principles of Thorough Buccal-Digestion, a
complete knowledge of their body's food requirements, or, as a patient
of mine tersely put it, they will learn the way to 'run their own
machines.'
"Yours ever,
"ERNEST VAN SOMEREN."
* * * * *
Dr. Van Someren and the author, assisted by Dr. Professor Leonardi, of
Venice, as Consulting Physiological-Chemist, and several colleagues,
pursued some experiments during the winter of 1900-1901; and Dr. Van
Someren read a paper on our work, entitled, "Was Luigi Cornaro Right?",
before the meeting of the British Medical Association the following
August.
The paper is too long to reprint here but it will be found in full in
another volume, entitled, "The A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition."
The following "Note" by Dr. Professor, Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B.,
M.P., F.R.S. etc., is a further link in the chain of development of
appreciation of the need of serious attention to the science of human
nutrition excited by this initiative. (Dr. Foster is the Permanent
Honorary President of the International Congress of Physiologists.)
EXPERIMENTS UPON HUMAN NUTRITION
NOTE BY SIR MICHAEL FOSTER, K.C.B., M.P., F.R.S.
"In 1901 Dr. Ernest Van Someren submitted to the British Medical
Association, and afterwards to the Congress of Physiologists at Turin,
an account of some experiments initiated by Mr. Horace Fletcher.
These experiments went to show that the processes of bodily nutrition
are very profoundly affected by the preliminary treatment of the
food-stuffs in the mouth and indicated that great advantages follow
from the adoption of certain methods in eating. The essentials of these
special methods, stated briefly and without regard to certain important
theoretical considerations discussed by Dr. Van Someren, consist of a
specially prolonged mastication which is necessarily associated with
an insalivation of the food-stuffs much more thorough than is obtained
with ordinary habits.
"The results brought to light by the preliminary experimental trials
went to show that such treatment of the food has a most important
effect upon the economy of the body, involving in the first place a
very notable reduction in the amount of food--and especially of proteid
food--necessary to maintain complete efficiency.
"In the second place this treatment produced, in the experience of its
originators, an increase in the subjective and objective well-being
of those who practise it, and, as they believe, in their power of
resistance to the inroads of disease. These secondary effects may
indeed be almost assumed as a corollary of the first mentioned;
because there can be little doubt that the ingestion of food--and
perhaps especially of proteid food--in excess of what is, under the
best conditions, sufficient for maintenance and activity, can only be
deleterious to the organism, clogging it with waste products which may
at times be of a directly toxic nature.
"In the autumn of 1901 Mr. Fletcher and Dr. Van Someren came to
Cambridge with the intention of having the matter more closely inquired
into, with the assistance of physiological experts. The matter evoked
considerable interest in Cambridge, and observations were made not only
upon those more immediately interested, but upon other individuals,
some of whom were themselves medical men and trained observers.
"Certain facts were established by these observations, which, however,
are to be looked upon as still of a preliminary nature. The adoption of
the habit of thorough insalivation of the food was found in a consensus
of opinion to have an immediate and very striking effect upon appetite,
making this more discriminating, and leading to the choice of a simple
dietary and in particular reducing the craving for flesh food. The
appetite, too, is beyond all question fully satisfied with a dietary
considerably less in amount than with ordinary habits is demanded.
"Numerical data were obtained in several cases, but it is not proposed
to deal with these in detail here, as they need the supplementary study
which will be shortly referred to.
"In two individuals who pushed the method to its limits it was found
that complete bodily efficiency was maintained for some weeks upon a
dietary which had a total energy value of less than one-half of that
usually taken, and comprised little more than one-third of the proteid
consumed by the average man.
"It may be doubted if continued efficiency could be maintained with
such low values as these, and very prolonged observations would be
necessary to establish the facts. But all subjects of the experiments
who applied the principles intelligently agreed in finding a very
marked reduction in their needs, and experienced an increase in their
sense of well-being and an increase in their working powers.
"One fact fully confirmed by the Cambridge observations consists in the
effect of the special habits described upon the waste products of the
bowel. These are greatly reduced in amount, as might be expected; but
they are also markedly changed in character, becoming odourless and
inoffensive, and assuming a condition which suggests that the intestine
is in a healthier and more aseptic condition than is the case under
ordinary circumstances.
"Although the experiments hitherto made are, as already stated, only
preliminary in nature and limited in scope, they establish beyond all
question that a full and careful study of the matter is urgently called
for.
"For this fuller study the Cambridge laboratories do not possess at
present either the necessary equipment or the funds to provide it. For
the detailed study of the physical efficiency of a man under varying
conditions, elaborate and expensive apparatus is required; and the
advantages claimed for the special treatment of the food just discussed
can only be fully tested by prolonged and laborious experiments calling
for a considerable staff of workers.
"It is of great importance that the mind of the lay public should
be disabused of the idea that medical science is possessed of final
information concerning questions of nutrition. This is very far indeed
from being the case. Human nutrition involves highly complex factors,
and the scientific basis for our knowledge of the subject is but small;
where questions of diet are concerned, medical teaching, no less than
popular practice, is to a great extent based upon empiricism.
"But the scientific and social importance of the question is clearly
immense, and it is greatly to be desired that its study should be
encouraged.
"M. FOSTER.
"April 26th, 1902."
* * * * *
The interest excited in Professor Foster was coincident with that
espoused by Dr. Professor Henry Pickering Bowditch, Professor
of Physiology of Harvard Medical School, and Dean of American
Physiologists. Under the ægis of such encouragement the later
developments are not at all surprising. In order to extend and
verify the findings of Dr. F. Gowland Hopkins, of Cambridge
University, England, as stated in the preceding note by Professor
Foster, Professor Russell H. Chittenden, President of the American
Physiological Society, Director of the Sheffield Scientific School
of Yale University, and one of the leading chemico-physiological
authorities of the world, as measured by accepted research work,
volunteered to submit the author to further test. The report of this
test is too long for reproduction here. It was first published in the
_Popular Science Monthly_ of June 1903, but will be found in full in
the "A. B.-Z." just referred to. The special reference to the author's
case and the quoted report of Dr. William G. Anderson, Director of the
Yale Gymnasium which tells the story of efficiency, was as follows:
Extract from an article by Professor Russell H. Chittenden in _Popular
Science Monthly_, June, 1903.
"The writer has had in his laboratory for several months past a
gentleman (Horace Fletcher) who has for some five years, in pursuit of
a study of the subject of human nutrition, practised a certain degree
of abstinence in the taking of food and attained important economy
with, as he believes, great gain in bodily and mental vigour and with
marked improvement in his general health. Under his new method of
living he finds himself possessed of a peculiar fitness for work of
all kinds and with freedom from the ordinary fatigue incidental to
extra physical exertion. In using the word abstinence possibly a wrong
impression is given, for the habits of life now followed have resulted
in the disappearance of the ordinary craving for food. In other words,
the gentleman in question fully satisfies his appetite, but no longer
desires the amount of food consumed by most individuals.
"For a period of thirteen days, in January, he was under observation
in the writer's laboratory, his excretions being analysed daily with a
view to ascertaining the exact amount of proteid consumed. The results
showed that the average daily amount of proteid metabolised was 41.25
grams, the body-weight (165 pounds) remaining practically constant.
Especially noteworthy also was the very complete utilisation of the
proteid food during this period of observation. It will be observed
here that the daily amount of proteid food taken was less than one half
that of the minimum Voit standard, and it should also be mentioned that
this apparent deficiency in proteid food was not made good by any large
consumption of fats or carbohydrates. Further, there was no restriction
in diet. On the contrary, there was perfect freedom of choice, and the
instructions given were to follow his usual dietetic habits. Analysis
of the excretions showed an output of nitrogen equal to the breaking
down of 41.25 grams of proteid per day, as an average, the extremes
being 33.06 grams and 47.05 grams of proteid.
"In February, a more thorough series of observations was made,
involving a careful analysis of the daily diet, together with analysis
of the excreta, so that not alone the proteid consumption might be
ascertained, but likewise the total intake of fats and carbohydrates.
The diet consumed was quite simple, and consisted merely of a prepared
cereal food, milk and maple sugar. This diet was taken twice a day
for seven days, and was selected by the subject as giving sufficient
variety for his needs and quite in accord with his taste. No attempt
was made to conform to any given standard of quantity, but the subject
took each day such amounts of the above foods as his appetite craved.
Each portion taken, however, was carefully weighed in the laboratory,
the chemical composition of the food determined, and the fuel value
calculated by the usual methods.
"The following table gives the daily intake of proteids, fats and
carbohydrates for six days, together with the calculated fuel value,
and also the nitrogen intake, together with the nitrogen output through
the excreta. Many other data were obtained showing diminished excretion
of uric acid, ethereal sulphates, phosphoric acid, etc., but they need
not be discussed here.
+-----+-----------------------------------------+---------------------+
| | | |
| | Intake. | Output of Nitrogen. |
| | | |
| +--------+------+-------+--------+--------+------+-------+------+
| | | | | | | | | |
| |Proteids| Fats |Carbohy|Calories|Nitrogen|Urine | Fæces |Total |
| | | | | | | | | |
+-----+--------+------+-------+--------+--------+------+-------+------+
| | Grams. |Grams.| Grams.| | Grams. |Grams.| Grams.|Grams.|
| | | | | | | | | |
|Feb 2| 31.3 | 25.3 | 125.4 | 900 | 5.02 | 5.27 | 0.18 | 5.45 |
| 3| 46.8 | 40.4 | 266.2 | 1690 | 7.50 | 6.24 | 0.81* | 7.05 |
| 4| 48.0 | 38.1 | 283.0 | 1747 | 7.70 | 5.53 | 0.81* | 6.34 |
| 5| 50.0 | 40.6 | 269.0 | 1711 | 8.00 | 6.44 | 0.81* | 7.25 |
| 6| 47.0 | 41.5 | 267.0 | 1737 | 7.49 | 6.83 | 0.81* | 7.64 |
| 7| 46.5 | 39.8 | 307.3 | 1852 | 7.44 | 7.50 | 0.17 | 7.67 |
| | | | | | | | | |
+-----+--------+------+-------+--------+--------+------+-------+------+
|Daily| | | | | | | | |
|Av. | 44.9 | 38.0 | 253.0 | 1606 | 7.19 | 6.30 | 0.60 | 6.90 |
+-----+--------+------+-------+--------+--------+------+-------+------+
*Average of the four days.
"The main things to be noted in these results are, first, that the
total daily consumption of proteid amounted on an average to only 45
grams, and that the fat and carbohydrate were taken in quantities
only sufficient to bring the total fuel value of the daily food up
to a little more than 1,600 large calories. If, however, we eliminate
the first day, when for some reason the subject took an unusually
small amount of food, these figures are increased somewhat, but they
are ridiculously low compared with the ordinarily accepted dietary
standards. When we recall that the Voit standard demands at least 118
grams of proteid and a total fuel value of 3,000 large calories daily,
we appreciate at once the full significance of the above figures. But
it may be asked, was this diet at all adequate for the needs of the
body--sufficient for a man weighing 165 pounds? In reply, it may be
said that the appetite was satisfied and that the subject had full
freedom to take more food if he so desired. To give a physiological
answer, it may be said that the body-weight remained practically
constant throughout the seven days' period, and further, it will be
observed by comparing the figures of the table that the nitrogen of
the intake and the total nitrogen of the output were not far apart.
In other words, there was a close approach to what the physiologist
calls nitrogenous equilibrium. In fact, it will be noted that on
several days the nitrogen output was slightly less than the nitrogen
taken in. We are, therefore, apparently justified in saying that the
above diet, simple though it was in variety, and in quantity far below
the usually accepted requirement, was quite adequate for the needs
of the body. In this connection it may be asked, what were the needs
of the body during this seven days' period? This is obviously a very
important point. Can a man on such a diet, even though it suffices to
keep up body-weight and apparently also physiological equilibrium,
do work to any extent? Will there be under such condition a proper
degree of fitness for physical work of any kind? In order to ascertain
this point, the subject was invited to do physical work at the Yale
University Gymnasium and placed under the guidance of the director of
the gymnasium, Dr. William G. Anderson. The results of the observations
there made, are here given, taken verbatim from Dr. Anderson's report
to the writer.
"'On the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th of February, 1903, I gave to Mr. Horace
Fletcher the same kind of exercises we give to the Varsity Crew. They
are drastic and fatiguing and cannot be done by beginners without
soreness and pain resulting. The exercises he was asked to take were
of a character to tax the heart and lungs as well as to try the
muscles of the limbs and trunk. I should not give these exercises to
Freshmen on account of their severity.
"'Mr. Fletcher has taken these movements with an ease that is unlooked
for. He gives evidence of no soreness or lameness and the large groups
of muscles respond the second day without evidence of being poisoned
by carbon dioxide. There is no evidence of distress after or during
the endurance test, _i. e._, the long run. The heart is fast but
regular. It comes back to its normal beat quicker than does the heart
of other men of his weight and age.
"'The case is unusual and I am surprised that Mr. Fletcher can do
the work of trained athletes and not give marked evidences of over
exertion. As I am in almost constant training I have gone over the
same exercises and in about the same way and have given the results
for a standard of comparison. (The figures are not given here.)
"'My conclusion given in condensed form is this. Mr. Fletcher performs
this work with greater ease and with fewer noticeable bad results than
any man of his age and condition I have ever worked with.'
"To appreciate the full significance of this report, it must be
remembered that Mr. Fletcher had for several months past taken
practically no exercise other than that involved in daily walks about
town.
"In view of the strenuous work imposed during the above four days,
it is quite evident that the body had need of a certain amount of
nutritive material. Yet the work was done without apparently drawing
upon any reserve the body may have possessed. The diet, small though it
was, and with only half the accepted requirement in fuel value, still
sufficed to furnish the requisite energy. The work was accomplished
with perfect ease, without strain, without the usual resultant
lameness, without taxing the heart or lungs, and without loss of
body-weight. In other words, in Mr. Fletcher's case at least, the body
machinery was kept in perfect fitness without the consumption of any
such quantities of fuel as has generally been considered necessary.
"Just here it may be instructive to observe that the food consumed
by Mr. Fletcher during this seven days' period--and which has been
shown to be entirely adequate for his bodily needs during strenuous
activity--cost eleven cents daily, thus making the total cost for
the seven days seventy-seven cents! If we contrast this figure with
the amounts generally paid for average nourishment for a like period
of time, there is certainly food for serious thought. Mr. Fletcher
avers that he has followed his present plan of living for nearly five
years; he usually takes two meals a day; has been led to a strong
liking for sugar and carbohydrates in general and away from a meat
diet; is always in perfect health, and is constantly in a condition of
fitness for work. He practises thorough mastication, with more complete
insalivation of the food (liquid as well as solid) than is usual,
thereby insuring more complete and ready digestion and a more thorough
utilisation of the nutritive portions of the food.
"In view of these results, are we not justified in asking ourselves
whether we have yet attained a clear comprehension of the real
requirements of the body in the matter of daily nutriment? Whether we
fully comprehend the best and most economical method of maintaining
the body in a state of physiological fitness? The case of Mr. Fletcher
just described; the results noted in connection with certain Asiatic
peoples; the fruitarians and _nut_arians in our own country recently
studied by Professor Jaffa, of the University of California; all
suggest the possibility of much greater physiological economy than we
as a race are wont to practise. If these are merely exceptional cases,
we need to know it, but if, on the other hand, it is possible for
mankind in general to maintain proper nutritive conditions on dietary
standards far below those now accepted as necessary, it is time for us
to ascertain that fact. For, if our standards are now unnecessarily
high, then surely we are not only practising an uneconomical method
of sustaining life, but we are subjecting ourselves to conditions the
reverse of physiological, and which must of necessity be inimical to
our well being. The possibility of more scientific knowledge of the
natural requirements of a healthy nutrition is made brighter by the
fact that the economic results noted in connection with our metabolism
examination of Mr. Fletcher is confirmatory of similar results
obtained under the direction and scrutiny of Sir Michael Foster at the
University of Cambridge, England, during the autumn and winter of last
year; and by Dr. Ernest Van Someren, Mr. Fletcher's _collaborateur_,
in Venice, on subjects of various ages and of both sexes, some account
of which has already been presented to the British Medical Association
and to the International Congress of Physiologists at its last meeting
at Turin, Italy. At the same time emphasis must be laid upon the fact
that no definite and positive conclusions can be arrived at except as
the result of careful experiments and observations on many individuals
covering long periods of time. This, however, the writer hopes to do
in the very near future, with the coöperation of a corps of interested
observers.
"The problem is far-reaching. It involves not alone the individual, but
society as a whole, for beyond the individual lies the broader field
of the community, and what proves helpful for the one will eventually
react for the betterment of society and for the improvement of mankind
in general."
This test of work was accomplished on food of the nitrogen value of
less than 7 grams daily, whereas the text-books declare that from 16 to
25 grams of nitrogen are necessary to human existence. The heat value
of the food consumed during the test, and which was like in amount to
what had been habitually taken by the author for about five years
previously (less than 1600 large Calories), was only _half the amount_
set down by the majority of the presently-accepted authorities as
necessary to run the body of a man of the author's weight and activity.
The heat-economy-showing was verified a week or two later in a 32-hour
calorimeter measurement in the apparatus of Professors Atwater and
Benedict at Middletown, Conn.
Evidence of even more significant value has accumulated outside
the field of the author's own experiments and tests. After more
than a year of careful trial among some thousands of patients and
among some hundreds of earnest employees, Dr. James H. Kellogg,
of the great Battle Creek Sanitarium, has adopted the suggestions
contained in this book as the first requirement of the treatment at
the Sanitarium. In like manner, Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey, the sturdy
advocate of dietary-economy for the past thirty years, author of
the "No-Breakfast" regimen, and various books upon the subject of
auto-nutrition and dietary-rest, bent his attention upon the effect
of thorough buccal digestion prescribed after a period of rest from
outside feeding, and here follows his appreciation as extracted from
personal letters.
Before quoting from the high appreciation of Dr. Dewey and Dr.
Kellogg it may be well to state that the author stands simply for a
test-subject-factor in a commonweal natural inquiry and no praise
of the subject attaches to the person of the author. Whatever the
author is, in the enjoyment of health and strength, is the result of
natural causes which have developed during his study of the natural
requirements in our nutrition. Please forget the personal element and
consider that what is the author's gain in efficiency as related, is
the possible possession of the reader as well, and whatever work or
test the author performs is done as much for the reader as for the
author himself.
The several extracts from the letters of Drs. Kellogg and Dewey; the
statement relative to an endurance-test made on the author's fiftieth
birthday, on a bicycle in France, volunteered by Edward W. Redfield,
last year's Medal-of-Honorist at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, as well as medalist of last Exposition Universale, Paris;
are appreciated and accepted for the subject they endorse; and, as
before stated, are entirely impersonal. Instead of using dumb animals
for test subjects and getting their unwilling, and sometimes abnormally
deranged, participation, the author takes pleasure in submitting to
the tests himself, and is thus able to state "symptoms" and "feelings"
more accurately, perhaps, than any dog could do. Were vivisection
necessary the author would willingly submit to that inconvenience also;
but thanks to the skill of a Pawlow, and the ingenuity of a Bowditch
coupled with the patience and persistence of a Cannon, as fully
related in the "A.B.-Z.," we not only get the economic results but we
are able to know and even see some of the "reasons for things" as well.
Interesting testimony and comment relative to the present study will
be found at the end of the volume in communications from Commandante
Cesare Agnelli, Clarence F. Low, Esquire, Baron Randolph Natili, and
one of unusual suggestiveness, as evidence of the need of further study
of nutrition, from Dr. Hubert Higgins of Cambridge, England.
MILITARY-SCIENTIFIC COÖPERATION
With the evidence and interest just outlined, it was not difficult
for the author to enlist the coöperation of Surgeon-General O'Reilly
of the United States Army and the endorsement of General Leonard
Wood for larger investigation of the subject. These officers,
both of them surgeons and medical doctors, had supported the
militant-martyr-scientist, Dr. Major Walter Reed, in his great
sanitary accomplishment; had fought yellow fever to a finish together
in Cuba; had traced its spread to a specific cause; and were thereby
encouraged to tackle even so common and powerful enemies as Indigestion
and Mal-Assimilation.
The investigation now in progress at Yale University, under the
direction of Professor Chittenden and under the fostering auspices
of the Trustees of the _Bache Fund_, which is administered by the
National Academy of Sciences, and other contributed support, is a
Militant-Scientific campaign which will not cease until we know as much
about human nutrition, at least, as we know about the nutrition of our
domestic animals.
In this little book, however, is an account of the first distress and
war cry, (to appropriate an expression of the Salvation Army), and
while the workers in Science may take a considerable time to make
observations and investigate the "reasons for things," the underlying
claims herein stated will, it is believed, ultimately be established as
fundamental facts of both Hygiene and Physiology.
The psychic factor in digestion is even more important than originally
claimed by the author, and fully accounts for the strength attained by
the Christian Science movement.
In the "A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition" are reprinted, for recent
scientific reports, in addition to the papers of Dr. Van Someren and
Professor Chittenden, before mentioned, articles and lectures by Dr.
Professor Pawlow, the great Russian physiologist and one of the Board
of Assessors in the International Nutrition Investigation, described in
the "A.B.-Z.," (reprinted from the fine English Translation by Dr. W.
H. Thompson, of Trinity College, Dublin; English publishers, Griffin &
Co.; American publishers, Lippincott & Co.), on the mental influence
over the salivary, gastric, and intestinal secretions. Also, nearly an
hundred pages of most virile, readable, and important "Observations on
Mastication," by Dr. Harry Campbell, M.D., F.R.C.P., of the North-west
London Hospital; reprinted by courteous permission of the author and
of the editor of the _Lancet_. Also, a description of the digestive
process in animals as seen by aid of the Röntgen, or X-Ray; a most
readable account of the infinite patience and application of Dr. W. B.
Cannon, of the Harvard Medical School, devoted to learning the "reasons
for things" done in the closed and secret laboratory of the stomach and
intestines.
The above is a necessary advertisement of another volume in the A.B.C.
Life Series; because the details of this particular attempt to reduce
the philosophy of every-day life to profitable simples is linked-up in
several volumes developed in the course of study of the subject for
location of the germinal causes.
"Menticulture" was the first of the series and relates to the
individual. "Happiness" came next and located the chief enemy of
happiness in _Fearthought_, the unprofitable element of forethought.
"That Last Waif" treated the question as related to the Social Whole,
children in particular, and recommended _Social Quarantine_; by
extension of infant education to the extreme of allowing no child to
escape educational care. This present treatise deals with the first
requirement of such infantile care and education, right feeding.
DR. KELLOGG'S APPRECIATION
The great Battle Creek Sanitarium, under the inspiration and direction
of Dr. J. H. Kellogg, has grown to enormous proportions in thirty-seven
years. It began with one patient in a two-storey frame house in a
country village, and has been largely influential in creating the
present proud distinction of Battle Creek, Michigan, with its millions
upon millions of invested industrial capital.
The "cure" is based upon the establishment in the patient of right
nutrition, right functioning of the bodily organs and secretions, and
thereby assisting Nature to perform the cure in a natural manner. Pure
foods and other conditions of right nutrition have been the particular
study of the institution staff, and large and finely furnished chemical
and bacteriological laboratories have been installed for the study of
nutrition in a scientific manner.
The Battle Creek Sanitarium is a purely humanitarian and philanthropic
institution. By perpetual charter, all of the profits of the concern in
all of its ramifications are dedicated to the extension of the American
Medical Missionary Cause, and there have been already established more
than sixty branches of the parent institution in different parts of the
world, principally in or near the chief cities of America, and all are
occupied with saving and regenerating the physical body of the sick as
a foundation for possible moral awakening and spiritual cultivation.
The work done by these humanitarian institutions is most practical, and
the best evidence of the practicality is their growth. Patients are
charged what they can conveniently pay, but none who need are refused
attention. Branches are made self-supporting as soon as possible,
but are first nurtured by the parent sanitarium. There are some
hundreds of physicians, nurses, and other attachés of the different
institutions, and these are enthusiasts in the humanitarian work,
taking as wages only what they need for most economical support, "a
mere pittance," and deriving their chief compensation from satisfaction
gained in the service. All in all, it is an expression of inspirational
altruism worthy of the example of the Good Samaritan and a practical
demonstration of the Sermon on the Mount.
The special attention of the writer was called to the work of the
Battle Creek Sanitarium organisation by an American banker, Edwin C.
Nichols, Esquire, in London, at the time of the last Coronation. The
banker was conversant with the growth and methods of the Sanitarium,
and had seen the result of its missionary and sanitary work. He
exacted a promise from the writer to visit Battle Creek on his first
opportunity, and Mr. Nichols has our everlasting gratitude for leading
us to a more intimate acquaintance with so splendid an illustration
of humanitarian possibilities when properly directed. It is not alone
the great Sanitarium and its hospitals, and clinics, and shelters, and
refuges, and baths, and reading-rooms, that are doing the greatest
possible good work, in demonstrating their effective Christianity;
but it is the private waif-family of Dr. and Mrs. Kellogg which shows
what neglected children are capable of when given a chance, and which
appeals to the author especially as giving support to his ideal of a
possible effective _Social Quarantine_ as presented in his book, "That
Last Waif." Twenty-four neglected and sick children of unfortunate
parents have been rescued from an almost hopeless condition, and have
been adopted into the best of surroundings and culture, all promising
to become splendid wealth-productive citizens and ornaments to society.
For more than a year Dr. Kellogg and his staff of earnest workers have
been testing the suggestions offered in "Glutton or Epicure," and in
the treatise of Dr. Van Someren, and appreciation of these suggestions
and the work that has since been done to stimulate interest in the
question in high scientific circles will be found in some extracts from
Dr. Kellogg's letters which the author has received permission to print
herewith.
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., Nov. 26, 1902.
"DEAR MR. FLETCHER:
"I have your kind note of November 20th. Thank you very much for your
appreciative words. Your visit here was a great inspiration to all of
us. It is not often we find a man who enters into the things which
we love so heartily as you have done. The thing that interested us
especially was the fact that you are the founder of a new and wonderful
movement, which is bound to do far more for the advancement of the
principles for which we are working than all that we have done or
anything we can do. I shall await with great interest the development
of your work and shall expect to receive great light from your efforts.
We are all in training to find our reflexes, and are expecting to make
a great deal out of this."
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., Dec. 21, 1902.
"MY DEAR FRIEND:
"I have received the beautiful book which you sent me, 'That Last
Waif, or Social Quarantine.' It is a charming volume. I devoured it
eagerly, and I find myself in the position of an eager disciple
sitting at the feet of a master. Your ideas of social regeneration
strike deeper than those of any other modern author, and I shall
be glad to coöperate with you in any way possible in promulgating
these principles. You have made your book talk in a most impressive
way. From cover to cover it is simply admirable and must do a world
of good. I shall write a little notice of it for my journal, _Good
Health_.
"Again thanking you for this interesting volume, I remain,
"Most sincerely and respectfully
yours,
"J. H. KELLOGG."
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., Jan. 22, 1903.
"DEAR FRIEND:
"I have shamefully neglected you. I want to assure you how much I
appreciate your encouraging notes. I read them to my colleagues, and
they were so much affected that tears came into their eyes. I assure
you we feel that you are indeed a brother to us in our work, and
that God has providentially sent you to be a friend to us and to the
principles which we represent.
"I had a letter from Dr. Haig a few days ago in which he mentioned
you and your work, and said he was much interested in it. Dr. Haig,
you know, has done a great deal in calling attention to uric acid in
meats and other foods. His work has not all been accepted by great
laboratory men, but Dr. Hall, of Owen's Medical College in Manchester,
has recently reinforced his results. I have at different times
repeated his experiments with interesting results.
"I assure you we shall be glad to receive any suggestions from any
scientific authority who may visit us, and if there is any part of our
work which can be improved, we shall be glad to put it there as soon
as our attention is called to it.
"Again thanking you for your kindly interest in our work, I remain,
"Most sincerely yours,
"J. H. KELLOGG."
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., Feb. 22, 1903.
"MY DEAR FRIEND:
"I have yours of January 29th. I am much interested in what you write
about your demonstration at New Haven. I want to give the widest
publicity possible to your work. I find great good in it. I am talking
to my patients continually about it. I know from my experience that
you are right. For many years I have required my patients to give
special attention to chewing, and have made it a written prescription
for each patient to chew a saucerful of dry granose flakes at the
beginning of each meal. I have seen great good from this method.
"With kindest regards, I remain, as ever,
"Most sincerely yours,
"J. H. KELLOGG."
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., March 16, 1903.
"DEAR FRIEND:
"I am exceedingly interested in the facts which you communicate,
especially Dr. Anderson's report. It is quite remarkable. I am
verifying the same ideas in my own personal experience. I am confident
you have discovered a great and important principle and I shall watch
with interest future developments. I am going to get our students
interested in it. If you feel disposed to do so, I shall be glad to
have you make out a little line of experiments which will tally with
the experiments which you have been conducting, so the results may be
compared.
"I have in hand a translation of Cornaro's work which I have been
thinking of publishing. It occurred to me that perhaps you would be
able to write a little chapter for this work, or an introduction. I am
going to get it out in nice shape, and I trust it may be the means of
doing good in inclining those who read it toward a simpler life. I
am greatly interested in the ideas which you present in your various
books.
"I hope you will have a safe journey to Italy and back.
"I remain, as ever,
"Very sincerely and respectfully
yours,
"J. H. KELLOGG."
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., March 22, 1903.
"MY DEAR MR. FLETCHER:
"I have yours of March 19th. I thank you very much for promising to
write an introduction for the edition of Luigi Cornaro's life. You
are just the man to do it. I propose to get the book out in neat,
tasty shape. Shall be glad to have suggestions from you on this point.
The manager of a large denominational publishing house in Chicago is
interested and wants to publish it with us. He has promised to help
about the artistic features.
"As regards our medical college, I ought to have told you that we
are incorporated in the State of Illinois. Our medical school is
really legally located in Chicago. We always have one or more classes
down there for dissection, clinical work, and doing dispensary and
missionary work in the city. Our school is officially recognised. Our
diplomas are recognised in this country and in most foreign countries;
our diplomas are recognised, in fact, in all countries which recognise
American diplomas. The work done in our school is recognised by the
best schools. Jefferson accepts students from our third year into
their fourth, the graduating year, without examination. Kings College
in Kingston, Canada, does the same; also Trinity College in Toronto,
and other leading schools in this country. Our College is a member
of the American Medical Association along with Bellevue, University
of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Rush Medical College, and
other leading schools. We have placed our standard high so that no
one could object to the reform features of our work on account of
incompetency. Our students are admitted to practice in New York,
having passed the examinations of the State Board. Our best reason
for believing that our diplomas are recognised everywhere is because
of students from the College having passed the examinations in
nearly every State. One of our students recently graduated from the
University of Dublin after having spent a year there, as they require
five years instead of four years as with us.
"Your experiments are surpassingly interesting. Your performance
with Dr. Anderson was phenomenal. I confess you are a physiological
puzzle. If chewing accomplishes these wonderful things for you, it
is certainly worth the while. I am training myself from day to day
to masticate my food more and more thoroughly and I confess there is
greater good in it than I ever imagined.
"I am sending you a little box of foods that I think you will like,
especially the protose roast, the gluten biscuit, and the chocolates.
"I would like to get hold of a list of your books; I want to put them
into the hands of our students to read. Kindly give me a list of the
names and the publishers and I will esteem it a favour.
"I might have said further in reference to our College that it is
listed by the New York Board of Regents as well as by the Illinois
State Board of Health. We are going to make considerable improvement
in our school the next year. We are trying to put up a new building.
We need $100,000 very much, as our work has no endowment and it
requires very great sacrifice and most strenuous effort to keep it
going. Our teachers work for a mere pittance and our students are
compelled to save and economise in every way to get through. Nearly
all of them have to pay their way in work of some sort.
"By the way, I am taking liberty to send you with this, copies of some
little booklets which I have just gotten out in reference to our work.
"I am, as ever,
"Your friend,
"J. H. KELLOGG."
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., June 24, 1903.
"MY DEAR FRIEND:
"I have your kind note of June 21st. I am happy to be remembered by
you tho I have neglected writing you. I was afraid my letter would not
find you on your journeys.
"We are chewing hard out here at Battle Creek, chewing more every
day. We are continually thinking and talking of you and the wonderful
reform you set going. We have gotten up a little 'chewing song' which
we sing to the patients. It is only doggerel but it helps to keep the
idea before our people. We dedicated it to you and I am going to send
you a copy of it as soon as the printers get it ready. If you feel
too much disgraced I will take your name off.
"That little book on 'Cornaro' is not out yet. We have been waiting
for the introduction from you. We can wait as much longer as is
necessary, as you are the man to furnish this introduction.
"I hope you will come West some time this summer so you can drop in
and see us in our new building. We are not quite in perfect running
order yet, but we shall soon be fixed in good shape and will be
delighted to have you with us. You have helped us greatly in calling
our attention to the great importance of chewing. We had known it for
a long time but had not practised it. You demonstrated the thing in
such a graphic way that the whole world is constrained to listen.
"Thanking you for your kind note,
"I remain, very sincerely yours,
"J. H. KELLOGG."
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., July 23, 1903.
"MY DEAR MR. FLETCHER:
"I have your kind favour of July 14. You are doing me altogether too
much honour. I am only a plodding, humble doctor, and have never
had any opportunity to do any great thing, because of the limits of
my abilities, and because I have not the opportunity to devote my
energies to any one special thing; but have so many things to do that
I can do nothing very well.
"I remember Dr. Krauss very well. He has for some years been assistant
to Prof. Winternitz, the Professor of Nerve Diseases in the Medical
Department of the Royal and Imperial University of Austria. He seemed
a very able physician and a delightful gentleman. I was very glad to
meet him.
"I have already sent you a copy of a little booklet entitled 'The
Building of a Temple of Health.'
"We will be most happy to have a visit from you. I would like to know
about what time you are coming, and I will endeavour to be here. I
have a call to give an address at Chautauqua, N. Y., early in August,
and if I do not know when you will be here, I might possibly be away,
which I should consider a great misfortune.
"We have nothing here, I am sure, which will be new to scientific men,
and I apprehend that they will have a very different opinion of our
work than you have.
"I have a little book which I think I have not sent you, entitled 'The
Living Temple.' I will send a copy to you; also a copy of the 'Chewing
Song,' which is now out. It is nothing but a cheap thing, intended
only for my own little folks; but it got out, and several people
wanted it, so I have allowed it to be put in print. The purpose was,
of course, simply to impress the chewing idea. Of course you are well,
as you are apt to be well by chewing well.
"By the way, I met a disciple of yours a day or two ago. He was
Senator Burrows, from Kalamazoo. He called with his wife and some
other ladies, and Mr. Rose, the chief clerk of the U. S. Senate, to
make us a little visit. I had a very delightful chat with them. On
remarking to the Senator that he did not look any older than when
I saw him last, but seemed to be very well, he told me he was in
perfect health, and he expected to live for ever. He had recently
gotten hold of something that was doing him so much good that he
believed he should never be sick. I begged to know his secret, and
found it was chewing. I asked him how he discovered it, and he told
me he had learned it from your delightful book. You are certainly
promoting the most important hygienic reform which has been brought
forward in modern times. When you visit us again, you will see in our
dining-room of our new building more Horace Fletcher disciples, and
more hard chewers than you ever saw together in one place in your
life before. Our doctors and helpers are taking hold of it with great
enthusiasm, and I trust we shall be able to render you some good
service in promoting this good idea, for which you certainly deserve
the gratitude of the whole world.
"Hoping to have the pleasure of a visit from you soon, I remain, as
ever,
"Yours most sincerely and respectfully,
"J. H. KELLOGG."
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., Aug. 13, 1903.
"DEAR FRIEND:
"Your kind notes of August 7th and 11th received. I have asked the
Publishing Department to open an account with you and send you
everything you order promptly at publisher's discount.
"'The Living Temple' is published for the benefit of the Sanitarium.
Everything received from it goes toward paying for the new building.
The cost of printing, paper, and binding is paid for by contributions,
so all the money received goes toward the building fund for the
Sanitarium. I hope by this and other means to get the building paid
for before I die.
"I think your chewing reform is of more importance to the world than
you realise. You must have a great fund of good cheer with you;
doubtless because you chew! I told our patients here that I had heard
from you that King Edward was chewing. It interested and amused them
very greatly. The idea of 'munching parties' is a good one.
"As ever,
"Your friend,
"J. H. KELLOGG."
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., August 21, 1903.
"DEAR MR. FLETCHER:
"I have yours of August 20th with the list of persons to whom you
desire to have 'The Living Temple' sent. The books are already sent
together with a little note calling attention to them.
"Your continued courtesies are putting us under obligations which we
can never repay.
"There are a lot of devils of different sorts to be cast out, and I am
sure the dyspeptic devil is about the worst and the meanest of them
all.
"A quartette sang the 'Chewing Song' just before my lecture in the
parlour last evening. The great parlour was filled to its utmost
capacity. The people cheered heartily, not at the singing nor the
song, but the sentiment. I took occasion to tell them I thought Mr.
Horace Fletcher, in inaugurating the chewing reform, had done more to
help suffering humanity than any other man of the present generation,
and that I felt very much mortified that we had neglected this
important matter to such an extent here that you had to come to the
Sanitarium and be a missionary of good health and urge this important
matter upon our attention. I feel that we are all greatly indebted to
you, and seem to be getting continually more and more into your debt,
and I do not know any way to discharge the obligation; but if any
accident should ever happen to you so you get ill, it will certainly
be a delight to us to have the opportunity to minister to you if you
will permit us so to do.
"I am glad you have postponed your visit until October, as by that
time we shall have many things in better working order, and our
medical class will be here. I want to have our medical students meet
you.
"I told Mr. Nichols the other day you were coming to visit us. He was
greatly delighted to hear this. He feels as I do that the work which
you have inaugurated is the most important movement which has been
started in modern times.
"I remain, as ever,
"Fraternally yours,
"J. H. KELLOGG."
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., Sept. 30, 1903.
"DEAR FRIEND:
"I have your kind note of the 23d inst. I am sure that one of my
letters to you has been lost. I wrote promptly telling you that you
were at liberty to use anything I have written you respecting your
work.
"I am more and more enthusiastic respecting the value of thorough
chewing. I have read with great interest Dr. Harry Campbell's
articles, and am republishing in _Modern Medicine_ a large part of
what he has written.
"I have been thinking whether I might dare ask permission from you to
publish your article 'What Sense' as a tract. Possibly it is already
printed in that way. I would like to circulate it widely among my
patients, and our nurses and doctors. I am doing my best to get them
all to chewing, and have had great benefit myself from thorough
mastication.
"Our Medical School has just begun again, and I have one nice class
of sixteen students who are going to devote themselves to the study
of applied physiology, and all of them will experiment on the effects
of thorough mastication in relation to the quantity of food; also in
relation to the quantity of proteids. If you would like the details of
the results of the experiments, I will give them to you later.
"By the way, if you have any written or printed outline of data which
you think it desirable to collect, I will be glad to have it as a help
to us in researches of this sort. We have prepared our laboratory to
do almost anything that needs to be done, and we have a whole lot of
enthusiastic young men and women who will enter into this thing with
great zeal, and we will be glad to coöperate with you thoroughly as
I feel that you have introduced a line of research and investigation
which is of immense importance. I have read with great interest Prof.
Chittenden's article in the _Popular Science Monthly_, and I can but
feel that you are a heaven-sent missionary to the world in this matter
of diet reform.
"I remain,
"As ever your friend,
"J. H. KELLOGG."
"P. S.--I have for many years given a good deal of attention to the
matter of mastication. It has been my regular prescription for all
my patients for many years to eat at the beginning of each meal some
Granose Flakes. The purpose of this was to secure increased activity
of the salivary glands, and to encourage the habit of mastication. I
have found immense benefit from this practice.
"I appreciate exceedingly all the good things you are sending me. What
a delightful time you must have had in the Adirondacks! I have never
had such a pleasure in my life, as I have had my nose continually
on the grindstone at work since I was ten years of age, with no
vacations at all. It is a remarkable spectacle that these great men,
these learned professors and scientists, and army medical men, should
be coöperating so enthusiastically with a layman to learn the true
philosophy of life; but it has always been so. The great discoveries
have not been made by great scientists and great doctors, but by men
whose minds were above the bias of prescribed education, and who were
able to learn from the great book of nature, which is the book of God.
"When you come again I hope you will have time to stay with us a
little while so we can have some good chats. I would like to sit down
and go into the heart of things with you, when I think we should find
our ideas running very close together. We shall expect to see you next
month. I have to be away for a few days sometime during the month, so
I hope you will let me know a little while before you come about what
time to expect you.
"J. H. K."
EXTRACTS FROM DR. EDWARD HOOKER DEWEY
(At the first writing Dr. Dewey had had the method of treating food
commented on in his letters under trial for three years; it having
been communicated to him by the author among the first.)
"MEADVILLE, PENN., Nov. 17th, 1901.
"MY DEAR MR. FLETCHER:
"In the line of dietary form you have done better work than the entire
medical profession has done from the dawn of History. This matter
of eating the way you preach and practise, serves wonderfully to
save the waste of energy, which is a direct robbery of brain power,
in the stomach. It also saves an undue waste of food, the burden of
over-weight, and above all things, the _waste of disease_. You should
enlarge 'Glutton or Epicure' and push it. My allusion to this little
book in my last book has brought me many letters of inquiry, and I
always commend it as a work of the highest practical importance.
"I have received the article of Dr. Van Someren, and I wish I had
scores of them to send to my patients. I have read it with the
greatest interest, and shall keep it most of the time in the mail
pouches.
"In these latter times I am becoming more and more impressed with the
results of over-food even with the well, until now I feel that the
pussy belly is a matter so clearly attributable to gluttony as to be a
cause of shame, at least, in the physiological sense....
"I hope you will feel it a duty to enlarge and expand the usefulness
of 'Glutton or Epicure.' The people are ripe in this country for just
such a book.... I feel that you are doing the most important work in
physiological investigation of any living man, and we in this country,
especially, need all your new material as an addition to the book...."
(Two years later; after five years' test.)
July 20th, 1903.
"What you have done to unfold physiologic mastication means more for
human weal than all the mere medical prescribers have given the world
from Adam to the present moment. I have tested the method you advise
with the ailing, as you could not have had so large an opportunity to
do. I have been having the care of fasters for the past twenty-six
years, and now all of them, when they return to their healthy appetite
and feeding, have to 'Fletcherise' every morsel. Just now a man has
ended a thirty-two day fast under my care, and has begun taking food
again, with an appetite and a relish that his memory does not recall
having enjoyed before. He swallows nothing that is not reduced to
thin liquid. Only occasional abstinence from food for a time and such
attention to mastication, makes health possible with the majority
of people, tempted by quantities of soft and rich foods. No other
one has taught so wisely how available brain power can be saved from
wastage in the stomach, as have you--the value is beyond all estimate.
"It has been given to me to become a teacher among those who have
neither time nor means to cultivate health; mine to teach them how
to get all the health possible, without the use of any of the health
arts. In dispensing the new physiology of dietary rest I have had
need of all the time possible, with none left for the experiments
of science, hence I have done little or nothing to speak of in the
experiment way suggested in your letters.
"I am very glad to hear from you again, and shall be pleased to have
you indicate the number of the _Popular Science Monthly_, in which
Professor Chittenden's article on your work at Yale appeared, so
that I can send for it. Think of this, my dear Mr. Fletcher, what
a conservation there is of energy, brain-power-reserve and even
soul-force, in saving it from waste in worrying about and literally
pushing quantities of avoidable rubbish through thirty feet of the
alimentary canal; and this is just what is accomplished by your method
of making the jaw muscles and salivary glands do all their whole duty
in the matter of daily food."
September 3d, 1903.
"I send you a whole cargo of thanks for the fine book you sent me (Dr.
J. H. Kellogg's 'Living Temple') and the 'Chewing Song' (taught and
used as a reminder at the Battle Creek Sanitarium). The latter is the
most important kind of a song ever voiced during the age of man. I
have been trying to get time to write you some physiology, but am very
busy with my correspondence with distant patients. Will do so soon."
September 12th, 1903.
" ... What I would like best to express to you is my appreciation
of the exceeding good you have done me in teaching how to save
energy available for brain-power by 'Fletcherising' all foods before
swallowing. In the case of dropsy, I have previously written about,
I am confident the sole means of success that is being accomplished
now, is due to the 'Fletcherising' of all morsels. The patient spends
never less than an hour and a half over his one meal a day. At the
end of his former fast, with his weight of 250 lbs. cut down to 125
lbs., he was permitted to take six meals a day, and in a few weeks he
was nearly as bad as ever, with his weight raised to 180 lbs. Under
my care, and after only a seventeen-days' fast (dietary rest), he was
reduced again to 122-1/2 lbs. There has since been a month of feeding
one meal a day by your method, with weight restored to 156 lbs. and
no hint of returning dropsy--and you are guilty of this, for no other
than the practice of thorough mastication has been capable of such
curing work.
"Your experiences, as detailed in the _Popular Science Monthly_ (June,
1903), were read with absorbing interest. There is no more important
work for man to do than that which you are doing. I have not the
patience for details, and since the 'No Breakfast Plan' has become
somewhat known to the world, I have been too busy; but the more I
study, and study you in particular, the more I see and realise what of
crimes and of evil desires are due to over-food--to bolting food.
"Now for something new! In an article on 'The Mystery of Migrations'
in the _Saturday Evening Post_ of August 22d (1903), it is given out
that all migrating birds let their last meal get thoroughly digested,
that they may start on their long flight with empty stomachs; that no
power may be diverted to the digesting machinery of their stomach.
What is the significance of this in relation to the 'No Breakfast
Plan?' It is the true physiology of Instinct!"
(In response to a request for permission to quote his appreciation.)
September 17th, 1903.
"DEAR MR. FLETCHER:
"You may freely state my views of the value of the work you have done
for humanity better than I have done. Know this; I am not able to
adequately express my own appreciation of it, as revealed in the rooms
of the ailing throughout several years of experience, by any language
at my command. Here is something formal, if you like to use it.
"Yours with admiration and gratitude,
"E. H. DEWEY."
"P. S. The matter of thorough mastication, as unfolded and insisted
on by Horace Fletcher, is the greatest practical physiology that a
dyspeptic, gluttonous world ever has received. The mouth-work, in
saving the strain of overwork in the stomach and in the intestines,
will do more to prevent disease than all other precautions. This is
all the more wonderful when it is considered that Mr. Fletcher is a
layman.[4]
[Footnote 4: Dr. Dewey's expression of surprise at the lay
incompetence of the author is interesting in view of the fact that he
himself is responsible for the untitled, unprofessional deficiency
at which he wonders. When the author met Dr. Dewey, in Dayton, Ohio,
where he was conducting some experiments, in 1898, he was then on the
point of taking up a complete medical course with a post-graduate
course of research-physiology in order to give character to his
authority in advancing the cause of his amateurish discovery, as
related in this book. There were the time, the energy, the means and
the inclination of a student's craving inviting him to take the whole
course to M.D. degree; but Dr. Dewey advised "no." "Don't you do it,"
said he, "you are doing good work as it is; you will be more or less
influenced by existing standards which may be errors, and you may get
switched off the natural track. Study your physiology _after_ you
have made your observations." Dr. Dewey has forgotten his advice of
five years ago, but it was followed. Living almost constantly in an
open-air and open-mind atmosphere of research in alimentary physiology
ever since, thanks to Dr. Dewey's suggestion, the author has escaped
the abnormal physiology which medicine deals with, and he is more
and more thankful for the escape as time reveals that open-air and
open-mindedness are good, both for the soul and for bodily comfort and
health.]
"Here is the physiology involved, as I find the effect of it in
the sick-room. Theoretically, digestion may take place far down in
the digestive tract, but it is practically found that when this
possibility is resorted to, by reason of neglect of the earlier
buccal or gastric digestion, trouble soon happens, and we doctors are
called in to try to effect cures by medicine or otherwise. For every
one horse-power of work, as it were, that is slighted in the mouth,
it requires perhaps ten horse-power of energy to repair the neglect
further on, and all of this waste of energy is charged against the
brain-power, pleasure-power reserve on storage.
"As I read the account of Mr. Fletcher's showing of heat-economy,
reported by Professor Chittenden in his _Popular Science Monthly_
article, and which was verified in the calorimeter measurement at
Middletown, I see at once, from my own observations, that half the
heat commonly used in the human engine is occupied in forcing the
unnecessary waste through thirty feet of intestinal folds and
convolutions."
The author feels very grateful to Dr. Dewey, not alone for his
encouragement, but for the service he has rendered humanity by his
heroic stand for temperance in feeding. He is one of the sturdy
Esculapian Luthers, whose cry of reform comes from the impulse of an
inborn Christian Altruism.
When it becomes generally known, as it some day will be, that
overeating and wrong-eating are the prime causes of temptation to
intemperance in drinking, the measure of Dr. Dewey's service to the
Temperance Cause will be better appreciated.
AN AGREEABLE ENDURANCE TEST
After this volume was published in 1898, the field of experiment was
changed from the United States to Europe. The physical exercise and
mental recreation of the summer of 1899 consisted partly of bicycling.
We landed in Holland, toured Holland, Belgium, and Northern France, and
reached Paris in the course of about two months and with upwards of
five hundred miles' wheeling. For another month we bicycled leisurely
around Paris and added two or three hundred miles to our cyclometer
record. During the month of July the author further rode some seven
hundred miles in and about the Forest of Fontainebleau.
The idea of an endurance-test was suggested to the author by the ease
with which he accomplished a century of miles on the Fourth of July,
1899. Being in Paris, and wishing to celebrate a most beautiful summer
day and our National Holiday at the same time, an early start was made
and the beauty of the day, the charm of the golden harvest fields lying
between Paris and the Forest of Fontainebleau, and the noble forest
itself, led us on and on until the cyclometer showed a distance, for
the forenoon run, of slightly more than eighty kilometers (fifty miles)
in a straight-away line from hotel and home in Paris. Two years before,
fifty miles on bicycle, even when accustomed to riding daily during the
craze for bicycling, which was then at its zenith, if done in one day,
would have completely "done the author up" and would have called for
several days of rest for recuperation. In the present case, however, no
fatigue had yet been experienced and the day was still young.
The forest studio-home of friend Redfield, the Philadelphia
landscapist, was found on the edge of the forest bordering the Seine
at Brolles, and we went for a spin together and finally returned awheel
to Paris. To make a "century run" in a day had always seemed to the
author a feat for athletes and experts only, and when he found that
he had made it without any inconvenience and was in no way painfully
conscious of it next day, the ambition to see _what really could be
done_ was born. It would give practical measure of the improvement
due to an economical nutrition. It was known what the newly ambitious
contestant for a record _could not do_ two years before, but it was
now uncertain what he _might be able to do_ under changed condition of
health even with two years' additional handicap of age; besides, it
happened to be the half-century year of the author's life and a good
time to jot down a record of a new start in life.
Reference to "economical nutrition" in connection with a full measure
of recreation needs some explanation. To be economical means to most
persons privation of pleasure. It is true that the economic standard
attained by Luigi Cornaro had been maintained with ease by the author
since the beginning of his experiments in the summer of 1898. This
was not accomplished by trying to emulate Cornaro's example, but was
reached by a method of taking food, and developed in the course of a
special study of the economic natural requirements. The author ate
_just what his appetite called for_, as nearly as circumstances of
supply permitted, he ate _all that his appetite would allow_; enjoyed a
gustatory pleasure that _had never been equalled_ under old habits of
taking food, and was a distinct epicurean gainer by the economy learned
and practised. But--and in this "but" lies the secret--the solid food
had been munched appreciatively until it was liquefied and a strong
Swallowing Impulse compelled its deglutition. The sapid and nutritious
liquids were tasted as the wine tasters taste wine, as tea tasters
taste tea, and as all experts test, or "Get the Good" out of, anything.
Instead of being drunk down in a flood like water, which has no taste
and no reason to stay in the region of taste, delicious country milk
was sipped and tasted with the end of the tongue, where the best
taste-buds are, until it disappeared by natural absorption. In this way
the milk was fully enjoyed, largely assimilated, and, as the result
of almost subsisting on bread and milk alone, at times, in response
to the country appetite, the disproportionately excessive waste
usually encountered when pursuing a milk-diet was not experienced; the
digestion-ash (solid excreta) was extremely small and averaged only
about one-tenth of the amount commonly wasted in the digestive process
in ordinary habits of taking bread and milk hastily and carelessly.
It is significant that, while the quantity of food habitually taken
was about one-third of the text-book normal-average prescription, the
solid waste was _only a tenth_ of the usual amount, showing a much more
economical digestion and a better assimilation. This possibility of
a profitable and an agreeable economy was afterwards verified in the
Venice experiments.
An æsthetic result was attained in connection with these experiments
which cannot be too often advertised. All putrid bacterial
decomposition was avoided in the process of digestion, and all sense
of muscular fatigue was absent, even following strenuous and unusual
exercise.
Instead of involving deprivation and asceticism, that mid-summer month
in the Forest of Fontainebleau, occupied in making an _economy_ and
an _endurance_-test, was a carnival of tempting plenty in the way of
good food enjoyed to the full satisfaction of a healthy appetite. The
endurance-test recounted in the letter following is evidence of the
effect of such sumptuousness when approached by different methods of
gratification. The powerful young artist who volunteers the story lived
in the ordinary way and the aged reformer and research-dietetician,
whom the young athlete paced, treated his food as recommended in this
book.
EDWARD W. REDFIELD'S EVIDENCE
(In response to an invitation to recount his remembrance of the test
after a lapse of four years.)
"CENTRE BRIDGE, PENN.
"MY DEAR MR. FLETCHER:
"My remembrance of the trip is as follows: On August 10th, 1899, I
was spending the summer at Brolles, on the border of the Forest of
Fontainebleau in France, when you came to visit me and enjoy the forest
at the same time that you were conducting some chewing exercises and
planning an endurance-test on bicycle on the fiftieth anniversary of
your birthday. You were quietly living then according to the regimen
with which your name is now connected and I was pursuing the ordinary
habits of life which are common to artists abroad. The test was not
only to determine the endurance of yourself, but to furnish a contrast
with ordinary conditions of nutrition. We were eating at the same
table, with the same food available to each, and were taking about the
same amount of physical exercise. We turned in at night at the same
time, as people are apt to do in the country, and it was my custom to
rise at or before daylight. This habit of early rising came natural
to me from my farmer education and habitual practice, and yet I never
could surprise you early enough to catch you asleep. My first thought
on getting out was to stop under your window and chant the refrain,
'Mr. Fletcher, are you up?' in imitation of the catch-line of a popular
song of the year. Frequently the click of your typewriter warned me
that you were already at work, but you were always awake and ready for
'anything doing.'
"I was, at the time, thirty years of age and thought myself in good
condition and strong even for a farmer's boy; had previously done
considerable long-distance road-riding, including League of American
Wheelmen runs, etc., in competition with the 'cracker jacks'; and, to
be frank with you, thought the agreement to pace you on that particular
day a 'snap,' and I expected to lose you in the woods before long.
"The day was perfect, rather warm, as I remember it, and with little
or no breeze. Our start was made at 3.55 A. M. (arose at 3.30). Course
selected: To Fontainebleau and thence across country to Orleans, about
one hundred kilometers distant from Brolles. I considered Orleans the
limit and fully expected to have you return by railway from there.
"We were running at the rate of twenty to twenty-two kilometers the
hour, and from time to time I would look back for Fletcher, but he was
always at the same place at my rear wheel. A puncture delayed us for
some fifteen minutes, but when the great cathedral bell of Orleans
struck nine we were already there taking our first food of the day,
coffee and crescent rolls.
"We again started, after a short rest, down the Loire, always holding
the pace of twenty kilometers or better the hour in spite of the
undulations. We stopped occasionally for water and milk, a single
tumblerful of which satisfied both the thirst and the hunger of
yourself.
"To me, the ride, at about this period, became a grind, but Fletcher
seemed to get stronger and stronger and occasionally led the pace at a
terrific clip. My condition, as we neared Blois, became more than bad
with cramps in the legs. I had to dismount but couldn't stand up, and
for awhile, I thought they would have to carry me home. I appreciated
the kind inquiries sympathetically made and oft-repeated by yourself
as to my condition, but had you known, at the time, how I was cussing
your healthy appearance and impatience to proceed, you wouldn't have
bothered me so much with your sympathy. After a partial recovery and
the slow ride into Blois, six kilometers away, I left you, taking the
train back to Paris, you having decided to go it alone for the rest of
the day and thus complete the test.
"The arrival at Blois was about 1.30 P. M. (170 kilometers--a little
above 100 miles) and took about nine hours, including stops, to
accomplish. The next morning we received your dispatch from Saumur,
nearly another hundred miles down the Loire, telling us that the run
to that point had been completed by 10.10 P. M. that night, and Mr.
Fletcher returned the next day as fresh and as strong as I had ever
seen him at any time during the summer.
"Starting the day following with wife and daughter for a bicycle ride
through France to Switzerland I accompanied your party as far as
Geneva, and the only thing I couldn't discover was how a man who ate so
little could travel so far and seem never to get tired.
(Signed) "Very sincerely,
"E. W. REDFIELD."
"Sept. 17th, 1903."
TEST COMPLETED
The experience of the author on that eventful fiftieth birthday, as
registered in the successive sensations, is worthy of record.
In starting out in the cool of the morning as the day was dawning, and
speeding through the beautiful Forest of Fontainebleau, the feeling
of exhilaration was indescribable. An hour or two passed before there
was any sense of unpleasantness attaching to the steady grind of
duty which led us to pass reluctantly by inviting spots and scenes
without stopping. In the beginning there was the keenest feeling of
pleasure in the mere movement, without any exertion, over and among an
enchanting landscape. It was what one might call a birdlike sensation
of freedom of movement which bicycling and skating, among the common
means of locomotion, alone give.
Redfield did not let up on the pace and I was determined not to beg
for respite. Between fifty and sixty kilometers of distance only
had been made when I felt that the day was not propitious for an
endurance-test, and I fully expected to be compelled to return from
Orleans leisurely in the afternoon and evening by wheel with only a
slight addition to the century-run of the preceding Fourth of July
accomplished. Before Orleans was reached, however, all sense of strain
passed, and second-wind and second-strength had become installed
for the day. When I left Redfield at Blois I felt stronger than any
time before, and as eager to kick the pedals as when we started in
the morning and as one always is prompted to do when one is filled
with surplus energy. I had no objective point and was guided only by
tempting roads and favouring breezes. The river road down the Loire was
most promising at first, but a head wind sprang up and made a _détour_
the other side of Blois more tempting by argument of a fair wind that
blew down one of the roads leading away from the river. For a time I
made full twenty-five kilometers an hour, but the wind died out and I
returned to the river road and reached Tours in time for the enjoyment
of a magnificent sunset effect and a most appetising and satisfying
_table d'hôte_ dinner. Before dining I jumped into a tub and had a
good refreshing dip and a vigorous rub which made me feel like going
out to take a walk or mount my wheel again. My appetite for dinner was
not large, centred on a salad richly dressed with olive oil, and was
quickly appeased; immediately after which I mounted my wheel again
and proceeded down the beautiful road towards Saumur. My ambition was
here raised to complete 300 kilometers and the distance to Saumur just
about filled that ambition. I rode leisurely for a time after dining
and then gradually increased the speed to about eighteen kilometers
an hour, which brought me to my destination a little past ten, with a
feeling of sleepiness that invited to a hasty falling into bed, but
with surprisingly little or no sense of muscular fatigue. My cyclometer
registered a little more than 304 kilometers, or 190 miles; not much
for experts, under the conditions, to be sure, but a revelation of
possibilities to a man of fifty who had once, not many years before,
been denied life insurance on account of health disability. This was
worth more than millions of money to me; and no one knows how much it
will signify to the human family when the knowledge of a truly economic
nutrition is attained and established.
I was bright awake at daylight the next morning and had the impulse to
mount my wheel and see how "fit" I was in consequence of my exertion of
the day before. This I did, and rode eighty kilometers (fifty miles)
before breaking my fast at nine o'clock. I believe I could have ridden
as far that day had the conditions been favourable. My weight, on
return to my balances at Brolles, was reduced two kilograms (nearly
five pounds), but a generous thirst for a day or two, and a slightly
increased appetite put the loss back again inside a week even while
riding my wheel daily on the way to Geneva.
Since reaching Italy, and abiding in Venice, there have been long
periods when no systematic physical exercise has been indulged in.
Once, after nearly a year of physical inactivity, I took with me an
attendant and made an average of seventy-five miles a day in the
mountain districts of southern Germany for observation of increase
of food requirement during hard work. Neither muscular soreness, nor
muscular fatigue, except the periodical weariness of sleepiness, were
experienced as the result of the sudden change from the most restful
environment to strenuous activity; and herein lies a physiological
question that is far-reaching in its significance. It would seem that
Appetite, in its normal condition, assisted in its discrimination by
careful mouth-treatment of food, guards the body from excess and keeps
it always "in training." The later experience at Yale University under
Dr. Anderson and Professor Chittenden showed the same immunity from
muscular disability, and has brought the question to good hands for
solution.
The author has voluminous data relative to his work, but it is not
applicable to any other person. Each person is a law unto himself and
no two sets of conditions are alike. Treat your food as advised herein
and get surprising new experiences for yourselves, is the advice and
moral of the story.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
HEALTH, HARMONY AND HAPPINESS
Health, Harmony and Happiness are the natural heritage of man.
The human body is the most perfect piece of mechanism possible to
imagine.
The human body is intended to nourish Health, maintain Harmony, and
conserve Happiness.
* * * * *
The body machine is self-building or self-growing, self-lubricating and
self-repairing.
A simple knowledge, only, is necessary for proper (preventive) care of
the body machine.
All that Nature requires of man is to supply fuel preferred and,
therefore, prescribed by Normal Appetite and to direct the energy
generated along alluring lines of usefulness.
* * * * *
Nature requires no sacrifices and imposes no penalties for obeying her
beneficent demands.
Natural Laws are easily comprehended if studied objectively.
Ill health, inharmony and unhappiness come only from disobeying Nature.
God (obeyed) is Only Good.
NATURE STUDY
Nature cannot be profitably studied alone through books.
Nature has a separate message for each intelligence.
Each body machine has peculiarities which the possessor alone can
understand.
Object lessons, personally experienced or observed, are the best.
"Once seeing (or feeling) is worth an hundred times telling about," is
a wise Japanese proverb; and it is true.
As the swinging pendulum taught Galileo, and the falling apple
suggested to Sir Isaac Newton, the law of gravity, in like manner the
modern electric power-plant teaches us, by analogies, suggestions
useful in the study of ourselves--our own Mind Power-Plant.
OLD AND NEW
THE OLD IDEAS
The old religion condemned man, even though unenlightened, to perdition
and saved him only through special dispensation.
The old education insisted on narrow formulas and tried to cram all
mentality into prescribed moulds.
The old physiology presupposed disease and glorified pathology.
THE NEW STUDY
The new religion glorifies Love, stimulates Appreciation and preaches
only Optimism.
The new pedagogy aims to discover the useful tendency with which
each creature is equipped at birth and to cultivate this God-given
inclination as designed by the Creator.
The new physiology studies Hygiene and assists Nature by securing
Prevention to avoid the necessity of correction and cure.
SAFE HYPOTHESES
Assuming that Nature's intentions are only right, ill-health is
unnatural.
If Nature's invitations, as expressed by Normal Appetite, are rightly
interpreted, good health must result.
When there is bad health Nature has been disobeyed.
A REASONABLE CONCLUSION
If Physiology has failed to teach a way to maintain perfect health some
of her hypotheses must be wrong.
If any of the hypotheses of Physiology are discredited any one of them
may be doubted.[5]
[Footnote 5: Since this was written, the then accepted standards of
human food requirements have not only been questioned but have been
discredited and disproved. The great importance of mouth-work in the
economics of digestion has been demonstrated and accepted.]
OUR NATURAL GUARDIANS
THE SENSES
GUIDING SUPPOSITIONS
The stomach and other hidden parts of the body have automatic functions
independent of the will that perform digestion; these functions
are beyond the scope of control, and hence means of preventing
ill-digestion must be studied by the aid of the exterior sensations.
Sight, Appetite, Touch and Taste are the senses useful in selection of
food and in the prevention of indigestion.
Sight and Appetite relate to invitation and selection, while Touch and
Taste are discriminators and indicators of conditions.
Appetite and Taste are the sense functions that are most important to
health, and hence they are the most important to study and understand.
They are the guide in nutrition and the guard of the body machine--the
Mind Power-Plant.
Smell also is an important aid in selection and discrimination and is
an effective assistant of Appetite.
APPETITE AND TASTE ANALYSED
Appetite should be dignified and recognised as a distinct sense.
Normal Appetite is Nature's means of indicating her fuel and repair
requirements for the Mind Power-Plant.
Study Normal Appetite and heed its invitation. It prescribes wisely.
Its mark of distinction, to differentiate it from False Appetite, is
"watering of the mouth" for _some particular thing_.
False Appetite is an indefinite craving for _something_, ANYTHING! to
smother disagreeable sensations and frequently is expressed by the
symptom of "faintness" or "All-gone-ness." [Vide the "A.B.-Z. of OUR
OWN NUTRITION."]
Taste is the chemist of the body; of the Mind Power-Plant. More
correctly, perhaps, it is the report of a chemical process relating to
nutrition.
Taste is an evidence of nutrition. While taste lasts a necessary
process is going on.
Taste should, therefore, be carefully studied and understood.
Both Taste and Appetite differ in different individuals and in the same
individual under different conditions of thought or activity.
Taste is also dependent on supply of the mouth juices usually called
saliva, and these differ materially in individuals, necessitating
self-study, self-understanding, and self-care to insure prevention of
indigestion and disease.
The most important part of nutrition is the right preparation of food
in the mouth for further digestion.
The most important discovery in physiology is the relation of
compulsory or involuntary swallowing to the right preparation of food
for digestion.
* * * * *
Taste is evidence of nutrition.
Whatever does not taste, such as glass or stone, is not nutritious.[6]
[Footnote 6: Pure proteid or albumin is quite tasteless but is
always accompanied by tasting substance, and separation of the
proteid molecule from enveloping material is an important function of
mouth-capacity in digestion.]
Taste is excited by the dissolving of food in the mouth, and while it
lasts a necessary process of preparation for digestion is going on.
The juices of the mouth have the power to transform any food that
excites taste into a substance suitable for the body.
Nothing that is tasteless, except water and pure proteid, only by
distinct invitation of appetite, should be taken into the stomach.
If we swallow only the food which excites the appetite and is pleasing
to the sense of taste, and swallow it only after the taste has been
extracted from it, removing from the mouth the tasteless residue,
complete and easy digestion will be assured and perfect health
maintained.
* * * * *
NATURE'S FOOD FILTER
Nature has provided an Automatic Food Filter which, if rightly used,
will prevent the introduction of any harmful substance into the stomach.
* * * * *
At the entrance to the throat there are certain muscular folds or
convolutions, including the palate, which, when in repose, form an
organ that is nothing less than a Perfect Food Filter. This filter has
also automatic qualities which compel it to empty itself by the process
we call "Involuntary Swallowing."
Involuntary swallowing is really compulsory swallowing; unless a
voluntary effort to restrain it is set up against it. The real
Swallowing Impulse is so strong that it is practically compelling.
The Food Filter, when rightly performing its protective function, is
impervious to anything except pure water at the right temperature
for admission to the stomach and to nutriment which has been properly
dissolved and chemically converted by salivation (mixture with saliva)
into a substance suitable for further digestion.
IMPORTANCE OF MASTICATION
If we masticate--submit to vigorous jaw action--everything that we
take into the mouth, liquid as well as solid, until the nutritive part
of it disappears into the stomach through compulsory or involuntary
swallowing, and remove from the mouth all fibrous, insoluble and
tasteless remainder, we will take into the body, thereby, only that
which is good for the body.
* * * * *
The first thought that will arise in the reader's mind on perusal
of the above declaration will undoubtedly be, "What! masticate
milk, soups, wines, spirits, and other liquids; nonsense! That is
impossible!"
It is not, however, impossible, and, furthermore, it is _absolutely
necessary to protection against abuse of the stomach and possible
disease_.
Liquid for adults, for anyone after the eruption of teeth, is an
artificial and unnatural sustenance; something not taken into
consideration when the human body was planned. Liquid food (drunk
without mixing with saliva) is a sort of nutritive self-abuse, and
the only way to avoid the ill effect is to give it the same chance
to encounter saliva that the constituent ingredients would have had
in a more solid state. For the importance of this see Dr. Campbell's
able treatise on mastication reprinted from the London _Lancet_ in the
"A.B.-Z. of OUR OWN NUTRITION."
* * * * *
The only things necessary to life that we are compelled to take into
the body that do not excite the sense of taste are pure air and pure
water. These are necessary to life, but are not what is called
nutrition. They do not, alone, replace waste tissue. They do not
challenge the sentinel, Taste, and hence do not require retention in
the field of taste.
If water be pure and tasteless you cannot masticate it, as it will not
submit to more than one action of the jaw before causing involuntary
swallowing. If it have taste it is a sign that it contains mineral or
vegetable substance that needs treatment of some sort to render it
suitable for the body, and it will then resist some mastication, some
mouth-treatment, as in tasting, before compelling swallowing, just as
the sapid liquids do.
Anything that has taste, even soup, wine, spirits or whatsoever is
tried, will resist numerous mastications before being absorbed by the
Food Filter. Above all things, milk, wines, etc., should be sipped and
tasted to the limit of compulsory swallowing.
* * * * *
In considering the reasonableness of masticating everything that
has taste until it is absorbed by Nature's Food Filter, it must be
remembered that the only liquid food provided for man that is not
artificial is milk, and the natural means provided for taking milk into
the stomach is by sucking, which is like mastication.[7] The milk of
fruits, such as cocoanut milk, for instance, is found, in liquid form,
only in the unripe fruit, and remains liquid only while it is ripening
into pulp.
[Footnote 7: Before the eruption of teeth in a child there is no
secretion of saliva, only mucous; but mother's milk is strongly
alkaline, and hence has no need of saliva to prepare it for digestion.
All milk that has "stood" or has been mixed with water is acid, and
requires saliva to give it the quality of mother's milk.]
* * * * *
Insalivation does not seem to be complete without jaw action, although
saliva (sometimes only mucous) flows freely into the mouth without
it under conditions which we term "watering of the mouth" excited by
keenness of appetite. (See Pawlow's, Campbell's, Van Someren's, and
other evidence in "A.B.-Z. of OUR OWN NUTRITION.")
The normal perviousness or natural opening of the Food Filter for
swallowing food is directly assisted and affected by movement of the
jaws exercised in vigorous manner.
Mastication, or mouth-treatment, therefore, even of liquids that excite
taste, seems to be a necessary part of thorough insalivation.
* * * * *
Nature has a good reason for everything she plans.
It is asserted by physiological chemists that saliva, taken from the
mouth and kept at normal temperature, will dissolve breads and similar
foods and convert the starch in them into maltose, glucose or sugar.
The converted form is that which is suitable for further digestion.
Saliva also converts some acids into alkali and readily neutralises all
acids.
It is also asserted that saliva does not dissolve some things (proteid
substances) nor chemically affect them as visibly as it does starch
and acid, but, even if this be true, it is no less essential that
the juices provided in the mouth should have an opportunity, through
mastication, or, movement about in the mouth, to do what they are able
to do in assisting digestion.
Experiment shows that if all foods are submitted to the examination
and action of these juices until involuntary swallowing takes place,
the results in aiding subsequent digestion are important in promoting
healthy nutrition.
Separation, neutralisation, alkalination, saccharidation, of the
proteid and carbohydrate elements of common foods and perhaps a
partial emulsification of fats are all possible in the mouth and are
more easily and quickly done there than inside the body. Much care in
Mouth-Treatment is an assurance of economy and safety in Alimentation.
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED
One of the objections usually provoked by the suggestion that all
tasteless residue remaining in the mouth after the taste or nutriment
has been dissolved out of it should be removed is generally expressed
in this wise, "How is it possible to remove refuse from the mouth while
eating without appearing disgusting to others at table? You have to
swallow things to get rid of them."
This is merely a bugbear prejudice. It has no good reason.
Do you not remove cherry pits, grape skins, the shell of lobster, bone,
etc., when you encounter them? Then why not remove the fibrous matter
found in tough lean meat, the woody fibre of vegetables or anything
rejected by instinctive desire to discard it after taste has been
exhausted, and which is a protection provided by beneficent Nature?
In well selected and well cooked food there is little found that the
juices of the mouth in connection with the teeth cannot take care of
and prepare so as to be acceptable to Nature's Food Filter.
If fibre is found in the food it can be put upon the fork in the same
manner that a cherry pit is usually handled and transferred to the
plate without observation.
Another fancied objection to thorough mastication is that it interferes
with the sociability of a meal.
This is also a senseless bugbear. It is true that one cannot converse
freely with large morsels of food in the mouth. It is also true that
it is nothing less than a _gluttonous_ custom to greedily take a big
mouthful of food, and, if accosted with a question, to bolt it in order
to answer.
It will be found easy to carry on conversation without disagreeable
interruption and yet follow Nature's demands in properly masticating
food by taking small morsels into the mouth. It will be found also to
add to the real pleasure of eating, and eventually will become a habit
by choice.
Another objection raised by those who are afflicted with the habit of
gluttony is the lack of time permitted by their business occupation.
The time needed to appease the natural appetite of a hearty and active
man, to compensate for the daily waste and keep the weight at normal,
is from thirty to forty-five minutes for twenty-four hours.[8] This
requires attention and industrious mastication. Divided into three
meals it is less than a quarter of an hour for each meal.
[Footnote 8: The actual time required by the author during the Yale
tests to secure full alimentation, maintain weight, and fully appease
a "workingman's appetite," was from twenty-four to twenty-six minutes,
divided into two meals for each day. The common habit is to bolt food
and waste time afterwards in torpid inactivity, while all the energy
is busy in the stomach and intestines trying to get rid of the great
excess loaded upon them.]
Epicurean habits, however, incline one away from three meals a day and
make two meals sufficient for ordinary activity.
One objector, on the spur of momentary discussion, claimed that in
travelling by railway the time allowed for eating would not permit
Epicurean methods.
The author arrived at Mobile, Ala., recently with a workingman's
appetite and had only twenty minutes in which to get off the train, on
again, and satisfy the appetite. There is an excellent lunch counter
now at Mobile, and on the counter there was a tempting array of things
to eat and drink. Appetite chose at once a fat, rich ham sandwich,[9]
a glass of creamy milk and a hexagonal segment of a mince pie. The
twenty minutes was ample time for disposing of the sandwich and the
milk, and meantime the mince pie had been wrapped in silk paper and
placed in a paper bag to furnish Epicurean enjoyment for twenty miles
on the road, enhanced by the beauty of a panoramic landscape.
[Footnote 9: Five years of Epicurean enjoyment and study of the food
instincts and food economics have taught the author to like many things
better than slices of dead pig sandwiched between slices of delicious
bread. Vegetarian extremist and faddist the author is not, but an
attention to natural leadings inclines one away from dead meat, which
is believed to induce much uric acid, and in favour of first-hand food
elements as fresh from the heart and the breast of Mother Nature as
possible, leaving the second-hand, once-digested, already decaying,
natural food of the savage _carnivora_ and the emergency food of
savage man for emergency occasions or a vegetable famine. Much meat
excites lust, intemperance, and savagery in man and gives explosive,
non-enduring force. The question is, do we need such force in the
twentieth century, especially when we know that it tends to shorten
life and predispose to disease?]
If I had crammed the pie and the sandwich and the milk into my
stomach in seven or eight minutes, which, by actual observation, is
the gluttonous rate of despatching a station meal, I would have lost
two-thirds of nutriment, more than one-half of taste and would have
perhaps taken on twenty-four hours of discomfort, possibly inviting a
cold. I would have created an "open door" for any migrating microbes
that were floating about in my atmosphere looking for strained tissue
or fermenting food in which to build their disease nests.
Observation proves that you do not get much more nutriment out of your
food than saliva prepares in some way for digestion, gulp though you
may, but you can take in a load of disease possibilities in trying to
force the food past or otherwise evade proper salivation.
SPIT IT OUT
Whatever does not insalivate easily is surely dangerous.
There is nothing more pronounced of expression by its influence on
inclination than the impulsive desire to spit out of the mouth anything
that seems unprofitable to the senses.
INSTINCTIVE DISCRIMINATION
Muscles have been provided for this purpose (separating, collecting,
and spitting-out anything which the instincts protest against) that
are more facile than those of an elephant's proboscis, and these
muscles move things to and fro in the mouth or expel them if they are
undesirable.
If you acquire the habit of consulting the Swallowing Impulse and
practise only involuntary swallowing in eating you will find that these
muscles are very discriminating and will instinctively assist in the
rejection of unprofitable matter.
Their sense of touch will soon discriminate against unprofitable food
even when the sense of taste is fooled by some alluring sauce or
condiment.
Nature is truly a marvel of good sense if you give her a chance to
express her likes and dislikes without restraint.
Natural Appetite is the best possible judge of what the system needs,
and the senses which Nature's Food Chemist employs in her work are
unerring in their selection whenever they are permitted to act as
intended by Nature.
* * * * *
GIVE NATURE A TRIAL
Try Nature's way for a week or a month and you will never have a desire
to be even mildly gluttonous again.
One week of faithful trial without lapses should fix a habit of
consulting involuntary swallowing as an automatic guide in eating so
that attention will not have to be strained to heed it.
One week of constant attention to obeying Nature's demands in eating
will so impress its usefulness on the student of Epicureanism that an
accidental act of forced swallowing will be a shock to the sensibility.
One week of obedience of Nature's simple requirements will demonstrate
that she imposes no penalties for following her natural requirements,
but only for disobedience of her protective laws.
One week of earnest, open-minded study of Nature's first principle of
life--nutrition--will convert a pitiable glutton into an intelligent
and ardent Epicurean.
DIFFERENCES
Individuals differ greatly in the quantity of the supply of the juices
of the mouth which are active in salivation. They differ so much that
it is safe to say that no two have equal provision.
One person may dispose of a morsel of bread in thirty mastications so
that the last vestige of it has disappeared by involuntary process into
the stomach. Another person, of similar general health appearance,
selecting as nearly as possible an equal morsel of bread, may require
fifty acts of mastication before the morsel has disappeared. The
next week, by some change of conditions this order may be reversed.
While there may be some structural or chemical difference in the two
morsels of bread, this is not sufficient to account for the different
mastications required. The dissimilarity lies in the difference of the
copiousness and strength of the secretions at the time of trial.
This liability to changed conditions would constitute a serious
danger if it were not for the protective Food Filter, or, Reflex of
Deglutition, which Van Someren has so well described in the "A.B.-Z;"
and whenever mouth-treatment of anything to be ingested is neglected,
and forced swallowing--hasty bolting of food or gulping of liquid
food--is indulged in, this protection is eluded and the danger is
converted into actual internal self-abuse.
WARNING
Above all things don't _strain_ to be careful. Strain
inhibits--paralyses--all of the glandular functions and deranges the
nervous nicety of adjustment. Just eat slowly, deliberately, small
morsels, and sip and taste small quantities of liquids and observe what
happens. You will soon learn to Know yourself and "Know Thyself" has
been the advice of all the sages from the beginning of time.
GLADSTONE'S RULE
Numbers of mastications as related to given quantities and kinds of
foods are no guide to be relied upon.
Gladstone's dictum, "Chew each morsel of food at least thirty-two
times," was of little value except as a general suggestion. Some
morsels of food will not resist thirty-two mastications, while others
will defy seven hundred.
The author has found that one-fifth of an ounce of the midway section
of the garden young onion, sometimes called "challot," has required
seven hundred and twenty-two mastications before disappearing through
involuntary swallowing. After the tussle, however, the young onion left
no odour upon the breath and joined the happy family in the stomach as
if it had been of corn-starch softness and consistency.
It will be difficult, without actual demonstration, to convince the
advocates of "Total Abstinence" that any whisky can be taken in a
seemingly harmless form, but it is true that thorough insalivation of
beer, wine or spirits, until disappearance by involuntary swallowing,
robs them of their power to intoxicate, partly because appetite will
_tolerate but little_.
TEMPERANCE PROMOTED
As a matter of fact, whisky taken in this analytical way is a sure
means of breaking up desire for it, and it is an excellent protection
in drinking as well as eating. Many of our test-subjects have been
steady and some have been heavy drinkers but persistent attention to
Buccal-Thoroughness has cured all of them of any desire for alcohol and
in time it surely leads to complete intolerance of it.
It is also true that, taken in the way suggested, the body refuses to
tolerate more than sips and thimblefuls of these liquids and then only
on rare occasions, so that the Epicurean habit is the best possible
insurance of temperance.
NORMAL CONDITIONS RESTORED
While the difference in the supply of the juices of the mouth is an
important factor in digestion, insufficiency need not cause alarm.
Nature is so gladly and quickly recuperative that the moment abuses of
her functions are stopped she begins to repair damages and re-establish
normal conditions.
One of the subjects who submitted himself to experiment was found to
be woefully deficient in saliva and, was a pitiable dyspeptic, but, as
the result of patient mastication, the secretions gradually increased
until they were ample, and dyspeptic symptoms disappeared even long
before the secretions became normal. The strain of excessive and (acid)
fermenting food being removed, the acute discomfort was at once
allayed even before the repair was complete.
"KNOW THYSELF"
"Know Thyself" has been the admonition of sages from earliest times.
"Become acquainted with your Normal Instincts, with Appetite and with
your food chemist, Taste, and follow their directions with implicit
confidence," is the admonition taught by our experiments, for they can
lead you to robust health and greatly increased vigour of body and
mind. Study and heed them patiently for a week and you will follow
their invitations and warnings through life.
Thorough repair of an impaired body may not be effected immediately,
although wonderful results--almost miraculous--have been attained
in three months; but a week's faithful and attentive study of the
possibilities of Epicureanism, with right alimentation as its basic
requirement, in adding to the comfort and enjoyment of life will
result in right eating being made philosophically and religiously
habitual, and will give a backbone of Epicurean character that will not
easily succumb to gluttonous impetuosity.
THE MIND POWER-PLANT
A USEFUL ANALOGY
All of the functions of the body are operated by something very much
akin to electricity--mental energy--so that aside from the fermentation
which gluttony makes possible, the mere drag of handling of dead
material in the body, that the body cannot use, for two or three days,
is a wasteful draught on the available mental capacity.
Using an electric power-plant as analogous to the Mind Power-Plant of
the brain, and a trolley railroad as analogous to the machinery of the
body--analogies which are very close by consistent similarity--the
loading of the stomach with unprepared food, as in gluttony, is like
loading flat cars with pig iron and running them around the line of
the road in place of passenger cars, thereby using up valuable energy
and wearing out the equipment without any profit resulting from the
expenditure.
To those who are familiar with the modern electric power-plant the
analogy between it and the human individual equipment, or Mind
Power-Plant, seems very remarkable.
To those, however, who have not visited an electric power-plant a
description is necessary.
DESCRIPTION OF A MODERN ELECTRIC POWER-PLANT
Fuel, of course, is the source of the power. Furnaces which are capable
of producing heat with the least consumption of fuel, tubes within the
boilers that permit the freest possible contact of the heat produced
and the water to be turned into steam, steam pipes that are flexible
and yet strong, machinery that moves with the least friction in order
to concentrate and utilise the power of the steam, and dynamos out
of which electricity is evolved, together with auxiliary pumps and
hoists and blowers and whatnot other devices to help create, control
and economise the energy, are the essential parts of an electric
power-plant. To insure economy and accuracy these are made as nearly
automatic as possible.
At one end of the furnace house there is sunk in the cement floor a
large iron scoop or tray into which cartloads of lump coal are dumped.
This scoop-shaped receptacle is also the platform of a weighing machine
so that each load is weighed. In the bottom of the scoop there is
a trap-door, which, being opened, permits the coal to drop through
between the teeth of a crusher where the large lumps are reduced,
usually to the size of a small nut.
From the crusher the coal falls into the buckets of an endless
chain-hoist and is conveyed aloft to great hopper-shaped bins which
occupy the entire space under the roof over the furnaces. Leading
back from each bin to the constantly moving grate bars of the furnace
underneath is a pipe which delivers the crushed coal to the grate bars
and distributes it evenly over their surface as fast as it can be
received into the furnace, regulated, of course, by the consumption
that is going on inside the furnace.
To accomplish this automatic feeding each set of grate bars is
constructed in hinged sections, and forms a wide endless iron belt
which revolves and carries the coal within the cavity of the furnace.
The coal crusher, bucket hoist, movable grate bars, ash collectors and
sifters, pumps, blowers, lights and all other utilities of the plant,
as well as the great travelling crane which can hoist and carry many
tons' weight--any part of the enormous dynamos--from place to place,
are operated by electricity which is generated in the dynamos.
Automatic gauges that measure and indicate, and switch-boards that
regulate the energy created and stored in the dynamos play important
parts in the economy and working of the plant and are analogous to
appetite and taste in man.
ANALOGY ILLUSTRATED
The full analogy may be best illustrated by arranging the similar
functions of the two energy-creating machines opposite each other in
parallel columns.
ELECTRIC AND MIND POWER-PLANTS COMPARED
ELECTRIC POWER-PLANT MIND POWER-PLANT
Fuel. Food.
* * * * *
Selection of fuel as to Selection of food for
steam-making and economic nutritive value; normal
qualities. appetite serving as an
exact guide and gauge.
* * * * *
Crushing coal so as to Masticating food so
render combustion as that the juices of the
easy and complete as mouth can act on the
possible. substance with greatest
freedom; taste being evidence
of the working of
the process.
* * * * *
Automatic conveyal of Automatic reception of
the prepared fuel, first to properly masticated and
the bins and then on to thoroughly insalivated
the furnace as required. food into Nature's Food
Filter and emptying into
the furnace of the stomach
by Involuntary, or Compulsory
Swallowing.
* * * * *
Combustion in the furnace. Digestion in the stomach
and intestines.
* * * * *
Generation of steam in Generation of material
the boiler tubes and storage for vital energy and storage
in the boilers. in the body.
* * * * *
Steam. Blood in circulation.
* * * * *
Steam Gauge. Pulse.
* * * * *
Engine. Heart.
* * * * *
Dynamo, with its numerous Brain, with its complex
coils and extensive convolutions in constant
friction surfaces. frictional activity.
* * * * *
Volt Gauge, indicating Strength, indicating the
the power available. available energy.
* * * * *
Electricity. Mind. Energy. Nervous
Force.
AUXILIARY OPERATING MOTORS
Electric motors attached Nerve-cell motors attached
to the separate to glands and
parts or machines of the muscles, connected with
plant, connected by wires the brain by nerve-fibres
and drawing power from and drawing on the mental
the dynamos. or nervous energy for
power.
* * * * *
Automatic switches Sensitive nerve ends
regulating the transmission terminating in each cell of
of power to the motors the body and penetrating
in response to their each gland, signalling, on
fluctuating requirements. being touched, for power
to eject digestive secretions
or oily mucus as demanded
by the needs of
digestion, also, supplying
automatic power to muscles
employed in exterior
work or in moving the
food substance on through
the process of digestion
and afterward disposing
of the excreta--ashes and
clinkers, as it were. The
ganglions are the switch
boards of the body.
* * * * *
Automatic demand for Appetite, indicating
fuel as required in the requirements of the Mind
progress of combustion Power-Plant for replacing
to supply the waste or the constant waste of
useful consumption of the tissue consumed in running
electricity. the machine.
* * * * *
Good Draught, forced Optimistic Thinking,
if necessary. forced if necessary, for _it
is_ necessary to health.
* * * * *
PROFITABLE MANAGEMENT
Intelligent Engineering. Intelligent Self-Knowledge
and Self-Care, assisting
Nature in her
good intentions.
* * * * *
Economic stoking. Feeding only what is
actually required for sustenance.
UNPROFITABLE MANAGEMENT
Overloading and choking Overloading and choking
the furnace with irregular the stomach with
and dirty coal. unmasticated, unsolved,
unconverted, and, therefore
indigestible food.
* * * * *
Neglect of cleaning, Nature is not neglectful;
oiling and repairs. she does well and
quickly all the lubricating
and repairing of the
Mind Power-Plant whenever
strain is removed
and she is given the required
rest, or time to
accomplish the work between
meals.
* * * * *
Unnecessary ashes and Unnecessary fermenting
clinkers, encumbering the excreta, resulting from
plant, depositing dust in unfiltered and unprepared
the journals of the machines food, depositing
and requiring poisonous sediment in the
much power to handle blood channels, straining
and remove. the intestines, ossifying
the cartilages, crystallising
in the kidneys and
bladder and drawing excessively
upon the available
energy of the nervous
centres and the available
brain energy for power to
handle and discharge.
PROFITABLE DIRECTION AND USE OF ENERGY
Good wires leading to Creditable aims in life.
profitable uses.
* * * * *
Good insulation or isolation Concentration of purpose.
of circuit wires.
* * * * *
Resistance Coils. Self-Control. Reserve
force.
* * * * *
Success, evidenced by Success, evidenced by
profit. energy conserved and
happiness secured.
UNPROFITABLE DIRECTION AND USE OF ENERGY
Small wires leading Aimlessness of purpose
anywhere or nowhere. and timid, lazy or selfish
isolation from sympathetic
currents and constructive
occupation.
* * * * *
Current carelessly Energy wasted in idleness
grounded and electricity or worry.
wasted.
* * * * *
Crossing of wires resulting Crossed temper--Anger--wasting
in waste of power valuable energy and
and possibly causing fire. possibly leading to rash acts
causing life-long regrettable
foolishness.
* * * * *
Placing flat cars on Importing worry
an electric trolley line, through anticipated evil
for instance, loading them on an hundred-to-one
with pig iron and chance of its being realised,
purposelessly running them thereby wasting
aimlessly around the circuit, energy and paralysing the
thereby wasting the digestive and repair
electricity and wearing out functions of the body;
the cars and the line. painfully wearing out the
body itself.
* * * * *
Allowing cars to run Permitting Anger to
wild instead of keeping run away with cool
them under control. discretion.
TELL-TALE EXCRETA
It is unfortunate that the perpetuation of early ignorant abuses of
Nature's pure intentions has led to a too prudish attitude toward
the one infallible evidence of health conditions as shown by the
refuse of repair and digestion, as it is only by the excreta that
ultimate indication of the results of nutrition are observable. They
are the reliable report relative to the most important thing in
health--digestion--and they must be understood in order to be read.
There is no knowledge so valuable in its relation to health as that
which enables one to read health bulletins by means of the excreta.
Different foods contain different elements of waste material and to
be able to identify or judge the economic value of food previously
consumed a knowledge of its digestion-ash is essential.
A child should be taught the difference between healthy and unhealthy
excreta in order to be on guard at the first warning of disorder,
rather than be allowed to remain ignorant until disease has taken firm
hold of the system. The knowledge is not complicated and can be easily
acquired by even young children.
When the possibility of perfect protection in the matter of nutrition
is generally known, one mission of the physician will be to teach
prevention of abuses of feeding by evidence of the excreta.
The healthy fæces of many wild animals is comparatively dry, odourless
and cleanly; and a farm barn yard or a decently kept city stable is not
an offence to even prudish prejudice.
Not so the vicinage of an open receptacle for the waste of human
indigestion.
In animals, offensive egesta are evidence of digestive disturbance
owing to some unintelligent feeding on the part of attendants; in
humans the cause and effect of offensive excreta are the same.
When a race-or work-animal shows digestive disturbance the least
intelligent owner or keeper knows that it is not fit for work or
racing, and yet this symbol of unfitness is common to the human race.
One of the most noticeable and significant results of economic
nutrition gained through careful attention to the mouth-treatment of
food, or buccal-digestion, is, not only the small quantity of waste
obtained but its inoffensiveness. Under best test-conditions the ashes
of economic digestion have been reduced to one-tenth of the average
given as normal in the latest text-books on Physiology. The economic
digestion-ash forms in pillular shape and when released these are
massed together, having become so bunched by considerable retention
in the rectum. There is no stench, no evidence of putrid bacterial
decomposition, only the odour of warmth, like warm earth or "hot
biscuit." Test samples of excreta, kept for more than five years,
remain inoffensive, dry up, gradually disintegrate and are lost. The
following observation by an eminent eye specialist and _litterateur_
illustrates the opening paragraph of this chapter.
PERIODICITY
The question of "when" or "how often" the solid excreta should be
voided or released is one that immediately presents itself when the
subject is under discussion. The common opinion is that "once-a-day"
periodicity is the proper and only healthy thing, and should a day pass
there would be immediate fear of "constipation."
Under the best test conditions, before referred to, the ash accumulated
in sufficient quantity to demand release only at the end of six,
eight, or ten days, the longer periods of rest being the evidence of
the best economic and health results.
Under ordinary conditions of carelessness and strenuous environment,
say an exciting and exacting city occupation, twice a week is as often
as one should accumulate a deposit of digestion-ash and feel sure
that the strain on the system is not excessive and dangerous. Young
people seem to thrive even when delivering daily a large quantity of
smelly excreta; but it is an abuse of the "ten-horse reserve"[10] with
which the human engine is supplied; and along in the "forties" or the
"fifties" or the "sixties" the body shows signs of premature wear when
it should be but in its prime.
[Footnote 10: Dr. Meltzer's estimate of human reserve strength and
resistance which must be out-worn or over-strained before death calls a
settlement.]
Another important matter should be mentioned in this exchange of
sanitary confidences. When the ashes of digestion are dumped the body
should assume the shape of the letter Z. It is the natural position of
primitive man (squatting on his heels), and the body was originally
constructed on that plan. If otherwise poised (sitting erect) the
delivery of digestion-ash is performed with the same difficulty as
would be experienced when trying to force a semi-solid through a bent
or a kinked hose.
The publication of the observation of Dr.----, here following, is
a breakaway from the prudery of a diseased and disgusting age,--a
protest jointly shared by the scientific observer and the voluntary
test-subject, whose only aim in the pursuit of the study to "a finish"
is the ultimate benefit of the human race.
SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION OF A LITERARY TEST-SUBJECT
"During his sojourn in Washington in July, 1903, I saw much of Mr.----,
and in a very intimate way. The weather at that period was very
hot, sometimes near 100°, and very sultry. For ten days or two weeks
in the midst of this season he was busily engaged in constructive
writing, turning out on an average some eight thousand words on his
typewriter daily, which meant a close application for ten or fourteen
hours each day. He usually began his work at from two to five o'clock
in the morning, continuing often until three or four o'clock in the
afternoon, when we would commonly go together to a ball game, which he
enjoyed with the enthusiasm of a boy of twelve. Later in the evening
he would resume his work for from one to three hours, retiring at
from ten to about midnight. His food consisted of a glass of milk
with a trace of coffee, and corn 'gems,' four of which he consumed in
the twenty-four hours. Occasionally he would add in very hot weather
a glass of lemonade. There was at no time any evidence of mental or
physical fatigue. That such an amount of work, with the maintenance of
perfect health, could be accomplished on such a small quantity of food
can be accounted for only on the assumption of a complete assimilation
of the ingested material. As the degree of combustion is indicated by
the ashes left, so the completeness of digestion is to be measured
by the amount and character of the intestinal excreta. A conclusive
demonstration of thorough digestion in Mr. ----'s case was afforded
me. There had, under the _régime_ above mentioned, been no evacuation
of the bowels for eight days. At the end of this period he informed
me that there were indications that the rectum was about to evacuate,
though the material he was sure could not be of a large amount.
Squatting upon the floor of the room, without any perceptible effort
he passed into the hollow of his hand the contents of the rectum. This
was done to demonstrate human normal cleanliness and inoffensiveness;
neither stain nor odour remaining, either in the rectum or upon the
hand.[11] The excreta were in the form of nearly round balls, varying
in size from a small marble to a plum. These were greenish-brown in
colour, of firm consistence, and covered over with a thin layer of
mucus; _but there was no more odour to it than there is to a hot
biscuit_.
"The whole mass weighed 56 grams. The next day there was a further
deposit of the same kind of dry-waste, making 135 grams (about 4-3/4
ounces) for the nine days. It seems to me there could be no more
conclusive evidence of complete digestion and assimilation than this.
The existence of perfect nutrition is indicated by his ability to
continue, without fatigue and under trying conditions, work which could
only be accomplished in an ideal condition of health.
"WASHINGTON, D. C., July 31, 1903."
[Footnote 11: Similar specimens of digestion-ash have been kept for
five years without change other than drying to dust.]
WHAT SENSE?
TASTE[12]
[Footnote 12: "Glutton or Epicure" was originally composed of two
smaller booklets entitled "Nature's Food Filter; or, What and When to
Swallow" and "What Sense? or, Economic Nutrition;" bound together. In
this revision the order has been retained with some repetitions, but
with different applications.]
The Sense of Taste has a value in relation to nutrition that has not
fully been appreciated.
Taste has been considered the lowest, in usefulness, of all the senses.
On the contrary, if properly understood, taste is one of the most
important of all the faculties man possesses.
Taste has lacked appreciation, for the reason that it has been supposed
that it catered to sensuality, in the vulgar sense, and performed the
function of devilish temptation rather than that of natural invitation
and protection.
Upon an examination, that any one can make for himself, however, it is
revealed that taste is the faithful servant of appetite; the sentinel
of the stomach, of the intestines, of the tissues and of the brain,
whose guidance and warning, if heeded, will give heretofore unknown
enjoyment of eating, and at the same time insure perfect health and the
maximum of strength.
* * * * *
TASTE IS THE GUIDE AND GUARD OF NUTRITION
The more we learn, the more evident it is that there is a _Perfect Way_
locked, or, rather, enfolded, in all of Nature's secrets, and that it
is intended that man shall sometime discover them.
Taste, in its normal condition, when allowed to direct or advise,
serves several important functions, not the least of which is as
first-assistant to Appetite. Appetite craves the kind of nourishment
the body needs, invites to eating, gives enjoyment during the whole
time needed for the fluids of the mouth and the stomach to do their
part of the digestive process. Taste ceases when the food is ready for
the stomach and thereafter fails to recognise the indigestible sediment
which remains in the mouth after nutriment has been extracted; and,
in these discriminations, if consulted and obeyed, Taste and Appetite
prevent indigestible matter from entering the system to burden and clog
the lower intestines, form deposits in bone, cartilage and kidneys,
inflame the tissues, and otherwise create conditions favourable to the
propagation of the microbes of disease.
The normal sensitiveness of taste can be recovered, if already lost, in
the course of a week, or two weeks at most, by means of the stimulating
and regenerating influence of natural body-repair, if the method of
taste and appetite cultivation recommended in this book is followed.
Those who now enjoy good health will find a new joy in living when they
have discovered the intelligent use of taste and submit the fuel of
their Mind Power-Plant and strength to the analysis and selection of
Nature's instinctive agents.
LATEST DEFINITION
Dr. William T. Harris, in his latest contribution to the "International
Education Series," _Psychologic Foundations of Education_, defines
the presently appreciated value of the sense of taste, as follows:
"The lowest form of special sense is taste, which is closely allied to
nutrition. Taste perceives the phase of assimilation of the object,
which is commencing with the mouth. The individuality of the object is
attacked and it gives way, its organic product or inorganic aggregate
suffering dissolution--taste perceives the dissolution. Substances that
do not yield to the attack of the juices of the mouth have no taste.
Glass and gold have little taste as compared with salt or sugar. The
sense of taste differs from the process of nutrition in the fact that
it does not assimilate the body tasted, but reproduces ideally the
energy that makes the impression on the sense organ of taste. Even
taste, therefore, is an ideal activity, although it is present only
when the nutritive energy is assimilating--it perceives the object in a
process of dissolution.
"Smell is another specialisation which perceives dissolution of objects
in a more general form than taste. Both smell and taste perceive
chemical changes that involve dissolution of the object."
If this is the recognised estimate of taste, which is true as widely as
I have been able to inquire, both among physicians and among the latest
books on health, it is certainly a case of neglected appreciation such
as the world has not witnessed up to the present time.
* * * * *
PRESUMED CAUSES OF DISEASES
On the undisputed authority of physiologists it is known that all
diseases are made possible by derangement which is favourable to the
propagation of the microbes of disease, or by deposits of inharmonious
matter which are not thrown off.
Derangement of all the substance of the internal body is effected
mainly, and probably entirely, by deposit of indigestible food or of
tissue which is broken down and is not thereafter expelled from the
system by the ordinary means provided for the discharge of waste.
These inharmonious deposits which cause so much direct and indirect
trouble are mainly, and probably entirely, the result of excess of
eating, or of wrong eating, so that the digestive organs of the body
cannot take care of what is forced on them; or, of admitting substances
which they are powerless to make into good blood or discharge by the
regular means provided by nature.
Right eating and right food are, then, the all-important considerations
of health, as far as the tissues are concerned; and, as the tissues are
themselves the stored food or fuel of the brain and the nerve centres,
the importance of perfect nutrition extends to the most vital functions
and interests of life.
TARDY APPRECIATION
All experience warns against overeating and improper eating as the most
common causes of disease; and troubles of the stomach and intestines
are known to be the parents of all other bodily ills; yet no fixed
guide has been set to determine what is "overeating" and what is
"improper food." The reason for this is probably because no two bodies
require the same quantity or kind of nourishment, and, "What is one
man's food is another man's poison."
Nature has not been so unkind, however, as to leave man without a
means of knowing just how to gauge the quantity of food required for
her best service, and probably, when we learn the secret, has equally
well provided us with certain discrimination relative to the quality of
food that is best for harmonic development.
Investigation never fails to find provision for both guard and guide in
all of Nature's plans and man's nutrition is of such importance that
she surely has not left it out of the list of the protected.
Of the power of taste to discriminate accurately in the matter of
comparative value of foods I am not sure as yet, although I am
confident the power rests somewhere within our reach if we can only
discover it; but I have the best evidence possible that taste has the
power to advise accurately in the matter of the _kind_ of food and the
_quantity_ required; and, having selected what it wants or needs out of
a morsel of food, rejects the rest by ceasing to taste.
The message or warning which taste gives in connection with eating
is, "THAT WHILE ANY TASTE IS LEFT IN A MOUTHFUL OF FOOD IN PROCESS OF
MASTICATION OR SUCKING, IT IS NOT YET IN CONDITION TO BE PASSED ON TO
THE STOMACH; AND WHAT REMAINS AFTER TASTE HAS CEASED IS NOT FIT FOR THE
STOMACH."
WHAT SENSE?
When one comes to think about it, what sense is there in throwing
away a palatable morsel of food when the taste is at its best, or
while taste lasts at all, even if the purpose of the meal is merely to
contribute to the pleasure of eating?
"Some people live to eat and others eat to live" is a saying that is
familiar to everyone, and yet how few appreciate that the perfection of
living includes the perfection of both these desiderata!
Such is the impetuosity of uncultivated or perverted human tendencies
that the desire for acquisition, sometimes called greed, impels one to
swallow one mouthful of food to take in another, without ever dreaming
that the very last contribution of taste to the last remnant of a
delicious morsel is like the last flicker of a candle, more brilliant
than any of the preceding ones. In eating, the last taste, when saliva,
the medium of taste, is most perfectly in possession of the solution,
is better than all the other stages of the process. It is the choicest
and sweetest expression of the incident, as related to each mouthful.
Then why not court it and obey, thereby, Nature's first law of health?
* * * * *
Before proceeding further with a description of its functions it may be
well to state briefly the certain result of following the guidance and
heeding the warnings of taste.
Taste determines the mastication of food so that the requisite quantity
of saliva and other juices of the mouth are added in transit, so that
the stomach and the intestines will have the least possible to do in
the matter of conversion of the food to blood, and so that the brain
and nerve centres will be taxed the least possible to assist the
stomach and intestines in their work.
If Taste is heeded in its invitation and its warnings, that which
passes into the stomach will be so suitable and ready for nourishment
of the body that the smallest possible quantity will serve the
purpose and almost no waste will be left to tax and disease the lower
intestines, while the absence of fatally inharmonious deposits in the
tissue and bone will cease to exist in proportion to the skill with
which one interprets the warnings of Taste, and in response to the care
taken in following them.
DISEASE PREVENTED
It is said that none of the microbes of disease can live an instant,
and hence cannot propagate, in a perfectly healthy human tissue. It
_is possible_ to secure the perfectly healthy human tissue, to both the
generally healthy and to those who are afflicted, unless too far gone
to reform, by keen attention to the direction of Taste, and the reward
of the attention is manifold. The actual pleasure derived from eating
under the direction of the method suggested herein cannot be equalled
by any other means.
* * * * *
While cheerfulness, hopefulness, good nature, charity and all the
mental good qualities are splendid forced-draughts of oxygenised
impulse that assist the stomach in consuming and otherwise in taking
care of any erratic or excessive food supply, and are able to help take
care of a moderate glut of material; Taste, if allowed to serve its
full purpose, furnishes its own draught of cheerfulness by means of the
very pleasure it distributes, and at the same time it prevents, instead
of inducing, gluttony.
* * * * *
There are two ways of putting a limit to a meal--to eating. One--the
wrong one--comes in the shape of a protest on the part of a too full
stomach while the appetite is yet ravenous. The right one comes
naturally from a perfectly satisfied feeling--a ceasing of desire
for anything more, no matter how previously alluring to the palate,
before the stomach is overburdened. The former is evidence of glut,
or gluttony, and the latter is Nature's way, for which there is every
desired reward.
SOME EASY EXPERIMENTS
It is a very easy matter to prove for one's self that ample saliva is
essential to the most economic and perfect digestion; and also, that no
two mouthfuls of food require the same quantity.
Experiment will be doubly interesting in that it reveals pleasure of
taste in eating that has not before been enjoyed.
The function of saliva in digestion has commonly been understood to be
the lubrication of the food so as to enable it to be swallowed. The
truth is that it is the first and most important solvent necessary to
digestion, the good offices of which are to separate, make alkaline,
neutralise, saponify, and otherwise render the succeeding processes
within the delicate organs of the body as easy as their delicacy
requires, and thus not to strain and inflame them into festering
breeding grounds for the myriads of microbes of diseases which we are
compelled to draw in with every breath of air we inhale.
Drawn into a perfectly clean and healthy organism, some microbes aid
and are a part of life, but taken into a system clogged by dirt and
strained by overwork, these same harmless creatures become agents of
destruction. Bacilli may be either friends or enemies and we have the
choice.
* * * * *
NATURAL LIFE LIMIT
It is said that the natural life of all animals, left to pursue a
natural existence by being protected from the enemies of their species,
and in reach of sufficient nourishment, is six times the growing
period. If this is so no man need die or move his soul to another
habitation until he has occupied the present one for from one hundred
and ten to one hundred and forty years. If the proper use of the
instincts and senses be conserved in children, the growing period may
be prolonged to probably twenty-five years with a resultant tenure of
life of one hundred and fifty years.
I have personally interviewed a patriarch, who, at sixty-five, was
awaiting death with constant expectancy, and was helping to attain it
by every sort of favourable suggestion. It happened that he had his
portrait taken in a photograph gallery on his sixty-fifth birthday
as a last souvenir to be distributed among his friends. Shortly after
that, in the fruity and salubrious foothills of the Pacific Coast of
California, he met with accidental suggestion which changed his habits
of living, and, very soon, his attitude toward life and death.
I sat with the patriarch on his one hundredth birthday in the same
photograph gallery, examined the portraits of sixty-five and one
hundred years, conversed with the subject in a low tone of voice,
looked upon a man who felt that he was yet in middle life, and in
possession of an enjoyment of life that he said had never been equalled
in the early years of his bondage to the ignorance and impatience of
youth.[13]
[Footnote 13: The rejuvenated patriarch is still alive in 1903.]
* * * * *
STUDY NATURE
Watch good Nature, observe her methods, try to imitate them by way of
experiment, and you will find that, as heretofore stated, there is a
_perfect way_ enfolded in all of Nature's problems and that man has
only to discover the way to have it freely accessible to him.
Watch a child take its nourishment in natural manner. The sucking
action is like the act of mastication in that it excites the glands
which supply fluids to the mouth. Whatever number of these fluids there
may be, I will class them all as saliva. Certainly in the case of milk
being taken into the stomach, saliva is not needed to lubricate it. It
is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that saliva is intended as a part
of the mixture necessary to digestion; that is, to the conversion of
the food into nutriment.
In the case of children nourished at the breast of the mother--the only
natural way--the food is already alkaline and ready for digestion in
the stomach and intestines as related previously.
Remember also that, in the case of invalids with very weak stomachs,
physicians recommend taking milk and broth through a straw or through
a glass tube. Taking fluid this way requires a sucking action of the
mouth and thereby induces a flow of saliva. _Of course_, the fluid is
better digested than when drunk because Nature's way has been followed,
and it is no wonder that milk and often soups of different kinds are
indigestible, if taken contrary to the natural way, except in digestive
systems which have not yet exhausted their ten-horse-power resistance
capacity.
I have tried milk and soups upon a stomach trained down so fine that
it was like a pair of apothecary's balances, sensitive to the least
inharmony, to find that if they are drunk there is a mild protest--a
sort of a shrug of the shoulders, as it were--and that when the same
liquids have been moved about in the mouth for the time necessary to
naturally excite the Swallowing Impulse, they have passed into the
stomach without the owner being conscious afterwards of their presence
except by feeling of complete satisfaction.
It would seem, therefore, that the perfection of nutrition requires
the proper mixture of saliva added to _all_ food substances, and that
mastication is not only a means of separation in order to give saliva
a chance but a valve opener for salivary glands in order to make the
proper solution for the stomach; and, that taste exists, in one of its
important functions, to indicate how long the process should continue
and when it has effected its healthful purpose.
Any one who tries it, no matter how perverted the taste has become by
abuse, will find that Nature is not only kind but alluring. Meat or
bread, without sauces or butter, are tasteless, in a degree, when first
taken into the mouth dry. It is for this reason that butter, sauces,
salt, sugar, etc., are used to make them what is called palatable. It
is the salt or the sugar or other spices in these which excites the
palate immediately when the dry morsel would not do so in such marked
degree.
If you take the meat or the dry bread and masticate sufficiently,
allowing the nutriment to become thoroughly solved by the saliva and
separated from the _dirt_,--the indigestible, tasteless remainder--the
taste will become more and more delicious as the saliva gets possession
of the solution, and will have a final delicacy which sauces cannot
equal, as a reward for pursuing Nature's invitation and rendering her
the appointed service.
An easy experiment that will prove the above statement to be correct is
to take a variety of breads, white and brown, toasted and untoasted,
crust and soft, and afterwards some of the same soaked in soup or milk,
or, in the juice of whatever meat you happen to have at your meal.
Taken dry, toast will only reduce and disappear, without effort of
swallowing, into the stomach, leaving no tasteless dregs behind, after
about thirty actions of the jaw. This is probably the reason why toast
is an invalid's best diet; because mastication is required to crush
it, saliva is liberated by the acts of mastication, less saliva is
required to prepare toast for the stomach than any other form of bread,
and therefore, the proper conditions are attained _perforce_, and easy
digestion is promoted. Crust of French bread will do the same by means
of about forty jets let loose by mastication; the soft inside of French
bread will require fifty, or more; crust and inside of biscuits and of
"home-made" bread somewhat more than the French bread; while "Boston
brown bread" requires as many as seventy to eighty jets turned on by
action of mastication to dissolve it.
The above refers to moderate mouthfuls. The process is incomplete until
all is dissolved, taste ceases, and natural swallowing occurs.
Will it not be observed that mastication, as far as crushing or
mangling is concerned, has small part in the reduction of "Boston
brown bread," and little seeming use except to turn on the jets of the
solving saliva, for the material itself is soft, and sometimes "mushy"?
Saliva has little use as a lubricant in this case, for the reason that
the brown bread experimented with can be easily swallowed when first
taken in the mouth. Abundant experiment has been made by those to whom
"Boston brown bread" was formerly little less than a poison, to prove
the assertion that, sufficiently mixed with saliva, it is perfectly
digestible and that the delicious taste of the bread after forty or
fifty bites (1/3 to 1/2 minute) gets sweeter and sweeter, and attains
its greatest sweetness and most delicate taste at the very last, when
it has dissolved into liquid form and most of it has escaped into the
stomach.
It will be noticed that the time, or attention, required to solve these
different problems of nutrition as embodied in different sorts of
breads is exactly proportionate to their recognised digestibility, and
explains the reason why hot and "soggy" biscuits, after the American
fashion, and "Boston brown bread" have been classed as not easily
digestible.
Still further proof of my contention in favour of the importance of
taste as a guide and guard in the process of nutrition is that, if you
soak soft bread, or even toast, in the juice or gravy of any meat, the
number of masticatory or tasting movements necessary to fit it for the
stomach and satisfy the taste will be about the number required to
masticate raw meat from which the juice has come and not such only as
would seem requisite on account of the softness of the substance when
made pulpy by soaking and which might be forcibly swallowed at once.
Tests like these alone are sufficient to prove my contention, but,
when the result of the experiments is so immediate for good in every
direction, as it has proved itself to be in all cases tried, there is
no longer doubt but that Nature's most important secret relative to
human alimentation has been heretofore practically undiscovered; that
is, as far as any inquiry I have been able to make sheds light upon the
subject.
The result, in all the cases of my observation, has been an immediate
response of naturally increased energy; approach of weight toward the
normal, whether the subject was over-weight or under-weight; a great
falling off of the waste to be discharged by the avenue of the lower
intestines and also through the kidneys; relief of bleeding hemorrhoids
and catarrh--the diseases suffered by the patients; emancipation from
headaches; clearing of the tongue of the yellow deposit--usually called
fur--that is an indication of rotten conditions in the stomach; and
return of the energy for work which all men and women should have, and
which finds expression in healthy children in the form of great energy
for play.
The tax upon the lower intestines has been, in my experiments, reduced
so that there was no invitation to relief more frequently than once
in four or five days, and the quantity of the deposit was less than
half the quantity of a usual daily contribution to waste under former
methods of taking in nourishment, thereby proving the fact that
appetite and taste, when given full chance to serve, serve us well.
This feature (quantity of waste) differed in the cases of the different
persons experimented with according to the carefulness with which
they obeyed the test injunctions. In some, greed abnormality could
not quickly be overcome, but, as the subjects were selected in part
from the stratum of society where want is the constant dread, it is
not to be wondered at that a lifetime habit of tremor and greed should
resist even the dictates of their reason. But it was in these that
the revelation excited the highest appreciation at last when they were
put in possession of faculties and strength that they had supposed the
Creator had denied them in a world of suffering.
There is no doubt but that it is possible to introduce nutrition into
the system wherein, or rather wherewith, there is little or no waste
material.
One physician, to whom I applied for information, suggested that too
fine an application of my method might finally do away with the lower
intestines altogether from the same cause that any unused member of the
body, and also unnourished members, shrivel and disappear in time.
While this is possible, the means taken towards it are productive
of marvellous good results; and, if there were no further use, what
purpose would they serve?[14]
[Footnote 14: Dr. George Monks of Boston, Massachusetts, has recently
called the attention of the author to the fact that the length of the
intestines in man have been known to vary from nine feet to twenty-nine
feet.
In the longer ones the _papillæ convenenti_ which serve for absorption
and which line the inside of the intestines extended only part way down
the channel, but in the shorter ones they lined the channel throughout
its entire length, giving inferential evidence that the strain of
continued excess of waste material had lengthened the intestines for
the sole purpose of providing storage room for the waste. Metchnikoff,
the head of the Pasteur Institute, Paris, has even proposed removing
some eighteen feet of intestine by surgical operation, including the
troublesome vermiform appendix, as being unnecessary in connection with
cooking and the prevalence of partly predigested foods.]
Think of the number of separate complaints that are attributable to
trouble of the lower intestines, and think of the relief coming with
their return to normal conditions in performing infrequent service with
the ease of rejuvenated strength! Such was the case with all of the
subjects under test, and it was a revelation which was as the opening
of a new life to even those who had suffered least, and had thought
themselves fortunate as to health conditions.
I hope I will be excused for using the terms "dirt," "rotten,"
"glutton," etc. I know they will give a shock to sensitive
conventionality, but is it not better to shock conventionality with a
proscribed term, if it means just what it says, and nothing else, than
to shock the delicate organism of our machinery of life by throwing
dirt into its furnace with good fuel, and thereby allowing the glut of
ashes therefrom to encumber the journals of our mechanism, to the waste
of our power and to the wearing out of our machinery?
* * * * *
Disease is nothing but dirt in the system and the result of dirt. It is
our own dirt at that, having been introduced by our own carelessness or
as the result of combined ignorance and greed.
Ignorance has excused and does excuse the responsibility; but, when we
have providentially been provided a way by Nature to select and sift
and prepare perfect fuel for the furnace of our Life-Power-Plant, there
can be no further excuse for not following the teaching to the extreme
of the last possible refinement.
* * * * *
I will not presume to say what and whom good Doctor Appetite, with
the assistance of Doctor Taste, can cure. They have both cured and
greatly relieved rheumatism, gout, eczema, obesity, under-weight,
bleeding-piles, blotches and pimples, catarrh, "that tired feeling,"
muddy complexion, indigestion, and yellow-tongue, within four months.
It has been revealed that attention to their invitation and warning
cures unnatural craving and beautifully appeases appetite desires
with one-third the usual food; and, at the same time, they teach an
appreciation and enjoyment of food quite new even to _bon vivants_.
Any person can employ Dr. Normal Appetite and consult Dr. Good Taste
_free of all charge_, and make endless discoveries in the possibility
of delightful and healthfully economic nutrition.
The suggestion was originally given by the author in crudest form with
the assurance of physiologists that trial of it involved no risk, but,
on the contrary, that it led in the right direction toward preventing
disease. I felt that it was too important to be withheld from those who
do not know the existence of Nature's _perfect way_ provided by the
Senses of Appetite and Taste.
Record of careful tests and results will probably follow in another
volume. The author has entered the field of investigation to find
deterrents to Nature's perfect development and will not rest while any
remain.[15]
[Footnote 15: At the present time, five years after this promise was
made, the author is happy to say that it has been faithfully kept and
with important results steadily accruing.]
With even the crude hint, _that health can be secured and maintained
by consulting and respecting Appetite and Taste_, each person having
either can assist in the investigation.
SUGGESTION AND DIRECTIONS
For initial experiment, do not change any of your present habits of
living as to time of meals, kind of food, etc.
Following the directions given hereafter will undoubtedly lead to just
the right thing for you in these regards.
There is no doubt but that the early morning meal is not productive of
the best results in nutrition and strength, but it is better to have
Appetite suggest the necessary change in accustomed habits. Dr. Dewey's
advice in the "No-Breakfast" regimen is excellent. The getting-up
craving is not an _earned_ appetite.
Forced abstinence from a heavy morning meal will _surely_ bring about
normal conditions of appetite which are best adapted to perfect
nutrition, so that if the invitation to give up the morning gorge
voluntarily does not overcome perverse habit, the heroic denial may be
tried.
The value of the discovery lies in recognising the fact that Taste
still has important work to do with passing food while yet there is
taste, and that what remains after Taste ceases to express itself
should _not_ go into the stomach.
The ease with which one will learn to enjoy and "hang on" to food in
the mouth, even milk and soup, after he has learned a good reason for
doing so, will quickly create a counter habit which is in accordance
with Nature's _perfect way_.
When one has discovered the delight of _that last indescribably sweet
flash of taste_, which Taste offers as a _pousse café_ to those who
serve it with respect, he will find _any_ food that Appetite selects is
needed for his nutrition, and is good.
Remember this! Salt, sugar, some sauces and spices which are used to
make food palatable may be in themselves nutritious, but do not let
them mislead you. The tendency is to relish them and think that they
represent the food they disguise, which, however, is often only an
excuse for them, and has very little nutrition itself. In this case a
morsel of food is taken into the mouth, the sauce or spice which it
carries meets immediate response from Taste and disappears, whereupon
the indigestible food morsel is swallowed in indigestible condition so
as to admit another sauce-laden supply.
The most nutritious food does not require sauces. It may seem dry and
tasteless to the first impression, but, as the juices of the mouth get
possession of it, warm it up, solve its life-giving qualities out of it
and coax it into usefulness, the delight of a new-found delicacy will
greet the discoverer.
It may be difficult, at first, to avoid swallowing food before it is
thoroughly separated, the nutriment dissolved and the dirt rejected,
but after a little practice there will be no difficulty. On the
contrary, there will be an involuntary habit of retention established
that will be as tenacious of a morsel of food till that last and
sweetest taste has been found, as a dog is tenacious of a savory bone.
Did it ever occur to gum chewers that the gum is simply an exciter
of saliva, and that the sweet taste is the nutritious dextrin in the
saliva and has nothing to do with the gum? In the ordinary "watering of
the mouth" the same sweet taste is experienced.
Another important fact in this connection, and which belongs in the
list of "directions" because it is a leader, is, that perfect nutrition
is a source of ample saliva, the effect thereby reproducing the cause
in friendly reciprocity.
It will be found that, when normal conditions have been attained
through attention to the inspection, selection and rejection of Taste,
when the tongue has lost its malarial yellow scum and when Hunger
is represented by healthful Appetite and has dismissed bilious and
insatiable Craving from its service, there will at all times be a
delicately sweet taste in the mouth which will prevent craving for
anything else. For instance, a person in possession of normal taste
conditions may pass a confectionery shop or a fruit stand without
temptation to eat of their wares, for they would _spoil_ the taste
already in possession of the mouth.
The expert wine tasters in Rhineland, where the full flavour of the
luscious fruit is retained in the wine as Nature put it there, never
_drink_ wine. They breathe it into the mouth and atomise it on the
tongue with utmost relish. To them the swallowing of the precious
juice without dissipation by taste is an unpardonable sacrilege. The
Bavarians also, whose beer is the best in the world, practically do not
drink beer as Americans are accustomed to seeing it drunk. They sit
over a _stein_ of beer for an hour, reading or chatting with friends.
The epicurean drinkers of what has been termed _eau de vie_ in France
sit and sip a "pony" of their beloved Cognac while they enjoy a view
of pastoral loveliness or a throng of passers-by in a boulevard of
Paris. None of these people drink anything but water and hence are not
drunkards; and, at the same time, they have full enjoyment of Nature's
most stimulating and delicious compounds in a form preserved by Nature
for the use of man.
The taste of these students of nutrition becomes so discriminating
that they can distinguish a wine or a beer or a cognac, as they would
distinguish between intimate friends and strangers. The year, the
vineyard, the state of the weather, or any accident that may have
surrounded the development of the fruit are as distinguishable to these
epicures in the essential juices as are the marks on men which indicate
prosperity, happiness or any stamp of environment whatever.
An epicurean cannot be a glutton. There may be gluttons who are less
gluttonous than other gluttons, but epicureanism is like politeness
and cleanliness, and is the certain mark of gentility.
A physiological chemist, a friend of the author, who is responsible
for the suggestion that the function of saliva in turning the starches
of our food into nutritious glucose may never have been fully given a
chance to act, thus accounts for the last delicate sweet taste which is
attained by complete mastication. It is then a _perfect_ solution, and
hence the delicacy of the taste.
For illustration, try a ship's biscuit--commonly called hardtack--and
keep it in the mouth, tasting it as you would a piece of sugar, till it
has disappeared entirely, and note what a treasure of delight there is
in it.
Taste will teach the experimenter more than I can even suggest. I
simply offer an introduction to Doctor N. Appetite and to Doctor G.
Taste and state some of their excellences that I have discovered
through their attentions to myself and others under my direction.
I will, however, give a _resumé_ of my own experience as a guide.
PERSONAL CASE, INITIAL CONDITION
Age, 49 years; height, 5 feet 7 inches. Extremes of weight for fifteen
years (in ordinary clothing) minimum, 198 lbs.; maximum, 217 lbs.
Chest measure, varying but little, if any, 42 inches; waist measure
(tailor's) 43 to 44 inches. Usual weight during the time, about 205 lbs.
My experiments began near the middle of June, but with no systematic
application until the middle of July, 1898; weight on June 1st,
probably over 205 lbs., in summer clothing.
SPEEDY IMPROVEMENT
On October 10th, as a result of the experiments, weight 163 lbs., and
stationary; chest measure same as before, but waist measure reduced to
37 inches, or one inch below the "tailor's ideal," and nearly down to
the "athlete's ideal."
The energy and desire for activity with immunity from fatigue, which
was the characteristic equipment of twenty years ago returned, but not,
of course, the trained muscular strength or suppleness of athletic days.
The food invited by Appetite at this stage, the nutriment in which
counter-balanced the waste in each twenty-four hours, consisted of
about thirty ordinary mouthfuls of potato, bread, meat, or anything
selected by Appetite, masticated and manipulated to the end.
One meal a day was taken for convenience, and because it seemed, under
the then existing circumstances, hot summer weather, to be the time set
by Nature for eating. "I rise in the morning," as a champion pugilist
once put it, "when my bed gets tired of me," which at the time was
usually before, or at, daylight, and began writing or other work. By
one o'clock I usually was "worked out," but had already disposed of
practically a day's work. Then, in the middle of the day, when all the
animals rest and some of them chew the cud, I took my meal. I had not,
meantime, experienced a moment of craving for _anything_ since the meal
of the day before, but I sat down with an epicurean appetite.
The article of food on the _menu_ that first attracted me, I fixed my
desire upon. At the time it was usually a meat or a fish, and there
accompanied it only a cup of coffee, nine-tenths milk, bread and
butter, and potato. Sometimes the meat selected was an _entrée_, and
was garnished with rice and other fruits or vegetables.
About thirty mouthfuls of these, disposed of in something less than
twenty-five hundred acts of mastication or other movement of the mouth,
and taking about thirty minutes to thirty-five minutes, satisfied the
appetite so perfectly that all the ices and desserts on a sumptuous
bill of fare had no attraction.
In the meantime, water was drunk, in small portions slowly, and ice
water at that, without restriction, to satisfy thirst, _but not_ when
any food was in process. In the mouth the water was almost instantly
brought to body-temperature and its coolness was very agreeable to all
the senses. I now rarely take any water except in very hot weather when
perspiration is active and then only enough to quench thirst, excess
giving discomfort and necessitating more perspiration. Water injures
digestion by being taken with meals only because it is used to wash
down food not yet prepared for the stomach. It is the unfit food that
is carried down by it and not the water that does the harm.
One cup of _café au lait_, well sweetened, sipped and enjoyed according
to the epicurean method, satisfied all desire for other sweets and
created a harmony of variety that was simply perfect, while it was
perfectly simple.
I did not try to work, or think, for some time after the meal; that is,
I did not force thought; but reading, a cat nap, a walk, a matinée,
a ball game, or a ride in a trolley car were recreations which I was
able to enjoy as a sort of _pousse café_ for two or three hours after
the meal, and then the energy for work returned, so that if there were
something yet to be done in the time before the accustomed bed hour,
another day's work was easily accomplished.
Athletic work, physical labour, extreme activity in any form, all
benefit by the same treatment, as I have since been able to prove both
personally and by experiment with others. The only difference is the
greater waste of tissue, and the greater need for restorage, demanding
an evening meal and possibly an earlier midday meal.
Exercise, work, activity--anything that creates a demand for nutriment
is the especial friend of Taste. It gives healthy appetite and hence
there is plenty for Taste to do and he likes to be of service.
At first, rules have to be followed in order to serve Economic
Nutrition to the best advantage, but they soon become habits of life,
or living, that will naturally come of themselves from attention to
Taste according to these directions.
It has been our experience, that if there are any diseases growing out
of overstraining of the lower intestines, kidneys, liver, etc., they
will soon disappear.
Perfect nutrition does away with the waste until there will be no
invitation to discharge oftener than once in four or five days, when
the response will be easy and final, with less than half the quantity
of an ordinary daily contribution.
There are wealth, health, strength, long life, abundant usefulness and
much resultant happiness offered as a reward for learning and following
Nature's Perfect Way.
When we learn that obeying Nature's Laws emancipates us from the
slavery to cravings of unnatural appetite, releases us from constant
attention on meals, does away with at least half the drudgery of
woman's work and makes us immune from the attacks of microbes of
disease, it is then no hardship to take a few lessons in the Art of
Economic Nutrition.
Every artificial method that has been suggested to coax Nature into
changing her problems to suit man's poor interpretation has failed, but
Nature has been patient withal. Her door to reform is never closed, and
her patience is boundless towards prodigal and foolish children.
Nature has put the keenest of the senses at the threshold of life to
serve both as hosts and servants, but Appreciation has heretofore
failed to recognise their true office, while Ignorance, blinded by
Greed, has spurned and abused the best of servants.[16]
[Footnote 16: The "symptoms" in the personal case of the author
described above persist after five years' test and experience. The
endurance-test of the half-century birthday in France, the observations
of Dr. Burnett in Washington, and the examinations in the laboratories
of Cambridge and Yale all tell the same story of a reformed and
increasing efficiency even with five years of added age handicap, so
that the logic of the advice originally given in this book stands
proved, so far. I have had my weight reduced from 217 pounds to 130
pounds and felt best when lightest. I carry my weight at any figure
desired, but most of the time carry a 20-pound handicap in winter
and sometimes in summer to calm the fears of solicitous friends, who
think I must be ill when I am not looking "robust." Extreme robustness
is a great danger to life. A partner of the author in early days in
California, several years his junior and just in the prime of life and
fortune, passed away from over-robustness, as have many of the world's
brightest and best citizens. Six of the author's chums of ten years ago
have died because of too much robustness and worry. They heeded not.
The author may follow them, any moment, but meantime he is enjoying
life as never before.]
SOME PERTINENT QUERIES
If Nature has revealed a _perfect way_ to the easy solution of all of
her problems, as related to the affairs of animals and plant life, WHAT
SENSE is there in thinking that she has discriminated against her Chief
Assistant in Cultivation, Man?
If Nature has provided animals with keen discrimination in the matter
of healthful food, WHAT SENSE is there in doubting her good intentions
toward the highest form of animal in this regard?
If Taste is the sentinel of the stomach and also the purveyor and
inspector of nutrition, WHAT SENSE is there in ascribing to it the
lowest place in the list of the senses?
If we enjoy eating, and are eating, partly, for the pleasure of it,
WHAT SENSE is there in throwing away a morsel until the taste has been
extracted?
If "dirt" is "matter out of place," which is the accepted definition,
WHAT SENSE is there in calling unnutritious food by any other name?
If taste is the evidence of nutrition, and ceases to act upon dirt,
WHAT SENSE is there in hurrying food past the sentry-box of Taste
without giving the inspector time to select the nutrition and reject
the dirt?
If the last flash of taste in dealing with a morsel of food is the
best of all, WHAT SENSE in believing that Nature did not furnish that
allurement for the wise purpose of inducing mastication to the end of
taste?
If saliva is the medium of Taste, without which there is no expression
of taste, WHAT SENSE is there in thinking that it is nothing but a
lubricant, to enable food to be easily swallowed?
WHAT SENSE is there in slighting nutrition in the beginning when we
know that the derangement of the process will continue throughout all
the involuntary stages within the digestive organs, inviting disease
and causing suffering?
THERE IS SENSE in carefully attending to the voluntary preparation
of the food for the stomach, so that the involuntary functions of
digestion and of assimilation may be performed with natural ease and
freedom, thereby defying and preventing disease!
If we can save two-thirds of present consumption and yet furnish all
that is necessary for perfect nutrition, WHAT SENSE is there in wearing
out our Mind-Power Plant with a glut of surplus?
Unless a person has a pressing engagement with his own funeral, WHAT
SENSE is there in hurrying with his meals?
If we can devote ten thousand actions of the jaw, daily, to senseless
or vicious gossip, WHAT SENSE is there in denying adequate jaw service
to the most important function of living?
WHAT SENSE is there in a rich person glutting his Mind-Power Plant
with more food-fuel than it needs, just because he happens to have an
abundance to glut with, or glut on?
WHAT SENSE is there in calling any glutton "a gentleman"?
WHAT SENSE is there in calling any glutton "a lady"?
If what Taste rejects, after having selected nutriment out of a morsel
of food is _dirt_, WHAT SENSE is there in allowing it to contaminate
and burden the delicate organs of digestion?
An indigestible morsel of food is like a runaway team in a crowded
street. WHAT SENSE is there, then, in demoralising things in the
thoroughfare of our life organism by admitting unruly substance?
An indigestible morsel of food in the stomach, and all the way through
the intestines, is like a "bull in a china shop." WHAT SENSE is there,
then, in smashing the delicate utensils in the laboratory of our
Mind-Power Plant by rushing "bulls" past Sentinel Taste?
A SCIENTIFIC POINT
Physiological Chemistry declares that an important function of saliva
is turning the starch of foods into dextrose--sugar--which is one of
the high forms of nutrition.
An eminent physiological chemist, who is a friend of the author,
and who has been experimenting with the suggestions offered by the
discovery of new uses for Taste in securing perfect economic nutrition,
says that the inexpressibly sweet flavour which comes with the last
expression of Taste in connection with a morsel of food, especially dry
breads, which are largely starch, is evidence of perfect conversion of
the starch to sugar by the action of the saliva.
The sweet taste spoken of begins to be apparent in dry French bread
after about twenty movements of the mouth, and increases until the
whole morsel is dissolved and disappears into the stomach, leaving
behind it a most delicious after-flavour. According to the quantity in
the mouthful this process will take from fifty to one hundred movements
of the mouth and require from half a minute to one minute.
In this connection remember, please, that if you bolt a whole slice,
or a whole loaf of bread in the meantime, as soon as it is wet enough
to swallow, you will get little, if any, more nutriment out of it, and
none of the exquisite taste that Nature's way offers as an allurement
for obeying her beneficent demands. The way of Nature is the epicurean
way; the other way is nothing less than piggish gluttony.
Even if time for eating is limited, nothing is gained by bolting food.
Thirty mouthfuls of bread thoroughly dissolved in the mouth will supply
nutriment for a strong man for twenty-four hours, and the eating of it
in the way recommended will give pleasure unknown in hurry.
My physiological chemist friend assures me that I am right in asserting
that man should _not drink anything_ but pure water, and _that_ for the
purpose of quenching thirst. If anything is good enough to drink at
all it is too good to waste on an unwilling stomach when grateful and
hungry taste-buds are eager for it.
Don't drink soup! Don't drink milk! Don't drink beer! Don't drink wine!
Don't drink syruped sodas for the taste of the syrups! _Sip everything
that has taste_ so that Taste can inspect it and get the good out of it
for you!
TASTE'S APPEAL
Water has no taste, therefore, Taste does not call it to a halt, but
says, "Go right on and do your work, there is nothing in you that I
can improve; thank you for giving me a freshening up in passing. If
people only knew what you and I know they would be wiser, wouldn't
they? They would learn a thing or two about keeping their Mind-Power
Plant in fine order and get rid of all their physical ailments, and be
strong and happy, and live to be a hundred and fifty years of age with
their faculties unimpaired. I say! you are on the outside and can give
people a hint; why don't you tell them what I am here for! They set me
down for a 'capper,' like one of those fellows that stand outside of
cheap restaurants and invite passers to come in and eat. They don't
know I am an expert in nutriment and can protect them from any harm
in eating. I offer them also a first-class _bonbon_ taste, at the
finish of my work to induce them to stay by and help me to do proper
work, but they are all in such a blamed hurry that they never wait for
the _bonbon_, and the result is that loads of dirt and indigestible
stuff get by me and make endless mischief in the machine. I hear about
it often enough you may be sure. All the sewer gas the indigestion
produces comes back this way, spoils my comfort, and dulls my strength.
You see, you can have a chance, perhaps, to learn for yourself and tell
the people what I can do for them. I'm lodged in here in the dark where
they can't see me and I have no means of informing them.
"I wonder why it is that Mother Nature makes such a mystery of her
blessings. She never advertises and never exhibits her best things
plainly. All her precious metals are hidden away in narrow seams in the
ground; her pearls are guarded by close-mouthed oysters at the bottom
of the ocean; electricity is as slippery as an eel and absolutely
invisible; in fact, Nature is the most retiring, in her habits, of all
the expressions of Deity; and, consistent with herself, she has put me
in here, in the dark and speechless, provided with powers of selection
and discrimination, which, if understood and made thorough use of, will
do for man all that he can desire.
"The funny part of it is that the animals, other than man, use me
instinctively and live their appointed time; while man, in his usual
big-headed way, centuries and centuries ago, gave me the lowest place
among the Senses, classed my chief agent and assistant, Saliva, as
merely a 'pusher' of food into the stomach, and ever since he has been
in too much of a hurry to live _quick_ to take the time to live _long_;
and that's what's the matter with the world."[17]
[Footnote 17: Thus ended the first edition; but in the revision its
position has been changed.]
IMPORTANT CONFIRMATION
COMMANDANTE CESARE AGNELLI
Commandante Cesare Agnelli, of His Italian Majesty's battleship,
"Garibaldi," has been an earnest colleague of the authors in the
Nutrition Study since the summer of 1900. Like the authors, he received
in the course of experimentation such personal benefits that the
continued observations have been a source of great pleasure ever since.
I take from a letter, dated Taranto, Italy, some excerpts that are good
evidence of the caprice of appetite under different climatic conditions
together with some irrelevant matter, quoted for its good reading:--
"What a good, long, friendly letter! If it was your intention to spoil
me, it certainly proved a success; and I feel so much obliged and thank
you so much for the interesting description of all you saw and did
during your absence from Venice this summer.
"You are too good in remembering the few words of encouragement I said
to you when you first spoke to me about your experiments. The fact is
that I have always regretted that my assistance in the experiments
could not be of greater service; and, really, of us two I am the
indebted for gratitude for the great service your discovery has done to
me since the lucky day I had the pleasure of your acquaintance.
"My bad luck would not have it to allow my ship to go to England for
the Coronation, though at first she was selected to be one of the
three. Only two days ago I met one of our officers who was on the
'Carlo Alberto,' and he confirmed all that you wrote and all that has
been printed about the magnificence of the naval review at Spithead.
"I wish now that I were with you, to be able to talk about what
happened to me during this last cruise of ours, in relation to
observations of nutrition. I can only report facts and feelings, and
you may be able to connect them and assign the causes. You know I do
not usually drink wine, only water; well, on the coast of Africa I
had such a distaste for the latter that I was compelled to take beer
to quench thirst, nor could I even endure mineral waters. My desire
for food was quite changed, my physiological craving dictating to me
quite plainly, as in a doctor's prescription, what I wanted. Even the
best fish in the Mediterranean did not satisfy me. To-day it was eggs
and to-morrow it was cocoa, but never meat that I felt the wish for.
But what is a new caprice of desire relates to my smoking. I could not
smoke a single pipe nor a cigar; only could I tolerate cigarettes,
and those quite without pleasure. At Smyrna I almost fed on ices and
lemonades, but always and ever I could _eat_ (not drink) my cup of
cocoa in the morning. The heat on the coast of Africa at Tripoli and
Ben Ghari was intense, 108° and 110° Fahrenheit, with perspiration in
proportion.
"So it seems to me that appetite is changed to suit latitude or
climatic conditions, and all that we call our exotic pleasures of
appetite, such as smoking, etc., are dependent on our nutrition.
Anyhow, even in the hottest days, my strength never gave way, and I
never felt that lassitude and general unfitness for work that was my
companion in past years in hot climates, as in the West Indies in '86
and '87.
"I never miss an opportunity to spread the virtues of mastication, but
most people are too indifferent to apply the practice long enough to
get the habit established as we have acquired it.
"The first part of our cruise brought a great deal of suffering to
those who are not assisted by a proper discrimination in nutrition.
There was a scant supply of good food, and the bad food was very bad.
I managed to get the best out of it with the assistance of my curious
appetite, and did not suffer inconvenience as did the others. But
we were largely rewarded in Turkish Asia,--a really blessed part of
the world,--and especially at Smyrna. My day began in the bazaar and
ended there, my eyes enjoying Turkish and Persian art in all their
manifestations, from the rich Bokhara and Khorassan carpets to the
Damaseo inlaid works, Rhodes embroideries, and so on. One sees that art
has come from the East, and in every branch of it the influence of the
meridian is always discovered and perceived. My great regret was not
to be able to take it all away with me to Venice and divide it with my
esteemed friends there for our mutual enjoyment. Curiously enough, at
Smyrna I found a good bit of Italian pottery that I secured for almost
nothing. It would have been a great thing if you could have been there
to pass those ten days in Smyrna with me.
"I gave an order for some carpets to be made on measure, but it will
take months to have them ready. Many people do not appreciate the old
carpets, but to my taste modern ones do not have the velvety look or
the _souplesse_ and the softness of the old ones.
"I am sorry circumstances prevented my filling your commission. Had Dr.
Van Someren been there, he is so fond of old things, I am sure he would
have ruined himself.
"It seems as if we would remain here the whole of this month, and then
I hope for a fortnight's leave to go to Venice; and I look forward to
the pleasure of a long chat together.
(_Signed_)
"C. AGNELLI."
CLARENCE F. LOW, ESQUIRE
THE VEGETARIAN TENDENCY CONFIRMED
The relator of the following experience was conversant with the early
researches of the elder author and gave mastication a trial for a
time. He gave it too painful attention, as is apt to be the case with
beginners, and the strain made the practice tedious and undoubtedly
inhibited the secretion of the digestive juices, the same as worry and
other distractions are known to do. After a very short trial Mr. Low
declared that he could not get enough nourishment within reasonable
time and came to the conclusion that much chewing did not agree with
him although it might with others. With the issue of the reports of the
Cambridge and Yale tests, however, the suggestion was given another
trial, with the result, up to date, as reported below:
"I thank you very much for the copy of Dr. Kellogg's book, the 'Living
Temple,' just received. I have not had time to read it, but in looking
over the chapter headings and knowing Dr. Kellogg's worth as an
authority on matters of foods and diet I know that there is much of
value for me in the book. I am much interested in that 'Chewing Song'
that has been dedicated to you by Dr. Kellogg and think the idea an
excellent one.
"I have for some time been chewing _à la Fletcher_ and find it of great
advantage. It is getting to be automatic and is losing its irksomeness.
Indeed it already seems natural and produces some results not 'set down
in the book.' For instance, I have no desire for meats and foods which
do not lend themselves to the Fletcher method. This in itself is a
great advantage.
"By the way, I have not eaten meat since the 20th of last October
(nearly a year), and I find I have gained greatly. I only desire
two meals a day except when the exigencies of travel make a _light_
breakfast agreeable and desirable. By these means I have gained nerve
force wonderfully and my muscular strength and endurance have increased
so that I walk long distances and climb mountains easily. In fact, I
do now with pleasure and avidity what I could not formerly do at all.
They are the sort of things that are supposed to require a 'strong meat
diet' but which under such a diet were impossible to me. Mastication
and thorough mouth-treatment seem to allow the appetite to prescribe
what my body needs and this is the essence and substance of your
discovery. It pleases me very much that Drs. Kellogg and Dewey have
confirmed your researches and find that your claims are not over-drawn.
They have such splendid opportunities to test things dietetic and
are such open-minded, natural-born altruists that their confirmation
counts for even more than that of the very conservative men in Science
who stand for scientific authority and who want a thing thrice proven
before they give it endorsement.
"I think my experience will be especially comforting to you because of
my repeated trials and lapses. I can see now how important it is for
one to practise careful mouth-treatment until the habit is acquired
and the performance becomes automatic. There is no doubt in my mind but
what there is a natural protection given us by nature which has been
lost by perversion. I feel confident that you will get ultimate credit
for the re-establishment of a rational habit of eating which, under
normal conditions of food supply, is a protector against premature
swallowing of food.
"G---- has seen the result in me and he is dropping meat to a great
extent and his breakfasts have dwindled to a mere fraction of what they
formerly were. The same is true of M----."
A FIVE YEARS' LAY EXPERIENCE
The good fortune of yesterday, July 29, 1903, brought a telephone
message from an old and very dear friend who has been impressed with
the virtues of buccal digestion for the past five years. Five years
ago my friend was a sick man, past fifty years of age. During his youth
and early manhood he had been an optimist among optimists, leading a
congenial life among agreeable friends, with the best the world had to
offer in the way of recreation and fare. His great misfortune at the
time was indigestion and the troubles that accompany indigestion. If
he drank a small cup of coffee at night he could not sleep, and he was
subject to the constant uncertainty of health and frequent recurrence
of acute diseases that are common to the victims of luxury.
The very ill-health emergency and dilemma of my friend led him to
catch at any stray straw of hope or comfort. When we met, some months
after the beginning of my experiments, he was compelled to note a
great difference in my appearance; the portly and robust but heavy,
short-winded and unwieldy friend of bygone years in sumptuous New
Orleans had become "spare" and active, and told of improvement in
health-conditions that seemed almost miraculous. The still-suffering
friend was interested to the point of listening and trying the remedy.
Half as a joke and half in earnest the regimen recommended by me was
adopted and carried forward far enough to secure some noticeable good
results. Following up these favourable results with continuance of
the regimen brought progressive improvement of health and increasing
conviction of the merits of thorough buccal digestion.
The evidence of physical improvement resulting from five years'
attention to buccal thoroughness in the ordinary course of an
adventurous life is here given briefly from memory fresh from the
telling:
"You remember the state of health I was in when we met here in the
Waldorf five years ago. The benefit of the recovery that I had
secured at Sierra Blanca had been gradually lost, and I was pretty
well down to my last legs again. If I hadn't been struck by the
marvellous alteration in your appearance from what it was when I had
seen you last, I should have been terribly bored by your relation
of your experience, for I was sick to death of mention of cures and
diet-regimens of all sorts. But you astonished me so by your changed
appearance, and I was in such a hopeless condition, that I thought
I would give your scheme a trial. Next day, my breakfast, which was
also my lunch, for I was feeling too badly to get up earlier, brought
me some sweet corn as one of the several items I habitually ordered.
In giving this corn thorough chewing before swallowing I noticed
that, while the inside of the corn liquefied readily and was quickly
swallowed, there remained in my mouth a collection of the hulls, and
these invited the bad table-manners of 'spitting out.' I removed this
collection of refuse as delicately as possible, and, on examination,
found that it consisted of hard substance that I had never noticed
before in connection with cooked sweet corn. This set me to thinking.
What had I not been putting into my stomach all these years in my
ignorance of the constituents of this one kind of common food, and what
not in other foods that I had not yet observed?
"In continuing the observation further, I discovered that many of
the foods that I was accustomed to take contained hard, insoluble
ingredients or cottony fibre that got more and more cottony and
refractory with mastication. In trying coffee, my favourite beverage,
as you told me I might do if I handled it rightly in the mouth, I
tasted it until it was absorbed or swallowed involuntarily just as
you told me the expert wine-tasters and tea-tasters do. I sipped
and enjoyed my small cup of coffee as I had never done before in my
life, and knew afterwards that it had not hurt me as usual, as no
immediate protest came from the stomach, which formerly had been the
case. I slept the 'sleep of the just' that night, and awoke in fine
form next morning. From that day to this I have not been troubled with
indigestion, and during these five years I have not been sick a day
or an hour or a moment, and have slept like a babe. I haven't kept my
weight quite down where it ought to be for best comfort, but I have
supported the burden with my general good health and digestion. My
temptations to lapse have been enormous, for I have had the good fare
of two continents thrown at me by most enticing invitation, and I have
run the gantlet of extraordinary _menus_ without phasing, with the
results I have recounted.
"Do you remember the day of the public funeral of General Grant, when
his tomb on the Riverside Drive--Morningside Heights--was dedicated?
You remember that we had been invited to Mr. H----'s to witness the
parade and take lunch? How we were caught on the wrong side of the
procession on Fifth Avenue and were hurrying to get ahead of the column
and across to the other side of the Avenue? Well! do you remember
how we puffed and blowed when we had run a couple of blocks and how
we were red in the face and nearly knocked up? We were both fat then
and short-winded, and we never would have been able to get to our
destination if I had not hypnotised a policeman and persuaded him to
lead us across the Avenue like a pair of emergency hospital cases or
disorderly arrests.
"Since then you have had your experience of recovery as the result of
your deliberate experiment made for a purpose, and I have had mine as
the result of noting the improvement in you, and for all of which I owe
you my life, whatever that may be worth.
"At the time of the great Naval Review, or something of the sort--I
have forgotten what--a party of us went to the pier of the Southern
Pacific Company to see the show. There were Ned H----, and Captain
H----, and two other men, and myself, with four ladies. On coming up
town we were booked for another engagement, the time for which had not
yet arrived. We were in the vicinity of the Hoffman House and drifted
in there and into the ball-room. The floor was most tempting and the
orchestrion willing. It was too suggestive a combination for the
ladies, who were young and fine dancers, and they exclaimed with one
voice, 'Oh, how lovely! I wish we might dance.' It proved that I was
the only dancing-man among the men. I had been a dancer in my younger
days, but I had let up on it since I had become stout. However, by way
of a joke and to please the young ladies, I offered to be a partner. My
offer was accepted, also as a joke, but the sequel was a surprise. We
set the orchestrion going on a Waldteufel waltz, and I grabbed one of
the young ladies for a round. Really, I was amazed. I danced as easily
as I did when a youngster, and round and round we went. Finally, my
partner begged for a rest, so I waltzed her to a seat, and, excited
with the revelation of an endurance I did not know I possessed, I
grabbed the next lady from her seat and repeated the tiring-out process
as easily as in the first attempt. There were yet two ladies fresh and
eager to assist in 'doing Uncle Nat up,' and I repeated the performance
with them, also, dancing the last to a dead standstill on account of
her determined obstinacy. _She_ had to complete the 'doing up' of the
old man, or Age would win a battle from Youth, which would never do.
Well, to make a long story short, and to get to the illustration. I was
warm and ruddy, but I was less fatigued than I remember to have been as
a youngster when I had danced for a long time.
"Since then I have not balked at any feat of physical endurance, and I
feel as young to-day as my white hair will let me. I have tried to get
my friends to chewing their food persistently, and have gained many
adherents to your cause, but I have had to stand an immense amount of
chaffing meanwhile. I tried to get Mr. H---- to chew his bread and
milk, but he always laughed at me, and chaffed me constantly when I was
with him about my chewing fad. One man, whom I saw much of, and who
needed your advice more than anybody else, got so sick of the subject
that when I received a letter from you, telling of some new discovery
and some new triumph of the cause of chewing, I would attempt to read
it to him; but he would not listen, and persisted in calling it rot,
although he knew that I had become a remarkably well man, whereas I was
formerly a very sick man. Both of these scoffers have gone and I am
left, as chipper and as fit as a fiddle new-strung for the music of a
happy life. If we don't catch up with Luigi Cornaro on our record it
will not be for want of good digestion."
This is a little bit of intimacy that the good Baron Randolph Natili
will not object to offer in evidence in our cause; for no one living
has a heart and a will to do a favour or spread a benefit more than he.
Only yesterday he said, in a burst of enthusiasm, "How is it possible
for me to dislike any one, feeling the way I do? I have likes immensely
stronger than other likes on account of similar or closer sympathies,
but it seems to me now that to really dislike any one that the Creator
has made, or anything that he has created, would do violence to the
Memory of My Mother."
DR. HIGGINS' CASE AND COMMENT
"DEAR MR. FLETCHER:
"You ask me to write you a short account of my experiences with
economical nutrition with comments, and a few words about my physical
and mental history.
"_Previous History_:--The best period of health that I can remember in
my life was that between seventeen and twenty-one, during the time I
was preparing for the medical profession. I had a small breakfast at
about 7.30 A.M. and then went up to London to St. George's Hospital,
which was about fourteen miles from my home. My parents gave me 2/6 for
my midday meal but I fortunately economised and only spent 6_d_-10_d_
of it on food. After finishing my work I usually arrived home at 5.30
and had a 'meat tea'; this allowed me to devote six hours to reading.
During the whole of this period I was in excellent mental and physical
condition. I was made house surgeon at twenty-one, obtained my degree
in under four years besides obtaining several valuable prizes.
"After this I lived in the Hospital where three meat meals were
provided. These I conscientiously ate 'to keep up my strength' during
the performance of my exhausting duties. I consider that this period
was the commencement of my degeneration. I put on twenty-four pounds in
weight and lost much of my mental energy.
"To condense, as much as possible: my strong hereditary tendency to
gout with the excessive meat eating, the hurried eating during some
three and one-half years at St. George's Hospital, London, and at
Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, resulted in constant suffering from
headache, lumbago, rheumatic pains, and all those distressing symptoms
known under the generic name of 'goutiness.' After seven or eight
years I weighed two hundred and twenty-four pounds and complained of
increasing symptoms of gout. I then became a patient of Dr. H----, of
London, whose system requires one to abstain from meat, fish, poultry,
beans, tea, coffee, in other words, from foods containing uric acid
or its equivalent. For about five years, till the end of 1901, when I
first met you, I fluctuated considerably in health, on the whole I am
bound to say, in a steadily downward direction, till I was overloaded
with the excessive weight of two hundred and eighty-two pounds.
"_History of Period of Regeneration_:--I commenced under your advice,
masticating my food thoroughly at the end of December, 1901. After
practising this method till the present date September, 1903, I have
lost one hundred and four pounds in weight and consider that I have
gained very considerably in mental and physical fitness. I prefer to
divide this period into two parts: (_a_) _The first eight months._
During this time I followed my appetite, but with a strong mental
bias in favour of keeping up as nearly as possible to the daily
'physiological ration' of nitrogenous food. I lost notwithstanding
some sixty-four pounds in weight in spite of having an inordinate
appetite for butter, and generally taking two pints of milk daily.
During this period I undertook some very severe work in the Laboratory
of Physiological Chemistry, with the object of trying to devise some
method of measuring the extent of a person's departure from their
optimum health. This led almost unconsciously to a stronger mental
bias in favour of prescribing the amount of food one should eat, and
to a certain number of experiments in feeding. Towards the end of
this period I got rather exhausted in consequence of my severe work
and complained of occasional headaches. Following the suggestions
of some friends I added fifty grams of casein to my daily diet for
two or three weeks. This was followed by a return of rheumatism and
considerable sickness and inability to work. (_b_) _The subsequent six
months._ I resolved to devote this period to a careful study of my
desires for food--to take no notes--to make no experiments--in short,
to allow my body to run itself, and to try to make my brain interpret
the wants of the body. I had moved for the purpose of this experiment
into a small house, with a boy and a woman who came daily to clean the
house--(I mention these details because practically one finds that a
woman has usually such quick sympathy about matters concerning food,
that their agitation and fears are enough in themselves to cause you to
modify your diet). I only kept bread, butter, and milk in the house,
all other foods I was obliged to send for, and if I required a dish
to be cooked, I first learned how to do it myself and then taught the
boy. I had no fixed times for meals, and did not have a table laid,
my food always being brought up on a tray; usually I did not interrupt
the work I was doing. I deliberately adopted all these precautions
because I had become aware by experience of the extraordinary influence
suggestion, and other mind influences, such as habit, had in one's
selection of food and the amount one ate. During the first two months
in conscientiously eating what I wished, as much of it as I wanted and
when my appetite demanded food, my desires were very irregular, ranging
over meats and fish, (occasionally) chocolate, sweets, cream, cheese,
butter, milk, bread, potatoes, oranges, bananas, sugar, etc., but
during the final period my desires were much more simple and regular,
confining themselves to bread, Gruyère cheese, butter, cream, bananas,
potatoes, occasionally milk. During and subsequent to this period I
have become convinced that provided you eat your food slowly and follow
your appetite, without guidance from any other knowledge whatever, one
gets marked preferences for simple foods with increasing health and
happiness, the contentment that comes from the inestimably valuable
possession of simple desires.
"_Comments on the System_:--The great attraction the system has for
me is its frank admission that: (1) One knows practically nothing
of those chemical processes that occur during digestion. (2) The
guidance for the conduct of life afforded by such vague phrases as
'the collective wisdom of mankind' leave one on the most superficial
examination in a state of great doubt, to say the least of it. (3)
The guidance afforded by the dogmas of science are open to the most
disquieting criticism. (_a_) In the prescription of method without a
knowledge of the mysteries of digestion. (_b_) In those observations
on insufficient standards of mental and physical optimum efficiency,
and of short periods of observation based solely on nitrogenous
equilibrium and output of work that you have already shown to be
fallacious and variable. (_c_) In short, that one can say that none of
the physiological dogmas based on chemistry are not open to criticism.
"If this is admitted, and the choice of the quantity and quality of
food thrown on taste and appetite, we are at once provided with a
natural means of ascertaining the body's actual wants from day to day.
The phenomena that have resulted from the more thorough insalivation
and mastication of food can only be described as remarkable and of
the highest importance for the progress of that most important of all
sciences, the right conduct of life. The great advantage of finely
dividing the food in the mouth so as to present as large a surface as
possible for the action of the intestinal juices, is obvious when one
reflects on the rapidity with which bacteria can and do act on pieces
having a smaller area in consequence of their larger bulk. When one
reflects that Dr. Mott attributes the main cause of insanity to the
absorption by the body of the cleavage products produced by microbes in
the intestines, and the increasing recognition of such poisons in the
causation of chronic disease and disturbances of health, this factor
alone would afford an explanation of some of the phenomena induced by
the practice of economical nutrition.
"A method having the results that this has it need scarcely be said
is revolutionary; all one's preconceived notions of the conduct of
life are found to be based on grounds open to grave criticism and it
throws a great responsibility on all those concerned in its study to
endeavour by all the means in their power to present a more completely
demonstrated and unanswerable case to those who are responsible for the
world's guidance in these matters, with as little delay as possible,
"Yours faithfully,
"HUBERT HIGGINS, M. A. CANTAB.
M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.
"Late House Surgeon to St. George's Hospital, London, and the
Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. Demonstrator of Anatomy to the
University of Cambridge and Assistant Surgeon to Addenbrooke's
Hospital."
QUARANTINE
THE NECESSITY OF PROTECTION
NOTE: A paper, read before members of the Unity League and other
guests of Mr. and Mrs. William S. Harbert, at Tre-Brah, Williams Bay,
Geneva Lake, Wisconsin, in August, 1898.
It is pertinent to the subject of this book, but was written when the
investigations described herein were just beginning.
Progress of Civilisation is accelerated by constantly extending systems
of individual, moral, social and sanitary quarantine.
It is not what man adds, for he can _add_ nothing, but what he
prevents, that aids growth.
Man creates nothing, but he assists Creation by removing deterrents
to growth. Growth is spontaneous, constant and ever stronger if
obstructions are removed. Creation does _all the growing_, but
_cultivates_ nothing; the seed falling upon good soil or upon stony
waste without other direction than that given by the caprice of the
winds.
On the other hand, Man is the _only cultivator_ in Nature, and at the
same time he can add nothing to growth--to Creation.
Visible, or conscious, growth consists of cell building or thought
producing. Man never has created a cell, neither has he been able to
determine the origin of a thought; yet, he is a necessary factor in
evolution and a prime factor in cultivation, which is civilisation.
Man removes deterrents to growth. Nature "does the rest."
Thought and cell creation are spontaneous and are never-ceasing if
all obstructions are removed from about them. Civilised man places a
quarantine against the enemies of growth, of progress, and of harmony,
and thereby promotes civilisation.
Man is, therefore, the Chief Assistant to Creation, the Architect of
Civilisation and a _Full Partner_ with Nature in Evolution.
This distinction, adequately appreciated, lifts Man above the animal
plane and gives him a place among the gods; his material form, composed
of muscle, hands, powers of locomotion and speech, being but tools with
which to harness and coöperate with the other forces in Nature, under
the direction of the godlike attribute of the Mind, in the removal of
deterrents to free growth, and the cultivation of that Harmony which is
the symbol of God.
* * * * *
Having assumed as an hypothesis that Man is Full Partner with Nature
in Evolution; and having discovered his proper function in the
"Division of Labour" in Nature, it is time for each of us to analyse
the conditions which environ us as Man units, select those which
seem to be useful to our scheme of construction and harmony, declare
all deterrents to the growth of our selection to be weeds, and then
proceed to remove them without delay, first, by pulling those which now
exist, and following that by establishing strict quarantine against
them.
* * * * *
I can teach only that which I have learned, and pronounce good only
that which has led to happiness. I will therefore note the progress of
my own discoveries and describe those which have brought increasing
happiness, in order that they may serve as beacons and monuments to
such as may seek the same goal along the same lines of inquiry.
The first forty-five years of my present life were spent in seeking
happiness by means of personal accumulation. Money, friends,
distinction, acquaintance with art in all its various expressions,
lands, luxurious homes in favoured localities, pictures, rare
porcelains, lacquers and other possessions, isolated for my own use,
and for the enjoyment of chosen friends, seemed to be the necessary
desiderata of happiness.
In turn, all of these came to me in sufficient abundance to give,
at least, a taste of their quality and their efficacy in promoting
happiness; but, in the midst of them were always obstructions to
unhampered enjoyment, increasing with possession and accumulation
of the coveted means, and constantly mocking, as with a mirage, the
ultimate ideal desired.
During these forty-five years of quest of happiness there were
constantly appearing above the horizon of my search flashes of hope,
leading in new directions, which proved in turn to be but will o' the
wisps, until the night--the morning--of my awakening, as related in my
book "Menticulture."
It was then, for the first time, I heard that it was possible to _get
rid_ of anger and worry, the _bêtes noires_ of my existence, which
were, as I then believed and as I now know, the dreaded barriers
between me and perfect happiness; not because the mere removal of
these particular deterrents to happiness will accomplish happiness,
but because the certain result of the removal of any principal mental
obstructions leads to the disappearance of contingent errors, and
permits freedom of growth of the elements of true happiness.
* * * * *
It is proper to state here the definition of happiness which is the
result of my progressive quest. There is only one quality of true
happiness, as there can only be one kind of quarantine, and the former
is dependent on the latter. If both are not _perfect_, both fail. True
happiness is _the evidence and fruit of conscious usefulness, and
quarantine against obstructions to normal altruistic energy is the best
means of attaining happiness_.
In view of the establishment of the status of the Man unit in the
Nature-Man partnership, the above definition and assertion may be
extended to declare that there can be no genuine happiness short of
_usefulness in assisting other units to be strong and useful in the
partnership of which each is a member_.
True happiness cannot exist if there is present an element of
indifference.
Next to destructive aggression, indifference, which leads to neglect
and waste, is the worst fault that a member of the Nature-Man
partnership can be guilty of. Neglect _nothing_ that will aid growth in
any useful form, and happiness will surely follow, for Nature and the
God of Nature will "do the rest."
* * * * *
In qualifying for the Nature-Man partnership, it is of first importance
that our personal equipment should be understood and cared for so as to
give us the greatest strength. The body may appropriately be likened to
an electric power plant--a Mind-Power Plant; the body being the engine,
the stomach the furnace, the arteries and veins the boiler tubes, the
blood in circulation the steam, the brain the dynamo, and the mind
electricity.
Mind is the all-important factor of our equipment, for it is the
commander that will lead and direct better and wiser than we can now
imagine if we allow it a chance to act with freedom.
To secure this freedom we must know its habitat, its requirements, its
nourishment, and learn to allow it to recharge itself sufficiently and
to concentrate itself on its chosen usefulness without imposing upon it
also the drudgery of useless work. This must be done with the same idea
of economy that a _chef_ is relieved of the drudgery of washing dishes
and emptying slops.
According to Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey, a pharmacist, army surgeon
and tireless investigator of forty-five years' experience, whose
revelations have been before the medical profession of the world for
many years without a single challenge, the brain is a dynamo which
accumulates energy during sleep, and uses it during the waking hours of
its possessor.
The brain manages everything for man that he accomplishes. It brings
messages from the Creator, which are sometimes called intuition,
sometimes inspiration, and by various other names. Emerson calls
these messages the "Over-Soul." My own appreciation of the attribute
that distinguishes the Spiritual Man from the animal man is better
satisfied by the name "Spiritual Cerebration," which I have defined
in my book "Happiness" as: "Intelligence not derived from experience,
principally obtained during sleep, and, seemingly supernaturally clear
to consciousness on awaking in the natural manner."
The brain also directs all action, and, with encouragement, will take
up the messages from the Creator and analyse, arrange, and develop them
into useful accomplishments, and then file them away in the archives
of the memory as additions to the equipment which is necessary to
greatness in the pursuit of usefulness.
Dr. Dewey gives the bill of fare of the brain in seeking its own
nourishment, and also describes the work it performs in transforming
the fuel we supply it with into the tissues on which it feeds.
This is undoubtedly a very important discovery and locates the source
of strength and teaches how to conserve it.
I will not give the technical bill of fare of the brain, for you would
not remember it better than I do, but it is all composed of tissues
of the body, fat predominating to the quantity of ninety-seven per
cent, but the important announcement is that neither the brain itself
nor any of the nervous centres diminish during consumption of tissue,
neither do they lose any of their power, even in cases of what is
called starvation, up to the point of death, when all of the fatty and
muscular tissues of the body are wasted away, leaving the brain and
nerve centres to flicker and go out, as a candle does, brighter than
usual with the parting flash of their brilliancy.
Dr. Dewey gives President Garfield as an illustrious example of proof
of the accuracy of his deduction. The martyr President lived eighty
days without the addition of an ounce of nutriment to his life, carried
the usual clearness of mind to the last moment, and passed on only when
the last muscular tissue had been consumed by the brain.
Dr. Dewey's assertion that starvation, so-called, is never a cause
of disease, and never dangerous to life and health until there is no
more tissue left on which to feed the brain and other nerve centres,
was published some years ago and I have the authority of the Doctor
himself that his contention has not been once disputed by the medical
profession. Three eminent English physicians, Drs. A. M. Haig,
George S. Keith and A. Rabigliati, and many American physicians, have
experimented with what is called starvation for the cure of chronic
diseases which have their origin in excess of inharmonious deposits
caused by overeating or careless eating. The results in all instances
recorded have been successful in modifying or curing the disease.
When patients have understood that they were suffering no injury from
not taking food they have ceased to have hunger cravings. These hunger
cravings usually come from fear or from disorder caused by fermenting
food in an overloaded stomach.
We can, then, on undisputed and practical authority, treat craving for
food or drink as a disease and therefore not rational, and starvation
as merely drawing upon the stored fuel--fatty tissue--by the dynamo of
the brain, restorable at will at any time before complete exhaustion,
without injury-- with benefit, in fact--to the machinery of the body.
The brain must first turn food into tissue, and then derive its own
nourishment from the tissue. If the right quantity of nourishment can
be introduced into the stomach, if the quality is of the right kind,
and if it is fed into the furnace of the stomach with relatively the
same wisdom that a competent fireman uses in feeding his furnace, the
brain is required to use the least possible effort in this direction,
and has its stored energy available for directing other useful action
and serving the partnership which employs it with an efficiency,
the possibility of which may be well illustrated by the herculean
accomplishments of the battleship "Oregon" in the late war in steaming
thirteen thousand miles and engaging in a great battle without a stop
or an accident, and without "starting" a rivet.
I will not tell you much of what Dr. Dewey has revealed, because I
want you to read all he has written,[18] as well as the books of the
English physicians mentioned, but I must say this much: Very little
digestion goes on during sleep, and, whether it does or not the brain
has from sixty to one hundred days' nourishment stored up within each
of us, and can feed on that without inconvenience to us, except in the
form of what is called habit craving or imaginary hunger, for the whole
of that time. A person who has been without food for an unusual time,
if he does not gorge his stomach when the first opportunity of breaking
the fast arrives, is not only better for the rest the brain has had,
but the health does not suffer in any way.
[Footnote 18: Dr. Dewey is the author of numerous books: notably, the
"No-Breakfast Plan" which he supplies to inquirers direct from his home
address, Meadville, Pa.]
It is, then, no serious deprivation to ask a person to go without
what we call breakfast--the getting-up or habit-craving--and give the
brain a chance to clean up the remnants of the last day's supply of
food fuel, and express new desires in an _earned_ appetite. There is
available, on waking from sleep, a fresh charged brain ready to serve
its proprietor with great efficiency. Incidentally it has to do some
"chores," rake out the clinkers, dispose of the ashes, relieve the
grate bars, attend to any little repairs, brush out the chimney and
generally get ready for the work of another day.
The hunger of the morning is necessarily but a _habit-hunger_. The best
evidence of this is that, when busily employed, we forget it without
trouble; and also is that European peoples, where the disease dyspepsia
is not known in the list of physical derangements, perform the chief
physical or mental effort of the day before their breakfast, the
morning coffee scarcely meaning anything in the way of what we call a
meal.
Dr. Dewey's firm assertion is that when the stomach has had a chance
to "clean up" and is ready for more fuel, it will make it known in
healthy manner by a healthy appetite, and that it is rarely normal
before noon; and not really before one has done what might be called a
"day's work."
I can assert boldly, as the result of experience, that the time to get
work out of the brain is between the morning awakening and the first
meal, and it is the same relative to endurance draughts on the physical
strength.
Then, in the heat or the glare of the day, having accomplished
something useful and disposed of pressing duties, so as not to feel
the irritation of hurry, the first meal of the day can be taken with
restful ease and it will be found that the supply demanded by the
appetite will not be so great as that demanded by the unhealthful,
habit-inflamed early morning call.
It may not seem so, but this digression from psychics to physics is
very germane to my subject and to my own experience.
Without knowing that Dr. Dewey and the other eminent physicians who
endorse his theories were living in the world, I, in the summer of
1894, blundered into a personal experience of diet that produced
wonderful results which I now recall with all the vividness of the high
lights of extreme pleasure met in foreign travel.
I was in a Southern city for two months during an unusually hot
summer, watching some developments that could not be hurried, and the
fruition of which was important to my interests. I had nothing to do in
connection with this business but to "watch and wait."
I had some writing to do, however, in the mean time, which could not
be well or comfortably done in the heat of the day, hence I arose at
daylight and began to write. At that time of the morning nothing to eat
was to be had, which compelled me to start work without it. My subject
was an absorbing one, so that, once under way, I would not be diverted
until I had "written myself out;" or in other words, had exhausted the
consideration of the morning messages which I now designate "Spiritual
Cerebration."
It happened, under these circumstances, that my habit-hunger was not
given a hearing and it was nearly noon before I felt the fatigue or
even the heat of the burning day, for I worked in my pajamas, and had
no time to look at the thermometer, to get an exaggerated suggestion of
heat by which to start my blood chasing itself through my veins.
I not only noticed that my midday breakfast was a deliciously grateful
meal, but that appetite became satisfied far short of the formally
customary abnormal early morning gorge, and, what was more remarkable
yet, I wanted nothing during the rest of the day, and not even until
midnight, except, after vigorous exercise of some sort, I might desire
a little fruit or a bit of bread or cracker; but never a full course
dinner.
I wore a belt at my trousers, as was the custom of the place, and in a
few days decreased the girth of my corpulency one hole in the belt; and
before the summer was over, four holes, with only the most comfortable
feeling accompanying the loss of weight.
When my family returned from Europe, I settled back into the American
and English habit of a meat breakfast, because I did not want to be
"different," and at the same time I half doubted but that my experience
was nothing more than an abnormal one, attributable to the inertia of
summer heat, literary absorption and lack of physical exercise.
Twice, when I have been left alone since then, away from the restraint
of custom, and also in the midst of abundant athletic exercise, I have
again cultivated the same habit of missing breakfast through desire to
do early morning work, with the same splendid results.
The last time referred to is the present. My search for a lost waif
through the framing of an appeal for him, has given me such absorbing
thought that meals have been of no consideration beside it, and in
the midst of it I find Dr. Dewey's book, the books of the English
physicians indorsing him; and have secured results of health, comfort
and strength to myself which I did not know I possessed; to corroborate
my accidental experience. As I said before, this seems a very wide
digression from the psychical to the physical, but it is really no
digression at all, for it is in the service of the brain, and the
brain is the direct agent of communication between the Creator and
our consciousness, assisting us to work together in the Nature-Man
partnership with useful efficiency.
* * * * *
Now, let me return to the aim of my address, and pursue the thread
of my personal experience in search of the fundamental principles of
True Living, which, to be proven, must be vouched for and tested by
resultant happiness.
When I attacked the tap-roots of trouble and shut the door in the
face of anger and worry for ever, I saw among the bones of their
decomposition the skeleton of fear. It proved to be their backbone.
Fear, then, was the support of all the deterrent passions that beset
brightest manhood and womanhood and pursue it to an untimely death.
My book "Happiness" deals with the separation of fearthought from
forethought in order to show that it is possible to smother a vital
stimulant of energy with a resemblance of it which is as deadly a
poison as carbonic acid gas.
While I have been engaged in pursuing germs of disorder to their
beginnings, during the past three or four years, I have uncovered
many a beautiful possession that formerly I did not appreciate.
_Appreciation of the full value of Appreciation_ is one of these
discoveries of priceless value and usefulness. I have spoken of this
in "Happiness," but not as much as it deserves, for it truly is "The
Appreciation of God and of Good that gives birth to Love, and which is
the only true and adequate measure of wealth."
Nothing else, however, in the whole quest, has approached the beauty
of the love for children that has come to me; the appreciation of
them as Messages from the Creator, consigned to the cultivation of
the environment society provides for them; as likely as not, any one
of them bringing into the world a great intelligence by means of the
humblest of parents.
During observation of social questions in Europe, my interest has been
drawn constantly to children, as by a powerful magnet, so that when I
was called back to this country to attend to a detail of business and
met the adventure which is the cause of my present focalised interest
in neglected ones, as expressed in a book to be called, when published,
"That Last Waif; or, Social Quarantine,"[19] it was but natural that I
should put all the force of my sympathy into the cause of rescue, and
that I should find in that service more happiness than in any of the
luxurious amusements which had claimed me as a devotee in times gone by.
[Footnote 19: Published, and proceeds dedicated to the cause of the
waifs, October, 1898.]
True _happiness is the result of conscious usefulness_. This I can
assert with the confidence of knowledge, not alone from my own
experience, but from observation of the great army of kindergartners
and child-savers whom I have met in my travels, and especially within
the past year; and it is evident that the service attaching to
protecting little neglected angels from the evil suggestions and the
cruel conditions that may make of them, not men, but beasts, is one
of the avenues of usefulness in which these "Angels of the State" meet
with the smile of the Master, who was the first Great Kindergartner;
whose teachings centred about and dwelt upon the care of children as of
first consideration, and who said, "Suffer Little Children to come unto
me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
Childhood has suffered, manhood has suffered, progress has suffered,
for lo! these ages, the cruel assumption that mankind is naturally
depraved. In recent years public conscience has been dulled by
the anæsthetic that there must be a Have-To-Be-Bad Class in all
communities. This has been formulated into the assumption that there
is in every group of the Heaven-Sent Angels of Purity, a full ten per
cent that must be depraved and unredeemable except by the interposition
of special dispensation, which is a direct contradiction of all of
the observed Laws of Creation to which intelligence now subscribes.
The motto of this assumption is couched in this vicious legend: "The
hopelessly submerged ten per cent stratum of society."
Half an hour's walk from this hospitable mansion, on the shore of the
beautiful Geneva Lake, is a place called "Holiday Home." There are now
housed and thoughtfully cared for at the "Home" about one hundred of
the "Hopelessly Submerged Ten Per Cent Stratum of (Chicago's) Society."
During the summer half a thousand of these unfortunates will come for
two weeks each. When we touched at the wharf last evening after coming
from the concert given in their interest at Mr. Chalner's lakeside
home, the waifs met us with a merry class-yell, and greeted us with an
intelligence, a buoyancy, and a freedom, born of their holiday, such as
was not excelled at any of the other landings where only the children
of rich summer residenters were met. We all saw these "waifs" and we
marvelled at them, for, with the grime of the slum washed from their
sweet faces, and with clean, though sometimes ragged clothing, they
might have figured in the mix-up of "Pinafore," or have starred in a
dramatic representation of the "Prince and the Pauper," with all the
grace required of princelings.
They haven't been long from God, and they are god-like or not, as we
have welcomed and protected them, or rebuffed or neglected them.
Let me assure you in the most practical way that there are two sides to
this child question. There is a sentimental side, than which there is
no other so worthy; and there is a practical side, than which there is
none so profitable.
The best and most profitable service in the whole gamut of useful
occupations that I know about is in learning to know children, and in
connection with a Quarantine movement which is now started, and which
aims to not let one of these wards of the Christ escape the best care
known to Love and the Science of Child-Life.
The crèche and the kindergarten and the manual training schools, and
domestic training classes, as well as institutions similar to the
"Holiday Home" across the Bay, have demonstrated within the past thirty
years that fully ninety-eight per cent of the "Hopelessly Submerged
Ten Per Cent" can be rescued after they have been warped by evil
surroundings. What will not the same effort effect if directed toward
prevention and protection, instead of being squandered in careless and
soulless correction?
Christ said: "And a little child shall lead them." Let us awake to
the call. It is the way to Heaven; for, "_Of such_ is the Kingdom of
Heaven."
FIVE YEARS' CONFIRMATORY EVIDENCE
The spirit of the preceding address to the good members of the Unity
League organisation on the shores of beautiful Lake Geneva has been the
inspiring motive of the quest for scientific endorsement of Economic
Nutrition for the benefit of the present generation of children, and,
incidentally, of their elders. In Economic Nutrition lies protection
from sexual morbidity, alcoholic intemperance, bodily disease, savage
passions and all the brood of evil contamination and temptation. In
Economic Nutrition lie possibilities of physical and mental energy and
optimistic happiness such as the world has not been accustomed to in
the memory of history. Economic Nutrition is what children want to be
taught with their first indelible impressions, and the present great
movement of which this little book treats, for which it was first
responsible, and for which it is republished in a new and extended
edition, is expected to furnish authoritative knowledge relative to the
most Economic Nutrition, so that mothers and kindergartners may meet
the little waifs from the Creator on the threshold of this present life
with words of wisdom and examples of sanitary perfection, instead of
confronting them at once with the poison of ignorance relative to their
most important concern,--their own Economic Nutrition.
That the contentions uttered in "That Last Waif; or, Social
Quarantine," referred to in the Lake Geneva Address, are reasonable is
evidenced by the experience of Dr. and Mrs. Kellogg and their adopted
family of twenty-four waifs, the acquaintance of which has since been
made.
All of the altruists who have engaged in kindergardenry among the
neglected, Dr. Barnardo, Dr. Kellogg and the rest, are full of
confidence in the possibility and efficacy of a perfect quarantine as
outlined in "That Last Waif." It is an _Epicurean_ method of promoting
_Menticulture_, killing _Fearthought_, denouncing _Gluttony_, saving
that _Last Waif_, and attaining _Happiness_ through learning the
_A.B.-Z. of Our Own (Economic) Nutrition_.
GIVE THE BABIES A CHANCE
THE INSPIRING MOTIVE
The enthusiasm excited by a persistent study of the problem of
human nutrition is inspired by the need of an intelligent scheme of
information and instruction which may be understood by mothers and
teachers for the benefit of children. Unlike the young of the lower
animals, the babes of mankind have some years of dependent existence
during which much unconscious murder is committed, and during which the
innocents are more or less poisoned with bad suggestions that weaken
them all through life. Colts, calves, pigs, chickens, and the like
survive the period of dependence in much greater proportion than do the
young of their human masters survive the infantile stage of existence,
and this is largely due to the lack of basic or parent knowledge
on the part of mothers relative to their own nutrition, and also a
pitiable ignorance concerning the nutrition of their children, the
double ignorance constituting a double crime.
Even if careless about ourselves, is it not shameful that we do not
concentrate effort in learning the truth about our instinctive means
of protection in our own alimentation and in classifying the knowledge
in a way that will make it available to children, through their proper
guardians, when they arrive in the world "as helpless as a babe"?
If knowledge which seems to be protective had not been evolved out of
recent experiment, or if the hope of gaining such knowledge had not
been collected from good authority, the appeal might seem futile; but
this is not the case. The most intelligent and studious investigators
are united in the belief that the problem can be scientifically solved
and the confusion of ideas settled by concentrated personal and
collective study of economic nutrition, through observation of the
natural requirements, and by trial of the care in taking food which is
necessary to secure the most profitable economies.
ILLUSTRATION
Here is an illustration, both of the present need of better knowledge
and the hope of its attainment. It is an account of one accidental
experience which showed that _excess of food_ may be as detrimental
to a tiny baby dependant, as it is generally conceded to be harmful
to grown persons. The case was described by Dr. Chadwick of Boston to
Professor Bowditch, and by the latter repeated to the author. An infant
was not progressing as it should and failed to gain normally in weight.
It was under the charge of a nurse and was being carefully watched.
A certain quantity of milk was prescribed for daily nourishment, at
prescribed times, in a prescribed manner; but the child did not
increase in weight and was "doing poorly." For some reason the nurse
was changed and instructions were repeated by the old to the new
nurse. In the course of a week the little patient showed signs of
marked improvement, both in gain of weight and in general condition.
In order to record the particulars of the change the physician
questioned the nurse and learned that only one half the nourishment
originally prescribed had been given, the new nurse having forgotten or
misunderstood the orders.
The reason the little fellow had been "doing so poorly" under the
original prescription was because he had been using up his puny
strength getting rid of the excess of food that had been forced upon
his little stomach and intestines. When the excess was stopped, so
that his digestive apparatus could occupy itself with his real needs,
the babe had a surplus of energy for growth and thrived as a rightly
nourished child should do.
NOTE: In connection with the foregoing, reference is invited to the
author's conception of how attention to one's personal economies,
beginning with the economy of personal nutrition, is interrelated
to general menticulture and the child-saving phase of our personal
responsibility in child culture. Even if we are carelessly suicidal
ourselves, we owe better care to innocent and dependent children. This
will be found in the "Explanation of the A. B. C. Life Series" at the
end of the book.
MUNCHING PARTIES AND THE CHEWING FAD
To the scientific person of ultra conservative bent of mind this free
and easy screed, offered as the exponent of a great economic idea,
will seem offensive, and justly so; but it has been written with a
purpose, and happily the purpose is being effected as speedily as the
author hoped for when his own discovery relative to the profitableness
of an epicurean, economic nutrition became a reality of experience and
suggested publication.
To this free presentation, couched in a variety of class expression, is
due, in a large measure, the new revival of feeding reform which has
spread far over the civilised world, where it was most needed, within
the past five years.
Up to five years ago, and to some extent now, the prescription method
of recommending diets was and is common. In fact it was universal up to
a few years ago; for no one, as far as is known, had yet suggested that
normal appetite was the _only_ competent prescriber, and that it was
the office of the physician to teach his clients and patients how to
normalise the appetite.
It required two years of the circulation of the original publications
and the constant, persistent, personal assertion of the author before
any continued credence of his assertions was secured, with the one
exception of a lay friend in New York who happened to be in a state of
great need of reform at the time, as related under the heading of "A
Five Year's Lay Experience."
It was only about two years ago that the new claims had received
sufficient recognition to admit of explaining them to busy men of
prominence in the medical profession. After the confirmation at the
laboratories of the University of Cambridge, England, the author had
an opportunity to make a statement and give a demonstration to Sir
Thomas Barlow, the private physician of King Edward VII. Sir Thomas
was most sympathetic with the physiological possibilities, and there
has been frequent evidence since to show that he pursued thought of
the suggestions, and that his interest has been responsible for the
aristocratic lay interest which originated the so-termed "Munching
Parties" in London.
The English term "munching," signifying chewing or masticating, is
an excellent amendment, which is gladly adopted. "Masticating" is
technical and formal. "Chewing" has been disgraced by its application
to gum and to tobacco, and the other English expression, "biting,"
suggests the carnivorous, savage use of the jaws and teeth, while
"munching" implies enjoyment, as the munching of delicacies by
children.
As reported from London, "Munching Parties" were inaugurated to teach
attention, to encourage mouth preparation of food for digestion, and
also for the æsthetic purpose of gaining all the gustatory pleasure
possible from food while conserving the economies of nutrition. The
method employed was most ingenious, and with some modification is
approved by the author. When a course was served at "Munching Lunches,"
the manager of the ceremony employed a stop watch to time the treatment
of the first morsel of food taken by each of the guests. Five minutes
was prescribed for consideration of the morsel. It was an extravagantly
long delay over any one morsel, but it set the pace of deliberation,
and time, under the circumstances of a social function, was not a
matter of moment.
A five minute, or even a one minute consideration of a morsel of
delicious food, tends to give a new appreciation of its taste value
and suggests more careful enjoyment than is usual when nervous
conversation is the main business of a meal and food is a mere
accompaniment.
Industrious munching performs about one hundred acts of mastication
to the minute, and from twelve to fifteen mouthfuls of ordinary food
is sufficient to satisfy completely a hearty appetite. Tender or
well-prepared or well-cooked food is fully treated by munching for
natural swallowing in even much less time than a minute. The necessary
time ranges from one-twentieth to one-fifth of a minute, or ordinary
food is reduced so as to excite the natural Swallowing Impulse by
from five to twenty masticatory acts; and this applies equally to the
tasting movements required by sapid liquids. Hard or coarse breads, and
even potato, may require more attention and longer time, and deficiency
of saliva delays the process; but it is a very refractory food that
will require more than half a minute to the ordinary mouthful. Small
sips and small mouthfuls demand less proportionate time, so that the
actual time necessary to satisfy a good appetite does not exceed twelve
or fifteen or at most twenty minutes when the secretion of saliva is
ample, as in the case of _real_ hunger; but the enjoyment of taste
does not stop short with the actual cessation of the psychological
sensation. The memory of taste continues after the actual sensibility
has ceased, and one of the most agreeable compensations of a meal
is enjoyed in the form of _complete satisfaction_ following the act
of eating. It is a very different and a very much more agreeable
sensation than that attending a distended stomach, and must be felt and
understood to be fully appreciated.
"Munching Party Functions," then, reveal more possible pleasure and
benefit than the mere tickling of the palate, so-called, and diffuse
their benefits to cover the mechanical act and a long-continued feeling
of satisfaction that is more subtly pleasing than the immediate
physiological cause of the contentment.
The "Munching Party" scheme of education and enjoyment has been carried
to America, and has received the name of the "Chewing Fad." As such it
has been cartooned in the newspapers, but in no matter what form the
suggestion is spread it can do only good.
Appreciation of the suggestion has been generously expressed in the
letters of Dr. Kellogg of the great Battle Creek Sanitarium and by
Dr. Dewey, the author of the "No Breakfast Plan," as well as by the
author's intimate colleagues, Drs. Van Someren and Higgins, of Venice,
Italy.
There are many physicians from whom the author has heard report, and
perhaps thousands who have not yet been heard from, who are conveying
the slow-eating and appreciative-attention suggestions to their
patients; and as the reform in dietetic _technique_ has sprung up
since the publication of the booklets of the author--"What Sense? or,
Economic Nutrition," and "Nature's Food Filter; or, What and When to
Swallow," which were afterwards coupled together under the title of
"Glutton or Epicure"--he has good reason to suppose that the spread of
the idea originated with the publication of his discovery even where
the personal influence had not been given direct.
While visiting recently in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the author met a
distinguished professor of Harvard University who had been suffering
from nervous prostration. He had spent some time in Europe consulting
the most eminent neurologists, but with little or no relief. On his
return to the United States he was advised to go to a sanitarium in
Bethel, Me., under the direction of Dr. Gehring, where effective cures
of cases of nervous prostration have been performed. The professor
was given "Menticulture" and "Glutton or Epicure" to read, and was
recommended to practise the advice of the books in connection with
his treatment. These two books are an account of the way the author
promoted his own salvation from the uncertainty relative to physical
health and mental control, and it is by these means that the psychic,
mechanical, and chemical necessities of nutrition are satisfied.
The author spent an hour with Dr. Alexander Haig, of London, while
undergoing the Cambridge University Examination reported upon by Sir
Michael Foster, and exhaustively argued the claims of thorough mouth
treatment of nutriment to that distinguished dietetic specialist. The
argument met with much incredulity, as has been the case in all first
presentations of the idea. Dr. Haig pronounced the appeal to even a
normalised appetite dangerous, and clung to the prescription theory of
regulating food. He seems, however, to have since learned the efficacy
of munching and tasting in assisting the empirical prescription method,
and now recommends it as enthusiastically as do Drs. Van Someren,
Higgins, Kellogg, and Dewey. He has even sent patients to a resort in
the country in England to acquire the habit of munching where there
was present in them the strong pernicious habit of nervous haste and
inattention in connection with their ingestion of food.
This is bound to be the case with physicians where the subject is given
attention and the method is accorded a fair trial without lapses.
Credit for the origination of the suggestion is here taken to increase
the effectiveness of the claims presented in the "A. B.-Z. of Our Own
Nutrition" and in this book. Readers are recommended not to imitate
the prevalent error of thinking that so simple a suggestion is not
important or otherwise scientists would have proclaimed it long before
now. The ancient hypotheses of text-book physiology were mainly based
upon the study of nutrition, beginning in the stomach, and after the
danger of indigestion had been forced upon the alimentary system;
and hence they often dealt with confused, abnormal, and pathologic
conditions, and they rarely had opportunity to observe the normal
condition intended by Nature.
Professor Pawlow, of St. Petersburg, confirmed the necessity of a
right psychic environment; Dr. Cannon, of the Harvard Medical School,
showed the influence of mechanical thoroughness and nervous shock upon
digestion; and Dr. Harry Campbell, of London, explained the mechanical
and salival efficacy of mastication in procuring good assimilation of
nutriment and an economic nutrition. The work of Professor Pawlow and
Dr. Cannon was independent scientific research, and so was that of
Dr. Campbell; but the latter was undoubtedly suggested or stimulated
by Dr. Van Someren's presentment of his paper to the British Medical
Association. The investigations of Sir Michael Foster, Professor
Chittenden, Drs. Higgins, Kellogg, and Dewey were directly inspired
by the author in connection with his Venetian colleague, Dr. Ernest
Van Someren. The papers, reports, articles, and lectures of these
authorities are given in the "A. B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition," and are
repeatedly mentioned in this volume because this book is revised and
reissued as an extended explanatory companion of the larger scientific
presentation.
In pursuit of true menticulture the personality of the individual
should be completely suppressed. He becomes the agent of his
inspirations, his revelations, or his altruistic convictions, and
as such speaks for the ideas presented, and in no immodest spirit
of vain egotism. In descending from the plane of high literary
propriety to impress by simile and analogy, the object foremost in
mind is to attract a variety of sympathies. The author reveres the
dignified in art and in demeanour, and deplores the necessity of
personal association to spread the merits of what he believes to be
fundamental truths of the philosophy of true living. But so strong is
the conviction of the author that he possesses fundamental truths which
have been overlooked in the rapid progress of the race in the luxuries
of living, that where it is seemingly desirable to employ unusual means
to attract attention he feels compelled to do so.
SPECIMEN ECONOMIC DINNER
IN A
SUMPTUOUS MODERN AMERICAN HOTEL
The author was invited to dine with some friends one evening in summer
at a hotel in New York, and the invitation concluded with "Menu _à la_
Fletcher."
The dinner was to be served in the sitting-room of my host, and when I
arrived had not yet been ordered. "You must order the dinner for us,"
said my host, "and we will agree to your selection." "But I cannot
order for any one but myself," said I in reply. "The chief contention
I make for natural nutrition is that the appetite is the only true
indication of the bodily need, and you must interpret your own appetite
both as to estimated quantity required and the sort of food craved."
After some discussion I agreed to stand as go-between and take the
symptoms of appetite from each and give the order. The waiter was
standing by with pencil in hand and urged a number of expensive dishes
that were the specialties of the day. I asked him to "be quiet, please,
and let us make our own selection." I first placed the bill of fare
in the hands of the daughter of my host and asked her to name the
first thing that came into her mind in connection with the order. She
replied, "Baked potatoes and--" "Stop," said I; "baked potatoes it is;
now it is your turn to choose, R----. What comes first to your mind?"
"Green corn," was the answer. "Very well, waiter; one order of baked
potatoes, one order of green corn, and a lemon ice. Bring these and we
will order more if we require."
The waiter hesitated and was about to protest something when I stopped
him with the assurance that the order given was all that we would
specify at first, and that if the service was unusual and caused
trouble we would submit to an extra service charge to square accounts.
While the order was being filled there was considerable funmaking, but
I would give no explanations. The waiter returned shortly with the
order as given, and it was laid out to the accompaniment of a complete
dinner utensil service. I asked the young lady to please prepare one
of the potatoes in the way she liked best, and this was done by taking
the mealy heart out of the jacket and mixing it with butter, salt, and
pepper to taste. In the meantime the father had taken an ear of corn
and was prepared to enjoy it in response to his appetite the same as
he would if he were in the woods with a lumberman's appetite and only
corn to be had. The large glass of lemon ice was then placed between us
as a "centrepiece." "Aren't you going to take your ice now?" queried
the young lady. "Not now," replied I. "I must attend to your method
of taking your potato to see that you do it economic justice, and I
must see that your father does not waste any of that delicious corn.
Now, Mary, let me see how much good you can munch out of your first
mouthful. Do not swallow any of it until it is actually sucked up by
the Swallowing Impulse, and when that happens you will note that only a
portion of it is taken and the rest will naturally return to the front
of the mouth, if you do not restrain it, and will still be a delicious
liquid most agreeable to taste." This happened as suggested, and there
were three distinct swallowing acts before the last of the mouthful
had disappeared in response to the Swallowing Impulse. "My! but I
never realised that potato was so good," exclaimed the young lady; and
"Gracious! isn't this corn bully!" echoed the father. "Good!" added I.
"If that is true of the first mouthful, I think you will find it true
of the other mouthfuls until your appetite for potato and corn is
satisfied; and as long as your appetites hold good for them, you are
being nourished as your body-needs require." With the slow eating, the
appetite of each for the chosen food was soon quieted; one, we will
say for illustration of the principle, with a single potato and the
other with a single ear of corn. "I think I should relish a little of
your second potato if you are not going to take it," said the father,
addressing his daughter; and she replied, "Your corn seems nice,
father; may I have your second ear in exchange for my potato?" This was
agreeable to each, and each partook somewhat of the other's original
selection until the appetite of each was so completely satisfied that
neither could more than taste a little of my lemon ice as a final
delicacy; and as I did not want all of it, the one order sufficed for
us. I had breakfasted quite heartily at one o'clock in the afternoon,
after having written several thousand words of correspondence,
and really wanted but half the generous portion of ice that had
been brought. I had ordered it set into ice-water, after placing it
ceremonially as a centrepiece, and it had kept its icy consistency
waiting for what I thought was likely to happen.
Both my host and my hostess declared that they had never enjoyed
a summer evening meal more, and yet all that was ordered was not
consumed, while the cost, for the three, was less than a dollar for the
food alone.
The method employed to interpret appetite was a revelation to my
friends. They were accustomed to ordering several courses for each
person, although they thought they were "small eaters" and economic
feeders. Had they ordered for us three without my assistance, the
dinner would not have cost less than four or five dollars, and with a
plethora of food on the table all would have felt it necessary to eat
as much as possible, in order to get value received.
The above, as related, was an actual happening, but it in no way
indicates what another _trio_ would have ordered in response to their
appetites. That is immaterial. The principle of consulting the leanings
of appetite is the thing of first importance, and giving appetite a
chance to naturally discriminate is the second natural requirement. Had
the weather been cooler, and had the appetite earned been like that of
a labouring man, more food and more variety might have been required to
satisfy appetite, and hence the needs of the body. In that case, after
plying the appetite to repletion on the first dish ordered, a second or
a third could easily have been added. With this principle of learning
the real demands of appetite, any number of combinations can be had
for variety. In summer, with light physical exercise, very little
proteid-bearing food is needed; but in winter, with vigorous exercise
or hard physical labour, the appetite will crave foods that have
proteid and fat whether one knows what proteid is or the difference
between carbohydrate elements and fat. Any empirical idea of the
possible elemental requirements is likely to lead to false suggestion
and do harm. It is difficult to stand by and let Nature do the ordering
if there is too much elemental intelligence, and that is where the
animals, when allowed free choice of food, get on better with their
nutrition than man himself, and man's only protection is to carefully
heed the delicate discrimination of appetite. This is not a difficult
thing to do, for appetite can be easily satisfied within a small range
of simple foods.
With any desired variety of sumptuous food to choose from, and no
restraint from any cause whatever, the author fed himself nine-tenths
of the time during the examination at Yale University, in cold
winter weather, on griddle cakes well buttered and accompanied with
an abundance of maple syrup. Occasionally more proteid would be
demanded,--say once a week, or once in five days,--and then baked beans
was the preferential choice.
I am now relating the experiences of a student of hygienic epicureanism
and am not considering money economy alone. Were mental or even
physical improvement in efficiency to be purchased at high prices, and
lack of efficiency could be had for nothing, the high-priced article
would be well worth its cost, no matter what it might be, for the
reason that total lack of efficiency is equivalent to death and any
proportionate lack is the next thing to death. Hence it is not a money
economic reform that is being advocated, and this must be borne in mind.
When I am in New York I very often take a room at the Waldorf-Astoria
because it has become, by common consent, the suburban and country
business and social clearing house of the whole United States; and
hence, coming from Europe periodically as I do, and always anxious to
meet old friends from San Francisco, New Orleans, Boston, Washington,
the great cities of the Middle West, or elsewhere, it is more easily
accomplished by camping at the Waldorf than in any other way. I cannot
be a profitable guest of this or any hotel kept on the European plan,
but I try to make up for this deficiency in other ways. Just across
Sixth Avenue from the Waldorf, on Thirty-Fourth Street, is one of the
most pretentious of the so-called "dairy lunches." In these places
good, appetising, wholesome food is served quickly and in _decently
small portions_. For this very reason alone, I _prefer_ the crowd and
the noise of the dairy lunch to the quiet and the luxury of the Waldorf
café or dining-room. One would not object to paying a larger price
at the more quiet place of service, but prodigality seems to be the
present great American sin. Were it a mere waste of money or even of
the food, it would not be worthy of great discussion; for when the fool
and his money are parted the laugh is on him with no grain of sympathy,
and there already being a great surplus of food in the land, there is
no fear of famine. But with this prodigality prevalent, so that to have
a decent variety one must have put before him enough for a family, the
temptation to grossly overeat is great and the abuse is criminal.
It is the hope of the author that some enterprising Boldt will
inaugurate an epicurean service and charge well enough for it to pay
for the trouble, or better yet, in proportion to the quantity wanted.
In this regard the poor do not suffer directly, but the example of the
rich is the perverter of the poor in many ways, and surely in this item
of dietetic abuse.
When it comes to quantities of food to be prescribed, the author avoids
giving even suggestions. This has been the trouble with the past
attempts at reform. Had Luigi Cornaro told us in his autobiography the
manner of taking his food with other particulars, instead of giving
alone a maximum weight to which he limited himself, he might have
saved the world three hundred years of uncertainty and confusion. His
twelve ounces of solid food and fourteen ounces of new wine (fresh
grape juice) means little. The solid food might have been almost water
free or might have contained 50 per cent of moisture. The new wine
contained a trifle of sugar and probably more than 95 per cent of water
and supplied moisture to the body instead of water. During the Yale
tests reported elsewhere, and more fully in the "A. B.-Z. of Our Own
Nutrition," the daily ration did not exceed the reported amount of
Cornaro, even with the most generous allowance for moisture.
I have steadily refused to prescribe by weight or quantity or to
suggest the best kinds of foods for any one, but there are so many
questions arising from the publicity already given by the Yale
experiment, that it will do no harm to give some outline.
DIET IN THE YALE EXAMINATION OF THE AUTHOR
In the first place the selection of food for this test is no basis
of general choice. The analysis of food for its elemental molecule
values, and for its heat content, is a very difficult thing to do and
takes much time; hence to bring a large variety into a diet during a
test would entail enormous labour on the laboratory staff. Knowing
this difficulty, when I was requested to choose something which
would entirely satisfy my sense of taste gratification so as to best
stimulate the flow of the digestive juices, I chose a cereal with a
known content value. That is to say, I fed from different brands of
cereals, the content value of which was known. A quart of fresh milk a
day furnished the moisture required, and was not every day entirely
consumed. Maple sugar was the most variable ingredient of the diet in
regard to quantity. Of the milk I took nearly or quite one quart each
day, of the cereal I averaged about 150 grams, or say 5 ounces, and the
demand for the sugar varied from 150 grams to 200 grams, or say 5-7
ounces.
This food was taken in at two meals daily,--12-1 and 6-7 P.M.,--and
the time required in taking was 12-14 minutes to the meal, including
any delay necessitated in taking notes and in weighing the food.
These delays were inconsiderable, however, as facilities for weighing
and taking notes were perfected and their use well accustomed by the
subject. The 26-28 minutes per day, then, may be set down as the
careful but industrious eating time required to satisfy the waste and
appetite of a man doing 'Varsity Crew work, as reported by Dr. Anderson
and Professor Chittenden.
The activity outside the prescribed gymnasium exercises and any
supplementary work consisted of awaking very early in the morning
and doing considerable writing upon my typewriter. The agitation
of this nutrition investigation has involved an immense amount of
correspondence to keep the interest stimulated, and for the exchange
of information between the interested parties; hence in addition to
serving as test-subject, there was always much else to do to keep from
getting hopelessly behind in the work.
The writing began anywhere from four to six in the morning in winter,
which was the season of the test, and continued until about seven or
eight, when the exercises were commenced and continued until finished.
Meantime the mail of the morning had come in and frequently demanded
immediate attention, which used up the time until between twelve and
one o'clock, when a first-class appetite had been earned (no craving
of hunger or "all-goneness" in the common form due to the persistence
of habit hunger), and this insured a keen appreciation of taste and
fulfilled all the requirements of a healthy digestion. The afternoon
was always busy, sometimes with a lengthy walk around town, or a game
of billiards when the weather discouraged outside work. The evenings
were strenuous or restful, and were usually employed with conversation,
reading, or a lecture.
Fortunately the simple food selected continued to be agreeable to the
end, and cost an average of only eleven cents per day. When it was
given up to accommodate the service furnished by social meals it was
missed, the habit of supply having become somewhat fixed and expected
by appetite.
In London, in search of the lowest possible economy, the author has
subsisted on about half the cost of the Yale supply; and it is entirely
possible to those needing strictest economy.
INFLUENCE OF SUGGESTION
A friend of the author, who is an enthusiast in regard to the
profitableness of an economic nutrition in assisting the strenuous
life, went to lunch with a generous host in New York the other day,
when the following conversation about the lunch to be ordered was
heard. It partook of Wall-Street brevity, which is thought to be
necessary in the rush of a midday snack or meal.
"What will you have? What! only a baked potato and a bottle of ginger
ale? All right for a starter; but what are you really going to have?
Nothing more! what is the matter with you? Come, now; tell me what
you want for lunch? Stocks are badly off, but I haven't reached the
starvation point yet. Don't treat me like that when I'm trying to treat
you right and white. Brace up, old man, and have something to eat."
The intermediate replies can be imagined as in an overheard telephone
conversation.
The host ordered for himself, as usual, a portion of tongue and a
generous garniture of side dishes, and watched his guest with amused
tolerance. The lunch proceeded, interlarded with talk about topics of
mutual interest, and when a final halt was called the host had not
taken more than one-quarter of his cold tongue and very sparingly
of the accompanying side dishes. The guest had finished one of his
baked potatoes, and had sipped his ginger ale enjoyingly, but had
not taken more than half of the pint ordered. The appetites of both
host and guest were amply satisfied, but without any of the heaviness
which follows an unrestrained "hearty" meal. In tones of surprise the
one-sided conversation, relative to the strangeness of the proceeding,
continued as follows: "Well, I'll be switched! How in Wall Street did
that happen! I haven't eaten half my usual lunch, and yet I have killed
my appetite deader than the Ship Building Trust. I'm blessed if I can
understand it. The blamed thing is uncanny. I don't believe it's true,
but I'm satisfied all right even if I am hypnotised. Come and lunch
with me every day. You're engaged as a regular companion boarder, and
Freddie will pay the freight. You're cheaper than nobody. Come again!
Come again!! Come always!!!"
The above is not an unusual case. The personal influence of the author
and of his active colleagues has been visibly noted among parties
where there was no sympathy with the "starving fad," and where there
was even stubborn opposition to the thought of such a thing. But these
same groups of non-interested objectors have visibly decreased their
accustomed lunches and dinners, and some of them have found that a
cup of coffee and a roll, the same as is habitually taken in Europe,
outside England, serves as a breakfast better than the full meat affair
formerly taken. They persist in declaring that they are not influenced
by the chewing suggestion, but they show signs of _some_ restraining
influence, and observation reveals that in such groups the common
annual and quarterly attacks of illness are less frequently or less
severely suffered.
There is no doubt that Luigi Cornaro gave appreciative attention to
his four three-ounce meals a day, and in giving attention properly
insalivated his food. The inference is warranted. A man full of vigour
and health and constructive energy such as Cornaro reports that he had
in unusual abundance is not likely to confront a three-ounce ration
of delicious food and proceed to bolt it as a dog bolts a piece of
stolen meat. It is a matter of easy observation that a child given
a single piece of sugar or sweet in any form will make it last as
long as possible and get all of the taste out of it by most ingenious
conservation; but the same child, if offered a box of "goodies" as it
is passed around, or whenever the time given for possession of its
contents is limited, will show the greed of a predatory or hunted or
habitually maltreated animal and will not only grab as much as possible
but will cram all possible into his stomach to satisfy the sense of
greed, and then usually suffers the consequences of the double sin in
the sickening re-taste of the gases of indigestion.
Cornaro undoubtedly made his three-ounce meals last as long as possible
in order to enjoy the maximum of taste, and in so doing satisfied
the natural requirements of appreciative attention and thorough
insalivation. In like manner two small tumblers of the fresh grape
juice (new wine--fourteen ounces), which he took as his sapid liquid
in the course of a day in connection with his four meals, would allow
only a sherry glass quantity to each meal, and with such a limited
supply a person is not likely to toss off the liquid in great gulps
as water is drunk to satisfy thirst, but it rather would be enjoyed
as the wine-tasters enjoy wine, by their sipping practice, in pursuit
of their profession. The influence of visible supply or of passing or
permanent opportunity of possession is a most powerful suggestion in
the cultivation of economy or prodigality, of greed or moderation, of
healthy nouriture or plethoric indigestion.
Man was constructed and intended to hunt his food among the grains,
nuts, roots, and other fruits of earth, and in hunting food to earn a
keen appetite. He found his food scattered and ate it as he found it,
with the true appreciation that difficulty of possession gives. In the
primitive state the requirements of natural digestion are safeguarded;
but with a plethora of food cooked and spiced and furnished with
superfacilities for ingestion, the natural protection of difficulty is
removed, and the victims of the luxury drop unconsciously into habits
of abuse, like the overeating of to-day.
In order to escape the surrounding temptations it is necessary to have
always in mind protective counter-suggestions which intelligently make
use of the abundant and easy supply but limit the intake to the needs
of the body as expressed by appetite when permitted to discriminate
in its natural deliberate manner, and which only keeps pace with the
natural dissipation of taste in the process of requisite insalivation.
The chewing practice is but a means to this natural end, but it is a
most important means, the same now as when teeth were used instead of
patent grinders, and when taste took the place of spices and sauces and
manufactured its own delights by the chemical action of saliva.
Among the Zuni Indians, observed by even recent travellers, it is the
custom of the young girls of the _pueblos_ to masticate wheat up to
a given point of sweetness of taste and then to withdraw it from the
mouth and collect it in a wooden dish until a sufficient quantity is
secured, when the jaw-ground and saliva-sweetened "mess" is baked
in the sun or by fire and becomes the "sweet cake" of the family.
The change of the starch of the wheat or corn into sugary dextrose
by the action of saliva, which is necessary to be done somewhere in
the alimentary canal before it is assimilable nutriment, gives the
sweet-cake quality to the food which is the dietary delicacy of these
primitive people. By proper insalivation we perform the delectable
service for ourselves instead of having it done for us by good
young teeth aided by healthy saliva furnished by beautiful feminine
assistance.
"FLETCHERISING" FOOD
WHAT IT REALLY MEANS
The term "Fletcherising," or "Fletcherizing," as applied to food has
come into use without the suggestion of the nominee to a new filtering
fame, and promises to spread; hence it is well to explain just what the
term means.
Under the so-called "Fletcherizing" process, the mouth becomes a filter
with most facile appliances for protecting the delicate alimentary
canal from straining and poisoning. Instead of the "Pasteur Filter"
for the purification of water and the "pasteurisation" of foods by
sterilisation, the "Fletcher Filter" both separates and prepares
whatever is given it to treat more perfectly than any mechanical or
chemical device can do.
Dr. Kellogg appears in evidence often in this volume, and also with
much appreciated strength of indorsement in the "A. B.-Z. of Our Own
Nutrition"; but it is because he knows the value of the discovery of
the natural food filter, has enormous chance to test it practically,
and generously assists the reform with the might of his conviction.
Hence the author has still another letter of his in hand from which to
quote.
"BATTLE CREEK, MICH., Oct 26, 1903.
"MR. HORACE FLETCHER, NEW YORK.
"DEAR FRIEND:--I have yours of October 4th. I should have answered it
before, but have been away from home.
"I appreciate very much your offer to send me a memorandum of the
work done in Cambridge, also a plan of the work at Yale. You have had
a most interesting experience with eminent physiologists, and it has
led you deep into the question of nutrition. I shall appreciate very
much suggestions from you with reference to subjects for experimental
work, and other suggestions which may occur to you respecting the
methods, etc. I am sure your wide experience will be a great help to
us. The more I test your ideas the more confidence I have in them.
"What you say about the wonderful effect of mastication is certainly
correct. I observed it right away as soon as I began to practise
_Fletcherizing_. By the way, I wrote an article for the last number
of my journal, GOOD HEALTH, about "Fletcherizing" food, and I see our
colleagues are already taking it up. One of my most able associates,
Dr. J. A. Read, who has charge of our sanitarium in Philadelphia,
gave a lecture last Thursday night to his patients on "Fletcherizing"
food, and his audience was greatly interested. I am sure you deserve
to have your name immortalised, as Pasteur's has been. I mention
"Fletcherizing" in almost every lecture I give to our patients. I
think most of our patients are "Fletcherizing" and are getting great
good from it, also a large proportion of our six hundred nurses and
other employees.
"Awaiting a letter of suggestions at your convenience, I remain,
"As ever your friend,
"(Signed) J. H. KELLOGG."
"Fletcherizing" does not consist only and merely of careful chewing.
Careful chewing, with cheerful attention, will secure the comminution,
insalivation, and all necessary chemical preparation for perfect
digestion, and will separate hard and indigestible matter from the food
mass put into the mouth for treatment; but it is the whole environment
of the act which counts the best results.
Cheerfulness is as important as chewing; and if persons cannot be
cheerful during a meal they had better not eat. Not eating will not
hurt them in the least, but lack of cheerfulness will defeat the
object of the meal by causing more or less indigestion; and hence it
not only _does no good to eat when not cheerful, but actually does
harm_. Haste and lack of cheerfulness are about the same in effect on
digestion. You have no idea how much real nutriment you can get into
your system in five minutes if you are industrious with your munching
and are cheerful about it; so don't hurry when you have full ten
minutes, or perhaps twenty minutes, for taking nourishment.
You cannot go faster than Nature will let you, and it is profitable to
study Nature and watch her constantly for her proper cue. Don't try to
get ahead of her or you may sink in mud or into deep water.
Hence the author begs of those who heed his suggestions, especially if
they give them his name, to respect them in all their essentials. Don't
chew anything when you are mad or when you are sad, but only when you
are glad that you are alive and glad that you have the appetite of a
live person and one that is well earned.
That is as much a part of the "Fletcherizing" process as munching, and
one should never forget it.
So, please, when you "Fletcherize," if you "Fletcherize" at all, do it
well and completely and do not half do it and then condemn the method.
The method is all right, notwithstanding the name which has been
attached to it, for it is simply Nature's method.
Explanation of The A. B. C. Life Series
THE ESSENTIALS AND SEQUENCE IN LIFE
It would seem a considerable departure from the study of menticulture
as advised in the author's book, "Menticulture," to jump at once to an
investigation of the physiology and psychology of nutrition of the body
and then over to the department of infant and child care and education
as pursued in the _crêche_ and in the kindergarten; but as a matter of
fact, if study of the causation of human disabilities and misfortunes
is attempted at all, the quest leads naturally into all the departments
of human interest, and first into these primary departments.
The object of this statement is to link up the different publications
of the writer into a chain of consistent suggestions intended to
make life a more simple and agreeable problem than many of us too
indifferent or otherwise inefficient and bad fellow-citizens make of it.
It is not an altogether unselfish effort on the part of the author of
the A. B. C. Life Series to publish his findings. In the consideration
of his own mental and physical happiness it is impossible to leave out
environment, and all the units of humanity who inhabit the world are
part of his and of each other's environment.
It would be rank presumption for any person, even though gifted with
the means to circulate his suggestions as widely as possible, and
armed with the power to compel the reading of his publications, to
think that any suggestions of his could influence any considerable
number of his fellow-citizens of the world, or even of his own
immediate neighbourhood, to accept or follow his advice relative to the
management of their lives and of their communal and national affairs;
but while the general and complete good of humanity should be aimed
at in all publications, one's immediate neighbours and friends come
first, and the wave of influence spreads according to the effectiveness
of the ideas suggested in doing good; that is, in altering the point
of view and conduct of people so as to make them a better sympathetic
environment.
For instance, the children of your neighbours are likely to be the
playmates of your own children, and the children of degenerate parents
in the slum district of your city will possibly be the fellow-citizen
partners of your own family. Again, when it is known that right or
wrong nutrition of the body is the most important agent in forming
character, in establishing predisposition to temperance or intemperance
of living, including the desire for intoxicating stimulants, it is
revealed to one that right nutrition of the community as a whole is an
important factor in his own environment, as is self-care in the case of
his own nourishment.
The moment a student of every-day philosophy starts the study of
problems from the A. B. C. beginning of things, and to shape his study
according to an A. B. C. sequence, each cause of inharmony is at once
traced back to its first expression in himself and then to causes
influenced by his environments.
If we find that the largest influences for good or bad originate with
the right or wrong instruction of children during the home training or
kindergarten period of their development, and that a dollar expended
for education at that time is worth more for good than whole bancs of
courts and whole armies of police to correct the effect of bad training
and bad character later in life, it is quite logical to help promote
the spread of the kindergarten or the kindergarten idea to include
all of the children born into the world, and to furnish mothers and
kindergarten teachers with knowledge relative to the right nutrition
of their wards which they can themselves understand and can teach
effectively to children.
If we also find that the influence of the kindergarten upon the parents
of the infants is more potent than any other which can be brought to
bear upon them, we see clearly that the way to secure the widest
reform in the most thorough manner is to concentrate attention upon the
kindergarten phase of education, advocate its extension to include even
the last one of the children, beginning with the most needy first, and
extending the care outward from the centre of worst neglect to finally
reach the whole.
Experience in child saving so-called, and in child education on the
kindergarten principle, has taught the cheapest and the most profitable
way to insure an environment of good neighbours and profit-earning
citizens; and investigation into the problem of human alimentation
shows that a knowledge of the elements of an economic nutrition is the
first essential of a family or school training; and also that this is
most impressive when taught during the first ten years of life.
One cannot completely succeed in the study of menticulture from its A.
B. C. beginning and in A. B. C. sequence without appreciation of the
interrelation of the physical and the mental, the personal and the
social, in attaining a complete mastery of the subject.
The author of the A. B. C. Life Series has pursued his study of the
philosophy of life in experiences which have covered a great variety
of occupations in many different parts of the world and among peoples
of many different nations and races. His first book, "Menticulture,"
dealt with purging the mind and habits of sundry weaknesses and
deterrents which have possession of people in general in some degree.
He recognised the depressing effect of anger and worry and other
phases of _fearthought_. In the book "Happiness," which followed next
in order, _fearthought_ was shown to be the unprofitable element of
forethought. The influence of environment on each individual was
revealed as an important factor of happiness, or the reverse, by means
of an accidental encounter with a neglected waif in the busy streets of
Chicago during a period of intense national excitement incident to the
war with Spain, and this led to the publication of "That Last Waif;
or, Social Quarantine." During the time that this last book was being
written, attention to the importance of right nutrition was invited by
personal disabilities, and the experiments described in "Glutton or
Epicure; or, Economic Nutrition" were begun and have continued until
now.
In the study of the latter, but most important factor in profitable
living, circumstances have greatly favoured the author, as related in
his latest book, "The A. B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition."
The almost phenomenal circulation of "Menticulture" for a book of its
kind, and a somewhat smaller interest in the books on nutrition and
the appeal for better care of the waifs of society, showed that most
persons wished, like the author, to find a short cut to happiness by
means of indifference to environment, both internal and external, while
habitually sinning against the physiological dietetic requirements of
Nature. In smothering worry and guarding against anger the psychic
assistance of digestion was stimulated and some better results were
thereby obtained, but not the best attainable results.
Living is easy and life may be made constantly happy by beginning
right; and the right beginning is none other than the careful feeding
of the body. This done there is an enormous reserve of energy, a
naturally optimistic train of thought, a charitable attitude towards
everybody, and a loving appreciation of everything that God has made.
Morbidity of temperament will disappear from an organism that is
economically and rightly nourished, and death will cease to have any
terrors for such; and as _fear_ of death is the worst depressant known,
many of the _worries_ of existence take their everlasting flight from
the atmosphere of the rightly nourished.
The wide interest now prevalent in the subjects treated in The A. B. C.
Life Series is evidenced by the scientific, military, and lay activity,
in connection with the experiments at the Sheffield Scientific School
of Yale University and elsewhere, as related in the "A. B.-Z. of Our
Own Nutrition" and in "The New Glutton or Epicure" of the series.
The general application is more fully shown, however, by the
indorsement of the great Battle Creek Sanitarium, which practically
studies all phases of the subject, from health conservation and child
saving to general missionary work in social reform.
HORACE FLETCHER.
Instructions Issued by the United States Army Medical Department For
the Students of the Army Medical Schools
METHOD OF ATTAINING ECONOMIC ASSIMILATION OF NUTRIMENT AND IMMUNITY
FROM DISEASE, MUSCULAR SORENESS, AND FATIGUE
1. Feed only when a distinct appetite has been earned.
2. Masticate all solid food until it is completely liquefied and
excites in an irresistible manner the swallowing reflex or swallowing
impulse.
3. Attention to the act of mastication and insalivation, and
appreciation of the taste thereby secured, are necessary, meantime, to
excite the flow of gastric juice into the stomach to meet the food, as
demonstrated by Pawlow.
4. Strict attention to these two particulars will fulfil the
requirements of Nature relative to the preparation of the food for
digestion and assimilation; and this being faithfully done, the
automatic processes of digestion and assimilation will proceed most
profitably and will result in discarding very little digestion-ash
(fæces) to encumber the intestines or to compel excessive draft upon
the bodily energy for excretion.
5. The evidence of this economy is observed in the small amount of
excreta and its peculiar, inoffensive character, showing escape from
putrid bacterial digestion such as brings indol and skatol into
evidence offensively.
6. When the digestion and assimilation has been normally economic the
digestion-ash should be formed into little balls ranging in size from a
pea to a so-called Queen Olive, according to the food taken, should be
quite dry, and have only the odour of moist clay or a hot biscuit. This
inoffensive character remains indefinitely after excretion until the
ash completely dries or disintegrates like rotten stone or wood.
7. The weight of the digestive-ash should range (moist) from 10 grams
a day to not more than 40-50 grams a day, according to the food; the
latter estimate being based on a vegetarian diet and may not call
for excretion for many days (3 to 8); infrequency indicating best
conditions. The aseptic condition of the excreta renders retention
in the intestines quite harmless and gives opportunity for perfect
assimilation of the nutriment.
8. Fruits may hasten peristalsis, but not necessarily, if they are
thoroughly treated in the mouth as sapid liquids rather than as solids,
and are insalivated, sipped, tasted, into absorption in the same way
wine tasters test and take wine and tea tasters test tea. The latter
spit out the tea after tasting, as otherwise it vitiates their taste
and ruins them for their discriminating profession.
9. Milk, soups, wines, beer, and all sapid liquids or semi-solids
should be treated in this manner for the best assimilation and
digestion as well as for the best gustatory results. The care
recommended will reduce the quantity tolerable by the appetite and lead
to habits of healthy temperance, but secures maximum satisfaction.
10. This would seem to entail a great deal of care and bother and lead
to the waste of time.
11. Such, however, is not the case. To restore the natural protective
reflexes in the beginning does require strict attention and persistent
care to overcome life-long habits of nervous haste, but if the attack
is earnest the habits of mouth-treatment and appetite discrimination
soon become fixed and guide the deliberation in taking food
unconsciously to the feeder.
12. Food of a proteid value of 5-7 grams of nitrogen and 1500-2000 k.
calories of fuel value, paying strict attention to the appetite for
selection and carefully treated in the mouth, has been found to be
the quantity best suited to metabolic economy and efficiency of both
mind and body in sedentary pursuits and ordinary business activity;
and, also, such habits of economy have given practical immunity from
the common diseases for a period extending over more than five years,
whereas the same subject was formerly subject to periodical illness.
The same economy and immunity have shown themselves consistently in
the cases of many test subjects, covering periods of three years,
and applies equally to both sexes, all ages, and other idiosyncratic
conditions.
13. The time necessary for satisfying complete body needs and appetite
daily, when the habit of attention, appreciation, and deliberation have
been installed, is less than half an hour, no matter how divided as to
number of rations. This necessitates industry of mastication, to be
sure, and will not admit of waste of much time between mouthfuls.
14. Ten minutes will completely satisfy a ravenous appetite if all
conditions of ingestion and preparation are favourable.
15. Both quantitive and qualitive supply of saliva is an important
factor in buccal (mouth) preparation of nutriment, but attention to
these fundamental requirements soon regulates the supply of all of the
digestive juices, and, in connection with the care recommended above,
insures economy of nutrition, and, probably, immunity from disease.
(Signed) HORACE FLETCHER.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Typographical errors have been silently corrected and hyphenation
standardised.
Variations in spelling and punctuation are as in the original.
In order to minimise the width, full stops have been removed from
the headings of the table on page 29.
The following alterations have been made:
Pages 49 and 120 Preceeding corrected to preceding.
Page 66 United Army changed to United States Army.
Page 138 Replaceing corrected.
Italics are represented thus, _italic_.
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