[Footnote 66: In case of an ordinary “mixed meal,” water composes something near four-fifths of all; solids, pure and simple, one-fifth. Even roast beef is about three-fourths water, and vegetables the same.]
Jules Virey settled the question, as it seems to me, regarding the effects of work after eating. He took two dogs of same size, age, and general _physique_; gave both a fast-day, and then treated them to a square meal, alike in quantity and variety. One was sent to his kennel, while the other was permitted to follow the carriage which conveyed the doctor on his rounds. After the coach-dog had had two hours and a half of (not vigorous, but gentle) exercise, and immediately on his return, the doctor had both dogs slain and dissected. The kennel-dog had thoroughly digested his breakfast,——not a trace of it was found in his stomach,——while with the other, the work of digestion had not even begun; the mutton cubes and potato chips remained intact, precisely as when first eaten. It is evident from this that the rule, “Never eat until you have leisure to digest,”[67] is a good one, and that for a hard-working person (what man or woman works as hard as the enthusiastic hunting-dog?) the one-meal-a-day system would often prove the best,——indeed, in some instances, this would be the only means of preventing sickness. We may not know in how many instances the laborer digests his breakfast, dinner, and supper together (or about all that he does digest) after he is in bed for the night. Any approach to such a state is provocative of disease.
[Footnote 67: It by no means follows that the man of all leisure, or the “loafer,” can, because of abundant rest after meals, digest the large quantity of food he may be tempted to swallow. On the contrary, he probably does not digest one-fourth of it. The balance is assuredly retained to work him injury at last. No man really _digests_, speaking strictly, in excess of the physiological needs of his organism; the fact that one man “carries off,” so to speak, an immense amount of food without apparent or immediate inconvenience, argues simply that he has greater excretory capacity——perhaps was endowed originally with a greater degree of vitality——than another who is constantly troubled though eating less and working more. Persons of the latter class still exceed their normal amount; hence their digestive troubles.]