, should
have a diet of acid vegetables. Persons of low spirits, and subject to
nervous disorders, should avoid all flatulent food, whatever is hard of
digestion, or apt to turn sour on the stomach. Their diet should be
light, cool, and of an opening nature; not only suited to the age and
constitution, but also to the manner of life. A sedentary person should
live more sparingly than one who labours hard without doors, and those
who are afflicted with any particular disease ought to avoid such
aliment as has a tendency to increase it. Those afflicted with the
gravel ought to avoid every thing astringent; and the scorbutic of every
description, salted or smoked provisions. In the first period of life,
the food should be light, but nourishing, and frequently taken. For
infants in particular, it ought to be adapted to their age, and the
strength of their digestive powers. No food whatever that has been
prepared for many hours should be given them, especially after being
warmed up; for it creates flatulence, heartburn, and a variety of other
disorders. Sudden changes from liquid to solid food should be avoided,
as well as a multiplicity of different kinds; and all stimulating dishes
and heating liquors, prepared for adults, should be carefully withheld
from children. The common but indecent practice of introducing chewed
victuals into their mouth, is equally disgusting and unwholesome. Solid
food is most proper for the state of manhood, but it ought not to be too
uniform. Nature has provided a great variety for the use of man, and
given him an appetite suited to that variety: the constant use of one
kind of food therefore is not good for the constitution, though any
great or sudden change in diet ought as well to be avoided. The change
should be gradual, as any sudden transition from a low to a rich and
luxurious mode of living, may endanger health, and even life itself. The
diet suited to the last period of life, when nature is on the decline,
approaches nearly to that of the first: it should be light and
nourishing, and more frequently taken than in vigorous age. Old people
are generally afflicted with wind, giddiness, and headachs, which are
frequently occasioned by fasting too long, and even many sudden deaths
arise from the same cause. The stomach therefore should never be allowed
in any case to be too long empty, but especially in the decline of life.
Proper attention to diet is of the utmost importance, not only to the