Consumptives, and those who are generally debilitated and who need a fresh stock of good blood, cannot do better than confine themselves, so far as meats are concerned, to beef and mutton.  The latter should be well cooked, while the former ought to be eaten rare done.  If it is at first distasteful in this manner, proceed by degrees, and by-and-by it will grow in favor; but commence with it rare at the outset, when possible.  Whether roasted or broiled, beef should not be cooked as to destroy all its natural color.  Let the inside show some of the blood, the more the better, and the quicker it is assimilated to the needs of the system.  General Rawlins, the late secretary of war, died of consumption, but his life was prolonged many months by the use of rare and even raw beef.  He came to like it better raw than in any other way.  Once a day is, perhaps, as often as may be required; much, however, depends on the amount of exercise taken.  Wild game is likewise good, especially venison, and where that can be had, beef and mutton may be dispensed with.  Fish and eggs furnish a variety to the invalid’s diet, and such vegetables as are liked may be indulged, of course.  Never eat but of one kind of meat at any one meal, and not over two kinds of vegetables, with wholesome, fresh bread (Graham preferred), and the coarser the better.  Insist on having coarse bread; let it be made of unbolted meal.  As for drinks, a single cup of very weak tea or coffee, diluted chiefly with milk, will not harm.  A glass of milk is better in warm weather, if it agrees.  Let water alone, except it is that which the system has become familiarized with; then, half a glass is preferable to a larger quantity at meals.  Sousing the stomach at meal-time with a cold douche is only harmful.  After the food has had time to digest and pass out of the stomach, then, if one is a great water-drinker, take a glass, or so much of a glass as you think is required, and it will be of benefit.  Make the heartiest meal come at noon, and eat a light supper at night, using bread and butter for the most part.

Things to be remembered and observed in eating, are slowness and thorough mastication; never wash your food down with any drink.  Talk and laugh, taking as much time to do this as you do to eat.  A noted humorist says that “every time a man laughs he takes a kink out of the chain of life, and thus lengthens it.”  That is true philosophy, and it is little understood by our nervous, rushing people.  We grin and snicker enough, at ourselves and others, but downright hearty laughter is a stranger to the most of us.  It should be cultivated till, in an honest way, it supplants, at least, the universal snicker.  There is both comfort and health in rousing peals of laughter.