What I have above said of fruits, need not, however, hinder, where the stomach still preserves something of its strength, one’s indulging one’s self, now and then, with a small quantity of the best chosen for the sort, and for ripeness; the most watery are those which are the least proper. Eggs are an aliment of the animal kind, and an aliment extremely useful; they strengthen greatly, and are easy of digestion, provided that they have but little or even no preparation by fire, for if the white is once hardened it does not dissolve again; it becomes heavy, indigest, and unnutritious: it might then be the aliment of those who digest too quickly, and not of those who have rather no digestion. The best way of eating them, is just as they are new laid from the fowl, without any preparation, or in the shell, after only three or four dips in boiling water, or stirred into warm, and not boiling broth. Conclusively; there remains to mention the aliment from milk; which unites all the qualities that can be desired, without having any of the inconveniences that are to be dreaded. It is the most simple, the most easily assimilable, and the quickest restorative: all prepared as it is by nature, it needs no risk of spoiling it by an artificial preparation: like the broth of flesh meats it nourishes, but is not susceptible of putridity; it prevents thirst, it supplies the place of meat and drink; it keeps up all the secretions; it disposes for tranquil sleep; in short, it fulfils all the indications that present themselves in this case. M. LEWIS attests its having produced the best effects[106]. Why then is not it always employed, always substituted to the other aliments? Answer. For a reason which is peculiar to it, which unnaturalises its effect, and which makes it sometimes produce a very different one, from that which might be hoped from it, or reasonably expected.