eral Elliot, the famous defender of Gibraltar, is said to have subsisted for a number of days on a litle boiled rice. The wonderful L'homme Serpent of Paris, always fasted for twelve hours before attempting to perform his marvelous feats of agility. This plan not only secures a higher degree of efficiency in the effort made, but prevents, in great degree, the injury liable to result from excessive exertion. When required to overwork for a succession of days, we have found that we were not only able to perform much more work, but to do it with less effort at the time, and less exhaustion afterward, when taking a greatly reduced quantity of food than when attempting to do the same work and still taking the usual quantity of food. I have no doubt that a neglect of this precaution is a not frequent cause of many of the sudden deaths of which we so often receive accounts, especially among politicians and public men. Overloading the stomach and overworking the brain at the same time is exceedingly dangerous. The man who overworks mentally must be temperate; he must
