HEALTH IN THE HOME.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1199, 22 February 1895, Page 9

HEALTH IN THE HOME.

Dr Alice Ker (writing,in Mothers and Daughters) says it is very essential for the comfort, and, consequently, for the health, of the home to rise early enough to have a comfortable breakfast, without hurry or worry, for all those whose daily work calls tbem out early. Children ought to have meals with" their parents as soon as they are old enough to feed themselves. They will learn better manners than they are likely to do in any but the most exceptional nurseries, and those members of the family whose work keeps them away from home will have more opportunity of seeing them. Their presence should be helpful in obliging us to secure greater simplicity in our food, and they must be taught to take their proper share in family intercourse, neither breaking in obtrusively nj* sitting awed and silent for tb.tr whole of the meal. Neither the hours nor the kind of food prepared ought to be such as would injure the children's health, for the same arrangements that we all recognise as being right fOr children would be found equally beneficial in the case of grown people. Late dinners are a sanitary mista,ke, especially now that they have become so late as to be really the late suppers of our great grandparents under another name. Most of us who have no anxiety about procuring our food eat too much, and would be in very much better health if we were compelled to live on less. I know many people say they cannot take a " heavy meal," as they call dinner, in the middle of che day ; to which I reply that no one should ever take a " heavy " meal at all. Certainly it is not wise to take such a meal in the evening, when the whole body is exhausted by the day's work, and when there is no time for the stomach to digest the peculiarly inappropriate food put into it before bedtime. Breakfast should be the heartiest meal of the day, eaten, as I have already said, in comfort and leisure, and the last food taken should not be later than seven in the evening. The midcay meal may have to be modified to suit the occupation

at the time, but it is necessary "to remember that the time between meals should never be less than three hours, or more than five, and that small quantities of food taken between meals immediately bring the whole digestive apparatus into action, and deprive it of the rest which is essential to the healthy performance of its duties. lam referring, of course, to individuals in ordinary good health, as special rules may have to be laid down for invalids. A seven o'clock meal is too late for young children, who ought to be in bed by that hour, and whose latest food ought to be partaken of at five. As to the hour for retiring to rest, there is much need for reform. We work harder,than our forefathers did, with much more nervous wear and tear, and with modern appliances which appear to save work, but which greatly increase worry. If we are to keep our bodies healthy and our minds properly balanced, we must ensure a sufficiency of sleep at the most natural hours, and the old idea that some sleep should come before midnight is a sound one. All head work should be stopped at least one hour before sleeping, and all hard mental work should be finished as early in the day as possible. < Sir Andrew Clark is said to have laid down the rule that no creative head work should be done after the midday meal, the afternoon being devoted to acquiring knowledge, instead of giving it out.