3. The free imperial cities formed a college divided into two benches,—the Swabian, with 37 cities, and the Rhenish, with 14. They first appear at the Diet under Henry VII., but their position was not recognized till the peace of Westphalia. The power exercised by this municipal constituent of the Diet was small and strictly limited. Only what had been agreed upon by the electors and princes could be submitted to the college of cities for their sanction. The lower nobility, the knights of the empire, and the commons were unrepresented.
Each college voted separately; when the three colleges agreed, the decree or recess of the Diet, as it was called, was submitted to the emperor for his ratification; but the emperor had no power to modify it, and no resolution which affected the general interests of the empire could be passed without the approbation of the Diet.
Besides extraordinary meetings, the Diet was regularly convened twice a year. At the spring session the general business of the empire was discussed, laws were passed, alliances concluded, rebels proscribed, and grants of fiefs confirmed. The autumn session was occupied with finance and attended only by dukes, counts, and officers of administration. From 1663 the Diet met at Regensburg.
From the end of the Thirty Years' War the power of the Diet steadily declined. The Peace of Westphalia, while confirming the rights of the Diet as against the emperor, at the same time, by recognizing the territorial independence of the German princes, so limited the province of the federative assembly that, to quote the words of Frederick the Great, the Diet became “a mere shadow, a congress of publicists more busied with forms than things, like dogs who bay the moon.”
The most important Diets were the following:—
1106. Maintz. Henry IV. deposed on motion of his son.
1142. Frankfort. Conrad surrendered Saxony to Henry the Lion.
1356. Nuremberg. The Golden Bull.
1 486. AVorms. Private defiance forbidden, and Imperial Chamber
established.
1521. Worms. Edict against Luther.
1526. Spires. Choice of religion allowed to the several states.
1529. Spires. Edict of Worms re-enacted.
1530. Augsburg. The confession of Augsburg presented.
1806. Regensburg. Napoleon s envoy announces the dissolution
of the empire. Francis II. resigns imperial crown.
1848. Frankfort. First Diet of Germanic confederation.
DIETETICS. The application of science to the regulation of the continuous demands of the body for nutriment aims mainly at three objects—Health, Pleasure, and Economy. They are rarely inconsistent with one another, but yet require separate consideration, as under varying circumstances each may claim the most prominent place in our thoughts.
Influence of Diet upon Health.
The influence of diet upon the health of a man begins at the earliest stage of his life, and indeed is then greater than at any other period. It is varied by the several phases of internal growth and of external relations, and in old age is still important in prolonging existence, and rendering it agreeable and useful.
Diet in Infancy.—No food has as yet been found so suitable for the young of all animals as their mother's milk. And this has not been from want of seeking. Dr Brouzet (Sur l'Éducation médicinale des Enfants, i. p. 165) has such a bad opinion of human mothers, that he expresses a wish for the state to interfere and prevent them from suckling their children, lest they should communicate immorality and disease! A still more determined pessimist was the famous chemist Van Helmont, who thought life had been reduced to its present shortness by our inborn propensities, and proposed to substitute bread boiled in beer and honey for milk, which latter he calls “brute's food.” Baron Liebig has followed the lead with a “Food for infants,” in the prescription for which half ounces and quarter grains figure freely, and which has to be prepared on a slow fire, and after a few minutes boiled well. And after all not nearly such a close imitation of human milk is made as by the addition to fresh cow's milk of half its bulk of soft water, in each pint of which has been mixed a heaped up teaspoonful of powdered “sugar of milk” and a pinch of phosphate of lime. Indeed, in default of these cheap chemicals, the milk and water alone, when fresh and pure, are safer than an artificial compound which requires cooking. And experience shows that the best mode of administering food to the young is also that which is most widely adopted throughout warm-blooded nature, namely, in a fresh, tepid, liquid state, frequently, and in small quantities at a time.
Empirical observation is fully supported in these deductions by physiological and chemical science. Milk contains of—
| Water | 88 | per cent. | |
| Oleaginous matter (cream or butter) | 3 | ,, | |
| Nitrogenous matter (cheese and albumen) | 4 | ,, | |
| Hydrocarbon (sugar) | 4 | 12 | ,, |
| Saline matter (phosphate of lime, | |||
| chloride of sodium, iron, &c.) | 12 | ,, |
These are at once the constituents and the proportions
of the constituents of food suited to a weakly rapidly-growing animal. The large quantity of water makes it
pass easily through the soft absorbent walls of the digestive
canal, and the complete suspension in an alkaline fluid of
the finely divided fat and nitrogenous matter introduce
more of them than could be effected were they in a solid
form. The fat is the germ of new cellular growth, and the
nitrogenous matter is by the new cells formed into flesh,
which is doubling its bulk monthly. The phosphate of
lime is required for the hardening bones, the chloride of
sodium and the iron for the daily increasing amount of
blood in circulation. Milk may be said to be still alive as
it leaves the breast fresh and warm, and quickly becomes
living blood in the infant's veins. A very slight chemical
change is requisite. Its frequent administration is
demanded by the rapid absorption, and the absence of
regular meals prevents the overloading of the delicate young
stomach with more than it can hold at once.
The wholesomest nutriment for the first six months is milk alone. A vigorous baby can indeed bear with impunity much rough usage, and often appears none the worse for a certain quantity of farinaceous food; but the majority do not get habituated to it, without an exhibition of dislike which indicates rebellion of the bowels. To give judicious diet its fair chance the frame must be well protected from the cold; and just in proportion as the normal temperature of the body is maintained so does growth prosper, as is satisfactorily proved by experiments on the young of the lower animals.
It is only when the teeth are on their way to the front, as shown by dribbling, that the parotid glands secrete an active saliva capable of digesting bread stuffs. Till then anything but milk must be given tentatively, and considered in the light of a means of education for its future mode of nutrition. Among the varieties of such means, the most generally applicable are broth and beef tea, at first pure, and then thickened with tapioca and arrowroot. Chicken soup, made with a little cream and sugar, serves as a change. Baked flour, biscuit powder, tops and bottoms, should all have their turn; change is necessary in the imperfect dietary which art supplies, and for change the stomach should be prepared by habit.
The consequences of premature weaning are insidious.
The external aspect of the child is that of health, its muscles