peas.................... 13
Bread................................... 100
Butter.................................. 119
Apple pie............................... 352
Glass of milk........................... 157
----
Total.................................. 1257

Many people have adopted a so-called vegetarian diet, believing that it
is better for the health than eating meat. Undoubtedly food from the
vegetable kingdom is a great benefit to the human system, but strict
vegetarianism is not recommended by our medical men. Nature apparently
intended us to be omnivorous, and, in addition, vegetarianism may run
too close to the dangers of carbohydrate excess. As man progresses
after middle life he can unquestionably diminish materially the amount
of meat in his diet.

In recent years there has been a revival of the theory of prolonged
mastication of a limited amount of food. This theory is sound in so far
as it tends to overcome the bolting of food and over-eating, but there
is a belief among our practitioners that there is little basis in
science or experience for the extremes of this character.

HYGIENIC CURE-ALLS

Among recent fads is the so-called buttermilk or sour milk diet as
advocated by Metchnikoff. The original theory was interesting and was,
in part, that the bacteria derived from soured milk would drive out of
the intestinal canal all the harmful germs. Quite possibly there may be
something in the theory, especially if large quantities of milk are
taken with the lactic acid bacilli, but the beneficial effect of this
change of bacteria is not convincingly of great consequence.

FRESH AIR

It is now generally known that an abundant supply of moving, pure, fresh
air is the proper and simple solution of the problem of the hygiene of
the air.

Oxygen is the element of the air which sustains life. We inhale about
seven pounds per day, two pounds of which are absorbed by the body. The
air becomes dangerous, or infected, when the oxygen in the air is
decreased to only 11 or 12 per cent., and when the oxygen reaches 7 per
cent. death occurs from asphyxiation.

The human body requires about three thousand cubic feet per hour, and
the great problem of ventilation is to give this amount of pure air,
moving, and with the proper amount of moisture.

It is a common belief that with each breath we take we are filling our
lungs with fresh air. This is not the case, for we nev