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HEALTH AND DIET.

A.

A MAN has often more trouble to digest meat than to get

meat.

A rich mouthful, a heavy groan.-Spanish.

Alluding to the gout and other distempers produced by epicurean living.

A glutton was never generous to others.-Gaelic.

A good surgeon must have an eagle's eye, a lion's heart, and a lady's hand.

An old physician, a young lawyer.

The first is supposed to be more skilful, from greater experience; and the last will be most zealous in the cause of his client, from a desire to distinguish himself.

After dinner, sit awhile;

After supper, walk a mile.

This old distich is not applicable to the fashion of the present day, when we often sup at midnight, or after; it might do in the olden time, when our ancestors breakfasted at six in the morning, dined at eleven, and supped at four or five o'clock in the afternoon: a walk in the cool of the evening, would then be conducive to health!

An egg, and to bed.

B.

Better a good dinner than a fine coat.-French.

A Burgundian proverb, which one would suppose of English extraction. The Burgundians are great gormandisers and shabby dressers; they are commonly said to have "bowels of silk and velvet;" that is, all their silk and velvet go to their guts.

Better wait on the cook than the doctor.-Scotch.

M

Better lose a supper than have a hundred physicians.— Spanish.

Better belly burst than good drink lost.

This is JOHN BULL'S own; it is clearly of native growth. It affords a curious contrast with the preceding one from the Spanish, and strikingly illustrates the characteristic difference of the two nations.

Bread that sees, wine that sparkles, cheese that weeps.
Be long sick, that ye may be soon hale.-Scotch.
Better half a loaf than no bread.

Bitter pills may have blessed effects.-Scotch.
Bread at pleasure, drink by measure.-French.
Bread of a day, ale of a month, and wine of a year.

C.

Children and chickens must be always picking.

D.

Drink wine and have the gout; drink none and have it too. Diet cures more than the lancet.

Spanish.-Mas cura la dieta, que la lanceta.

In two things men most commonly show their folly: going to law, and neglect of their health. One ruins their fortunes, the other deprives them of the means of enjoying them. With respect to health, the proverb is a good recipe, but it ought to have included exercise. Diet and exercise are the two physicians of Nature, and by a due attention to them, ninety-nine diseases out of a hundred may be averted or cured. Medicine itself is but the quack of these natural doctors, and attempts, by a shorter but artificial process, to do what regimen alone would accomplish. Those who live high should exercise freely. The bon vivant may rely on the advice of an eminent physician to the Duchess of Portsmouth; "You must eat less; take more exercise; take physic; or be sick." Over-feeding is the chief cause of those nervous affections and irritable humours, which first make men mad, and then drive them to self-destruction. It is a pity the nature of the animal economy is not more generally understood. Thousands are miserable for the want of some little Manual on the preservation of health. Children suffer as well as grown persons; and indulgent but ignorant parents ruin the constitutions of their offspring by improper treatment and nursing. It is hoped a hint on this subject will be taken, by those endeavouring to benefit the public and themselves by cheap publications.

E.

Eat little at dinner, less at supper, sleep aloft, and you will

live long.-Spanish.

Eat weel is drink weel's.brother.-Scotch.

Enough is as good as a feast.

F.

Fish must swim thrice-namely, once in the water, once in the sauce, and a third time in wine in the stomach.

G.

Go to bed with the lamb, and rise with the lark.

God sends meat, and the devil sends cooks.

God cures and the doctor takes the fee.

H.

He who hath good health is young; and he is rich who owes nothing.

He has a hole under his nose that all his money runs into.
He that would live for aye, must eat sage in May.

He that wants health wants every thing.

French-Qui n'a santé n'a rien.

Health without money is half a sickness.—Italian.

Health and mirth create beauty.

Spanish.-Salud y alegria belleza cria.

One can hardly conceive a person unhandsome, who possesses health and cheerfulness.

Health is better than wealth.

Hunger is the best sauce.

Italian.-La fame e il miglior intingolo.

Hunger and expectation make a man mad.-Spanish.

Hungry men think the cook lazy.

Hunger and cold deliver a man up to the enemy.-Spanish.

Hunger cannot bear contradiction.

Hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings.

French.-A la faim il n'y a point de mauvais pain.

It seems wisely provided, that as hunger increases, and of course requires more food to appease it, the palate becomes proportionately less discriminative. Hence, Juvenal observes,

"Thus much to the kind rural gods we owe,
Who pity'd suffering mortals long ago;
When on harsh acorns hungrily they fed,
And gave 'em nicer palates, better bread."

I.

If the doctor cures, the sun sees it; but if he kills, the earth hides it.-Scotch.

If it were not for the belly, the back might wear gold.

It is easier to fill a glutton's belly than his eye.

It is a great pleasure to eat, and have nothing to pay.
Spanish.-Gran placer, no escotar y comer.

If physic do not work, prepare for the kirk.

M.

Medicines are not meant to live on.

0.

Of all meat in the world, drink goes the best down.

Of wine the middle, of oil the top, and of honey the bottom,, is best.

One hour's sleep before midnight, is worth two after.

A more wholesome, if not a truer maxim, than that of Erasmus:"Nunquam dulcior somnus, quam post exortum solem."

Often and a little eating makes a man fat.

It is on this system our pugilists are trained for their rencontres. They eat often and sparingly, and take moderate rest and exercise between each meal. By this simple process, the wind is strengthened, a corkiness and elasticity of motion acquired, and the whole frame invigorated, which enables them to give and take a great deal of hammering, and, also, speedily recover from their bruises. It is an admirable system for those who wish to renovate a constitution, weakened by too much indulgence.

P.

Physicians rarely take medicine.--Italian.

Nor lawyers go to aw-two hints not unworthy of attention.

Plenty makes dainty.-Scotch.

S.

Sickness is felt, but health not at all.

T.

Temperance, employment, and a cheerful spirit, are the great preservers of health.

That is not always good in the maw that is sweet in the mouth. The difference between the poor man and the rich is, that the poor walks to get meat for his stomach, the rich a stomach for his meat.

The full stomach loatheth the honey-comb, but to the hungry every thing is sweet.

The morning to the mountain, the evening to the fountain. Ital.-La mattina al monte, e la sera al fonte.

The choleric drinks, the melancholic eats, the phlegmatic sleeps.

The belly bath no ears.

Lat.-Venter non habet aures.

The nearer the bone, the sweeter the flesh.

The head and feet keep warm, the rest will take no harm.

They who would be young when they are old, must be old when they are young.

To a full belly all meat is bad.—Italian.

The epicure puts his purse into his belly, and the miser his belly into his purse.

The first dish pleaseth all.

The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman.

'Tis good to walk till the blood appears on the cheek, but not the sweat on the brow.-Spanish.

Two ill meals make the third a glutton.

W.

We are usually the best men, when in the worst health.

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