many instances of ill effects arising from simplicity of diet. I am confident, however, that all the injurious effects that have been referred to simplicity of diet have arisen from improper and unnatural food, or from food in too concentrated a state. Müller informs us that in Denmark a diet of bread and water for four weeks is considered equivalent to the punishment of death. There must be some fallacy in this statement; but, if correct the injury produced may, perhaps, be attributed to the extraordinary fineness of the flour, and the superabundance of gluten which It contains. Knight, in his "Physiological and Horticultural Papers," says: "Bread made of wheat, when taken in large quantities, has probably, more than any other article of food in use in this country, the effect of overloading the alimentary canal; and the general practice of French physicians points out the prevalence of diseases thence arising amongst their patients." All the evils said to be produced by living upon bread are due to our modes of refining upon nature; and though it must be admitted that bread made from the finest wheaten flour, if eaten in great abundance, and without a due admixtiure with innutritions matter, will be productive of serious consequences to health; yet it can be shown, upon good authority, that many individuals have subsisted for years on coarse undressed wheat-meal bread and water alone, and have not only improved in health, but become remarkably vigorous and robust. Children, whose food for a considerable time consists of superfine flour-bread, arrowroot, and other concentrated substances (such as sugar, butter, &c.), may appear fat and well, but do not acquire strength. They generally become weak and sickly, and are often covered with sores. Hence, some physicians who have written on the diet of children, have spoken in severe terms against confining children to an exclusively vegetable diet. But if a child be put upon a diet of good bread, made of undressed wheat-meal, with milk and-water, or pure soft water, for drink, and be allowed to indulge pretty freely in the use of good fruits in their seasons, none of the evils which result from concentrated forms of aliment, and which are attributed to vegetable diet, will be experienced; but the child, if in other respects properly treated, will be healthy, robust, and sprightly.
"Bulk," says Dr. Beaumont, "is nearly as necessary to the articles of diet as the nutrient principle. They should be so managed that one will be in proportion to the other. Too highly nutritive diet is probably as fatal to the prolongation of life and health as that which contains an insufficient quantity of nourishment. It is a matter of common remark among old whale-men, that, during their long voyages, the coarser their bread the better their health. "I have followed the seas for 35 years," said an intelligent sea-captain to Mr. Graham, "and have been in almost every part of the globe, and have always found that the
