beverages, as the "milk sugars" present are
very prone to ferment and to hinder the cleansing of the digestive
tract), and that the required proteid is best obtained from eggs and
curd cheese. Fat is very necessary in nervous troubles; hence plenty
of cream, fresh butter and cream cheese should be taken; also pure oil
with the salad.

MALT EXTRACT.

L.F.H. writes.--Is malt extract a good thing to take daily with
an ordinary non-flesh diet, two teaspoonfuls or so at breakfast?
And is the desiccated or dry malt extract to be preferred to the
ordinary sticky article?

Malt extract of good quality, containing an active form of diastase,
is a good form of relish to take with meals. The diastase promotes
starch digestion and makes a good addition to foods of the cereal
order. The thick sticky form is the best because the diastase is then
in an active condition. Dried malt usually will have this diastase
destroyed, hence, although much more convenient to handle, it is not
so good dietetically as the sticky original extract.

ABOUT SUGAR.

C.T. writes.--I have read the article on sugar with considerable
interest. I have noted nervous disorders, etc., manifest in cases
of excessive consumption of manufactured sugar. I have been an
abstainer from cane sugar (all commercial sugars, though _I do
not know of any objection to milk, sugar_) for many years,
regarding it as an unnatural excitant and stimulant as well as
being inimical to digestion. As a physiologist I have taken
immense interest in longevity, feeling that an active life past
the age of ninety-five or a hundred, and upwards, carries with
it, in evidence of right living, the force of demonstration, and
more conclusively, in direct ratio to the advance of years. I
firmly believe that all anomalies will ultimately admit of
resolution. In this connection I could mention a number of
strange and paradoxical cases for which, as yet, I have obtained
no solution. I know of centenarians who began using "sugar"
freely late in life. In one case, when past eighty, a new set of
teeth (not odd "supernumeraries") appeared all round! How is it,
again, that the natives of the West Indies, when living on sugar
(in its crude state, I suppose) have excellent teeth and perfect
health? Is not raw sugar better the less manufactured it is? On
the other side, Captain Diamond, at 114, att