who are too lazy, or incredulous, or careless, to take a month to try the Mother Nature Prescription as interpreted by me, are liable to say: "Appetite is abnormal. Taste is perverted, and the demands of the body are wholly unnatural." True! But abnormality of that sort can be corrected in a very short time. A "poor chap" who is lucky enough to have to go without food long enough to "whinney like a horse" at the smell of fresh-baked bread and the thought of good Danish butter on it, is not going to "turn up his nose" at even a crisp baked potato; neither is he likely to require sweetbreads to coax himself to eat. Correcting perverted appetite is like purifying a stream which is being polluted at its source and runs muddy all the way to the sea. Stop the pollution, and the stream will purify itself as fast as ever it can by hurrying along with its impurities to the great ocean sewerage. CHAPTER X WHAT CONSTITUTES A FLETCHERITE Fletcherism and Longevity--W. E. Gladstone, Fletcherite--Fletcherizing Liquids--Getting the Best out of Everything--The Study of Mother-Nature Since the term "Fletcherite" is incorporated in some of the latest dictionaries, it is proper that the person whose name has been used for the designation should define what constitutes a Fletcherite. Any person who eats in a healthy manner is a Fletcherite. Any person who eats in a polite manner is a Fletcherite. Any person who is faithful to his end of responsibility in securing healthy nutrition for himself is a respectable eater and a good Fletcherite. WHAT IS NOT A FLETCHERITE The above definitions are fully comprehensive, but sometimes it is more effective to describe a thing by telling what it is not, and leaving the remainder as an inferential description. Following this suggestion, it is safe to say, that: Any one who eats when he is not hungry or what his appetite does not approve, is not a Fletcherite. All this presupposes the ordinary opportunity for selection in civilized communities where this book is liable to be read and where its revelations and recommendations are most needed. Any one who does not give his appetite a chance to guide him to healthy nutrition is not a Fletcherite. Any one who does not extract all of the taste from his food, while it is in the region where taste is developed, is not a Fletcherite. Any one who succumbs to greed of "getting the worth of his money," because he has paid for food, or can get food free of cost, or takes it on the insistence of Aggressive Hospitality, or to kill time, or for any purpose other than for the satisfaction of a real appetite, is not a Fletcherite. FLETCHERISM AND LONGEVITY