e first place--and this is profoundly
significant--other things being equal, it must be acknowledged by all
unbiased people that the small and moderate feeders do not contract
disease in anything like the proportion that big feeders do, and as a
natural consequence live longer lives.

Further, it must surely be quite evident by this time that there is a
sufficiently large enough number of people who are thus existing in
good health--and steadily regaining it where it has been lost--on the
lines of moderate feeding. And the number is accumulating at a rapid
pace; more and more are coming into line with those of us who, having
thus found health in themselves, their patients and friends, are
preaching the practice of two meals a day, and sometimes only one
where there is serious organic disease to combat--thus defying the
dicta of those eminent physiologists who "settled" the question years
ago.

Now I quite admit--it would be impertinence to do otherwise--that
"M.D.'s" statements and views must not be ignored, must indeed be
respected. And he tells us that he "heard of," in one day, three cases
which "went wrong" through underfeeding; well, for those three cases
we can point to hundreds who are _going right_ through eating just
enough and not too much. I am prepared, on the other hand, to admit
the danger of a continued semi-starvation diet; our difficulty
is to define in each individual case what exactly would be a
semi-starvation, and what a sufficient diet. It is impossible to have
a fixed standard for everybody. After all, "the proof of the pudding
is in the eating"; often it is a matter of experimenting for some
little time, and in this way we could judge largely of the result of
our dieting by our state of general health.

On some main points of the question I am now absolutely
convinced--viz.:

1. Excessive bulk is always dangerous, often disastrous, causing
sudden death in a large number of cases.

2. Starchy foods are best strictly limited as we get along towards
middle age and beyond.

3. A life which is largely mental or sedentary will be healthier and
longer on a strictly moderate diet.

4. A life largely of physical labour must be dealt with on its own
particular conditions.

5. At all times due regard, of course, must be paid to age, weight,
etc.

6. On the whole, "eminent physiologists" have erred on the side of
excess of proteid being advised.

7. Middle age is the critical time of life in r