what is not a sound and healthy diet is too often dealt
with by writers who ignore the psychical (or shall we say the
cerebral?) factor. Cases were cited of dangerous arrest of the power
of digesting, or even of swallowing, food which were cured by giving
the patient some apparently inappropriate and probably harmful article
of food for which he or she had a fancy, such as a grilled
salmon-steak, the last thing which would be spontaneously recommended
by a medical man to a patient who had been suffering for weeks from
inability to take food. The willingness is all--the assent, the
approval of the cerebral centres, and the consequent unlocking of the
whole arrested mechanism of digestive secretions and movements. Such a
case is only an extreme instance. But it is undoubtedly the fact that
just as the sight of so small a thing as a drop of blood, or even the
word "blood," will on occasion cause a strong, healthy man to faint,
so quite a small excess or defect in the accustomed quality of food
will at times arrest the appetite and digestive processes of a healthy
man. To many a healthy individual one among many flavours and savours
associated with agreeable food is necessary in order that healthy
appetite and proper digestion may be set going, and the absence of the
right flavour and the presence of what is, in his experience, a wrong
and disgusting smell or taste in the food set before him, will produce
nausea and complete arrest of the digestive processes.

It is apparently owing to this cause that "tinned meats" have proved
to be of little value as rations for an army in campaign, for
exploring expeditions, and for remote mining camps. It is not that
such tinned meats do not contain the necessary constituents of food,
or that they contain poisonous substances, but that they produce a
sense of disgust, and arrest the digestive processes. Soldiers,
travellers, and miners have assured me that they prefer a dry biscuit
and dried, or salted, or sugared meat, to the supposed more "tasty"
tinned meats, and that such is the general experience of their
comrades.

Of similar nature is another very serious trouble, in regard to the
healthy feeding of the modern Englishman, which has come upon us in
consequence of the quite modern system of huge restaurants, whether in
London or in the very large hotels, which are now run in Swiss,
Italian and English summer resorts. Hundreds of visitors are "catered
for" daily. There is no attem