that the Russian soldiers are from childhood nourished
by simple and coarse vegetable food. The Russian Grenadiers are the
finest body of men I ever saw,--not a man is under six feet high.
Their allowance consists of eight pounds of black bread, and four
pounds of oil per man for eight days."

Colonel Fitzgibbon was, many years ago, colonial agent at London for
the Canadian Government, and wholly dependent upon remittances from
Canada for his support. On one occasion these remittances failed to
arrive, and it being before the day of cables, he was obliged to
write to his friends to ascertain the reason of the delay. Meanwhile
he had just one sovereign to live upon. He found he could live upon
a sixpence a day,--four pennyworth of bread, one pennyworth of milk,
and one pennyworth of sugar. When his remittances arrived a month
afterward, he had five shillings remaining of his sovereign, and he
liked his frugal diet so well that he kept it up for several years.

An hour of exercise to every pound of food.--_Oswald._

Some eat to live, they loudly cry;
But from the pace they swallow pie
And other food promiscuously,
One would infer they eat to die.

--_Sel._

BEVERAGES

The use of beverages in quantities with food at mealtime is prejudicial
to digestion, because they delay the action of the gastric juice upon
solid foods. The practice of washing down food by copious draughts of
water, tea, or coffee is detrimental, not only because it introduces
large quantities of fluid into the stomach, which must be absorbed
before digestion can begin, but also because it offers temptation to
careless and imperfect mastication, while tea and coffee also serve as a
vehicle for an excessive use of sugar, thus becoming a potent cause of
indigestion and dyspepsia. It is best to drink but sparingly, if at all,
at mealtimes. Consideration should also be given to the nature of the
beverage, since many in common use are far from wholesome. Very cold
fluids, like iced water, iced tea, and iced milk, are harmful, because
they cool the contents of the stomach to a degree at which digestion is
checked. If drunk at all, they should be taken only in small sips and
retained in the mouth until partly warmed.

Tea is often spoken of as the "cup that cheers but not inebriates."
"The cup that may cheer yet does injury" would be nearer the truth, for
there is