The philosophy of eating. By Albert J. Bellows, M.D.

150 FOOD TO DEVELOP VITAL POWER.

other hand, beefsteak and oat-meal, and such other
articles of food as contain large proportions of nitrogenous and phosphatic elements, tend to develop the
muscles and brain too rapidly, and render the child
liable to congestion of the brain; and a special regard
should be had to this consideration where the child is
very active and precocious. Such children always die
young, unless special care is taken of their diet and
general management.
Food for CYhildren deficient in Vital Energy and
Muscular Power.
That muscular power is increased by exercise has
been long known. More than seven hundred years
before the Christian era the Olympic games were
celebrated, consisting in throwing quoits, leaping,
wrestling, boxing, &c., which were held on a certain
day corresponding to the 11th of July, and lasting
five days, for which the competitors prepared themselves by training in the gymnasium for ten months.
For a thousand years at least these games, with a
few temporary interruptions, were regularly celebrated,
occupying the minds of the whole Grecian nation; and
at that age the training of muscles was considered
vastly more important than the training of mind. Of
the diet used in this training but little is now known;
but Pliny says, " the gladiators ate only barley bread,
and hence they were called Hordearii," hordeum being
the Greek name for barley.