e of diet to milk and
farinaceous food produce a marked change in their nervous irritability.

Scores of other authorities corroborate. Dr. Clouston's observation, and
assert that children fed largely on flesh foods have capricious
appetites, suffer more commonly from indigestion in its various forms,
possess an unstable nervous system, and have less resisting power in
general.

Candy and similar sweets generally given to children as a matter of
course, may be excluded from their dietary with positive benefit in
every way. It is true, as is often stated in favor of the use of these
articles, that sugar is a food element needed by children; but the
amount required for the purpose of growth and repair is comparatively
small, and is supplied in great abundance in bread, grains, fruits, and
other common articles of food. If an additional quantity is taken, it is
not utilized by the system, and serves only to derange digestion, impair
appetite, and indirectly undermine the health.

Children are not likely to crave candy and other sweets unless a taste
for such articles has been developed by indulgence in them; and their
use, since they are seldom taken at mealtime, helps greatly to foster
that most pernicious habit of childhood--eating between meals. No food,
except at their regular mealtimes, should be the universal rule for
children from babyhood up; and although during their earliest years they
require food at somewhat shorter intervals than adults, their meal hours
should be arranged for the same time each day, and no piecing permitted.
Parents who follow the too common practice of giving their little ones a
cracker or fruit between meals are simply placing them under training
for dyspepsia, sooner or later. Uninterrupted digestion proceeds
smoothly and harmoniously in a healthy stomach; but interruptions in the
shape of food sent down at all times and when the stomach is already at
work, are justly resented, and such disturbances, if long continued, are
punished by suffering.

The appetite of a child is quite as susceptible of education, in both a
right and wrong direction, as are its mental or moral faculties; and
parents in whose hands this education mainly rests should give the
subject careful consideration, since upon it the future health and
usefulness of their children not a little devolve. We should all be
rulers of our appetites instead of subject to them; but whether this be
so or not, depends greatly upon