Note 94 — PEPTIC PRECEPTS.
Reading edition
“The Chyle appears to be of the same nature, from whatever aliment it has been extracted; if the medical people in different countries were questioned, each would probably approve of the diet used in their own—and would find plausible arguments to prove its superiority, with numerous and admirable examples among their countrymen in support of their theory.
“An Englishman would probably be of opinion that wheat-bread, and a large portion of animal food, gives the strongest and most substantial nourishment.
“An Irishman, or a Scotsman, would probably maintain that a small portion of animal food,—with plenty of potatoes and oatmeal, is far better adapted to form a vigorous and hardy race. The Laplanders live almost entirely upon Animal food—the Hindoos, Gentoos, &c. never taste any thing but Vegetables.”—Moore’s Mat. Med. p. 70.
“In the course of a few years, the produce of several acres of land, a number of large oxen, and many tuns of liquor, are consumed by one individual; whilst he continues nearly the same, whether he drinks the pure stream, or beverage the most skilfully compounded; whether he feeds on a variety of articles produced from the animal and vegetable kingdom, or confines himself to one particular substance; and whether his food is prepared in the most simple manner, or by the most refined and artificial modes that luxury has invented.”—Code of Health, vol. i. p. 402.
Facts relative to Diet.—“Dr. B. Franklin, of Philadelphia, informed me that he himself, when a journeyman printer, lived a fortnight on bread and water, at the rate of ten pennyworth of bread per week, and that he found himself stout and hearty with this diet.”
“By Sir John Pringle I was told that he knew a lady now 90 years of age, who eat only the pure fat of meat.”
“Dr. Cirelli says, that the Neapolitan Physicians frequently allow their patients in fevers, nothing but water for forty days together.”—Dr. Stark, on Diet, &c. 4to. 1788, p. 92, a work well worth the purchase of any person curious upon this subject. As is also Dr. Bryan Robinson, on Food and Discharges of Human Bodies.