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THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

HORACE FLETCHER'S WORKS

THE A. B.-Z. OF OUR OWN NU- TRITION. 46a pp.

THE NEW MENTICULTURE; OR, THE A-B-C OF TRUE LIVING. Forty- fifth thousand. 310 pp.

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPI- CURE ; OR, ECONOMIC NUTRITION. 344 pp.

HAPPINESS AS FOUND IN FORETHOUGHT MINUS FEARTHOUGHT. Tenth thou- sand. 251 pp.

THAT LAST WAIF; OR, SOCIAL QUARANTINE. 270 pp.

THE

NEW GLUTTON

OR

EPICURE

BY I

HORACE [FLETCHER

L

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 con- firms 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 man- ner calculated to appeal to a variety of readers ; and wherein it may suggest the scrappiness and extravagance of an in- temperate screed, the author joins in

vi PREFACE

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 per- sistently 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 testi- mony of lay colleagues given is equally valuable and comes from widely sepa- rated experiences, and from observers

PREFACE Vll

whose evidence carries great weight. The commandante of a battleship cruis- ing 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 expres- sion, is appreciated as most valuable assistance to the cause of economic dietetic reform.

During the original experiments in Chicago, and in Dayton, Ohio, the origi- nator was much indebted to James H. Lacey, Esquire, of New Orleans, La., and Cedar Rapids, for helpful sugges- tions, 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

viii PREFACE

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 de- privation. This is accomplished easily by a change of attitude towards the ques- tion, and in such reform women must have an important part to play. To their kindly meant, but hygienically un- wise, 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 low- ered enormously, and even where there is no painful obstruction, the mere pas-

PREFACE IX

sage 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 an- other reference to one of the specially new features of this discussion, insisted upon by a truly economic and aesthetic 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 gener- ous 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.

X PREFACE

To illustrate the prevailing ignorance relative to this most important necessity of self-care, and also a traditional preju- dice, even among physicians, the follow- ing 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 skip- ping a day in having a call to stool. There was no trouble about it, and the quantity was not large, but when I men- tioned 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 chew- ing 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,

PREFACE XI

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 imme- diately folk begin to give attention to any new regime 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 un- noticed. 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 conten- tiously; 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."

xii PREFACE

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 apropos :

SPECIAL RECOGNITION

The author wishes here, also, to ex- press 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 neces- sarily in the order of their friendly ser- vice. To John H. Patterson, Esquire, of Dayton, Ohio ; Col. James F. O'Shaugh- nessy, of New York; Stewart Chisholm, Esquire, of Cleveland, Ohio ; Fred E. Wadsworth, Esquire, of Detroit, Michi- gan ; and Henry C. Butcher, Esquire, of Philadelphia, are due much for encour-

PREFACE xiii

agement 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 " Men- ticulture " and has continued unabated. In Dr. Swan M. Burnett, of Washing- ton, 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 aes- thetic civilisation, which has been ex- tremely encouraging and most inspiring in relation to the whole A.B.C. idea.

From Gervais Kerr, Esquire, of Ven- ice, came one of the important sugges- tions 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

xiv PREFACE

the University of Edinburg, Scotland, published under the title of " The Va- rieties of Religious Experience," gave the practical reformatory effort of the " A. B.C. Series " a great impetus by quoting approvingly from "Menticul- ture " 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 estab- lished upon an aesthetic basis their kindly assistance, but, as usual, they

PREFACE XV

prefer to remain incog. In this seclu- sion, however, Ralph D. Blumenfeld, Esquire, of London, and Roswell Martin Field, Esquire, of Chicago, cannot be in- cluded ; 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 investi- gator, 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 oppor- tunity has occurred to express apprecia- tion of many sympathetic friendships, and in heart and memory they hold per- petual carnival. To Major Thomas E. Davis, of the New Orleans Picayune, is due more than mere expression of grati- tude for excellent editorials on our sub- ject; and across the ocean, Sir Thomas Barlow, the private physician of King Edward VII, Dr. Leonard Huxley, Prof. Alfred Marshall, of Cambridge Univer-

xvi PREFACE

sity, 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 friend- ship 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 else- where 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," tfiis 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 con-

PREFACE xvii

fession, 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 ad- vancing the reforms advocated in the A. B. C. Life Series. Professor Chittenden has pub- lished his report on the Yale experiments in book form in both America1 and England,2 and his results have been accepted in scientific circles the world over as authoritatively con- clusive.

At the present writing the most important Health Boards of Europe3 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 tax- payers. In the most important of these foreign public health departments the Health Officer of the Board has himself practised the newly es- tablished economy for two years, and his plans

1 Physiological Economy in Nutrition : The Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York.

2 William Heinemann : London.

8 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.

xx PREFACE

are formulated on personal experience which fully confirms Professor Chittenden's report and that of the author as herein related.

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 en- durance, and general adoption of the suggestions published in the several books of the author in- cluded 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 sug- gestions.

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,

PREFACE xxi

medical practitioners, artists, business men, lit- erary 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 sugges- tions of these books in prescribing to his sumptuous clients.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE i

SPECIAL RECOGNITION xii

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE .... i 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. WIL- LIAM G. ANDERSON, OF YALE UNIVERSITY

GYMNASIUM 32

THE ATWATER-BENEDICT CALORIMETER-MEAS- UREMENT 39

MILITARY-SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION .... 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

xxiv CONTENTS

PAGE

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. MKTCHNI-

KOFF, PARIS; — ELONGATED INTESTINES . 176

AUTHOR'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE . . . . 188

SOME PERTINENT QUERIES 195

IMPORTANT CONFIRMATION :

COMMANDANTS 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 AU- THOR 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 announce- ment 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

2 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 curi- osity 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 nutri- tious," copied from a high educational authority, correction certainly must be made. Pure proteid has no perceptible taste as measured by taste-bud appre- ciation, 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 Im- pulse. 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 enor- mous 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

4 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 immedi- ately; 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 com- modity 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 per- mitted to express an opinion, their an- tipathy is easily read. It is far safer to

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 5

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" ob- jection. To avoid " impolite " condem- nation 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 con- nection 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 grad- ually 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

6 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

of liquid or soft foods lies the great dan- ger 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 ex- creta is obtainable, and this is certainly

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 7

evidence worth considering and a de- sideratum worth striving for.

While it is an excellent thing to give thorough mouth attention to any- thing 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 dis- agreeable task, and as soon as the un- naturally acquired habit of greed and impatience is conquered, the reward of following this natural requirement is

8 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 refine- ment is not known to persons of ordinary habits of life. The pleasure which comes with conformity with the natural require- ments 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 di- gestion," that had been sounded, was the advice of Mr. Gladstone to his chil- dren, " Chew your food thirty-two times

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 9

to each mouthful," or words to that effect. The " Masticate well " prescrip- tion 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 re- siding and practising in Venice. Dr. Van Someren's interest and experience are best stated in his own words, as follows :

10 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 apropos to send you, as an endorsement of your princi- ples, 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 {**£$"} three years ago; since when I have used no other.' I say 'almost apropos"1 advisedly, for, while the soap claims to keep the outer man clean, the practice of your princi- ples 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) recom- mends physicians and surgeons to take

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE II

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 person- ally 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 regime of a London specialist for the treatment of that malady. Though vigorously ad- hering 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 tume- fied 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

12 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 exer- cise 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 inter- est 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 thor- oughly, 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 '11 say that in three months after the practice of these principles my symptoms had disappeared. Not only

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 13

had my interest in my life and work re- turned, 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 invari- ably 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 ex- tent 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

*4 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

'panaceas' are soon forgotten. They will err greatly if they do so. The seem- ingly simple procedure of insalivating one's food most carefully is not calcu- lated 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 quanti- ties as to alter the chemical reaction of the initial stage of digestion. This ini- tial 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 great- est change being, perhaps, the elimi- nation of last-resort digestion by the intestinal flora (digestion by decomposi- tion 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 be- tween the various cells constituting the

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 15

organism and their several environ- ments.' (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 pro- cesses of nutrition to base their treat- ment 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 fora time certain symptoms, allowing the patient

to return afterwards to a mode of life that is really responsible for his malady. 1 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 conse- quently our body structure.

" Sanitary science regulates our ex- ternal 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 nour- ished, the cell's resistance to disease is

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 17

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 require- ments, 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 meet- ing 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

1 8 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

volume, entitled, " The A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition."

The following " Note " by Dr. Pro- fessor, 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 in- itiative. (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 As- sociation, and afterwards to the Con- gress of Physiologists at Turin, an account of some experiments initiated by Mr. Horace Fletcher. These ex- periments went to show that the pro- cesses of bodily nutrition are very

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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 neces- sarily 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 origi- nators, an increase in the subjective and

20 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

objective well-being of those who prac- tise it, and, as they believe, in their power of resistance to the inroads of dis- ease. These secondary effects may in- deed 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 pro- teid food — in excess of what is, under the best conditions, sufficient for main- tenance and activity, can only be dele- terious 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 Cam- bridge 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 imme- diately interested, but upon other in- dividuals, some of whom were themselves medical men and trained observers.

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" Certain facts were established by these observations, which, however, are to be looked upon as still of a prelimi- nary 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 up- on appetite, making this more discrimin- ating, 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 com- plete 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

22 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

more than one-third of the proteid con- sumed 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 es- tablish 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 work- ing powers.

" One fact fully confirmed by the Cam- bridge 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 odour- less and inoffensive, and assuming a condition which suggests that the in- testine is in a healthier and more aseptic condition than is the case under ordinary circumstances.

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" Although the experiments hitherto made are, as already stated, only prelim- inary 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 con- siderable staff of workers.

" It is of great importance that the mind of the lay public should be dis- abused of the idea that medical science is possessed of final information con- cerning questions of nutrition. This is very far indeed from being the case. Human nutrition involves highly com-

24 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

plex factors, and the scientific basis for our knowledge of the subject is but small ; where questions of diet are con- cerned, medical teaching, no less than popular practice, is to a great extent based upon empiricism.

" But the scientific and social impor- tance 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 es- poused by Dr. Professor Henry Picker- ing Bowditch, Professor of Physiology of Harvard Medical School, and Dean of American Physiologists. Under the aegis of such encouragement the later developments are not at all surprising. In order to extend and verify the find- ings of Dr. F. Gowland Hopkins, of Cam- bridge University, England, as stated in

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the preceeding note by Professor Foster, Professor Russell H. Chittenden, Pres- ident of the American Physiological Society, Director of the Sheffield Scien- tific 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 repro- duction 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. Ander- son, 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

26 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

years, in pursuit of a study of the sub- ject of human nutrition, practised a cer- tain 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 in- cidental 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 crav- ing 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 ascer-

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taining the exact amount of proteid con- sumed. The results showed that the average daily amount of proteid meta- bolised 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.

28 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

" In February, a more thorough series of observations was made, involving a careful analysis of the daily diet, to- gether 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 con- form to any given standard of quantity, but the subject took each day such amounts of the above foods as his ap- petite craved. Each portion taken, how- ever, 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

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 29

for six days, together with the calculated fuel value, and also the nitrogen in- take, together with the nitrogen output through the excreta. Many other data were obtained showing diminished ex- cretion of uric acid, ethereal sulphates, phosphoric acid, etc., but they need not be discussed here.

	Intake.	Output of Nitrogen.
	Pro- teids.	Fats.	Car- bohy.	Calor- ies.	Nitro- gen.	Urine.	Faeces.	TotaL
	Grams.	Crams.	Grains.		Grams.	Grams.	Crams.	Grams.
Feb. 2	3'-3	25-3	125.4	000	5.02	5-27	0.18	5-45
3	46.8	40.4	266.2	1690	7.50	6.24	o.8i«	7.05
4	48.0	38-1	283.0	1747	7.70	5-53	o.8i»	6-14
5	50.0	40.6	269.0	1711	8.00	6-44	o.8i»	7-25
6	47-0	41.5	267.0	1737	7-49	6.83	o.8i«	7.64
7	46.5	39-8	307.3	1852	7-44	7.50	0.17	7.67
Daily! Av. J	44-9	38.0	253.0	1606	7.19	6.30	0.60	6.90

" 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

* Average of the four days.

30 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

food up to a little more than 1,600 large calories. If, however, we eliminate the first day, when for some reason the sub- ject took an unusually small amount of food, these figures are increased some- what, 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 de- sired. To give a physiological answer, it may be said that the body-weight re- mained practically constant throughout the seven days' period, and further, it will be observed by comparing the fig- ures of the table that the nitrogen of

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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 out- put 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 ascer- tain this point, the subject was invited to do physical work at the Yale Uni-

32 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

versity Gymnasium and placed under the guidance of the director of the gymnasium, Dr. William G. Anderson. The results of the observations there madev are here given, taken verbatim from Dr. Anderson's report to the writer.

"'On the 4th, 5th, 6th and ;th 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 Fresh- men on account of their severity.

" ' Mr. Fletcher has taken these move- ments with an ease that is unlocked for. He gives evidence of no soreness or lame- ness and the large groups of muscles respond the second day without evidence

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 33

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 sur- prised 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

3

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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 im- posed 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 appar- ently 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 tax- ing the heart or lungs, and without loss of body-weight. In other words, in Mr. Fletcher's case at least, the body machin- ery 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.

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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 con- stantly in a condition of fitness for work. He practises thorough mastica- tion, with more complete insalivation of the food (liquid as well as solid) than is usual, thereby insuring more com- plete and ready digestion and a more thorough utilisation of the nutritive portions of the food.

36 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

"In view of these results, are we not justified in asking ourselves whether we have yet attained a clear compre- hension of the real requirements of the body in the matter of daily nutriment ? Whether we fully comprehend the best and most economical method of main- taining the body in a state of physi- ological fitness? The case of Mr. Fletcher just described ; the results noted in connection with certain Asiatic peoples ; the fruitarians and «w/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 be- low those now accepted as necessary, it is time for us to ascertain that fact. For, if our standards are now unneces-

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sarily 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 neces- sity 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 con- nection with our metabolism examina- tion of Mr. Fletcher is confirmatory of similar results obtained under the direc- tion 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

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fact that no definite and positive con- clusions can be arrived at except as the result of careful experiments and obser- vations on many individuals covering long periods of time. This, however, the writer hopes to do in the very near future, with the cooperation of a corps of interested observers.

" The problem is far-reaching. It in- volves not alone the individual, but society as a whole, for beyond the indi- vidual lies the broader field of the com- munity, and what proves helpful for the one will eventually react for the better- ment 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 ex- istence. The heat value of the food consumed during the test, and which was like in amount to what had been

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 39

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-show- ing 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

40 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

" 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 out- side feeding, and here follows his appre- ciation as extracted from personal letters. Before quoting from the high appre- ciation 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 per- forms is done as much for the reader as for the author himself.

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The several extracts from the letters of Drs. Kellogg and Dewey; the state- ment relative to an endurance-test made on the author's fiftieth birthday, on a bicycle in France, volunteered by Ed- ward 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 some- times abnormally deranged, partici- pation, 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 vivi- section necessary the author would will- ingly 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

42 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

Cannon, as fully related in the " A.B.- Z.," we not only get the economic re- sults 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 com- munications from Commandante Cesare Agnelli, Clarence F. Low, Esquire, Baron Randolph Natili, and one of unusual sug- gestiveness, as evidence of the need of further study of nutrition, from Dr. Hu- bert Higgins of Cambridge, England.

MILITARY-SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION

With the evidence and interest just outlined, it was not difficult for the author to enlist the cooperation of Surgeon-General O'Reilly of the United 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,

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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 Mai-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 Mil- itant-Scientific campaign which will not cease until we know as much about hu- man nutrition, at least, as we know about the nutrition of our domestic animals.

In this little book, however, is an ac- count of the first distress and war cry, (to appropriate an expression of the Sal- vation Army), and while the workers in Science may take a considerable time to make observations and investigate the " reasons for things," the underlying

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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 ac- counts for the strength attained by the Christian Science movement.

In the " A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutri- tion " are reprinted, for recent scientific reports, in addition to the papers of Dr. Van Someren and Professor Chitten- den, before mentioned, articles and lect- ures 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. ; Amer- ican publishers, Lippincott & Co.), on the mental influence over the salivary, gastric, and intestinal secretions. Also, nearly an hundred pages of most virile,

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readable, and important " Observations on Mastication," by Dr. Harry Camp- bell, 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 Rontgen, or X-Ray; a most readable account of the infinite patience and application of Dr. W. B. Cannon, of the Harvard Medi- cal 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 advertise- ment of another volume in the A. B.C. Life Series ; because the details of this particular attempt to reduce the philoso- phy of every-day life to profitable simples is linked-up in several volumes devel- oped in the course of study of the sub- ject for location of the germinal causes.

" Menticulture " was the first of the series and relates to the individual.

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" Happiness " came next and located the chief enemy of happiness in Fear- thought, the unprofitable element of fore- thought. "That Last Waif" treated the question as related to the Social Whole, children in particular, and recom- mended Social Quarantine; by exten- sion of infant education to the extreme of allowing no child to escape educa- tional care. This present treatise deals with the first requirement of such infan- tile 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 enor- mous 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 creat- ing the present proud distinction of Battle Creek, Michigan, with its mil- lions upon millions of invested indus- trial capital.

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The " cure " is based upon the estab- lishment in the patient of right nutri- tion, right functioning of the bodily organs and secretions, and thereby as- sisting 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 laborato- ries 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 ex- tension of the American Medical Mis- sionary 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

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sick as a foundation for possible moral awakening and spiritual cultivation.

The work done by these humanita- rian institutions is most practical, and the best evidence of the practicality is their growth. Patients are charged what

O O

they can conveniently pay, but none who need are refused attention. Branches are made self-supporting as soon as pos- sible, but are first nurtured by the parent sanitarium. There are some hundreds of physicians, nurses, and other at- taches of the different institutions, and these are enthusiasts in the humanita- rian 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 demonstra- tion of the Sermon on the Mount.

The special attention of the writer was called to the work of the Battle

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Creek Sanitarium organisation by an American banker, Edwin C. Nichols, Esquire, in London, at the time of the last Coronation. The banker was con- versant 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 pos- sible good work, in demonstrating their effective Christianity; but it is the pri- vate 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 pos-

4

50 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

sible effective Social Quarantine as pre- sented in his book, " That Last Waif." Twenty-four neglected and sick chil- dren of unfortunate parents have been rescued from an almost hopeless condi- tion, and have been adopted into the best of surroundings and culture, all promis- ing to become splendid wealth-produc- tive 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 2Oth. Thank you very much for your

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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 heart- ily as you have done. The thing that interested us especially was the fact that you are the founder of a new and wonder- ful movement, which is bound to do far more for the advancement of the princi- ples 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

52 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 cooperate with you in any way possible in promul- gating 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 inter- esting 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 ap- preciate 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

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that you are indeed a brother to us in our work, and that God has provi- dentially 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 atten- tion to uric acid in meats and other foods. His work has not all been ac- cepted by great laboratory men, but Dr. Hall, of Owen's Medical College in Manchester, has recently reinforced his results. I have at different times re- peated his experiments with interesting results.

" I assure you we shall be glad to receive any suggestions from any scien- tific 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.

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"Again thanking you for your kindly interest in our work, I remain, " Most sincerely yours,

" J. H. KELLOGG."

" BATTLE CREEK, MICH., Feb. 22, 1903. "Mv 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 pos- sible 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."

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"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 re- markable. 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 Cor- naro'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 intro- duction. I am going to get it out in nice shape, and I trust it may be the means of doing good in inclining those

56 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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. "Mv DEAR MR. FLETCHER:

"I have yours of March igth. 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 denomi- national 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

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ought to have told you that we are in- corporated 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 recog- nised 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

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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 exami- nations 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 Dub- lin 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 chew- ing 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.

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" 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 refer- ence 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.

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" 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 2ist 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 talk- ing 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

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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."

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"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 oppor- tunity 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 Depart- ment of the Royal and Imperial Uni- versity of Austria. He seemed a very able physician and a delightful gentle, man. 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

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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 chew- ing idea. Of course you are well, as you are apt to be well by chewing well.

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" 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 forever. 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 pro- moting the most important hygienic re- form 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 dis-

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ciples, 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 respect- fully,

"J. H. KELLOGG."

«« BATTLE CREEK, MICH., Aug. 13, 1903. " DEAR FRIEND :

" Your kind notes of August yth and nth received. I have asked the Pub- lishing 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. Every- thing received from it goes toward pay- s

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ing for the new building. The cost of printing, paper, and binding is paid for by contributions, so all the money re- ceived 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 ' munch- ing 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 2oth with the list of persons to whom you desire to have 'The Living Temple' sent. The

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books ;are already sent together with a little note calling attention to them.

" Your continued courtesies are put- ting 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 par- lour 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 neg- lected 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

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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 work- ing 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 inaugu- rated is the most important movement which has been started in modern times.

" I remain, as ever,

" Fraternally yours,

" J. H. KELLOGG."

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"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 respect- ing your work.

" I am more and more enthusiastic re- specting 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 six-

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teen students who are going to devote themselves to the study of applied phys- iology, 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 re- sults 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 re- searches 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 cooperate with you thoroughly as I feel that you have introduced a line of re- search and investigation which is of immense importance. I have read with great interest Prof. Chittenden's article in the Popular Science Monthly, and

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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 3'ears 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 de- lightful 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

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spectacle that these great men, these learned professors and scientists, and army medical men, should be coopera- ting so enthusiastically with a layman to learn the true philosophy of life ; but it has always been so. The great discov- eries have not been made by great scien- tists 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."

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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. i7th, 1901. " MY DEAR MR. FLETCHER :

" In the line of dietary form you have done better work than the entire medi- cal 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 en- large ' 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 com-

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mend it as a work of the highest prac- tical 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 attribu- table to gluttony as to be a cause of shame, at least, in the physiological sense. . . .

" I hope you will feel it a duty to en- large and expand the usefulness of ' Glut- ton or Epicure.' The people are ripe in this country for just such a book. ... I feel that you are doing the most impor- tant work in physiological investigation of any living man, and we in this coun- try, especially, need all your new material as an addition to the book.

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(Two years later ; after five years' test.)

July 2oth, 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 f asters 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 masti- cation, makes health possible with the majority of people, tempted by quanti-

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ties 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 sug- gested 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,

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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 Sani- tarium). The latter is the most impor- tant 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 correspon- dence with distant patients. Will do so soon."

September I2th, 1903.

"... What I would like best to express to you is my appreciation of

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the exceeding good you have done me in teaching how to save energy avail- able 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 Ibs. cut down to 125 Ibs., 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 Ibs. Under my care, and after only a seventeen-days' fast (dietary rest), he was reduced again to i22l/t Ibs. There has since been a month of feeding one meal a day by your method, with weight restored to 156 Ibs. 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.

79

" 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 be- come 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 mi- grating birds let their last meal get thor- oughly 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 re- lation to the ' No Breakfast Plan ? ' It is the true physiology of Instinct ! "

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(In response to a request for permission to quote his appreciation.)

September i;th, 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 mas- tication, as unfolded and insisted on by Horace Fletcher, is the greatest prac- tical physiology that a dyspeptic, glut- tonous world ever has received. The discovery of its importance of mouth- work, in saving the strain of over-work in the stomach and in the intestines,

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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.1

" Here is the physiology involved,

1 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, hi 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-physi- ology in order to give character to his authority in ad- vancing 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 stand- ards 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 sugges- tion, 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. 6

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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 possi- bility 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 per- haps 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. Fletch- er'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

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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 tem- perance 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 over-eating and wrong-eating are the prime causes of temptation to intemperance in drink- ing, the measure of Dr. Dewey's service to the Temperance Cause will be better appreciated.

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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

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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 har- vest 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 bicy- cling, 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 recu- peration. In the present case, however, no fatigue had yet been experienced and the day was still young.

The forest studio-home of friend Red- field, the Philadelphia landscapist, was

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found on the edge of the forest border- ing 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 con- testant 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

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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 require- ments. The author ate just what his appetite called for, as nearly as circum- stances 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 ap- preciatively until it was liquefied and a strong Swallowing Impulse compelled its deglutition. The sapid and nutri- tious liquids were tasted as the wine

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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 rea- son 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 coun- try appetite, the disproportionately ex- cessive waste usually encountered when pursuing a milk-diet was not expe- rienced; the digestion-ash (solid ex- creta) was extremely small and averaged only about one-tenth of the amount com- monly wasted in the digestive process in ordinary habits of taking bread and milk hastily and carelessly.

It is significant that, while the quan- tity of food habitually taken was about

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one-third of the text-book normal-aver- age prescription, the solid waste was only a tenth of the usual amount, show- ing a much more economical digestion and a better assimilation. This possi- bility of a profitable and an agreeable economy was afterwards verified in the Venice experiments.

An aesthetic result was attained in connection with these experiments which cannot be too often advertised. All pu- trid bacterial decomposition was avoided in the process of digestion, and all sense of muscular fatigue was absent, even fol- lowing 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 appe- tite. The endurance-test recounted in the letter following is evidence of the effect of such sumptuousness when ap-

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preached by different methods of grati- fication. 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 rec- ommended in this book.

EDWARD W. REDFIELD'S EVIDENCE

(In response to an invitation to recount his remem- brance 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 roth, 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 ex- ercises and planning an endurance-test on bicycle on the fiftieth anniversary of your birthday. You were quietly liv- ing then according to the regimen with which your name is now connected and

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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 nu- trition. 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 type-writer warned me that you were already at work, but you were always awake and ready for ' any- thing doing.'

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" I was, at the time, thirty years of age and thought myself in good condi- tion 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 particu- lar 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 con- sidered Orleans the limit and fully ex- pected 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 al-

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ways 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 cres- cent 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 occasion- ally 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 could n'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

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condition, but had you known, at the time, how I was cussing your healthy appearance and impatience to proceed, you would n'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, in- cluding 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 IO.TO 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

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your party as far as Geneva, and the only thing I could n'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 i ;th, 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 re- luctantly by inviting spots and scenes without stopping. In the beginning there was the keenest feeling of pleasure

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in the mere movement, without any ex- ertion, over and among an enchanting landscape. It was what one might call a birdlike sensation of freedom of move- ment which bicycling and skating, among the common means of locomo- tion, alone give.

Redfield did not let up on the pace and I was determined not to beg for respite. Between fifty and sixty kilo- meters of distance only had been made when I felt that the day was not pro- pitious 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 pre- ceeding 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 Red- field at Blois I felt stronger than any time before, and as eager to kick the pedals as when we started in the morn-

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ing 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 detour 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 enjoy- ment of a magnificent sunset effect and a most appetising and satisfying table d'hote 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 appe- tite 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

7

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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 feel- ing 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 nutri- tion is attained and established.

I was bright awake at daylight the next

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morning and had the impulse to mount my wheel and see how " fit " I was in con- sequence 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 gen- erous 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

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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 signifi- cance. It would seem that Appetite, in its normal condition, assisted in its dis- crimination 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 mus- cular disability, and has brought the question to good hands for solution.

The author has voluminous data relative to his work, but it is not appli- cable 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.

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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 neces- sary 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

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direct the energy generated along allur- ing lines of usefulness.

* . * *

Nature requires no sacrifices and imposes no penalties for obeying her beneficent demands.

Natural Laws are easily compre- hended if studied objectively.

Ill health, inharmony and unhappi- ness 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 peculiari- ties which the possessor alone can understand.

Object lessons, personally experi- enced 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.

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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 our- selves — our own Mind Power-Plant.

OLD AND NEW

THE OLD IDEAS

The old religion condemned man, even though unenlightened, to perdi- tion 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 dis- ease and glorified pathology.

THE NEW STUDY

The new religion glorifies Love, stimulates Appreciation and preaches only Optimism.

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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 Preven- tion 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 inter- preted, 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 Physi-

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ology are discredited any one of them may be doubted.1

1 Since this was written, the then accepted stand- ards 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.

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OUR NATURAL GUARDIANS THE SENSES

The stomach and other hidden parts of the body have automatic functions in- dependent of the will that perform diges- tion ; 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 invi- tation 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 im- portant to study and understand. They

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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 re- quirements 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 crav- ing for something, ANYTHING ! to smother disagreeable sensations and frequently is expressed by the symptom of "faint- ness " or " All-gone-ness." [Vide the " A.B.-Z. of OUR OWN NUTRITION."]

Taste is the chemist of the body;

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of the Mind Power-Plant. More cor- rectly, 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-understand- ing, 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.

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* * *

Taste is evidence of nutrition.

Whatever does not taste, such as glass or stone, is not nutritious.1

Taste is excited by the dissolving of food in the mouth, and while it lasts a necessary process of preparation for di- gestion 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 invita- tion 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 taste- less residue, complete and easy diges-

1 Pure proteid or albumin is quite tasteless but is always accompanied by tasting substance, and separa- tion of the proteid molecule from enveloping material is an important function of mouth-capacity in digestion.

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tion will be assured and perfect health maintained.

NATURES 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 re- pose, form an organ that is nothing less than a Perfect Food Filter. This filter has also automatic qualities which com- pel it to empty itself by the process we call " Involuntary Swallowing."

Involuntary swallowing is really com- pulsory 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 per- forming its protective function, is imper- vious to anything except pure water at

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the right temperature for admission to the stomach- and to nutriment which has been properly dissolved and chemi- cally 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 1 That is impossible ! "

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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. Camp- bell's able treatise on mastication re- printed 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

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called nutrition. They do not, alone, replace waste tissue. They do not chal- lenge 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 sub- mit to more than one action of the jaw before causing involuntary swallowing. If it have taste it is a sign that it con- tains 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 com- pelling 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 com- pulsory swallowing.

*

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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.1 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 ripen- ing into pulp.

* * *

Insalivation does not seem to be com- plete without jaw action, although saliva (sometimes only mucous) flows freely into the mouth without it under condi- tions which we term " watering of the mouth " excited by keenness of appetite.

1 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.

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(See Pawlow's, Campbell's, Van Som- eren's, and other evidence in "A.B.-Z. of OUR OWN NUTRITION.")

The normal perviousness or natural opening of the Food Filter for swallow- ing 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 every- thing 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

Il6 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

not dissolve some things (proteid sub- stances) 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 swallow- ing takes place, the results in aiding subsequent digestion are important in promoting healthy nutrition.

Separation, neutralisation, alkalina- tion, saccharidation, of the proteid and carbo-hydrate elements of common foods and perhaps a partial emulsifica- tion 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.

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OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED

One of the objections usually pro- voked by the suggestion that all taste- less 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 vege- tables or anything rejected by instinct- ive desire to discard it after taste has been exhausted, and which is a protec-

Il8 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

tion 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 thor- ough 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 con- versation without disagreeable interrup- tion and yet follow Nature's demands in

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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 glut- tony is the lack of time permitted by their business occupation.

The time needed to appease the nat- ural 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.1 This requires attention and in- dustrious mastication. Divided into three meals it is less than a quarter of an hour for each meal.

1 The actual time required by the author during the Yale tests to secure full alimentation, maintain weight, and fully appease a " workingman's appe- tite," 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.

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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 momen- tary 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,1 a glass of creamy milk and a hexagonal

1 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

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segment of a mince pie. The twenty minutes was ample time for disposing of the sandwich and the milk, and mean- time 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.

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

as possible, leaving the second-hand, once-digested, already decaying, natural food of the savage carni- vora and the emergency food of savage man for emer- gency 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, espe- cially when we know that it tends to shorten life and predispose to disease ?

122 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

any migrating microbes that were float- ing 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 possi- bilities 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 inclina- tion 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 spit- ting-out anything which the instincts

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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 swallowingin eatingyou will find that these muscles are very dis- criminating and will instinctively assist in the rejection of unprofitable matter.

Their sense of touch will soon dis- criminate 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 per- mitted to act as intended by Nature.

124 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 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 follow- ing 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

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glutton into an intelligent and ardent Epicurean.

DIFFERENCES

Individuals differ greatly in the quan- tity 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 possi- ble an equal morsel of bread, may require fifty acts of mastication before the mor- sel 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 dissimilar- ity lies in the difference of the copious-

126 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

ness 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-treat- ment of anything to be ingested is neg- lected, 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 de- ranges the nervous nicety of adjustment. Just eat slowly, deliberately, small mor- sels, and sip and taste small quantities of liquids and observe what happens. You will soon learn to Know yourself and " KnQ3j/ Thyself " has been the

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advice of all the sages from the begin- ning 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 mor- sel of food at least thirty-two times," was of little value except as a general sug- gestion. Some morsels of food will not resist thirty-two mastications, while oth- ers 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 dis- appearing through involuntary swallow- ing. 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.

128 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

It will be difficult, without actual dem- onstration, to convince the advocates of " Total Abstinence " that any whisky can be taken in a seemingly harmless form, but it is true that thorough in- salivation of beer, wine or spirits, until disappearance by involuntary swallow- ing, robs them of their power to in- toxicate, 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 ex- cellent 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 intoler- ance of it.

It is also true that, taken in the way suggested, the body refuses to tolerate

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 129

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 mo- ment 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 grad- ually 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,

130 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

the acute discomfort was at once allayed even before the repair was complete.

" KNOW THYSELF

" Know Thyself " has been the ad- monition of sages from earliest times. " Become acquainted with your Normal Instincts, with Appetite and with your food chemist, Taste, and follow their di- rections 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 in- vitations and warnings through life.

Thorough repair of an impaired body may not be effected immediately, al- though wonderful results — almost mi- raculous— have been attained in three months ; but a week's faithful and atten- tive study of the possibilities of Epicu- reanism, with right alimentation as its basic requirement, in adding to the

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 131

comfort and enjoyment of life will re- sult in right eating being made philo- sophically and religiously habitual, and will give a backbone of Epicurean char- acter that will not easily succumb to gluttonous impetuosity.

132 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 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 glut- tony 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 an- alogous to the Mind Power- Plant of the brain, and a trolley railroad as analogous to the machinery of the body — analo- gies 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

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 133

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 vis- ited 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 consump- tion 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 con- centrate and utilise the power of the

134 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

steam, and dynamos out of which elec- tricity is evolved, together with auxiliary pumps and hoists and blowers and what- not other devices to help create, control and economise the energy, are the essen- tial 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.

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 135

Leading back from each bin to the con- stantly moving grate bars of the furnace underneath is a pipe which delivers the crushed coal to the grate bars and dis- tributes 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 end- less iron belt which revolves and carries the coal within the cavity of the furnace.

The coal crusher, bucket hoist, mov- able grate bars, ash collectors and sifters, pumps, blowers, lights and all other utili- ties 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

136 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 illus- trated 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 eco- nutritive value; normal nomic 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 evi- dence of the working of the process.

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 137

* * *

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 Com- pulsory Swallowing. » * *

Combustion in the fur- Digestion in the stom- nace. ach and intestines.

* » *

Generation of steam in Generation of material the boiler tubes and stor- for vital energy and stor- age in the boilers. age in the body. » * *

Steam. Blood in circulation.

* * * Steam Gauge. Pulse.

* * * Engine. Heart.

* » #

Dynamo, with its nu- Brain, with its complex

merous coils and exten- convolutions in constant

sive friction surfaces. frictional activity.

* * •

Volt Gauge, indicating Strength, indicating the the power available. available energy.

* * »

Electricity. Mind. Energy. Ner-

vous Force.

138 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

AUXILIARY OPERATING MOTORS

Electric motors at- tached to the separate parts or machines of the plant, connected by wires and drawing power from the dynamos.

Nerve-cell motors at- tached to glands and muscles, connected with the brain by nerve-fibres and drawing on the men- tal or nervous energy for power.

Automatic switches regulating the transmis- sion of power to the mo- tors in response to their fluctuating requirements.

Sensitive nerve ends terminating in each cell of the body and penetrating each gland, signalling, on being touched, for power to eject digestive secre- tions or oily mucus as de- manded by the needs of digestion, also, supplying automatic power to mus- cles 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 fuel as required in the progress of combustion to supply the waste or

Appetite, indicating re- quirements of the Mind Power- Plant for replace- ing the constant waste of

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 139

useful consumption of the tissue consumed in run- electricity, ning the machine.

* * *

Good Draught, forced Optimistic Thinking, if necessary. forced if necessary, for it

is necessary to health.

PROFITABLE MANAGEMENT

Intelligent Engineer- Intelligent Self-Knowl- ing. edge and Self-Care, as-

sisting Nature in her good intentions.

* * *

Economic stoking. Feeding only what is

actually required for sus- tenance.

UNPROFITABLE MANAGEMENT

Overloading and chok- Overloading and chok- ing the furnace with ir- ing the stomach with regular and dirty coal. unmasticated, unsolved,

unconverted, and, there- fore indigestible food.

* * *

Neglect of cleaning, Nature is not neglect- oiling and repairs. ful; she does well and

quickly all the lubricating and repairing of the Mind Power-Plant when- ever strain is removed and she is given the re- quired rest, or time to

140 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

accomplish the work be- tween meals.

Unnecessary ashes and Unnecessary ferment- clinkers, encumbering the ing excreta, resulting from plant, depositing dust in unfiltered and unpre- the journals of the ma- pared food, depositing chines and requiring poisonous sediment in the much power to handle blood channels, straining and remove. the intestines, ossifying

the cartilages, crystallis- ing in the kidneys and bladder and drawing ex- cessively upon the avail- able 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 iso- Concentration of pur- lation of circuit wires. pose.

* * *

Resistance Coils. Self-ControI. Reserve

force.

* » *

Success, evidenced by Success, evidenced by profit. energy conserved and hap-

piness secured.

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 141

UNPROFITABLE DIRECTION AND USE OF ENERGY

Small wires leading Aimlessness of purpose anywhere or nowhere. and timid, lazy or selfish

isolation from sympa- thetic currents and con- structive occupation.

* * *

Current carelessly Energy wasted in idle- grounded and electricity ness or worry, wasted.

* * *

Crossing of wires re- Crossed temper — An- sulting in waste of power ger — wasting valuable and possibly causing fire. energy and possibly lead- ing to rash acts causing life-long regrettable fool- ishness.

* * *

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 pur- chance of its being real- poselessly running them ised, thereby wasting aimlessly around the cir- energy and paralysing the cuit, 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 dis- them under control. cretion.

142 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

TELL-TALE EXCRETA

It is unfortunate that the perpetua- tion of early ignorant abuses of Nature's pure intentions has led to a too prudish attitude toward the one infallible evi- dence 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 re- port 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 ele- ments of waste material and to be able to identify or judge the economic value

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 143

of food previously consumed a knowl- edge of its digestion-ash is essential.

A child should be taught the differ- ence 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 pro- tection 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 faeces of many wild ani- mals 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 re- ceptacle for the waste of human in- digestion.

144 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

In animals, offensive egesta are evi- dence 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 intelli- gent 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 sig- nificant results of economic nutrition gained through careful attention to the mouth-treatment of food, or buccal-di- gestion, is, not only the small quantity of waste obtained but its inoffensiveness. Under best test-conditions the ashes of economic digestion have been re- duced 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, hav-

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 145

ing become so bunched by considerable retention in the rectum. There is no stench, no evidence of putrid bacterial de- composition, 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 imme- diately presents itself when the subject is under discussion. The common opin- ion is that " once-a-day " periodicity is the proper and only healthy thing, and should a day pass there would be imme- diate fear of " constipation."

Under the best test conditions, before referred to, the ash accumulated in suffi- cient quantity to demand release only at

10

146 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 careless- ness 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 " * with which the human engine is supplied; and along in the " forties " or the " fifties " or the " sixties " the body shows signs of pre- mature wear when it should be but in its prime.

Another important matter should be mentioned in this exchange of sanitary confidences. When the ashes of diges-

1 Dr. Meltzer's estimate of human reserve strength and resistance which must be out-worn or over- strained before death calls a settlement.

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 147

tion are dumped the body should assume the shape of the letter Z. It is the natural position of primitive man (squat- ting on his heels), and the body was originally constructed on that plan. If otherwise poised (sitting erect) the deliv- ery of digestion-ash is performed with the same difficulty as would be experi- enced 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 break- away from the prudery of a diseased and disgusting age, — a protest jointly shared by the scientific observer and the volun- tary 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

148 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 con- structive 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 morn- ing, 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 con- sumed in the twenty-four hours. Occa- sionally 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

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 149

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 in- gested material. As the degree of com- bustion 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 regime 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

150 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

stain nor odour remaining, either in the rectum or upon the hand.1 The ex- creta 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 cov- ered 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 j 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, with- out fatigue and under trying conditions, work which could only be accomplished in an ideal condition of health.

"WASHINGTON, D. C., July 31, 1903."

1 Similar specimens of digestion-ash have been kept for five years without change other than drying to dust.

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 151

WHAT SENSE? TASTE l

The Sense of Taste has a value in relation to nutrition that has not fully been appreciated.

Taste has been considered the low- est, in usefulness, of all the senses.

On the contrary, if properly under- stood, 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 vul- gar sense, and performed the function of devilish temptation rather than that of natural invitation and protection.

1 " 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.

152 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

Upon an examination, that any one can make for himself, however, it is revealed that taste is the faithful ser- vant 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, gi^es

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 153

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 sedi- ment 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 in- testines, 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 regenera- ting influence of natural body-repair, if the method of taste and appetite cul- tivation recommended in this book is followed.

154 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 Edu- cation Series," Psychologic Foundations of Education, defines the presently ap- preciated 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 com- mencing with the mouth. The individ- uality of the object is attacked and it gives way, its organic product or inor- ganic aggregate suffering dissolution — taste perceives the dissolution. Sub- stances that do not yield to the attack

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 155

of the juices of the mouth have no taste. Glass and gold have little taste as com- pared 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 in- volve 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 neg- lected appreciation such as the world has not witnessed up to the present time.

156 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

PRESUMED CAUSES OF DISEASES

On the undisputed authority of phys- iologists 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 indigest- ible 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 re- sult of excess of eating, or of wrong eat- ing, 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

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 157

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 nutri- tion extends to the most vital functions and interests of life.

TARDY APPRECIATION

All experience warns against over- eating 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 de- termine what is " overeating " and what is " improper food." The reason for this is probably because no two bodies re- quire the same quantity or kind of nour- ishment, and, " What is one man's food is another man's poison."

Nature has aot been so unkind, how-

158 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

ever, 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 develop- ment.

Investigation never fails to find pro- vision 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 re- quired; and, having selected what it wants or needs out of a morsel of food, rejects the rest by ceasing to taste.

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 159

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 J AND IWHAT REMAINS AFTER TASTE HAS CEASED

fS NOT FIT FOR THE STOMACH."

I

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 unculti- vated or perverted human tendencies that the desire for acquisition, some-

160 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

times called greed, impels one to swal- low 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 mouth- ful. Then why not court it and obey, thereby, Nature's first law of health ? * * *

Before proceeding further with a de- scription of its functions it may be well to state briefly the certain result of fol- lowing 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

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 161

and the intestines will have the least possible to do in the matter of conver- sion 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 intes- tines, while the absence of fatally inhar- monious deposits in the tissue and bone will cease to exist in proportion to the skill with which one interprets the warn- ings 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

1 62 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 direc- tion of Taste, and the reward of the attention is manifold. The actual pleas- ure derived from eating under the direc- tion of the method suggested herein cannot be equalled by any other means.

•-.»';•

While cheerfulness, hopefulness, good nature, chanty and all the mental good qualities are splendid forced-draughts of oxygenised impulse that assist the stom- ach 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 pur- pose, furnishes its own draught of cheer- fulness by means of the very pleasure it distributes, and at the same time it prevents, instead of inducing, gluttony.

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 163

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 raven- ous. 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 overbur- dened. 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 diges- tion ; and also, that no two mouthfuls of food require the same quantity.

Experiment will be doubly interest- ing in that it reveals pleasure of taste in eating that has not before been enjoyed.

1 64 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE

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 alka- line, 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 fester- ing breeding grounds for the myriads of microbes of diseases which we are com- pelled 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 over- work, these same harmless creatures be- come agents of destruction. Bacilli may be either friends or enemies and we have the choice.

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 165 NATURAL LIFE LIMIT

It is said that the natural life of all animals, left to pursue a natural exist- ence by being protected from the ene- mies 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 re- sultant tenure of life of one hundred and fifty years.

I have personally interviewed a patri- arch, 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 pho- tograph gallery on his sixty-fifth birth-

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day 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 photo- graph gallery, examined the portraits of sixty-five and one hundred years, con- versed 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 igno- rance and impatience of youth.1

STUDY NATURE

Watch good Nature, observe her methods, try to imitate them by way of experiment, and you will find that,

1 The rejuvenated patriarch is still alive in 1903.

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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, there- fore, 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 alka- line and ready for digestion in the stomach and intestines as related pre- viously.

Remember also that, in the case of invalids with very weak stomachs, phy-

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sicians recommend taking milk and broth through a straw or through a glass tube. Taking fluid this way re- quires 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 bal- ances, 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 neces- sary to naturally excite the Swallowing Impulse, they have passed into the stomach without the owner being con-

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scious afterwards of their presence ex- cept 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, with- out 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

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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 re- mainder — 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 ap- pointed 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,

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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 mas- tication to dissolve it.

The above refers to moderate mouth- fuls. The process is incomplete until all is dissolved, taste ceases, and natural swallowing occurs.

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Will it not be observed that mastica- tion, as far as crushing or mangling is concerned, has small part in the reduc- tion 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 digesti- ble and that the delicious taste of the bread after forty or fifty bites (£ to £ 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 differ-

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ent problems of nutrition as embodied in different sorts of breads is exactly proportionate to their recognised diges- tibility, and explains the reason why hot and " soggy " biscuits, after the Ameri- can 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 nutri- tion 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 immedi-

ate for good in every direction, as it has proved itself to be in all cases tried, there is no longer doubt but that Na- ture'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 re- sponse 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 hemor- rhoids and catarrh — the diseases suf- fered 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

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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 nourish- ment, thereby proving the fact that appetite and taste, when given full chance to serve, serve us well.

This feature (quantity of waste) dif- fered in the cases of the different per- sons experimented with according to the carefulness with which they obeyed the test injunctions. In some, greed abnormality could not quickly be over- come, 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

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these that the revelation excited the high- est 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 pos- sible 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 dis- appear in time.

While this is possible, the means taken towards it are productive of mar- vellous good results ; and, if there were no further use, what purpose would they serve ? l

1 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.

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Think of the number of separate com- plaints that are attributable to trouble of the lower intestines, and think of the relief coming with their return to nor- mal 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 suf- fered 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

In the longer ones the papilla convenenti which serve for absorption and which line the inside of the intes- tines 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 Pas- teur Institute, Paris, has even proposed removing some eighteen feet of intestine by surgical operation, in- cluding the troublesome vermiform appendix, as being unnecessary in connection with cooking and the preva- lence of partly predigested foods.

12

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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 in- troduced by our own carelessness or as the result of combined ignorance and greed.

Ignorance has excused and does ex- cuse 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-Plan t, there can be no further excuse for not following the

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teaching to the extreme of the last pos- sible 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 re- lieved rheumatism, gout, eczema, obes- ity, under-weight, bleeding-piles, blotches and pimples, catarrh, "that tired feel- ing," muddy complexion, indigestion, and yellow-tongue, within four months. It has been revealed that attention to their invitation and warning cures un- natural 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 don 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 delight- ful and healthfully economic nutrition.

The suggestion was originally given

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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 in- vestigation to find deterrents to Nature's perfect development and will not rest while any remain.1

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.

1 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.

THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 181 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 here- after 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 sug- gest 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 morn- ing 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.

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The value of the discovery lies in re- cognising 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 cafe 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 them- selves 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

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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 dis- appears, whereupon the indigestible food morsel is swallowed in indigestible con- dition 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 use- fulness, the delight of a new-found deli- cacy 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 prac- tice 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

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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 con- nection, 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 repro- ducing 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 Ap- petite and has dismissed bilious and insatiable Craving from its service, there will at all times be a delicately sweet

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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 temp- tation to eat of their wares, for they would spoil the taste already in posses- sion of the mouth.

The expert wine tasters in Rhine- land, where the full flavour of the lus- cious 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

j^_

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 pre- served by Nature for the use of man.

The taste of these students of nutri- tion 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 pros- perity, happiness or any stamp of en- vironment whatever.

An epicurean cannot be a glutton. There may be gluttons who are less gluttonous than other gluttons, but epi-

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cureanism is like politeness and cleanli- ness, 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 mastica- tion. 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.

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I will, however, give a resume 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 Ibs. ; maximum, 217 Ibs. Chest measure, varying but little, if any, 42 inches ; waist measure (tailor's) 43 to 44 inches. Usual weight during the time, about 205 Ibs.

My experiments began near the middle of June, but with no systematic application until the middle of July, 1898; weight on June ist, probably over 205 Ibs., in summer clothing.

SPEEDY IMPROVEMENT

On October loth, as a result of the experiments, weight 163 Ibs., and sta- tionary ; 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."

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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 supple- ness 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, masti- cated and manipulated to the end.

One meal a day was taken for con- venience, 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 morn- ing," 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

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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. Some- times the meat selected was an entree^ and was garnished with rice and other fruits or vegetables.

About thirty mouthfuls of these, dis- posed 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 min- utes, 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,

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in small portions slowly, and ice water at that, without restriction, to satisfy thirst, but not when any food was in process. In the <