e
unable to answer the question themselves let them go to a trained
physiologist who can do so, and not to a diet quack. But muscular
strength, endurance, mental and bodily energy, skin circulation,
temperature and blood colour are all things which the public can see
for themselves and from which they should in all cases be able to get
sufficient warning to save them from the worst forms of disaster.

Some people imagine that they eat very little, when as a matter of
fact they have good healthy appetites. Others again think they are
eating a great deal, when as a matter of fact they take very little.
In both cases a physiological test of the excreta will give accurate
information. I once had a medical patient who imagined that he
produced great amounts of force and performed feats of endurance on
wonderfully small quantities of food. His excreta showed, however,
that he was merely under-estimating the food he took. A fat man may
seem to be living on very little, but fat does not require to be fed,
and his real bone and muscle weight is not large. A thin man may seem
to require a large quantity of food, but he is really very heavy in
bone and muscle, the tissues that have to be nourished. In all these
ways appearances are apt to be deceptive for those who are ignorant of
science and who do not go down to the root of the matter.

It is not necessary to follow the given quantity of grains per pound
slavishly and without regard to consequences. It is necessary to see
that the required physiological results are obtained.

If a patient says he can live on less than I ordered for him and if
he can pass the physiological tests satisfactorily I know that his
bone and muscle weight has been over-estimated. On the other hand, if
a patient falls below the physiological tests, though taking and
digesting the quantities ordered for him, I conclude that his bone and
muscle weight has been under-estimated.

In all cases it is possible to obtain the best physiological results
and to say when quantities are just right, neither too much nor too
little.

The evil effects of too much are not serious; they entail perhaps a
little "gout" or some temporary loss of freedom from waste products.

The evil effects of too little, if persevered in and continued,
especially if some of these effects are attributed to causes which
have no real existence, are deadly and dangerous, for they bring on an
insidious deterioration both of function and