The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families

and frequently taken. For infants in particular, it ought to be adapted to their age, and the strength of their digestive powers. No food whatever that has been prepared for many hours should be given them, especially after being warmed up; for it creates flatulence, heartburn, and a variety of other disorders. Sudden changes from liquid to solid food should be avoided, as well as a multiplicity of different kinds; and all stimulating dishes and heating liquors, prepared for adults, should be carefully withheld from children. The common but indecent practice of introducing chewed victuals into their mouth, is equally disgusting and unwholesome. Solid food is most proper for the state of manhood, but it ought not to be too uniform. Nature has provided a great variety for the use of man, and given him an appetite suited to that variety: the constant use of one kind of food therefore is not good for the constitution, though any great or sudden change in diet ought as well to be avoided. The change should be gradual, as any sudden transition from a low to a rich and luxurious mode of living, may endanger health, and even life itself. The diet suited to the last period of life, when nature is on the decline, approaches nearly to that of the first: it should be light and nourishing, and more frequently taken than in vigorous age. Old people are generally afflicted with wind, giddiness, and headachs, which are frequently occasioned by fasting too long, and even many sudden deaths arise from the same cause. The stomach therefore should never be allowed in any case to be too long empty, but especially in the decline of life. Proper attention to diet is of the utmost importance, not only to the preservation of health, but in the cure of many diseases, which may be effected by diet only. Its effects indeed are not always so quick as those of medicine, but they are generally more lasting, and are obtained with greater ease and certainty. Temperance and exercise are the two best physicians in the world;