Chapter III: Part 3

Redfield did not let up on the pace and I was determined not to beg for respite. Between fifty and sixty kilometers of distance only had been made when I felt that the day was not propitious for an endurance-test, and I fully expected to be compelled to return from Orleans leisurely in the afternoon and evening by wheel with only a slight addition to the century-run of the preceding Fourth of July accomplished. Before Orleans was reached, however, all sense of strain passed, and second-wind and second-strength had become installed for the day. When I left Redfield at Blois I felt stronger than any time before, and as eager to kick the pedals as when we started in the morning and as one always is prompted to do when one is filled with surplus energy. I had no objective point and was guided only by tempting roads and favouring breezes. The river road down the Loire was most promising at first, but a head wind sprang up and made a _détour_ the other side of Blois more tempting by argument of a fair wind that blew down one of the roads leading away from the river. For a time I made full twenty-five kilometers an hour, but the wind died out and I returned to the river road and reached Tours in time for the enjoyment of a magnificent sunset effect and a most appetising and satisfying _table d'hôte_ dinner. Before dining I jumped into a tub and had a good refreshing dip and a vigorous rub which made me feel like going out to take a walk or mount my wheel again. My appetite for dinner was not large, centred on a salad richly dressed with olive oil, and was quickly appeased; immediately after which I mounted my wheel again and proceeded down the beautiful road towards Saumur. My ambition was here raised to complete 300 kilometers and the distance to Saumur just about filled that ambition. I rode leisurely for a time after dining and then gradually increased the speed to about eighteen kilometers an hour, which brought me to my destination a little past ten, with a feeling of sleepiness that invited to a hasty falling into bed, but with surprisingly little or no sense of muscular fatigue. My cyclometer registered a little more than 304 kilometers, or 190 miles; not much for experts, under the conditions, to be sure, but a revelation of possibilities to a man of fifty who had once, not many years before, been denied life insurance on account of health disability. This was worth more than millions of money to me; and no one knows how much it will signify to the human family when the knowledge of a truly economic nutrition is attained and established.

I was bright awake at daylight the next morning and had the impulse to mount my wheel and see how "fit" I was in consequence of my exertion of the day before. This I did, and rode eighty kilometers (fifty miles) before breaking my fast at nine o'clock. I believe I could have ridden as far that day had the conditions been favourable. My weight, on return to my balances at Brolles, was reduced two kilograms (nearly five pounds), but a generous thirst for a day or two, and a slightly increased appetite put the loss back again inside a week even while riding my wheel daily on the way to Geneva.

Since reaching Italy, and abiding in Venice, there have been long periods when no systematic physical exercise has been indulged in. Once, after nearly a year of physical inactivity, I took with me an attendant and made an average of seventy-five miles a day in the mountain districts of southern Germany for observation of increase of food requirement during hard work. Neither muscular soreness, nor muscular fatigue, except the periodical weariness of sleepiness, were experienced as the result of the sudden change from the most restful environment to strenuous activity; and herein lies a physiological question that is far-reaching in its significance. It would seem that Appetite, in its normal condition, assisted in its discrimination by careful mouth-treatment of food, guards the body from excess and keeps it always "in training." The later experience at Yale University under Dr. Anderson and Professor Chittenden showed the same immunity from muscular disability, and has brought the question to good hands for solution.

The author has voluminous data relative to his work, but it is not applicable to any other person. Each person is a law unto himself and no two sets of conditions are alike. Treat your food as advised herein and get surprising new experiences for yourselves, is the advice and moral of the story.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

HEALTH, HARMONY AND HAPPINESS

Health, Harmony and Happiness are the natural heritage of man.

The human body is the most perfect piece of mechanism possible to imagine.

The human body is intended to nourish Health, maintain Harmony, and conserve Happiness.

* * * * *

The body machine is self-building or self-growing, self-lubricating and self-repairing.

A simple knowledge, only, is necessary for proper (preventive) care of the body machine.

All that Nature requires of man is to supply fuel preferred and, therefore, prescribed by Normal Appetite and to direct the energy generated along alluring lines of usefulness.

* * * * *

Nature requires no sacrifices and imposes no penalties for obeying her beneficent demands.

Natural Laws are easily comprehended if studied objectively.

Ill health, inharmony and unhappiness come only from disobeying Nature.

God (obeyed) is Only Good.

NATURE STUDY

Nature cannot be profitably studied alone through books.

Nature has a separate message for each intelligence.

Each body machine has peculiarities which the possessor alone can understand.

Object lessons, personally experienced or observed, are the best.

"Once seeing (or feeling) is worth an hundred times telling about," is a wise Japanese proverb; and it is true.

As the swinging pendulum taught Galileo, and the falling apple suggested to Sir Isaac Newton, the law of gravity, in like manner the modern electric power-plant teaches us, by analogies, suggestions useful in the study of ourselves--our own Mind Power-Plant.

OLD AND NEW

THE OLD IDEAS

The old religion condemned man, even though unenlightened, to perdition and saved him only through special dispensation.

The old education insisted on narrow formulas and tried to cram all mentality into prescribed moulds.

The old physiology presupposed disease and glorified pathology.

THE NEW STUDY

The new religion glorifies Love, stimulates Appreciation and preaches only Optimism.

The new pedagogy aims to discover the useful tendency with which each creature is equipped at birth and to cultivate this God-given inclination as designed by the Creator.

The new physiology studies Hygiene and assists Nature by securing Prevention to avoid the necessity of correction and cure.

SAFE HYPOTHESES

Assuming that Nature's intentions are only right, ill-health is unnatural.

If Nature's invitations, as expressed by Normal Appetite, are rightly interpreted, good health must result.

When there is bad health Nature has been disobeyed.

A REASONABLE CONCLUSION

If Physiology has failed to teach a way to maintain perfect health some of her hypotheses must be wrong.

If any of the hypotheses of Physiology are discredited any one of them may be doubted.[5]

[Footnote 5: Since this was written, the then accepted standards of human food requirements have not only been questioned but have been discredited and disproved. The great importance of mouth-work in the economics of digestion has been demonstrated and accepted.]

OUR NATURAL GUARDIANS

THE SENSES

GUIDING SUPPOSITIONS

The stomach and other hidden parts of the body have automatic functions independent of the will that perform digestion; these functions are beyond the scope of control, and hence means of preventing ill-digestion must be studied by the aid of the exterior sensations.

Sight, Appetite, Touch and Taste are the senses useful in selection of food and in the prevention of indigestion.

Sight and Appetite relate to invitation and selection, while Touch and Taste are discriminators and indicators of conditions.

Appetite and Taste are the sense functions that are most important to health, and hence they are the most important to study and understand. They are the guide in nutrition and the guard of the body machine--the Mind Power-Plant.

Smell also is an important aid in selection and discrimination and is an effective assistant of Appetite.

APPETITE AND TASTE ANALYSED

Appetite should be dignified and recognised as a distinct sense.

Normal Appetite is Nature's means of indicating her fuel and repair requirements for the Mind Power-Plant.

Study Normal Appetite and heed its invitation. It prescribes wisely. Its mark of distinction, to differentiate it from False Appetite, is "watering of the mouth" for _some particular thing_.

False Appetite is an indefinite craving for _something_, ANYTHING! to smother disagreeable sensations and frequently is expressed by the symptom of "faintness" or "All-gone-ness." [Vide the "A.B.-Z. of OUR OWN NUTRITION."]

Taste is the chemist of the body; of the Mind Power-Plant. More correctly, perhaps, it is the report of a chemical process relating to nutrition.

Taste is an evidence of nutrition. While taste lasts a necessary process is going on.

Taste should, therefore, be carefully studied and understood.

Both Taste and Appetite differ in different individuals and in the same individual under different conditions of thought or activity.

Taste is also dependent on supply of the mouth juices usually called saliva, and these differ materially in individuals, necessitating self-study, self-understanding, and self-care to insure prevention of indigestion and disease.

The most important part of nutrition is the right preparation of food in the mouth for further digestion.

The most important discovery in physiology is the relation of compulsory or involuntary swallowing to the right preparation of food for digestion.

* * * * *

Taste is evidence of nutrition.

Whatever does not taste, such as glass or stone, is not nutritious.[6]

[Footnote 6: Pure proteid or albumin is quite tasteless but is always accompanied by tasting substance, and separation of the proteid molecule from enveloping material is an important function of mouth-capacity in digestion.]

Taste is excited by the dissolving of food in the mouth, and while it lasts a necessary process of preparation for digestion is going on.

The juices of the mouth have the power to transform any food that excites taste into a substance suitable for the body.

Nothing that is tasteless, except water and pure proteid, only by distinct invitation of appetite, should be taken into the stomach.

If we swallow only the food which excites the appetite and is pleasing to the sense of taste, and swallow it only after the taste has been extracted from it, removing from the mouth the tasteless residue, complete and easy digestion will be assured and perfect health maintained.

* * * * *

NATURE'S FOOD FILTER

Nature has provided an Automatic Food Filter which, if rightly used, will prevent the introduction of any harmful substance into the stomach.

* * * * *

At the entrance to the throat there are certain muscular folds or convolutions, including the palate, which, when in repose, form an organ that is nothing less than a Perfect Food Filter. This filter has also automatic qualities which compel it to empty itself by the process we call "Involuntary Swallowing."

Involuntary swallowing is really compulsory swallowing; unless a voluntary effort to restrain it is set up against it. The real Swallowing Impulse is so strong that it is practically compelling.

The Food Filter, when rightly performing its protective function, is impervious to anything except pure water at the right temperature for admission to the stomach and to nutriment which has been properly dissolved and chemically converted by salivation (mixture with saliva) into a substance suitable for further digestion.

IMPORTANCE OF MASTICATION

If we masticate--submit to vigorous jaw action--everything that we take into the mouth, liquid as well as solid, until the nutritive part of it disappears into the stomach through compulsory or involuntary swallowing, and remove from the mouth all fibrous, insoluble and tasteless remainder, we will take into the body, thereby, only that which is good for the body.

* * * * *

The first thought that will arise in the reader's mind on perusal of the above declaration will undoubtedly be, "What! masticate milk, soups, wines, spirits, and other liquids; nonsense! That is impossible!"

It is not, however, impossible, and, furthermore, it is _absolutely necessary to protection against abuse of the stomach and possible disease_.

Liquid for adults, for anyone after the eruption of teeth, is an artificial and unnatural sustenance; something not taken into consideration when the human body was planned. Liquid food (drunk without mixing with saliva) is a sort of nutritive self-abuse, and the only way to avoid the ill effect is to give it the same chance to encounter saliva that the constituent ingredients would have had in a more solid state. For the importance of this see Dr. Campbell's able treatise on mastication reprinted from the London _Lancet_ in the "A.B.-Z. of OUR OWN NUTRITION."

* * * * *

The only things necessary to life that we are compelled to take into the body that do not excite the sense of taste are pure air and pure water. These are necessary to life, but are not what is called nutrition. They do not, alone, replace waste tissue. They do not challenge the sentinel, Taste, and hence do not require retention in the field of taste.

If water be pure and tasteless you cannot masticate it, as it will not submit to more than one action of the jaw before causing involuntary swallowing. If it have taste it is a sign that it contains mineral or vegetable substance that needs treatment of some sort to render it suitable for the body, and it will then resist some mastication, some mouth-treatment, as in tasting, before compelling swallowing, just as the sapid liquids do.

Anything that has taste, even soup, wine, spirits or whatsoever is tried, will resist numerous mastications before being absorbed by the Food Filter. Above all things, milk, wines, etc., should be sipped and tasted to the limit of compulsory swallowing.

* * * * *

In considering the reasonableness of masticating everything that has taste until it is absorbed by Nature's Food Filter, it must be remembered that the only liquid food provided for man that is not artificial is milk, and the natural means provided for taking milk into the stomach is by sucking, which is like mastication.[7] The milk of fruits, such as cocoanut milk, for instance, is found, in liquid form, only in the unripe fruit, and remains liquid only while it is ripening into pulp.

[Footnote 7: Before the eruption of teeth in a child there is no secretion of saliva, only mucous; but mother's milk is strongly alkaline, and hence has no need of saliva to prepare it for digestion. All milk that has "stood" or has been mixed with water is acid, and requires saliva to give it the quality of mother's milk.]

* * * * *

Insalivation does not seem to be complete without jaw action, although saliva (sometimes only mucous) flows freely into the mouth without it under conditions which we term "watering of the mouth" excited by keenness of appetite. (See Pawlow's, Campbell's, Van Someren's, and other evidence in "A.B.-Z. of OUR OWN NUTRITION.")

The normal perviousness or natural opening of the Food Filter for swallowing food is directly assisted and affected by movement of the jaws exercised in vigorous manner.

Mastication, or mouth-treatment, therefore, even of liquids that excite taste, seems to be a necessary part of thorough insalivation.

* * * * *

Nature has a good reason for everything she plans.

It is asserted by physiological chemists that saliva, taken from the mouth and kept at normal temperature, will dissolve breads and similar foods and convert the starch in them into maltose, glucose or sugar. The converted form is that which is suitable for further digestion. Saliva also converts some acids into alkali and readily neutralises all acids.

It is also asserted that saliva does not dissolve some things (proteid substances) nor chemically affect them as visibly as it does starch and acid, but, even if this be true, it is no less essential that the juices provided in the mouth should have an opportunity, through mastication, or, movement about in the mouth, to do what they are able to do in assisting digestion.

Experiment shows that if all foods are submitted to the examination and action of these juices until involuntary swallowing takes place, the results in aiding subsequent digestion are important in promoting healthy nutrition.

Separation, neutralisation, alkalination, saccharidation, of the proteid and carbohydrate elements of common foods and perhaps a partial emulsification of fats are all possible in the mouth and are more easily and quickly done there than inside the body. Much care in Mouth-Treatment is an assurance of economy and safety in Alimentation.

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED

One of the objections usually provoked by the suggestion that all tasteless residue remaining in the mouth after the taste or nutriment has been dissolved out of it should be removed is generally expressed in this wise, "How is it possible to remove refuse from the mouth while eating without appearing disgusting to others at table? You have to swallow things to get rid of them."

This is merely a bugbear prejudice. It has no good reason.

Do you not remove cherry pits, grape skins, the shell of lobster, bone, etc., when you encounter them? Then why not remove the fibrous matter found in tough lean meat, the woody fibre of vegetables or anything rejected by instinctive desire to discard it after taste has been exhausted, and which is a protection provided by beneficent Nature? In well selected and well cooked food there is little found that the juices of the mouth in connection with the teeth cannot take care of and prepare so as to be acceptable to Nature's Food Filter.

If fibre is found in the food it can be put upon the fork in the same manner that a cherry pit is usually handled and transferred to the plate without observation.

Another fancied objection to thorough mastication is that it interferes with the sociability of a meal.

This is also a senseless bugbear. It is true that one cannot converse freely with large morsels of food in the mouth. It is also true that it is nothing less than a _gluttonous_ custom to greedily take a big mouthful of food, and, if accosted with a question, to bolt it in order to answer.

It will be found easy to carry on conversation without disagreeable interruption and yet follow Nature's demands in properly masticating food by taking small morsels into the mouth. It will be found also to add to the real pleasure of eating, and eventually will become a habit by choice.

Another objection raised by those who are afflicted with the habit of gluttony is the lack of time permitted by their business occupation.

The time needed to appease the natural appetite of a hearty and active man, to compensate for the daily waste and keep the weight at normal, is from thirty to forty-five minutes for twenty-four hours.[8] This requires attention and industrious mastication. Divided into three meals it is less than a quarter of an hour for each meal.

[Footnote 8: The actual time required by the author during the Yale tests to secure full alimentation, maintain weight, and fully appease a "workingman's appetite," was from twenty-four to twenty-six minutes, divided into two meals for each day. The common habit is to bolt food and waste time afterwards in torpid inactivity, while all the energy is busy in the stomach and intestines trying to get rid of the great excess loaded upon them.]

Epicurean habits, however, incline one away from three meals a day and make two meals sufficient for ordinary activity.

One objector, on the spur of momentary discussion, claimed that in travelling by railway the time allowed for eating would not permit Epicurean methods.

The author arrived at Mobile, Ala., recently with a workingman's appetite and had only twenty minutes in which to get off the train, on again, and satisfy the appetite. There is an excellent lunch counter now at Mobile, and on the counter there was a tempting array of things to eat and drink. Appetite chose at once a fat, rich ham sandwich,[9] a glass of creamy milk and a hexagonal segment of a mince pie. The twenty minutes was ample time for disposing of the sandwich and the milk, and meantime the mince pie had been wrapped in silk paper and placed in a paper bag to furnish Epicurean enjoyment for twenty miles on the road, enhanced by the beauty of a panoramic landscape.

[Footnote 9: Five years of Epicurean enjoyment and study of the food instincts and food economics have taught the author to like many things better than slices of dead pig sandwiched between slices of delicious bread. Vegetarian extremist and faddist the author is not, but an attention to natural leadings inclines one away from dead meat, which is believed to induce much uric acid, and in favour of first-hand food elements as fresh from the heart and the breast of Mother Nature as possible, leaving the second-hand, once-digested, already decaying, natural food of the savage _carnivora_ and the emergency food of savage man for emergency occasions or a vegetable famine. Much meat excites lust, intemperance, and savagery in man and gives explosive, non-enduring force. The question is, do we need such force in the twentieth century, especially when we know that it tends to shorten life and predispose to disease?]

If I had crammed the pie and the sandwich and the milk into my stomach in seven or eight minutes, which, by actual observation, is the gluttonous rate of despatching a station meal, I would have lost two-thirds of nutriment, more than one-half of taste and would have perhaps taken on twenty-four hours of discomfort, possibly inviting a cold. I would have created an "open door" for any migrating microbes that were floating about in my atmosphere looking for strained tissue or fermenting food in which to build their disease nests.

Observation proves that you do not get much more nutriment out of your food than saliva prepares in some way for digestion, gulp though you may, but you can take in a load of disease possibilities in trying to force the food past or otherwise evade proper salivation.

SPIT IT OUT

Whatever does not insalivate easily is surely dangerous.

There is nothing more pronounced of expression by its influence on inclination than the impulsive desire to spit out of the mouth anything that seems unprofitable to the senses.

INSTINCTIVE DISCRIMINATION

Muscles have been provided for this purpose (separating, collecting, and spitting-out anything which the instincts protest against) that are more facile than those of an elephant's proboscis, and these muscles move things to and fro in the mouth or expel them if they are undesirable.

If you acquire the habit of consulting the Swallowing Impulse and practise only involuntary swallowing in eating you will find that these muscles are very discriminating and will instinctively assist in the rejection of unprofitable matter.

Their sense of touch will soon discriminate against unprofitable food even when the sense of taste is fooled by some alluring sauce or condiment.

Nature is truly a marvel of good sense if you give her a chance to express her likes and dislikes without restraint.

Natural Appetite is the best possible judge of what the system needs, and the senses which Nature's Food Chemist employs in her work are unerring in their selection whenever they are permitted to act as intended by Nature.

* * * * *

GIVE NATURE A TRIAL

Try Nature's way for a week or a month and you will never have a desire to be even mildly gluttonous again.

One week of faithful trial without lapses should fix a habit of consulting involuntary swallowing as an automatic guide in eating so that attention will not have to be strained to heed it.

One week of constant attention to obeying Nature's demands in eating will so impress its usefulness on the student of Epicureanism that an accidental act of forced swallowing will be a shock to the sensibility.

One week of obedience of Nature's simple requirements will demonstrate that she imposes no penalties for following her natural requirements, but only for disobedience of her protective laws.

One week of earnest, open-minded study of Nature's first principle of life--nutrition--will convert a pitiable glutton into an intelligent and ardent Epicurean.

DIFFERENCES

Individuals differ greatly in the quantity of the supply of the juices of the mouth which are active in salivation. They differ so much that it is safe to say that no two have equal provision.

One person may dispose of a morsel of bread in thirty mastications so that the last vestige of it has disappeared by involuntary process into the stomach. Another person, of similar general health appearance, selecting as nearly as possible an equal morsel of bread, may require fifty acts of mastication before the morsel has disappeared. The next week, by some change of conditions this order may be reversed. While there may be some structural or chemical difference in the two morsels of bread, this is not sufficient to account for the different mastications required. The dissimilarity lies in the difference of the copiousness and strength of the secretions at the time of trial.

This liability to changed conditions would constitute a serious danger if it were not for the protective Food Filter, or, Reflex of Deglutition, which Van Someren has so well described in the "A.B.-Z;" and whenever mouth-treatment of anything to be ingested is neglected, and forced swallowing--hasty bolting of food or gulping of liquid food--is indulged in, this protection is eluded and the danger is converted into actual internal self-abuse.

WARNING

Above all things don't _strain_ to be careful. Strain inhibits--paralyses--all of the glandular functions and deranges the nervous nicety of adjustment. Just eat slowly, deliberately, small morsels, and sip and taste small quantities of liquids and observe what happens. You will soon learn to Know yourself and "Know Thyself" has been the advice of all the sages from the beginning of time.

GLADSTONE'S RULE

Numbers of mastications as related to given quantities and kinds of foods are no guide to be relied upon.

Gladstone's dictum, "Chew each morsel of food at least thirty-two times," was of little value except as a general suggestion. Some morsels of food will not resist thirty-two mastications, while others will defy seven hundred.

The author has found that one-fifth of an ounce of the midway section of the garden young onion, sometimes called "challot," has required seven hundred and twenty-two mastications before disappearing through involuntary swallowing. After the tussle, however, the young onion left no odour upon the breath and joined the happy family in the stomach as if it had been of corn-starch softness and consistency.

It will be difficult, without actual demonstration, to convince the advocates of "Total Abstinence" that any whisky can be taken in a seemingly harmless form, but it is true that thorough insalivation of beer, wine or spirits, until disappearance by involuntary swallowing, robs them of their power to intoxicate, partly because appetite will _tolerate but little_.

TEMPERANCE PROMOTED

As a matter of fact, whisky taken in this analytical way is a sure means of breaking up desire for it, and it is an excellent protection in drinking as well as eating. Many of our test-subjects have been steady and some have been heavy drinkers but persistent attention to Buccal-Thoroughness has cured all of them of any desire for alcohol and in time it surely leads to complete intolerance of it.

It is also true that, taken in the way suggested, the body refuses to tolerate more than sips and thimblefuls of these liquids and then only on rare occasions, so that the Epicurean habit is the best possible insurance of temperance.

NORMAL CONDITIONS RESTORED

While the difference in the supply of the juices of the mouth is an important factor in digestion, insufficiency need not cause alarm. Nature is so gladly and quickly recuperative that the moment abuses of her functions are stopped she begins to repair damages and re-establish normal conditions.

One of the subjects who submitted himself to experiment was found to be woefully deficient in saliva and, was a pitiable dyspeptic, but, as the result of patient mastication, the secretions gradually increased until they were ample, and dyspeptic symptoms disappeared even long before the secretions became normal. The strain of excessive and (acid) fermenting food being removed, the acute discomfort was at once allayed even before the repair was complete.

"KNOW THYSELF"

"Know Thyself" has been the admonition of sages from earliest times. "Become acquainted with your Normal Instincts, with Appetite and with your food chemist, Taste, and follow their directions with implicit confidence," is the admonition taught by our experiments, for they can lead you to robust health and greatly increased vigour of body and mind. Study and heed them patiently for a week and you will follow their invitations and warnings through life.

Thorough repair of an impaired body may not be effected immediately, although wonderful results--almost miraculous--have been attained in three months; but a week's faithful and attentive study of the possibilities of Epicureanism, with right alimentation as its basic requirement, in adding to the comfort and enjoyment of life will result in right eating being made philosophically and religiously habitual, and will give a backbone of Epicurean character that will not easily succumb to gluttonous impetuosity.

THE MIND POWER-PLANT

A USEFUL ANALOGY

All of the functions of the body are operated by something very much akin to electricity--mental energy--so that aside from the fermentation which gluttony makes possible, the mere drag of handling of dead material in the body, that the body cannot use, for two or three days, is a wasteful draught on the available mental capacity.

Using an electric power-plant as analogous to the Mind Power-Plant of the brain, and a trolley railroad as analogous to the machinery of the body--analogies which are very close by consistent similarity--the loading of the stomach with unprepared food, as in gluttony, is like loading flat cars with pig iron and running them around the line of the road in place of passenger cars, thereby using up valuable energy and wearing out the equipment without any profit resulting from the expenditure.

To those who are familiar with the modern electric power-plant the analogy between it and the human individual equipment, or Mind Power-Plant, seems very remarkable.

To those, however, who have not visited an electric power-plant a description is necessary.

DESCRIPTION OF A MODERN ELECTRIC POWER-PLANT

Fuel, of course, is the source of the power. Furnaces which are capable of producing heat with the least consumption of fuel, tubes within the boilers that permit the freest possible contact of the heat produced and the water to be turned into steam, steam pipes that are flexible and yet strong, machinery that moves with the least friction in order to concentrate and utilise the power of the steam, and dynamos out of which electricity is evolved, together with auxiliary pumps and hoists and blowers and whatnot other devices to help create, control and economise the energy, are the essential parts of an electric power-plant. To insure economy and accuracy these are made as nearly automatic as possible.

At one end of the furnace house there is sunk in the cement floor a large iron scoop or tray into which cartloads of lump coal are dumped. This scoop-shaped receptacle is also the platform of a weighing machine so that each load is weighed. In the bottom of the scoop there is a trap-door, which, being opened, permits the coal to drop through between the teeth of a crusher where the large lumps are reduced, usually to the size of a small nut.

From the crusher the coal falls into the buckets of an endless chain-hoist and is conveyed aloft to great hopper-shaped bins which occupy the entire space under the roof over the furnaces. Leading back from each bin to the constantly moving grate bars of the furnace underneath is a pipe which delivers the crushed coal to the grate bars and distributes it evenly over their surface as fast as it can be received into the furnace, regulated, of course, by the consumption that is going on inside the furnace.

To accomplish this automatic feeding each set of grate bars is constructed in hinged sections, and forms a wide endless iron belt which revolves and carries the coal within the cavity of the furnace.

The coal crusher, bucket hoist, movable grate bars, ash collectors and sifters, pumps, blowers, lights and all other utilities of the plant, as well as the great travelling crane which can hoist and carry many tons' weight--any part of the enormous dynamos--from place to place, are operated by electricity which is generated in the dynamos.

Automatic gauges that measure and indicate, and switch-boards that regulate the energy created and stored in the dynamos play important parts in the economy and working of the plant and are analogous to appetite and taste in man.

ANALOGY ILLUSTRATED

The full analogy may be best illustrated by arranging the similar functions of the two energy-creating machines opposite each other in parallel columns.

ELECTRIC AND MIND POWER-PLANTS COMPARED

ELECTRIC POWER-PLANT MIND POWER-PLANT

Fuel. Food.

* * * * *

Selection of fuel as to Selection of food for
steam-making and economic nutritive value; normal
qualities. appetite serving as an
exact guide and gauge.

* * * * *

Crushing coal so as to Masticating food so
render combustion as that the juices of the
easy and complete as mouth can act on the
possible. substance with greatest
freedom; taste being evidence
of the working of
the process.

* * * * *

Automatic conveyal of Automatic reception of
the prepared fuel, first to properly masticated and
the bins and then on to thoroughly insalivated
the furnace as required. food into Nature's Food
Filter and emptying into
the furnace of the stomach
by Involuntary, or Compulsory
Swallowing.

* * * * *

Combustion in the furnace. Digestion in the stomach
and intestines.

* * * * *

Generation of steam in Generation of material
the boiler tubes and storage for vital energy and storage
in the boilers. in the body.

* * * * *

Steam. Blood in circulation.

* * * * *

Steam Gauge. Pulse.

* * * * *

Engine. Heart.

* * * * *

Dynamo, with its numerous Brain, with its complex
coils and extensive convolutions in constant
friction surfaces. frictional activity.

* * * * *

Volt Gauge, indicating Strength, indicating the
the power available. available energy.

* * * * *

Electricity. Mind. Energy. Nervous
Force.

AUXILIARY OPERATING MOTORS

Electric motors attached Nerve-cell motors attached
to the separate to glands and
parts or machines of the muscles, connected with
plant, connected by wires the brain by nerve-fibres
and drawing power from and drawing on the mental
the dynamos. or nervous energy for
power.

* * * * *

Automatic switches Sensitive nerve ends
regulating the transmission terminating in each cell of
of power to the motors the body and penetrating
in response to their each gland, signalling, on
fluctuating requirements. being touched, for power
to eject digestive secretions
or oily mucus as demanded
by the needs of
digestion, also, supplying
automatic power to muscles
employed in exterior
work or in moving the
food substance on through
the process of digestion
and afterward disposing
of the excreta--ashes and
clinkers, as it were. The
ganglions are the switch
boards of the body.

* * * * *

Automatic demand for Appetite, indicating
fuel as required in the requirements of the Mind
progress of combustion Power-Plant for replacing
to supply the waste or the constant waste of
useful consumption of the tissue consumed in running
electricity. the machine.

* * * * *

Good Draught, forced Optimistic Thinking,
if necessary. forced if necessary, for _it
is_ necessary to health.

* * * * *

PROFITABLE MANAGEMENT

Intelligent Engineering. Intelligent Self-Knowledge
and Self-Care, assisting
Nature in her
good intentions.

* * * * *

Economic stoking. Feeding only what is
actually required for sustenance.

UNPROFITABLE MANAGEMENT

Overloading and choking Overloading and choking
the furnace with irregular the stomach with
and dirty coal. unmasticated, unsolved,
unconverted, and, therefore
indigestible food.

* * * * *

Neglect of cleaning, Nature is not neglectful;
oiling and repairs. she does well and
quickly all the lubricating
and repairing of the
Mind Power-Plant whenever
strain is removed
and she is given the required
rest, or time to
accomplish the work between
meals.

* * * * *

Unnecessary ashes and Unnecessary fermenting
clinkers, encumbering the excreta, resulting from
plant, depositing dust in unfiltered and unprepared
the journals of the machines food, depositing
and requiring poisonous sediment in the
much power to handle blood channels, straining
and remove. the intestines, ossifying
the cartilages, crystallising
in the kidneys and
bladder and drawing excessively
upon the available
energy of the nervous
centres and the available
brain energy for power to
handle and discharge.

PROFITABLE DIRECTION AND USE OF ENERGY

Good wires leading to Creditable aims in life.
profitable uses.

* * * * *

Good insulation or isolation Concentration of purpose.
of circuit wires.

* * * * *

Resistance Coils. Self-Control. Reserve
force.

* * * * *

Success, evidenced by Success, evidenced by
profit. energy conserved and
happiness secured.

UNPROFITABLE DIRECTION AND USE OF ENERGY

Small wires leading Aimlessness of purpose
anywhere or nowhere. and timid, lazy or selfish
isolation from sympathetic
currents and constructive
occupation.

* * * * *

Current carelessly Energy wasted in idleness
grounded and electricity or worry.
wasted.

* * * * *

Crossing of wires resulting Crossed temper--Anger--wasting
in waste of power valuable energy and
and possibly causing fire. possibly leading to rash acts
causing life-long regrettable
foolishness.

* * * * *

Placing flat cars on Importing worry
an electric trolley line, through anticipated evil
for instance, loading them on an hundred-to-one
with pig iron and chance of its being realised,
purposelessly running them thereby wasting
aimlessly around the circuit, energy and paralysing the
thereby wasting the digestive and repair
electricity and wearing out functions of the body;
the cars and the line. painfully wearing out the
body itself.

* * * * *

Allowing cars to run Permitting Anger to
wild instead of keeping run away with cool
them under control. discretion.

TELL-TALE EXCRETA

It is unfortunate that the perpetuation of early ignorant abuses of Nature's pure intentions has led to a too prudish attitude toward the one infallible evidence of health conditions as shown by the refuse of repair and digestion, as it is only by the excreta that ultimate indication of the results of nutrition are observable. They are the reliable report relative to the most important thing in health--digestion--and they must be understood in order to be read.

There is no knowledge so valuable in its relation to health as that which enables one to read health bulletins by means of the excreta.

Different foods contain different elements of waste material and to be able to identify or judge the economic value of food previously consumed a knowledge of its digestion-ash is essential.

A child should be taught the difference between healthy and unhealthy excreta in order to be on guard at the first warning of disorder, rather than be allowed to remain ignorant until disease has taken firm hold of the system. The knowledge is not complicated and can be easily acquired by even young children.

When the possibility of perfect protection in the matter of nutrition is generally known, one mission of the physician will be to teach prevention of abuses of feeding by evidence of the excreta.

The healthy fæces of many wild animals is comparatively dry, odourless and cleanly; and a farm barn yard or a decently kept city stable is not an offence to even prudish prejudice.

Not so the vicinage of an open receptacle for the waste of human indigestion.

In animals, offensive egesta are evidence of digestive disturbance owing to some unintelligent feeding on the part of attendants; in humans the cause and effect of offensive excreta are the same.

When a race-or work-animal shows digestive disturbance the least intelligent owner or keeper knows that it is not fit for work or racing, and yet this symbol of unfitness is common to the human race.

One of the most noticeable and significant results of economic nutrition gained through careful attention to the mouth-treatment of food, or buccal-digestion, is, not only the small quantity of waste obtained but its inoffensiveness. Under best test-conditions the ashes of economic digestion have been reduced to one-tenth of the average given as normal in the latest text-books on Physiology. The economic digestion-ash forms in pillular shape and when released these are massed together, having become so bunched by considerable retention in the rectum. There is no stench, no evidence of putrid bacterial decomposition, only the odour of warmth, like warm earth or "hot biscuit." Test samples of excreta, kept for more than five years, remain inoffensive, dry up, gradually disintegrate and are lost. The following observation by an eminent eye specialist and _litterateur_ illustrates the opening paragraph of this chapter.

PERIODICITY

The question of "when" or "how often" the solid excreta should be voided or released is one that immediately presents itself when the subject is under discussion. The common opinion is that "once-a-day" periodicity is the proper and only healthy thing, and should a day pass there would be immediate fear of "constipation."

Under the best test conditions, before referred to, the ash accumulated in sufficient quantity to demand release only at the end of six, eight, or ten days, the longer periods of rest being the evidence of the best economic and health results.

Under ordinary conditions of carelessness and strenuous environment, say an exciting and exacting city occupation, twice a week is as often as one should accumulate a deposit of digestion-ash and feel sure that the strain on the system is not excessive and dangerous. Young people seem to thrive even when delivering daily a large quantity of smelly excreta; but it is an abuse of the "ten-horse reserve"[10] with which the human engine is supplied; and along in the "forties" or the "fifties" or the "sixties" the body shows signs of premature wear when it should be but in its prime.

[Footnote 10: Dr. Meltzer's estimate of human reserve strength and resistance which must be out-worn or over-strained before death calls a settlement.]

Another important matter should be mentioned in this exchange of sanitary confidences. When the ashes of digestion are dumped the body should assume the shape of the letter Z. It is the natural position of primitive man (squatting on his heels), and the body was originally constructed on that plan. If otherwise poised (sitting erect) the delivery of digestion-ash is performed with the same difficulty as would be experienced when trying to force a semi-solid through a bent or a kinked hose.

The publication of the observation of Dr.----, here following, is a breakaway from the prudery of a diseased and disgusting age,--a protest jointly shared by the scientific observer and the voluntary test-subject, whose only aim in the pursuit of the study to "a finish" is the ultimate benefit of the human race.

SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION OF A LITERARY TEST-SUBJECT

"During his sojourn in Washington in July, 1903, I saw much of Mr.----, and in a very intimate way. The weather at that period was very hot, sometimes near 100°, and very sultry. For ten days or two weeks in the midst of this season he was busily engaged in constructive writing, turning out on an average some eight thousand words on his typewriter daily, which meant a close application for ten or fourteen hours each day. He usually began his work at from two to five o'clock in the morning, continuing often until three or four o'clock in the afternoon, when we would commonly go together to a ball game, which he enjoyed with the enthusiasm of a boy of twelve. Later in the evening he would resume his work for from one to three hours, retiring at from ten to about midnight. His food consisted of a glass of milk with a trace of coffee, and corn 'gems,' four of which he consumed in the twenty-four hours. Occasionally he would add in very hot weather a glass of lemonade. There was at no time any evidence of mental or physical fatigue. That such an amount of work, with the maintenance of perfect health, could be accomplished on such a small quantity of food can be accounted for only on the assumption of a complete assimilation of the ingested material. As the degree of combustion is indicated by the ashes left, so the completeness of digestion is to be measured by the amount and character of the intestinal excreta. A conclusive demonstration of thorough digestion in Mr. ----'s case was afforded me. There had, under the _régime_ above mentioned, been no evacuation of the bowels for eight days. At the end of this period he informed me that there were indications that the rectum was about to evacuate, though the material he was sure could not be of a large amount. Squatting upon the floor of the room, without any perceptible effort he passed into the hollow of his hand the contents of the rectum. This was done to demonstrate human normal cleanliness and inoffensiveness; neither stain nor odour remaining, either in the rectum or upon the hand.[11] The excreta were in the form of nearly round balls, varying in size from a small marble to a plum. These were greenish-brown in colour, of firm consistence, and covered over with a thin layer of mucus; _but there was no more odour to it than there is to a hot biscuit_.

"The whole mass weighed 56 grams. The next day there was a further deposit of the same kind of dry-waste, making 135 grams (about 4-3/4 ounces) for the nine days. It seems to me there could be no more conclusive evidence of complete digestion and assimilation than this. The existence of perfect nutrition is indicated by his ability to continue, without fatigue and under trying conditions, work which could only be accomplished in an ideal condition of health.

"WASHINGTON, D. C., July 31, 1903."

[Footnote 11: Similar specimens of digestion-ash have been kept for five years without change other than drying to dust.]

WHAT SENSE?

TASTE[12]

[Footnote 12: "Glutton or Epicure" was originally composed of two smaller booklets entitled "Nature's Food Filter; or, What and When to Swallow" and "What Sense? or, Economic Nutrition;" bound together. In this revision the order has been retained with some repetitions, but with different applications.]

The Sense of Taste has a value in relation to nutrition that has not fully been appreciated.

Taste has been considered the lowest, in usefulness, of all the senses.

On the contrary, if properly understood, taste is one of the most important of all the faculties man possesses.

Taste has lacked appreciation, for the reason that it has been supposed that it catered to sensuality, in the vulgar sense, and performed the function of devilish temptation rather than that of natural invitation and protection.

Upon an examination, that any one can make for himself, however, it is revealed that taste is the faithful servant of appetite; the sentinel of the stomach, of the intestines, of the tissues and of the brain, whose guidance and warning, if heeded, will give heretofore unknown enjoyment of eating, and at the same time insure perfect health and the maximum of strength.

* * * * *

TASTE IS THE GUIDE AND GUARD OF NUTRITION

The more we learn, the more evident it is that there is a _Perfect Way_ locked, or, rather, enfolded, in all of Nature's secrets, and that it is intended that man shall sometime discover them.

Taste, in its normal condition, when allowed to direct or advise, serves several important functions, not the least of which is as first-assistant to Appetite. Appetite craves the kind of nourishment the body needs, invites to eating, gives enjoyment during the whole time needed for the fluids of the mouth and the stomach to do their part of the digestive process. Taste ceases when the food is ready for the stomach and thereafter fails to recognise the indigestible sediment which remains in the mouth after nutriment has been extracted; and, in these discriminations, if consulted and obeyed, Taste and Appetite prevent indigestible matter from entering the system to burden and clog the lower intestines, form deposits in bone, cartilage and kidneys, inflame the tissues, and otherwise create conditions favourable to the propagation of the microbes of disease.

The normal sensitiveness of taste can be recovered, if already lost, in the course of a week, or two weeks at most, by means of the stimulating and regenerating influence of natural body-repair, if the method of taste and appetite cultivation recommended in this book is followed.

Those who now enjoy good health will find a new joy in living when they have discovered the intelligent use of taste and submit the fuel of their Mind Power-Plant and strength to the analysis and selection of Nature's instinctive agents.

LATEST DEFINITION

Dr. William T. Harris, in his latest contribution to the "International Education Series," _Psychologic Foundations of Education_, defines the presently appreciated value of the sense of taste, as follows: "The lowest form of special sense is taste, which is closely allied to nutrition. Taste perceives the phase of assimilation of the object, which is commencing with the mouth. The individuality of the object is attacked and it gives way, its organic product or inorganic aggregate suffering dissolution--taste perceives the dissolution. Substances that do not yield to the attack of the juices of the mouth have no taste. Glass and gold have little taste as compared with salt or sugar. The sense of taste differs from the process of nutrition in the fact that it does not assimilate the body tasted, but reproduces ideally the energy that makes the impression on the sense organ of taste. Even taste, therefore, is an ideal activity, although it is present only when the nutritive energy is assimilating--it perceives the object in a process of dissolution.

"Smell is another specialisation which perceives dissolution of objects in a more general form than taste. Both smell and taste perceive chemical changes that involve dissolution of the object."

If this is the recognised estimate of taste, which is true as widely as I have been able to inquire, both among physicians and among the latest books on health, it is certainly a case of neglected appreciation such as the world has not witnessed up to the present time.

* * * * *

PRESUMED CAUSES OF DISEASES

On the undisputed authority of physiologists it is known that all diseases are made possible by derangement which is favourable to the propagation of the microbes of disease, or by deposits of inharmonious matter which are not thrown off.

Derangement of all the substance of the internal body is effected mainly, and probably entirely, by deposit of indigestible food or of tissue which is broken down and is not thereafter expelled from the system by the ordinary means provided for the discharge of waste.

These inharmonious deposits which cause so much direct and indirect trouble are mainly, and probably entirely, the result of excess of eating, or of wrong eating, so that the digestive organs of the body cannot take care of what is forced on them; or, of admitting substances which they are powerless to make into good blood or discharge by the regular means provided by nature.

Right eating and right food are, then, the all-important considerations of health, as far as the tissues are concerned; and, as the tissues are themselves the stored food or fuel of the brain and the nerve centres, the importance of perfect nutrition extends to the most vital functions and interests of life.

TARDY APPRECIATION

All experience warns against overeating and improper eating as the most common causes of disease; and troubles of the stomach and intestines are known to be the parents of all other bodily ills; yet no fixed guide has been set to determine what is "overeating" and what is "improper food." The reason for this is probably because no two bodies require the same quantity or kind of nourishment, and, "What is one man's food is another man's poison."

Nature has not been so unkind, however, as to leave man without a means of knowing just how to gauge the quantity of food required for her best service, and probably, when we learn the secret, has equally well provided us with certain discrimination relative to the quality of food that is best for harmonic development.

Investigation never fails to find provision for both guard and guide in all of Nature's plans and man's nutrition is of such importance that she surely has not left it out of the list of the protected.