It is the opinion of all those who have special theories on “what to eat and how to eat it” that civilized man scarcely knows what true hunger is. We are so in the habit of eating at fixed and customary hours that we create “habit hunger,” which has but slight connection with Nature’s demands for sustenance. In accordance with this idea, fasting is again becoming popular and all sorts of good results are claimed for it. The “devil of unrest and disease” is now being reckoned among “those that go not out but by fasting and prayer.” Fasting and prayer meant the physical and the spiritual treatment together. Fasting has long been imposed upon man as a religious rite, generally as penance for some “sin,” but now it is being advised and self-imposed for the sake of its physical advantages. It may well be that the habit of fasting for health’s sake originated with prehistoric man and was diverted into religious channels and its original significance forgotten. So many “religious rites” have come about in this way that it is fair to assume that fasting may have, also. However that may be, the practice is coming into scientific prominence, and Charles C. Haskell in his book, “Perfect Health: How to Get it and How to Keep it, by One Who Has It,” made much of the importance of fasting. If one is ill, fasting will make him well, according to Mr. Haskell. He gives numerous instances of the benefits that have followed fasts extending from one to nine or even more days. Mr. Upton Sinclair has written of his happy experience of abstinence in “The Fasting Cure.” As soon as the system is ready for food, true hunger will appear, says Mr. Haskell, and, like Mr. Fletcher, he regards “watering at the mouth”—the free flow of saliva—as the best index of real hunger. But, unlike Fletcher, Haskell is a vegetarian pure and simple, as that word is generally understood. Haskell says, “Nature has provided a natural food for man, and it is the vegetable kingdom.” He also strongly urges upon the seeker for sound health, which means sound sleep, to give up the habit of taking breakfast, thus conquering appetite and restoring real hunger. This is, indeed, the first precept he lays down; and the second is much like it. It runs, “Never eat except at the call of Natural Hunger.” Third, “Enjoy to the full every mouthful of food as long as any taste remains in it.” Fourth, “Do not drink any liquids with your meals.” The rules are simple enough to follow if you have any cause to suspect that your mode of life is the cause of “poor sleep.” This book has no special brand of food to recommend, nor does it intend to say what any man should or should not eat. Sir Henry Thompson is about right when he says that “No man can tell another what he can or ought to eat, without knowing what are the habits of life and work—mental and bodily—of the person to be advised. One rule cannot apply to all.”