CHAPTER XII
DIET
DIET at any time is largely a matter of special need, but it would seem that, after a course of fasting, the successful issue of which depends upon a reduction to normal in all respects, certain fixed rules might be laid down to apply to all cases. Peculiar limitations are developed in each individual, for which the physical sins of generations of ancestors are in great measure responsible; hence empirical methods must be employed in the selection of foods requisite for the case in hand.
Taste plays an important part in the choice of food material in health, and it is popularly believed that, when an article of sustenance is not repugnant to this sense, it is healthful and wholesome, and that harm cannot result from its ingestion. One of the objects that nature has in placing the nerves of taste in the mouth is to prevent noxious substances from entering the stomach; but, as a
