During the prevalence of cholera both here and on the Continent, it was often remarked that a large proportion of the attacks occurred early in the morning, in persons who had gone to bed apparently well. Chronic invalids and persons of a delicate habit of body are also familiar with the fact of the animal heat and general vigour diminishing towards morning. When reduced in strength by pulmonary complaints, I often passed the night in comparative comfort, sure to awake about four or five o’clock with a feeling of chill and absence of animal heat, which I could not dissipate till after receiving sustenance. From these facts, the general inference is clearly warranted, that delicate persons ought to have some kind of food soon after rising, and that even those who are robust will act wisely in not exposing themselves unnecessarily to fatigue, infection, or other morbid causes, without having previously supplied the wants of the system, either partially by a cup of coffee, tea, or milk, or entirely by a regular breakfast. Where fever, for example, is in a family, the danger of infection will be much greater to a person going directly from his own bed to the bed-side of the patient, than to one who first takes the precaution of drinking were it only a cup of coffee. I have elsewhere noticed the safety which Captain Murray obtained for his crew in the West Indies, partly by attention to this rule; and have likewise referred to the experience of Sir George Ballingall even in our own climate.[37] In boarding-schools for the young and growing, who require plenty of sustenance and are often obliged to rise early, an early breakfast is almost an indispensable condition of health. On the Continent, in similar establishments, seven o’clock is the common hour for breakfast, especially in summer. In recommending what I conceive ought to be the general rule, let me not be understood as wishing to extend it so far as to advise those whose constitutions admit of two or three hours’ activity before breakfast, to abandon what experience proves to be beneficial to them. My only wish is to help those who are in doubt as to choosing the plan which is most likely to be of advantage, and to relieve those who are already suffering from ignorance. * * * * *