I know that I am warring with many established opinions, and I know that the ideas I am promulgating in regard to diet are a little contrary to those generally received; but I think I shall succeed in convincing those who will go carefully into the matter with me that many preconceived conceptions on the subject of diet will not bear investigation. Perhaps the particular condition of the system that I am called upon to treat-obesity-gives me a greater insight into the exact effect of diet than falls to the lot of the ordinary physician or specialist. To begin with, I will assail a time-honoured belief, viz., that meat is a heating food—that is, in the sense of giving warmth and raising the heat of the body; and that farinaceous foods are the reverse. People believe that the less meat they eat in the summer the better, "because it tends to heat the system." Now, it is a curious thing that in dieting people for the reduction of fat by dietetic means only-and this I have to do at all seasons of the year-I am in the habit of cutting off farinaceous foods, sugar, and fat, and giving large quantities of meat, green vegetables, stewed fruit, and other non-fattening substances, in quantity regulated according to the height, weight, and physical or mental work of the individual, male or female, as the case may be; with the result that in the colder months of the year people tell me that they do not feel too warm, clothe as they will. To so great an extent does this sometimes occur, that I am obliged to supplement the non-fattening diet by giving a little heat-forming food, such as cream, or a slightly-increased amount of bread, or a small quantity of fat. The result is at once apparent. The body warmth becomes more comfortable. Now, what does this show? It shows that the foods that supply heat are more particularly farinaceous foods, sugar, and fat; and this is admitted by The Esquimaux eats twelve pounds of fat a day. all dieticians now. If this is so-and it undoubtedly is-it naturally stands to reason that when the external temperature performs this duty, the individual cannot require so much food that will, by its chemical decomposition in the body maintain a high temperature, and, if taken, as is usually the case, in excess, become an encumbrance by being stored as fat. It must be distinctly understood that the argument which I have used, where the heat-forming food is cut off by me, is where the surplus fat in the body is in excess-that is, in corpulency—and when it is desirable to get rid by dietetic means of the accumulated fat in the system. In this case the fat is the storehouse from which the system draws to sustain its warmth, as long as the stored fat is in excess. A fat animal will live without food months longer than a thin one. A pig buried by the fall of a cliff at Dover was dug out alive one hundred and sixty days after. When it was buried by the fall it weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds, when dug out it weighed only forty. Now, with regard to the proper diet for hot weather. In the first place, we must take into consideration the occupation of the individual. A man doing sedentary work or intellectual work would not require the same diet as a person doing laborious muscular work; but this article, in nine cases out of ten, would appeal to the ordinary individual earning his living by the sweat of his brow, or, if I may so say, by the sweat of his brain. If a man earns his living by the sweat of his brain he must, if he wishes to live long, maintain his health by the sweat of his brow, that is, he must, in some form or other, take muscular exercise. He may do it by brisk walking, tennis, bicycling, shooting, hunting, or the thousand and one pursuits that the average Englishman indulges in, so that, as I said before, the diet that I should lay down as suitable for summer will, under these conditions, almost universally apply. Nature apparently knows what is good for us, and Nature furnishes for the different seasons suitable substances in the way of food. But, of course, Nature assumes that man, being a reasonable being, should study and apply them as he ought to do; but Nature in this case credits man with attributes that in this matter he seldom possesses, or, at all events, does not care to use if he does possess them. Men do not study Nature as much as they should, at least the majority do not. If they did, they would see that in the warm weather fruit should form a considerable portion of the daily food. The most suitable articles for hot weather, experience tells me, are fish, such kinds of meat as fowls and game, green vegetables, salads, and fruit. Farinaceous food, that is, starches, should be taken in the very smallest quantity only. Sufficient sugar would be found in the different fruits that the season of the year produces, and, therefore, should not be supplemented. In a former article on "The Proper Diet for Cold Weather,” I illustrated what I meant by giving one or two samples of a day's dietary for an ordinary individual, and I will here do the same. course, in an article of this kind it would be perfectly impossible to distinctly draw a dietary suitable to each individual. This can only be done by taking into consideration the mode of life, the idiosyncrasies, the intellectual work, the peculiarities of constitution of a particular person; but in the case of the ordinary healthy person, of course, these distinctions are not necessary. If a man is too fat he would require certain modifications; if he is gouty or biliously inclined, slight change would be necessary; but, as I said before, to go into this would be unnecessary and out of place, and every intelligent person must alter and adapt the dietary to his means and to his special requirements. Pope says, "the proper study of mankind is man," and, undoubtedly, if long life and comfort are to be attained, many would do well to lay his aphorism to heart. In the case of a man of ordinary size doing ordinary physical or mental work, this would represent an ordinary day's food for hot weather as far as quantity and constituents are concerned : BREAKFAST, 8. 30 to 9 A. M.- Two cups of tea or coffee, sweetened with saccharine, one or two teaspoonfuls of cream in each, 1 oz. of dry toast, thinly buttered; 4 ozs. of grilled or boiled fish, such as plaice, sole, whiting, haddock, cod, or trout, or 4 ozs. of cold chicken, cold tongue, or of grilled steak or chop. LUNCH, 1.30 P.M.-2 or 3 ozs. of cold mutton, beef, or lamb; 3 or 4 ozs. of green vegetables, plainly boiled, plenty of green salad, made with vinegar, but without oil; 4 or 5 ozs. of stewed fruit; water, or two or three glasses of pure dry Moselles or other Rhine wines.1 AFTERNOON TEA, 4.30, IF DESIRED.-Two cups of tea as at breakfast, nothing to eat. DINNER, 7 to 8.--Julienne, or clear vegetable soup; 3 or 4 ozs. of fish; 3 or 4 oz5, of any red meat, or of chicken, rabbit, game, or venison; 6 ozs. of any green vegetable, with gravy from the meat only; 4 ozs. of stewed fruit or of raw fruit; a little stale or pulled bread and a small piece of cheese. This diet may be varied as to hour; but three meals only should be taken daily, and only sufficient at each meal to satisfy appetite. Fruit 1 Pure dry Moselles, specially imported and free from sugar, may be had from A. Aldous, 66 Hatton Garden, London, W.C. for corpulent, gouty, and dyspeptic people. flavour. These wines are peculiarly suited may be taken at other times, and any quantity of fluid, so long as it does not contain sugar; any number of pleasant alcoholic and other beverages suitable for the hot weather, and particularly suitable for those who should not take quantities of sugar, will be found in a book I wrote two or three years ago.1 Fruit is only beneficial in moderate quantity. If taken in excess, and out of proportion to other food, it is apt to derange the bowels and cause diarrhoea; more particularly is this the case if it is eaten under-ripe or over-ripe-in the former case, from its undue acidity; and in the latter, from its strong tendency to ferment and decompose in the digestive tract. Fruit diminishes the acidity of the secretion of the kidneys, and by virtue of this is advantageous in gout. It goes without saying that more fluid is necessary in hot weather than in cold. Indeed, so long as it is a harmless fluid, I question whether too much can be taken. Fluid in this way is to the kidneys what fresh air is to the lungs, and the waste of meat not used in the system is carried off by its aid. A meat diet is healthy and life-prolonging if supplemented with plenty of fluid to carry off its waste. That fluid should be taken in large quantities in the summer is a wise provision of Nature, as the skin carries off a large amount of waste from the system, and therefore its activity should be stimulated in every way, and it is most desirable by frequent baths to keep the pores open. The perspiration drying on the skin leaves a deposit of its salts and other waste constituents, and these should be washed off as a matter of health. A very useful appliance for this purpose is the "Massage Rubber," lately patented by Mr. Crutchloe, of Albert Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster. This consists of a serrated india-rubber surface, and when used it cleans the skin of all scurf as a Turkish bath does, rapidly brings the blood to the surface, and has the conditioning effect that grooming has on a horse. The india-rubber seems to act on the skin much as it does in erasing lead-pencil marks from paper, and acts in a way that no towel or brush can equal. All the old loose scurf of the skin is cleared off, and a soft and smooth surface results. After the brisk use of this dry rubber, a tepid bath is a great adjunct to health in hot weather, to say nothing of its cooling and refreshing results. I see a well-known man in the Hospital Gazette the massage rubber acts like a charm in rheumatism. says It would be no use advising those who take stimulants for the sake of their stimulating qualities, that spirits and beers, and certain Foods for the Fat the Scientific Cure of Corpulency. London: Chatto & Windus, 214 Piccadilly. wines, are too heating in the summer; and that, however suitable port, sherry, spirits, and beer may be in the colder months of the year, the most suitable beverages containing alcohol, for this reason, are those known as the light, dry Moselle wines. Even claret and Burgundy contain a large quantity of tannin, and taken in excess are therefore apt to disagree and derange the stomach. Where a nice dry Moselle is drunk in fairly moderate quantity no harm can accrue. Of course, the quantity that would apply to one person does not apply to another, and a free drinker would certainly not be satisfied with less than two bottles. The man who lives to eat, drinks after his soup a glass of pale sherry; after his fish, Rhine wine; with his joint, Burgundy and champagne; with the entrées, Bordeaux or Burgundy; with the ice, champagne or liqueur, and with his dessert probably some old crusted port. But the man who cats to live would be satisfied with one pint of dry and delicate white wine, such as I have previously indicated, to cover the whole of this menu. It is a well-known physiological fact that the system cannot assimilate more alcohol than is contained in a pint of dry Moselle or claret, or in a half pint of sherry or 3 pints of table beer, supposing it to be in that form; or, if taken in the form of whisky, about a wineglassful of pure whisky per day. I do not mean to say that an excess of any of these quantities would be absolutely injurious to health, and many might and do exceed them considerably for very many years with impunity; but still, in ordinary individuals, this is the quantity that can be taken with no harm whatever. In some houses people seem to take stimulants at all hours, and only the other day a nobleman told me that, visiting a certain house, his valet came into his bed-room at ten in the morning bringing a pint of champagne. On his telling him he did not want it, his valet said, "If your lordship does not drink it, they will think you are ill!” "His lordship" did not drink it, but the champagne did not go down to frighten his host. I imagine gout must be a permanent institution in that household, and that the family vault must be as well stocked as the wine cellar. In the summer acidulated drinks are the most grateful to the palate, and in the August number of this Journal last year I gave a number of these in an article called "Beverages for Hot Weather." There can be no doubt that the most refreshing beverage in summer, and certainly the most harmless, is the properly-made cup of tea; but, alas, how seldom does the ordinary English household in England get a properly-made cup of tea or coffee? The first cup may be by |