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THE CONDITIONS OF HEALTH. 247
able flavor, and they mingle harmoniously with most
vegetable substances.
The quantity of food, many persons say, who wish
to gratify perverted tastes, is of more importance than
quality. Each has its own special importance ; but
when a man eats food of the proper quality, he is not
so apt to err in quantity, and his errors are not so mis
chievous. It is surely worse to eat too much of a bad
thing, than too much of a good thing. A man had bet
ter eat too or many peaches melons, than too much
arsenic or tobacco. When we go wrong in one respect,
we lose our guide in others. A natural taste regulates
itself much better than a perverted one. A man is
much more apt to kill himself with brandy than with
potatoes. Vegetarian gluttons exist, doubtless, especi
ally among
those who have become diseased on other
modes of diet ; but they are not so common, I imagine,
as among " riotous eaters of flesh."
The proper quantity of food for a mature healthy
person should include about twelve ounces of nutriment
per day. This is contained in rather less than one
pound of farinaceous food, two pounds of potatoes, and
what are called vegetables, and a still larger quantity of
fruit.
Food may be taken, in early infancy, every two or
three hours ; and the frequency should be gradually
diminished, until, at a year old, the child takes but three
meals a day. For the adult, three meals, at intervals
of six hours, seems a natural arrangement, though
many persons advocate eating but two meals a day.
The last meal, when three are eaten, should be lightest
in quantity, and most easy of digestion.