During the summer the same simple diet was persisted in—a small cup of coffee for breakfast, a fairly substantial dinner at midday and a light supper at night. Two months were spent in Maine at an inland fishing resort, and during a part of this time a guide was dispensed with and the boat rowed by the writer frequently six to ten miles in a forenoon, sometimes against head winds (without breakfast), and with much greater freedom from fatigue and muscular soreness than in previous years on a fuller dietary. The test of endurance and fitness for physical work which the writer thus carried out “on an empty stomach” tended to strengthen the opinion that it is a mistake to assume the necessity for a hearty meal because heavy work is about to be done. It is certainly far more rational from a physiological standpoint to leave the hearty meal until the day’s work is accomplished. We seemingly forget that the energy of muscular contraction comes not from the food-stuffs present at the time in the stomach and intestinal tract, but rather from the absorbed material stored up in the muscles and which was digested and absorbed a day or two before. Further, it is to be remembered that the very process of digestion draws to the gastro-intestinal tract a large supply of blood, and that a large amount of energy is needed for the processes of secretion, digestion, absorption, and peristalsis, which are of necessity incited by the presence of food in the stomach and intestine, thereby actually diminishing the amount of energy available at the place where it is most needed. Why, then, draw upon the resources of the body just at a time, or slightly prior to the time, when the work we desire to perform, either muscular or mental, calls for a copious blood supply in muscle or brain, and when all available energy is needed for the task that is to be accomplished?