MEDICAL NOTES.

Southland Times, Issue 2249, 29 December 1875, Page 3

MEDICAL NOTES.

♦ HOURS FOR EATING There has been so much paid upon eating — upon how, when, and what we shnll eat— that tho subject ought to have been exhausted long ngo, but a little observation of ourselves and our neighbors will prove to ub that although we generally know ichat, and how we ought to eat, very few of us have any principles beyond those furMished by custom or convenience, that teach us when to have our meals. "We all understand that we ouoht to eat" when we need food and when it Can be digested with the least interruption. Jhe outdoor laborer, the muscle-worker in any capacity, may follow any rule of hours that best suits his convenience, and tind that he has no penalty to pay for so doing, but the brain- worker, the young mother, the delicate man or woman is not always let off so easily. If the latter conform to rules made for others, they are apt to pay for their compliance by loss of health, or more commonly loss of working power- Their systems are exhausted in a different manner and need a different kind ot support, and it may happen that they ought, to have their meals not at con venient, but at very inconvenient hours. As customs go, we have an early breakfast, a Junch or dinner in the middle of the day, and v dinner or ■upper at twilight. These are very good and sensible periods when they suit the appetite and businesp, aad we haTB in such cases nothing to say against them. The trouble is that they do not suit every one. When any one comes to the breakfast table, morning after morning, languid and listless, caring for nothing beyond his cup of coffee ; wben he begins to be hungry about 11 o'clock and to think impatiently of the coming meal ; when he eats of this meal heartily, and then feels disinclined to go to work again, he may then feel sure that his routine of life needs changing. We want our food regularly, but we want it at such periods (hat we shall not feel either the worse for the need of it, or for the harißg it. In the first place food never ought to interfere with work. No one who expects to do good work ought to try to do it on a lull, or an empty stomach. If the student, or the mother, wants but a cup of coffee at the regular breakfast hour, then the breakfast ought to come at 9or 10 o'clock. To go through all the morning hours weakened by the seed of food is an outrage against health. If there is brain work to be done in the afternoon, the stomach should not be taxed to digest a heavy meal in the middle of the day. If the brain is too active at night to permit of sleep ; if the baby wears tho mother out before morning, the stomach ought to be allowed to take some of the surplus nervous energy to itself, and the wearied nurse should have something to help her bear the night-watch with the little one. The obvious rule ia many cases is to have an early cup of tea or coffee, and perhaps a biscuit ; then a late and substantial breakfast, a light lunch if it is needed, nnd a wholesome dinner after working hours. In this way, a long, well-nourished day is secured. The early cup of coffee refreshes the worker, the breakfaßt reinforces him, the lunch does not interlere with his brain, his dinner has leisure to digest quietly, and he has a sufficient amount of nourishment to keep him from lying awake from the effects of an empty stomach. A good deal is said about the propriety of eating but one or two meals a day, but there are very few who can stand such long fasts, or who possess the anaconda faculty of happily digesting such meals as these one or two must be. As to the trouble of many meals, any inuovation upon custom is a trouble, but when thin one becomes necessary it has one advantage— it pays! SHOET HENT CONCEENING SICKNESS. Don't whisper in the sick-room.