From what has been said, it will at all events be apparent that this question of the food supply is a very important one—indeed one of the most important before the world to-day. The first thought, the first instinct, of any animal, is to search for and secure food; self-preservation is the most powerful instinct in the world, and the nutrition of the body occupies first place, as one means of preserving life. In the lower organisms, we see this very clearly; they spend almost the whole of their lives in searching for and devouring food; but as we ascend the scale of evolution, we find less and less space devoted, in the body, to the digestive organs, and more and more to the brain, and instruments of the mind. It would appear, therefore, that the higher we ascend in the scale of evolution, the less proportionate space in the body is devoted to the purely animal processes, and the more to the mental and spiritual sides of man. _As the mentality increases, the need for food decreases_: this is a very significant law—for such I believe it to be. It would seem to indicate that man attained the highest level, so far as his physical or physiological structure was concerned; and that evolution thenceforward tended to develop that side of man which rendered possible the increased mental and spiritual characteristics. However, I shall not dwell too strongly upon that point now. Although an adequate supply of food is very necessary to all organisms, there is but little danger that anyone in a civilised community would run the risk of starving to death, because of the lack of food. The tendency is all the other way, and most persons eat, not too little, but far too much, food. Even the very poor, and especially the babies of the very poor—eat too often, and too much. This may seem strange, but it becomes more rational and intelligible when we take into account the fact that the human body needs _so little food_, in reality, to supply the wastes of the day, that the very poor, even if they have far less food than the majority, still have too much. The average person eats at least three times more food than his system really requires; and it is due to this very fact, I earnestly believe, that much of the suffering and of the insanity, and many of the diseases, are so constantly with us. In his recently published works, Professor Chittenden has shown with great detail that the average standard “dietary tables” of the physiologists have been far too high; and that the average man can cut down his proteid intake fully one third, without detriment, but, on the contrary, with added benefit to himself. The majority of persons eat far more than the physiologists have said to be necessary; and now it has been shown that the physiologists have set the standard three times too high! It would appear, therefore, that most persons eat more than three times too much proteid; and the same has been found to hold good of the fats and carbohydrates, in a lesser