Having by this means acquired a capital, because a natural appetite, you may take a hearty breakfast; but beware of excess, and make a sparing use of animal food. After breakfast, if business calls, it must of course be attended to; but, if not, let the middle of the forenoon be invariably spent in some vigorous exercise in the open air. If you do not dine till five or six o'clock, you will require a little refreshment in the mean time; but a dry crust or a biscuit midway between breakfast and dinner will amply suffice, and any thing much more substantial would be really hurtful. If your occupations are sedentary, exercise in the open air again before dinner is as essential as dinner itself: be, therefore, as particular in taking it as if your subsistence depended upon it (for your existence does), and let none but the most imperative obligations interfere. When thus prepared, you may safely take your seat at a well-spread board, and eat without stint ; but still within the bounds of healthy moderation: scotch the snake (your appetite), but don't kill it. Your dinner may consist of anything in season; but let every dish be cooked in the simplest manner. Of all beverages water is the best at dinner : two, or at most three glasses of wine may not do harm, but more, habitually taken, would as certainly lay the foundation of disease as that disease exists. Ale, beer, and porter, must be used as cautiously as wine : and spirits, whether neat or mixed, had better be wholly discarded; but, if you must have a glass of grog, let it be only a glass. Both in eating and drinking more indulgence may be allowed to those who by original endowment and by wise training are possessed of sound and robust health, than to persons of feeble constitutions or debilitated frames; but experience, if consulted, will prescribe the rule, whether as to kind or degree. At the meal called "tea," avoid strong infusions, and reject green tea altogether. Those who dine early (say at one or two o'clock) may venture to take supper; but it must consist of something very light, and little of it. Take care to be in bed before eleven o'clock. Let your couch consist of a hair mattress, in a well-ventilated room, and steadily reject those hurtful luxuries, fire and curtains. Have recourse to diet and regimen rather than to physic to rectify any disorder or trifling irregularity of the body; and never, under any circumstances, take powerful medicine, unless it be pronounced by a practitioner of deserved reputation to be absolutely necessary. INDEX. Page Abilities of a Physician estimated ...... ...... Ablutions of the body, frequent, indispensable to a sound state of ...... and Exercise protect the pores of the skin Absurdity of supposing that one medicine will cure all diseases 179 85 87 161 18 ...... 149 110 133 24 Apothecaries should understand every branch of medical science.. Ardent spirits gradually destroy life Authority of prevailing customs unsound Barrier, insuperable, to gout Climate, how to obviate the dangers of changes of 92 Colds and Catarrhs, what are 188 Comforts of life, what are Colloquy between an honest doctor and a valetudinarian -, consequences of indulging in the reputed Commandment, Sixth, a breach of the, how hazarded Conflicting doctrines in the practice of medicine acquiesced in.... 142 Control of medical education should be vested in the Government 134, 139 149 |