_Food._--While it is an error to suppose, as is generally done, that a moderately full meal, eaten shortly before bedtime, is necessarily productive of wakefulness, there is no doubt that this condition is induced by an excessive quantity of irritating or indigestible food. A hearty supper of plainly cooked and nutritious food rather predisposes to sleep. Most of us have experienced the drowsiness which so often follows dinner. This is due to the fact that the process of digestion requires an increased amount of blood in the organs which perform it, and consequently the brain receives a less quantity. A tendency to sleep is therefore induced. It is a natural and healthy predisposition, and when yielded to moderately conduces to a more complete assimilation of the food than would otherwise take place. When, however, the food ingested is not such as is merely sufficient for the wants of the system, but is inordinate in amount, or irritating in quality, the hypnotic effect is neutralized, and often a state of wakefulness supervenes, from the fact that the quantity of blood circulating in the brain is augmented instead of being diminished. This last result is induced either by the pressure of the overloaded stomach upon the abdominal vessels or through a reflex action on the heart, by which it is excited to increased activity. In young children, who are very susceptible to the influence of causes acting upon the nervous system, we often see both sleep and wakefulness result as direct effects of eating. When the quantity of milk taken has not been excessive, the child quietly drops asleep at the breast. On the contrary, when a superabundance has been ingested, it either remains awake or the sleep is disturbed. In adults it is, as has already been mentioned, not uncommon for apoplexy to ensue upon a large meal of improper food. In order, therefore, that a disposition to wakefulness may be removed, it is essential that attention should be paid to the diet of the affected individual. As a rule, people are underfed. This is especially the case with women, who too generally indulge in what may be called “slops,” to the exclusion of good, solid, nutritious food derived in great part from the animal kingdom. By such a faulty diet the tone of the system is lowered, and local congestions of different parts of the body are produced. If the brain be one of these, wakefulness results.