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

ACTIVE BIRDS EAT MOST PHOSPHORUS.

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brain is largely developed, sits still and reads, and the
appetite of course conforms to the kind and amount of
exercise. If he wastes his muscles by exercise, his
appetite will demand the muscle-making nitrates to
supply the waste. If he exhausts the phosphorus of
the brain by study, he will desire phosphatic food to
restore it. While the fat and stupid boy, who has
neither muscles nor brain, will crave carbonaceous
articles to feed his stupidity; and indulgence in these
appetites will of course increase the peculiarity.
I have seen the plucky little kingbird, after an hour
of extraordinary exertions in driving from the neighborhood an intruding hawk, devote the next hour to
catching and eating bees and hornets, which are made
up of nitrates and phosphates, as a means of restoring
his muscular and vital energy; while the dormant
robin would be content to live on cherries and worms,
which contain very little food for either muscle or
nerve. The bird is safe in following his inclinations;
living as it does according to natural laws, and having
no abnormal development of faculties, and no abnormal appetites, it can eat what it desires, and as much,
with perfect impunity.
But the child, changed in its condition as it may be
by the ignorance and folly of its parents, even before
its birth, is abnormally developed, and of course has
abnormal appetites.
Indulging these appetites in case of precocity of the
brain, of course increases the excitement of the brain,
and the result is inflammation and premature death;