Chapter XXI: HIRED HELP (continued) (1)

What is the homemaker of limited means, who must have some help, to do under present conditions? Well, meantime, there is only the young "general" for her, either the "daily girl" or one who "lives in." Of the two I prefer the "daily girl," when she can be obtained. And the younger she can be obtained, other things equal, the better. She will have fewer bad habits to overcome. Some housewives object to the daily girl on the score that she may bring dirt or infection from her home, and also because she can seldom arrive early enough to help get breakfast. But a little management overnight can reduce the labour of breakfast getting to a minimum, and if the "outings" of the girl who lives in are as frequent as they ought to be the risk of her carrying infection, etc., will always apply.

The "daily girl" has definitely fixed hours of work and the same chance of enjoying a measure of home life, of keeping her friends and individual interests, as the typist or factory worker whose lot the domestic servant so often envies; while her employers are not faced with the alternatives of condemning a young fellow-creature to a solitary existence or forcing an unreal companionship which is equally irksome on both sides. It is true that the wages of the "daily girl" do not equal, in actual money, those of the factory worker, neither does she obtain the Saturday half-holiday or the whole of Sunday free. But to set against this she receives her entire board and, with a kindly mistress, is not tied down to staying her full time on days when she is "forward" with her work.

The life of the young "daily girl," if her employer is a conscientious woman, need not be hard nor unpleasant; very little harder and no more unpleasant than the lot of the young "lady" who is paying from L60 to L80 per annum to learn cookery, laundry and housework at a school of domestic economy. Properly conducted, the relations between employer and employee, "mistress" and "servant," are those of mutual aid. Such relations _may_ be, and too often _are_, those of an inefficient little drudge for a "mistress" almost equally ignorant and inefficient. But when the employer is an intelligent woman with a sense of justice (I prefer a sense of justice to sentimental theories about sisterhood--people do not always treat their sisters justly) the weekly money payment and food will be but a small part of the girl's wage. In addition she will receive a training that will equip her for the "higher" branches of domestic service, or for homemaking on her own account. Not every girl has the sense to appreciate this when she gets it, nor the intelligence to profit by it; while it is certainly rather trying to the employer when the girl is "all agog" to "better herself" as soon as she has gained a bare smattering of how to do certain things properly. But all this is "the fortune of war." Some girls never cease to be grateful to their first teachers and leave them reluctantly, while other girls never realise that they have anything to be grateful for. When gratitude and affection come they are pleasant to receive. But the motive power of the really conscientious woman is not the expectation of gratitude or affection.

A word to the unconventional homemaker. The young "general" is a bird of passage. Age and experience bring with them the necessity of earning more, and if her first employer cannot periodically raise the girl's wages the latter must in time seek better paid employment, probably with a mistress who is not unconventional. It is unkind, therefore, to refrain from teaching the girl how she will be expected to do things in the ordinary conventional house. I do not mean that the employer ought to slavishly run her home on conventional lines for the instruction of her "help." But it is kinder, for instance, to help a girl regard a cap and apron with good-humoured indifference, or as on a par with a nurse's uniform, rather than as "a badge of servitude." It is kinder, too, to show her that it is not only "servants" who are expected to address their employers as "Sir" and "Ma'am," but that well-mannered young people in all conditions of life can be found who use this form of address to persons older than themselves. I do not suggest for one moment that any attempt should be made to delude a girl into the belief that she will not be expected, in conventional households, to behave with equal deference to persons younger than herself. Such deception would be unpardonable. But it is anything but kind to allow a young girl to drift into careless and familiar habits of speech bound to lead to dismissal for "impudence" in her next "place." There is a type of person, for example, who seems to believe that, in order to show that he is "as good as anybody else," it is necessary to be rude and familiar. But good manners are not necessarily associated with servility. And it is no kindness to help to unfit a girl for getting her living in the world as it is.

It may seem that, in this article, I am more concerned for the "hired help" than the homemaker for whom I am ostensibly writing. But the points I have touched on are just those about which I know many thoughtful women are puzzled. I cannot solve their individual problems for them, of course, I can only just barely indicate some of the thoughts that have come to me on a subject that is so intimately bound up with the whole of our present unsatisfactory social and economic conditions that it cannot be adequately discussed in a little tract upon domestic economy.

FLORENCE DANIEL.

THE CARE OF CUPBOARDS.

There are three methods in general use of caring for cupboards. Some housewives prefer their cupboard shelves of bare wood, to be well scrubbed with soap and water at the periodical "turn-out." Others cover all shelves with white American cloth, which only needs wiping over with a wet house-flannel; while still others prefer to dispense with the necessity for wetting the shelves and line them with white kitchen paper, or even clean newspaper, which is periodically renewed.

Of the three methods I prefer the last, with the addition of a good scrubbing at the spring clean. The weekly or fortnightly scrubbing is apt to result in permanently damp cupboards, unless they can be left empty to dry for a longer time than is usually convenient. The use of American cloth is perhaps the easiest, most labour-saving method, but the cloth soon gets superficially marked and worn long before its real usefulness is impaired, so that the cupboard shelves never look quite so neat as after scrubbing or relining with white paper.

The larder should be thoroughly "turned out" once a week. Once a fortnight is enough for the store-cupboard and for china cupboards in daily use. While cupboards in which superfluous china and other non-perishable goods are stored, and that are seldom opened, need not be touched oftener than once or twice a year.

In very small houses one cupboard often must house both china and groceries, thus combining the offices of storeroom and china cupboard. The larder, strictly speaking, is for the food consumed daily. But when larder and store-cupboard have to be combined, the groceries may be packed away on the upper shelves, which can be tidied once a fortnight; but the shelves doing duty for the larder proper should never be left for longer than a week.

Nothing betrays the careless housewife like an ill-smelling larder. All food should be examined daily and kept well covered. Hot food should be allowed to cool before storing in the larder. In the summer time special precautions must be taken against flies, all receptacles for food which are minus well-fitting lids being covered with wire-gauze covers or clean butter muslin. If the shelves are lined with paper, care should be taken at the weekly change to examine the wood for stains caused by spilt food that has penetrated through the paper. These should not be just left and covered over, but well washed off. With ordinary carefulness, however, they need not occur.

F.D.

BOOK REVIEWS.

_The New Suggestion Treatment._ By J. Stenson Hooker, M.D. Cloth 1s.
net (postage 1+1/2d.) C.W. Daniel, Ltd., 3 Tudor Street, E.C.

This book is a striking example of the new synthetic movement in the medical profession. It is an exposition for the general reader of certain basic principles of mental treatment and of the author's methods of applying these; it is also, in reality, an appeal to doctors generally to put aside prejudice and examine the immense potentialities of rational "suggestion" healing methods.

After examining the main features and disadvantages of mere hypnotic treatment and passing under review present-day "mental science," the author explains wherein his method of mental treatment both avoids the dangers of hypnotism and reinforces ordinary self-suggestion. Throughout there is the frank recognition that few forms of dis-ease are curable by one means alone; on the other hand, it is contended that most disorders, both mental and physical, are remarkably amenable to a rightly directed course of the new suggestion treatment, supplemented by other natural means.

The narrowness of view that too often characterises the specialist is entirely absent from this book. It is throughout thoroughly broad, refreshingly sensible and profoundly convincing.

_The Cottage Farm Month by Month_ (illustrated with original
photographs). By F.E. Green. Cloth, 1s. net (postage 2d.). C.W.
Daniel, Ltd., 3 Tudor Street, London, E.C.

Here is a book of immediate social interest, of great practical value, and of uncommon literary quality.

In the course of twelve chapters, bearing the titles of the months of the year, it reveals a welding together of two things which in many minds have unfortunately become divorced: the practical problems and arduous labour which no tiller of the soil can escape and--the keen delight of a poetical temperament in the ever-changing, yet annually renewed, beauties of earth and sky and running water.

It escapes the dry technicalities of the agricultural text-book, while at the same time conveying innumerable valuable hints on practically every branch of "small farming"--advice which springs from the author's thorough knowledge based on long and often hard experience.

On the other hand, while entirely free from that all too common defect of "nature-books"--hot-house enthusiasm--it will delight the most incurable townsman (providing his sense of beauty is not withered) by its joyous yet restrained pictures of open-air things.

_Simple Rules of Health._ By Philip Oyler, M.A. (2nd ed.). 3d. net.
Post free from the author, Morshin School, Headley, Hants.

An admirable epitome of what might be called "advanced health culture without crankiness." The author is an ardent advocate of simplicity in all things and--practises what he preaches. Moreover, he is one of those who sees health from all points of view: he is as much concerned with what the English Bible calls "a right spirit" as with a fit body and a responsive mind. It is a little book deserving of a wide circulation.

CORRESPONDENCE.

A REMEDY FOR SLEEPLESSNESS.

To the Editors

SIRS,

Would you care to publish the following experience of a cure for
sleeplessness:--

I had no difficulty in going to sleep, but usually awoke again at
about two A.M. with palpitation, and it often took me two or
three hours to go to sleep again.

I cured myself in the following way: I left off supper and
reduced my tea meal by half, and the result was continuous sleep;
the symptoms, however, began to come back again after a time, so
I gradually cut the tea meal right away, and half of the midday
meal as well. The cure was then permanent and after a time I
found that I could resume the tea meal again. At the present time
I am having a tea meal of fruit only.

In addition I should advise those who suffer from this complaint
to keep cheerful, and to avoid excessive physical or mental
fatigue and worry. Yours faithfully,

"A SIX MONTHS' READER."

IS PURE LIME JUICE OBTAINABLE?

The Editors have received the following letter from Messrs Rowntree & Co., Ltd.:--

"We note in your issue of July 1913 under the heading of 'Lemon
or Orange Squash' a note to the effect that bottled lemon
squashes and lime cordials 'are not pure in the strict sense of
the term, since they are bound to contain 10 per cent. alcoholic
pure spirit by Government regulations.' We should be glad to know
what is your authority for this statement. Possibly it is a
misprint, because obviously the Government does not require
anything of the kind. Our own lemon squash and lime juice cordial
are entirely free from any form of preservative, including
alcohol. They are made up from pure lemon juice and lime juice
respectively, with sugar, and contain no foreign ingredient."

The statement complained of was based on an article entitled "Fortified Lime Juice" which appeared in _The Chemist and Druggist_, 13th May 1911 (page 51). On again referring to this article we find that the Government regulation applies only to _exported_ Lime Juice.

We regret having made this error, and are genuinely glad to have Messrs Rowntree's assurance that their own "Lime Juice Cordial" and "Lemon Squash" are "entirely free from any form of preservative, including alcohol."

Nevertheless, we think our suspicions regarding the presence of preservatives in such articles are justifiable in view of the following authoritative statements made by _The Chemist and Druggist_ in the article referred to:--

"The British Revenue authorities have drawn the line a little
tighter in the discharge of their responsibility respecting the
soundness of lime-juice intended for exportation or for use on
board ship. The new rule henceforth is to grant a 'pass'
certificate for unfortified lime-juice to last for fourteen days
only, at the end of which time another certificate must be
obtained. As this new regulation affects lime-juice in its
natural condition before rum or any other spirit is added to it,
only lime-juice manufacturers or importers are concerned in the
matter.... _With such rapidly deteriorating liquid as lime or
lemon juice the addition of the preservative spirit is a
necessity, hence the sooner it is fortified the better._ The
Revenue authorities permit duty-free spirit to be used for this
purpose, but in order that lime-juice manufacturers shall have
this advantage of not paying duty on the spirit used the Revenue
authorities insist on approval of the juice and its subsequent
fortification in bond under supervision of the Crown.... In
reference to the proportion of spirit used, previously the
regulation was expressed in a permissive sense, but now the
emphatic "must" is used. In the last Government Laboratory report
it was stated that 396 samples were examined, most of which were
lime-juice, representing nearly 50,000 gallons. Even the
fortified article is re-tested if more than three months old in
cask or two years old in bottle, and this re-testing resulted
last year in a condemnation of several hundred gallons owing to
deterioration during storage. This juice is principally for use
in the Mercantile Marine to combat scurvy."

From which it would appear that the use of _some_ kind of preservative is essential with such a rapidly deteriorating liquid as lime or lemon juice; and if not alcohol, there are innumerable chemical preservatives available. We wish we could rely on receiving assurances from other "Lime Juice" importers and manufacturers similar to that we have received from Messrs Rowntree.

* * * * *

_To People with Strong Convictions:_

A holiday is the best of all opportunities for appreciating the opposite point of view to our own: this is why everyone needs a day's holiday once a week.

HEALTH QUERIES.

_Under this heading our contributor, Dr Valentine Knaggs, deals briefly month by month, and according as space permits, with questions of general interest to health seekers and others._

_In all Queries relating to health difficulties it is essential that full details of the correspondent's customary diet should be clearly given._

_Correspondents are earnestly requested to write on _one side only of the paper_, giving full name and address, not for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. When an answer is required by post a stamped addressed envelope must be enclosed._--[EDS.]

FAULTY FOOD COMBINATIONS.

H.E.H. writes.--I should like your opinion of the statement of
the late Mr A. Broadbent, that fruit when taken with starchy food
by dyspeptics delays digestion, and that the digestion of starchy
foods and vegetables occupied only one-third of the time needed
for the digestion of starch with fruit. I have lived on a strict
vegetarian diet and observed the laws of hygiene for two and a
half years, to rid myself of dyspepsia, with great success,
having increased my weight by thirty-six pounds; for the last
nine months of this time I have lived on a largely "unfired"
diet, but am still troubled with acid risings and flatulence and
cannot account for it. Will you kindly enlighten me on the
subject?

I am a carpenter by trade and get eight hours in the open air
every day. I take a tumbler of distilled water hot with the juice
of one orange at 6 A.M., breakfast at 7.30 A.M., dinner at 12
noon and tea at 6 P.M., all consisting of Wallace unfermented
bread and biscuits, various fruits (mostly apples, bananas and
tomatoes) and nuts, about 1/2oz. at a meal; also a little cheese,
about 1 oz. at a meal.

The late Mr A. Broadbent was quite right, in my opinion, when he asserted that fruit taken with starchy foods delayed digestion.

To reap the true benefit from fruit it must be taken alone.

The dominant element in fruit is oxygen and the feature of oxygen is its power to start the process of oxidation in decomposing and disintegrating substances. It follows that when the stomach is filled with fermenting food-stuffs, or the tissues are clogged with the products derived from such, the oxidising action of fruit will be correspondingly intense.

The Naturist who applies the Schroth Cure for the purpose of curing chronic diseases uses fruit as his chief eliminating agent. The reader will remember that the peasant healer, Schroth, made his patients take dry stale rolls alone for three whole days, with nothing whatever to drink, and on the fourth day, he gave them a full bottle of white wine, which then caused intense oxidation, with marked elimination of poisons. His methods, if successful, were drastic and weakening, and so the latter-day exponents of Schrothism have modified this and give their patients zweiback or twice-baked bread instead of rolls, and on the third or fourth day make the patient partake freely of fresh fruit. This process of alternate dry days and fluid days is continued for some weeks until the cure is complete.

I have merely referred to this matter to show the part played by fruit in the body. To a healthy person fruit is in truth a splendid regenerating food, but it should, whenever possible, be eaten alone. To a dyspeptic, fruit is often equally good, if _taken by itself_.

The case of vegetables is different, and I hold with Broadbent that salad or properly cooked vegetables do go well with cereals, because they contain, not oxygen and oxygen acids, but mineral elements like soda, lime and magnesia, which neutralise the acids and toxins which form in the body as a result of its work. The vegetable is just as active as the fruit as an eliminant, but it works on different lines. Cereal foods, if eaten slowly in a dry condition are made alkaline by the saliva, so that the vegetables, which are also naturally alkaline, would harmonise well with cereals if eaten with them.

Our correspondent should modify his diet as follows, and then, I anticipate, he will cease to be troubled with his acid dyspepsia and flatulence. He should take his fruit alone, and take any of the crisp unsweetened Wallace "P.R." Biscuits in preference to the unfermented bread, which latter is often difficult to digest:--

_On rising._--A tumblerful of hot distilled water.

_Breakfast_ (at 7.30).--Fresh fruit only.

_Lunch_ (at 12).--1 to 2 oz. of cheese, preferably home-made curd cheese; salad of green leaf vegetables; "P.R." or Ixion biscuits with fresh butter, or nut butter.

_Dinner_ (at 6).--1 to 2 oz. of flaked pine kernels, finely grated raw roots or tomatoes, with pure olive oil; Granose biscuits, or Shredded Wheat biscuits, and fresh butter.

_At bedtime._--Cupful of dandelion coffee or hot distilled water.

NEURITIS.

E.M.A. writes.--At the age of five years I had an attack of
rheumatic fever through taking a severe cold, and have been
troubled more or less with pains since that time, which I feel
sure are caused through rheumatism of the nerves. I am now
fifty-eight years of age and have been a vegetarian for six
years.

My diet is:--8 A.M., cup of Sanum Tonic Tea; 9 A.M., Cup of dried
milk; 10 A.M., half of an apple and a little crust of wholemeal
bread; 1 P.M. conservatively cooked vegetable, using "Emprote"
for sauce; 4 P.M., cup of dried milk; 6 P.M., a little green
salad with St Ivel lactic cheese (size of one large walnut); 9
P.M., cup of dried milk. Do you think dried milk is harmful to
me? I should miss it very much were I to leave it off. I must
mention how great a help _The Healthy Life_ magazine is to me in
many ways.

Neuritis is a painful and wearying form of nerve trouble which mostly affects the arms and legs. It can, however, originate in any other part of the body through the spinal nerve centres. It may sometimes be due to injury, but the usual cause is some form of thickening or misplacement of the spinal structures, which induces pressure upon the nerves as they emerge through the apertures between the spinal bones. A careful examination of the back will show the site, and often the nature, of the thickening or encumbrance which is present.

In our correspondent's case the thickening process doubtless occurred as an after effect of the attack of rheumatic fever.

The best remedy is suitable osteopathic treatment for the spine, supplemented by _either very_ hot or _quite_ cold spinal sitz baths, by acetic acid skin treatment, or by any other means which will have the effect of disencumbering the spine. By means of our treatment we free the painful nerves from harmful pressure and promote an increased blood circulation in the parts affected. In this way the cause of the disorder is removed.

A diet along the following lines would be better than the present one:--

8 A.M.--Tumblerful of hot distilled water.

9.30.--One raw egg beaten up with cream and vegetable juice or clear vegetable soup made without salt. Wholemeal bread with plenty of butter and some celery or watercress.

1.30 P.M.--Two conservatively cooked vegetables done without salt, with grated cheese as sauce and a Granose biscuit with butter.

4.--Tumblerful of hot distilled water only.

6.30.--2 oz. of cottage cheese or cream cheese, salad and Granose biscuits, or "P.R." crackers, with butter.

9.30.--A raw egg beaten up with cream and vegetable juice or soup.

I think dried milk preparations are inadvisable in such cases as these (especially when taken as 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, attributes his health in
great measure to abstinence from sugar.

Most of these queries are answered in the completed book[10] published this year. The point about "milk sugar" not being injurious he will find answered on page 72.

[10] _The Truth about Sugar_, 1s. net. (C.W. Daniel, Ltd.)

"Milk sugars" taken to excess with a mixed diet, or in the form of milk as a beverage, break down into lactic, butyric and other destructive acids under the influence of intestinal germs and thus do harm to the body.

The natives of the West Indies (page 39) take the sugar cane in its natural state as a living vegetable food--a very different thing from the isolated and chemicalised sugar on our tables at home. Moreover, the chewing required helps digestion. This is very different to the drinking rapidly of sugared beverages, which do not receive this necessary mouth preparation.

One is quite prepared to admit that paradoxical cases do occur where sugar seems to agree well even with octogenarians, but they are, in my opinion, the exceptions, and I am constantly coming across cases where the free consumption of table sugars has proved very harmful to both old and young.

ULCERATION OF THE STOMACH.

A.L.M. writes.--Our domestic servant, a girl aged twenty-four, is
suffering from ulceration of the stomach and has had periodical
attacks for the past six years. She has apparently, until she
came to us, eaten and drunk very unwisely. She has been with us
seven months and has been fed on a non-flesh diet since she came.
For the last four weeks tea, coffee and cocoa have been
forbidden, and as little sugar is consumed as possible. She had a
very bad attack in August and we had to call in a doctor is we
did not like the responsibility. He strongly recommended the
hospital and an operation, which would ensure that there would be
no repetition of the complaint. She decided to go and was there
six weeks. After much experimenting there, inoculating and
wondering whether it was tuberculosis, they operated and in due
course she came back. We went to the sea for three weeks and
shortly after our return the vomiting of blood and pains
recommenced. After four days in bed she returned to light dishes,
and a fortnight after another slighter attack came on, which in
twenty-four hours. She takes hot boiled water five times a day.
She suffers also from a horny skin on the palms of her hands,
with deep cracks where the natural lines are. These periodically
bleed. This skin exists also on her heels and the soles of her
feet. Before and after, an attack this skin seems to be worse
than ever.

I mentioned the fact of the recurring attacks since the operation
to the doctor and he seemed surprised and said the matter must be
constitutional and there was no hope for her.

My own opinion is that pure food will put her right eventually,
and that these attacks will recur in diminishing force until the
poisons are eliminated front the system.

Her diet is at present as follows:--

_On rising._--Half-pint of boiled water (hot).

_Breakfast._--Either Shredded Wheat softened in hot milk or
breakfast flakes and cold milk: followed by either bananas or
apples. Half-pint boiled water (hot).

_Lunch._--Ordinary vegetarian cooked dishes, vegetables
conservatively cooked, some fruit. Half-pint boiled water (hot).

_Tea meal._--Wholemeal bread (Artox flour), usually non-yeast,
nut butter. Lettuces and radishes when obtainable. Half-pint
boiled water (hot).

_Before retiring._--Half-pint of boiled water (hot).

It has been shown by Brandl and other investigators that ulceration of the stomach can always be produced in animals by feeding them with an excess of sugar foods. The same thing applies to human beings, who, if fed with an excess of sweetmeats, sugar, milk or soft mushy cereals, will first contract catarrh of the stomach, which will ultimately deepen into a condition of ulceration.

The rationale of the process is this: Fermentation and putrefaction of the foods eaten to excess produce in the stomach various acids and toxins. These become absorbed and pass into the liver. Then the liver becomes clogged, its flow of blood is obstructed and this naturally retards the flow of food from the stomach. That organ becomes congested and inflamed and, when the lower end, or pylorus, is obstructed, this congested state may easily deepen into ulceration. We also nearly always find a tender spine, showing that the nervous system has equally participated in the conditions produced, and this nervous factor intensifies the trouble by retarding the due working of the digestive functions.

What we have to do to cure a case of ulcerated stomach is _to withhold the foods which create fermentation_. Then the liver will be allowed time to work off the poisons which are clogging its substance and when this has come about the stomach will slowly return to its normal condition.

The diet which our correspondent cites is badly arranged. It is a mistake to give fluid _with_ the meals, and the mushy food at breakfast and the soft food at dinner should be changed to drier and crisper forms of nutriment.

The following diet would be a distinct improvement:--

_On rising._--Half-pint of boiled hot water, sipped slowly; or quarter-pint Sanum Tonic Tea, taken hot.

_Breakfast._--A Shredded Wheat biscuit _eaten dry_ and well buttered; a lightly boiled egg and some finely grated raw roots, especially carrots and turnips.

In a case of this sort it is best not to mix cereals with fruits.

An alternative breakfast would consist of _fruit alone_ such as two apples, finely grated at first, or two bananas mashed and mixed with pure olive oil and sprinkled with flaked nuts but care must be taken that the pulped banana is well chewed.

_Lunch._--Grated cheese, or cream cheese, with some finely chopped salad, or grated raw roots, or conservatively cooked vegetables (preferably roots or onions baked fairly dry by the casserole method) can be taken at this repast. Follow with a slice or two of cold ordinary toast or rusks with butter.

_Tea meal._--Half-pint of hot boiled water with a little lemon or orange juice added to it for flavouring.

_Supper_ (about 6.30).--Stale standard bread with butter and curd cheese or an egg. The non-yeast bread should be avoided as in the weak state of the stomach it will not be properly digested; besides, the bran may irritate the lining in the present condition of the stomach. As soon as the stomach has regained its power of digesting food, and the ulcers have healed, then fine wholemeal biscuits of the Wallace or Ixion kind can be taken, but the unfermented bread had better be avoided.

_At bedtime._--A half-pint of hot water.

GOING TO EXTREMES IN THE UNFIRED DIET.

W.O.C. writes.--As a bachelor who (not believing in, and
therefore doing without domestic help) is anxious to reduce time
spent on cooking to a minimum, I shall be glad if Dr Knaggs will
tell me whether the use of the oven, pan and kettle are necessary
to healthy diet. For instance (1) would a diet of bread and
butter, biscuits, cheese, fruit (fresh and dried), ordinary cold
water and cold milk, be as healthy as a diet of hot vegetables,
puddings, cocoashell, etc.? (2) Are cooked lentils,
butter-beans, macaroni, etc., more beneficial taken hot than
after they have cooled? (3) Could uncooked vegetables _of
sufficient nutriment_ be substituted for these? I shall be glad
if it is quite safe to live entirely on raw foods, whether fresh
or "prepared."

The use of the oven, pan and kettle is not essential to a healthy diet, but few people in this changeable, and often cold, depressing climate are willing to forgo their occasional use. One cannot get hot water for a drink without a kettle or a small saucepan and a gas ring, and hot water is often a very comforting and useful drink, especially where an effort is being made to break off the tea and coffee habit.

A diet of bread and butter, biscuits, cheese, fresh and dried fruits is excellent, provided our correspondent also includes grated raw roots and salads as the medicinal part of the regimen, and keeps the fresh fruit to itself as one meal of the day. Cold water or cold milk could also be taken in the place of hot water or hot milk, although I deprecate the use of milk as a beverage unless a person is willing to live entirely on milk like a baby does. The hot vegetables are uncalled for, provided the raw vegetables are substituted for them. The puddings can well be discarded. Cocoashell beverages are useful in very many cases.

Beans or lentils can be eaten sparingly in a raw state if first soaked, then flaked in a Dana machine, and afterwards flavoured with herbs or parsley. I certainly think that, if they _are_ to be cooked, the taste is better if eaten hot; but there is no reason why cold cooked lentils should not be eaten any more than is the case with an other form of cooked food. Uncooked vegetables will not take the place of lentils, because they are of a different order of food-stuff. The uncooked vegetable would go well with the lentils as neutralising agents of the acids into which all nitrogenous foods break down in the body. Most people will find that nuts, cheese and eggs are better sources of proteid than lentils or other "pulse foods."

H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.

THE

HEALTHY

LIFE

The Independent
Health Magazine.

3 AMEN CORNER LONDON E.C.

VOL. V OCTOBER
No. 27. 1913

_There will come a day when physiologists, poets, and
philosophers will all speak the same language and understand one
another._--CLAUDE BERNARD.

AN INDICATION.

Just as there is a pride that apes humility, so there is an egotism that apes selfishness, a cowardice that apes stoicism and an indolence that apes effort. This is especially apparent in matters pertaining to health.

How often, on the plea of not causing worry or expense to others, does a man or woman not put off taking necessary rest, or consulting a doctor, until a slight ailment that once would have yielded to treatment becomes an irreparable injury.

Such conduct is often admired as unselfish, but for unselfishness and stoicism a psychologist would read fear, indolence and egotism. Fear of being thought hypochondriacal and fear of facing facts; shrinking from the exertion involved in the effort to become healthy and from the pain involved in witnessing the possible distress and anxiety of friends should the complaint prove serious--regardless of the fact that its neglect and resultant incurability would cause infinitely more distress; above all, that mental egotism which breeds in its victim an unreadiness to acknowledge that he does not _know_ what may be wrong and to take prompt steps to remedy his ignorance.

It is not fair, of course, to attach too much blame to the patient. Such faults as those cited above are in themselves symptoms of nervous disease. Body and mind act and react upon one another. Nevertheless, the practice of the virtues loses its meaning when there is no pull in the opposite direction.--[EDS.]

IMAGINATION IN INSURANCE.

_Regular readers will recognise in this article a continuation of the series previously entitled "Healthy Brains." The author of "The Children All Day Long" is an intimate disciple of one of the greatest living psychologists, and she has a message of the first importance to all who realise that true health depends as much on poise of mind as on physical fitness._

It is an unpleasant subject, but have you ever faced the fact that your widow might be left in poverty?

We all know the phrases that come so glibly from the lips of the insurance agent. Perhaps the very fact that it pays companies to spend thousands a year on the salaries of agents, and other thousands on broadcast eye-catching advertisements, shows that there are many things which our imagination only accepts "against the grain." Fire, storm, loss by theft or burglary, sickness, disablement and death we do not, by choice, dwell on these things in thought.

Now some people are inclined to pet this impulse of turning away. "Do not think dark thoughts," they tell us, "the best insurance is unconsciousness, insouciance, denial. Misfortune will pass you by if you do not look for it."

Perhaps there is something to be said for this method when it comes with absolute spontaneity from the innermost nature. But if for the radiant apprehension of beauty and health we substitute an effort to cling to the picture of good when our very bodies and nerves are warning us with suggestions of evil, we run grave risks. By adopting someone else's sense of freedom from danger and repressing our own conviction that for us a certain danger, more or less remote, exists, we are putting great pressure upon ourselves. At times of ill-health or accidental worry, a sleepless night may bring us an agonising succession of imaginative pictures, those very pictures which we have attempted to banish from our daily life. If we have still greater power of repression these grim images, forbidden throughout every moment of waking life, may reappear in dreams.

(Of the still more serious dangers of repression and of its relation to various forms of insanity, this is hardly the place to speak.[11] It ought not to be necessary to appeal to alarming instances in order to make us attend to a suggested warning.)

[11] See Bernard Hart's illuminating treatment of the whole subject in _The Psychology of Insanity_, Cambridge Manuals of Science.

Now if we decide to regard all fear as a suggestion of precaution, the emotional part of it to be laid aside as soon as it has fulfilled its function of arousing interest and directing action, it is easy to see the psychological justification for insurance.

Of course pecuniary insurance is but one instance of such sequences of action, though it happens to be a rather obvious one. In a different field, most of us know the delightful feeling of relief experienced after consulting a doctor about some symptom that has perhaps been troubling us for a long time. "May I safely do this? Ought I to refrain from that?" and such perpetually recurring irritations to the attention are replaced by the knowledge that it is now the doctor's business to decide whether this or that is "serious," and that as long as we carry out his orders we may lay aside all worry about the matter.

So in the case of fire insurance, what we are really buying with our annual premium is freedom from haunting questions as to the loss that would ensue if our house or shop or office were burnt down or damaged. Whenever the thought comes, it may, as far as the money loss is concerned, be dismissed.

We see then that instead of keeping the suggestion of such misfortunes before us, as some people might allege, the act of insurance substitutes for vague and recurrent fears a formal and periodical recognition of possibilities, a recognition, too, that contains within itself a precaution against some of the results of the misfortune should it ever occur. What we buy, at the cost of a fixed number of pounds or shillings of money and a few minutes of time once a year, is the right to put the dangers out of our consciousness altogether and yet leave no residuum of repressed fear to split up our personality or give us indigestion.

If we choose, for some reason or other, to let our imagination dwell on the objective side of the possibility we have insured against, we shall find a pleasure in thinking of what can be done by many people working together. If we need help to meet some misfortune, it is ours as a right, not doled out to us through others' pity. And every year that we have made no claim we have the delight of knowing that we are helping those who need.

The art of working together is yet in its infancy. But if even the present standard of method devised for money insurance were to be adopted in the deeper matters which we so often allow to trouble us, what an advance in mental development we should have made and what new possibilities of safe action would be opened up!

E.M. COBHAM.

* * * * *

Every youth should learn to do something finely and thoroughly with his hands.--_Ruskin._

THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF VEGETALISM.

This article has been translated from the French of Prof. H. Labbe, the head of the _laboratoire a la Faculte de Medecine_, in Paris. It reflects a rather characteristic aloofness to any considerations other than scientific or economic. But it will well repay careful study.--[EDS.]

I

Vegetarianism has been the object of many attacks, and has also been warmly defended. Most of its adepts have sought to give the value of a dogma to its practice.

For quite a number of people "vegetarianism" is a kind of religion, requiring of its votaries a sort of baptism, and the sacrifice of many pleasures. It is this which justifies the infatuation of some, and the systematic disparagement of others.

"Vegetalism"[12] cannot pretend to play a similar part, or to lend itself to ambiguity. To be a "vegetalist" is to choose in the vegetable kingdom, with a justified preference, foods susceptible of filling the energy-producing needs, and the needs of the reparation of the human system.

"Vegetalism" is a chapter of dietetic physiology which must utilise the precise methods and recent discoveries of the science of nutrition.

[12] The word "Vegetarianism" implies a judgment of the qualities which such a diet entails. This word is derived, in fact, from the Latin adjective "Vegetus" (strong). The word "Vegetalism," which we oppose to the preceding one, admits only the establishing of a fact, that of the choice--exclusive or preferred--of the nutritious matters in the vegetable kingdom.

II

Before putting "vegetalism" into practice the first point is to know whether the foods of "vegetal" origin contain, and are susceptible of producing regularly, the divers nutritive principles indispensable to the organisation of an alimentary diet. The principles are the following:--Proteid or albuminoid substances; hydrocarbonated and sweet substances fatty substances; mineral matters, alkalis, lime, magnesia, phosphates and chlorides, etc. In most compound foods, no matter of what origin, mineral materials almost always exist in sufficient quantities. The most important amongst them, at all events, are found combined in liberal, even superabundant, portions in dishes of vegetal origin. The analysis of the ashes of our most common table vegetables fixes us immediately to this subject: Leguminous plants supply from about three to six per cent. of ashes, rich in alkalis, lime and phosphates. Potatoes, green vegetables and fruit as a whole absorbing considerable quantities of mineral elements. These are the elements of a nature to allow a precise reply to this question which we propose to expound briefly.

III

In order to examine a food thoroughly, for the purpose of ascertaining if it can be advantageously introduced for consumption, whether albumins, fats, hydrate of carbon, or sugar, etc., or again an association of these principles in a composite article of food are in question, divers researches must be carried out before giving a final judgment.

If a more or less complex article of food is in question, before considering it as a good nutriment, its centesimal composition, or its immediate composition, should be established; its theoretic calorific power should be known, and it should be measured if this has not yet been done.

Besides the calorific yield thus estimated _in vitro_, the real utilisation in the human organism of articles of food alone or mixed with other foods should be determined, taking simultaneously into account their effects, whether tonic, stimulating or depressing.

From a different point of view it is no longer allowable to neglect before judging whether such and such a nutritive substance is advantageous, the valuation of what we have called, with Prof. Landouzy, the economic yield--that is to say, the price of the energy, provided by the unity of weight of the article of food.

It is only in reviewing "vegetal" substances, taking these divers titles into consideration, that we shall be justified in attributing to the practice of "vegetalism," integral or mitigated, its definite value.

IV

Only a few years ago, when Schutzenberger, emulator and forerunner of Fischer, Armand Gautier, Kossel, first disjointed the albuminoid molecule, to examine one by one its divers parts, the composition of the various albumins was very little known. Whether, therefore, albumins of the blood, or those of meat or eggs, were in question, these bodies were hardly ever separated, except through physical circumstances, amongst others by constant quantities of different coagulation. As to the centesimal formula and the intimate structure of the different protoid substances, they could be considered as closely brought together.

From this fact, the physiological problem of the utilisation of albumin was simpler. No matter which article of food contained this albumin, its nutritive power by unity of weight remained the same. At the present time the number of albumins is no longer limited. It is not now physical characteristics founded difficult separations which arbitrarily distinguish those bodies from each other. The individuality of each of the albumins results from its formula of deterioration, under the influence of digestive ferments, or of chemical bodies acting in a similar way, as do mineral acids and alkalis. For want of constituary formula this methodical deterioration makes known the number of molecules (acids or other bodies) which are responsible for the structure of each albumin. These deleterious formula of proteid matter are not less suggestive than composition ones. They reveal notable differences between "vegetal" and animal albumins.

To be sure, animal albumins (beef, veal, mutton, pork, etc.) which we are offered in an alimentary flesh diet, resemble more nearly the structure of our own bodily albumins than do the gluten of bread or the albumin of vegetables. This fact seems actually the best support of the theory which affirms the superiority of the flesh over the vegetable diet. Such a remark is therefore well worth discussing by showing that the consequences which can be deduced from it are paradoxical, and rest upon hypothesis which, not very acceptable in theory, are hardly verified in practice.

Admitting that albumin plays in alimentary diet only the plastic part of reconstruction of used-up corporal matter, it might be advantageous to ingest but one albumin the composition of which is very similar to our own. By virtue of the law of least effort such a one in equal weights ought to be of more service than a foreign albumin, as it requires less organic work. For man, albumin of animal origin ought to be more profitable in equal weight than vegetable albumin. In the organism, indeed, albumin passes through a double labour. After the intestinal deterioration, followed by a passage through the digestive mucus membrane, a re-welding of the liberated acids takes place, with a formation of new albumin.

If, therefore, alimentary albumin's mission is, not to be definitely burnt up in the organism, but to help in the plastication of the individual, the more its initial formula approaches the definite one to which it must attain, the more profitable it becomes, giving out less useless fragments and waste. Animal albumin approaching more nearly to human albumin, is also the one whose introduction into the daily alimentary diet is most rational. This statement seems to be the defeat of vegetal albumin. But let there be no mistake. It consecrates at the same time the triumph of anthropophagy, for there could not be for man a more profitable albumin than his own, or that of his fellow-man! This should make us pause and reflect, before allowing this deduction to be accepted.

Besides, these arguments _ad hominem_ do not appear to us necessary for repelling such an interpretation of facts. Modern works have shown us that the greater proportion of ingested albumin played, in fact, a calorific, and not a plastic, part. Under these conditions one is justified in doubting whether there takes place with regard to the total albumins ingested a work of reconstruction thus complicated in the organism, after their first deterioration. Evidently one may come to believe that this complicated labour applies only to the more or less feeble portion of albumin really integrated.

Practically speaking, the best criterion for judging the utilisation of an ingested albumin lies in the persistence of the corporal weight, allied to the ascertained fact of a stable equilibrium in the total azotized balance-sheet which is provided by the comparison of the "Ingesta" with the "Excreta." From this point of view there exists the closest similitude between the albumins of animal and those of vegetable origin; both, in fact, are capable of assuring good health and corporal and cellular equilibrium.

However, the digestibility of vegetable albumins seems to remain slightly inferior to that of animal albumins. 97 per cent. of the animal fibrine given in a meal are digested, where 88 to 90 per cent. only of vegetable albumins are absorbed and utilised. It is a small difference, but not one to be overlooked. We must say, however, that the method one employs in determining these digestibilities takes from them a part of their value, and renders difficult the comparison of results obtained. Sensibly pure albumins are too often compared in an artificial diet. One deviates thus from the conditions of practical physiology. In fact, in ordinary meals, all varieties of foods are mixed together, acting and reacting upon each other, reciprocally modifying their digestibility. If one conforms to this way of acting towards alimentary albumins, the results change sensibly. In the presence of an excess of starch, under the shape of bread, for example, vegetable albumin seems to be absorbed in about the same proportions as animal albumin.

If, in a flesh diet, animal albumins are always consumed nearly pure (lean meat containing hardly anything but albumin, besides a little fat, and an inferior quantity of glycogen) vegetable albumin is always, on the contrary, mixed with a number of other substances. This is doubtless one of the reasons which causes the digestibility of vegetable albumins to vary, the foreign nutritive matters being able to bring about, under certain circumstances, and in cases of superabundant ingestions, a real albuminous "saving" in the newest sense of the word.

Besides, a prejudicial question makes the debate almost vain. When it was admitted by such physiologists as Voit, Rubner and their school that from 140 to 150 grammes of albumin in the minimum were daily necessaries in the human diet, a variation of a few units in the digestive power presented some importance. Nowadays the real utility of albumins is differently appreciated. The need of them seems to have been singularly exaggerated; first lowered to about 75 gr. by A. Gautier, it has dropped successively with Lapicque, Chittenden, Landergreen, Morchoisne and Labbe, by virtue of considerations both ethnological and physiological, to 50 grs., 30 grs. and even to 25 or 20 grammes. The "nutritive relation"--that is to say, the yield from albuminoid matters to the total nutritive matters of diet--is thus brought down from 1/3 its primitive value to 1/15 or 1/20 at most. It follows that the slight inferiority found in the digestive powers of vegetable albumin appears unimportant. It is sufficient to add 2 or 3 more grammes of albumin to a ration already superabundant of from 40 to 50 grammes of vegetable proteins to bring back a complete equilibrium in the use of vegetable and animal varieties. The theoretical inferiority of vegetable albumin thus almost completely disappears.

H. LABBE.

(_To be continued._)

* * * * *

If your system has become clogged, go slow--and fast.

ODE TO THE WEST WIND.