"Since then I have not balked at any feat of physical endurance, and I
feel as young to-day as my white hair will let me. I have tried to get
my friends to chewing their food persistently, and have gained many
adherents to your cause, but I have had to stand an immense amount of
chaffing meanwhile. I tried to get Mr. H---- to chew his bread and
milk, but he always laughed at me, and chaffed me constantly when I was
with him about my chewing fad. One man, whom I saw much of, and who
needed your advice more than anybody else, got so sick of the subject
that when I received a letter from you, telling of some new discovery
and some new triumph of the cause of chewing, I would attempt to read
it to him; but he would not listen, and persisted in calling it rot,
although he knew that I had become a remarkably well man, whereas I was
formerly a very sick man. Both of these scoffers have gone and I am
left, as chipper and as fit as a fiddle new-strung for the music of a
happy life. If we don't catch up with Luigi Cornaro on our record it
will not be for want of good digestion."
This is a little bit of intimacy that the good Baron Randolph Natili
will not object to offer in evidence in our cause; for no one living
has a heart and a will to do a favour or spread a benefit more than he.
Only yesterday he said, in a burst of enthusiasm, "How is it possible
for me to dislike any one, feeling the way I do? I have likes immensely
stronger than other likes on account of similar or closer sympathies,
but it seems to me now that to really dislike any one that the Creator
has made, or anything that he has created, would do violence to the
Memory of My Mother."
DR. HIGGINS' CASE AND COMMENT
"DEAR MR. FLETCHER:
"You ask me to write you a short account of my experiences with
economical nutrition with comments, and a few words about my physical
and mental history.
"_Previous History_:--The best period of health that I can remember in
my life was that between seventeen and twenty-one, during the time I
was preparing for the medical profession. I had a small breakfast at
about 7.30 A.M. and then went up to London to St. George's Hospital,
which was about fourteen miles from my home. My parents gave me 2/6 for
my midday meal but I fortunately economised and only spent 6_d_-10_d_
of it on food. After finishing my work I usually arrived home at 5.30
and had a 'meat tea'; this allowed me to devote six hours to reading.
During the whole of this period I was in excellent mental and physical
condition. I was made house surgeon at twenty-one, obtained my degree
in under four years besides obtaining several valuable prizes.
"After this I lived in the Hospital where three meat meals were
provided. These I conscientiously ate 'to keep up my strength' during
the performance of my exhausting duties. I consider that this period
was the commencement of my degeneration. I put on twenty-four pounds in
weight and lost much of my mental energy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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