Not only, however, is periodic change of food very desirable; but, for the same reasons, it is very desirable that a mixture of food should be taken at each meal.  The better balance of ingredients, and the greater nervous stimulation, are advantages which hold here as before.  If facts are asked for, we may name as one, the comparative ease with which the stomach disposes of a French dinner, enormous in quantity but extremely varied in materials.  Few will contend that an equal weight of one kind of food, however well cooked, could be digested with as much facility.  If any desire further facts, they may find them in every modern book on the management of animals.  Animals thrive best when each meal is made up of several things.  The experiments of Goss and Stark “afford the most decisive proof of the advantage, or rather the necessity, of a mixture of substances, in order to produce the compound which is the best adapted for the action of the stomach."[3]

Should any object, as probably many will, that a rotating dietary for children, and one which also requires a mixture of food at each meal, would entail too much trouble; we reply, that no trouble is thought too great which conduces to the mental development of children, and that for their future welfare, good bodily development is of still higher importance.  Moreover, it seems alike sad and strange that a trouble which is cheerfully taken in the fattening of pigs, should be thought too great in the rearing of children.

One more paragraph, with the view of warning those who may propose to adopt the regimen indicated.  The change must not be made suddenly; for continued low-feeding so enfeebles the system, as to disable it from at once dealing with a high diet.  Deficient nutrition is itself a cause of dyspepsia.  This is true even of animals.  “When calves are fed with skimmed milk, or whey, or other poor food, they are liable to indigestion."[4] Hence, therefore, where the energies are low, the transition to a generous diet must be gradual:  each increment of strength gained, justifying a fresh addition of nutriment.  Further, it should be borne in mind that the concentration of nutriment may be carried too far.  A bulk sufficient to fill the stomach is one requisite of a proper meal; and this requisite negatives a diet deficient in those matters which give adequate mass.  Though the size of the digestive organs is less in the well-fed civilised races than in the ill-fed savage ones, and though their size may eventually diminish still further, yet, for the time being, the bulk of the ingesta must be determined by the existing capacity.  But, paying due regard to these two qualifications, our conclusions are—­that the food of children should be highly nutritive; that it should be varied at each meal and at successive meals; and that it should be abundant.

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