The bad consequences of defective nourishment are not confined in their operation to the bodily constitution of the labouring poor. _Their minds also are deteriorated._ The pressure of poverty is unfavourable to the growth of refinement and morality, and crime and turbulence are never so much to be dreaded as during times of scarcity and manufacturing or agricultural distress. Bodily health, satisfied appetite, and peace of mind, are great promoters of individual morality and public tranquillity; and whenever these are encroached upon in any great class of the community, discontent and crime are sure to follow. In legislation this principle is seldom attended to, and laws are consequently enacted merely for the suppression of the result, while the source from which it springs is left altogether unnoticed and in the fullest activity. Among the poorer classes, the children as well as the parents suffer much both physically and morally from insufficient food. Their diet, being chiefly of a vegetable nature, and consisting of porridge, potatoes, and soups, with very little butcher-meat, proves far from adequate to carry on vigorous growth in the one, or repair waste in the other; hence arise in the young an imperfect development of the bodily organization, a corresponding deficiency of mental power, and a diminished capability of resisting the causes of disease. In work-houses and other charitable institutions, ample evidence of these deficiencies obtrudes itself upon our notice, in the weak and stunted forms and very moderate capacities of the children. Under an impoverished diet, indeed, the moral and intellectual capacity is deteriorated as certainly as the bodily; and a full exposition of this fact, and the principles on which it is founded, would be a great public benefit. Even among the children of the wealthier classes, a sufficiency of nourishing food is not always provided with the care which it deserves. Both in families and in boarding-schools, it is no uncommon practice to stint the healthy appetites of the young, or to feed them with soups and other eatables which contain too little nutriment in proportion to their bulk. I am acquainted with many instances of this most injudicious error, and have seen scrofula and severe digestive affections brought on by persevering in it through sheer ignorance, and even in the belief that such “temperance” was healthful. Where adequate exercise is permitted, and the food is plain and nourishing, hurtful excess in eating will rarely occur, at least in healthy children. CHAPTER III. OF THE KINDS OF FOOD.