Up to a year and a half the weaned child needs five meals in twenty-four hours, commencing on getting up in the morning and ending at ten p.m., or thereabouts. Milk is yet the chief nourishment. With milk give the cereals, of which oatmeal is probably the strongest. Eggs are also allowable, if soft-boiled. Rice may be used with beef gravy, and meat essences with bread, and bread and butter, softened. See that the baby gets sufficient nitrogen and thrives.

After two years old the baby may get more variety. Even some minced poultry and meats may be given. Still plenty of milk and cereals and eggs and such, and the last eating may take place at baby's bedtime. As the baby advances to three years of age, give more meat and more bread and butter, more fruit, more starch, and more sugar; in fact, quite an advanced diet. Between-meal eating is not good, and the less of candies the better. Better adjust the sugar in the general diet.

After three years of age, as the child comes to the table, it generally expands in its diet and lives more as one of the family. It must now be watched and guarded. Its tastes must be studied and its idiosyncrasies regulated and excesses prohibited.

As we come to man's estate we must apportion what we eat to our necessities. At this age we probably all eat too much, and especially too much of meats and other nitrogenous foods. We overbalance our proper ration. Of course, much will depend upon our environment and upon our occupation. The diet of the soldier and the naval sailor is about the diet needed by the average laborer. The soldier and the sailor can be controlled as to the proper variety, and even better than the independent laborer as to quantity. The tables already given show the composition of normal diets for soldiers and sailors.

Our early manhood diet, say from eighteen to forty years of age, is most important as to its quality, its quantity, its preparation, and its selection.

Let us look into the proper diet for a family of, say, a father, who is a mechanic, with the mother and three children, one eleven years, one eight years, and one eight months. Atwater and Woods have worked out such cases well. The family was dependent, and the eleven-year-old child did the marketing. For ten days the food cost ten dollars and twenty-two cents. Rent, twelve dollars per month. Wages of man, fifty dollars per month. Seven dollars was left, after paying for rent and food for a month, with which to buy fuel, light, clothing, etc. At the prices paid, this family could have been fed on almost half, had the proper intelligence been used in buying the right kind of food. Of the foods, the animal food cost 56 per cent. and the vegetable 44 per cent. Beef, veal, mutton, and fish composed over half the cost of the animal food. The cost of the vegetable food was enhanced by buying high-priced, self-raising flours, etc., showing want of knowledge and management. Bananas and oranges bought were extravagant, being mostly water. Peanuts were a good purchase.

For this family the food purchased per man per day furnished one-fourth more nutriment than is needed for a man at moderate work. Three per cent. of the total food went as kitchen waste, and thus 1 per cent. per day of proteids was wasted. Deducting this, there was still an excess of food. The food eaten contained at least 25 grams proteids and a fuel value of 600 calories per man per day more than was needed by a man at moderate work. When the man was not working, he and his family would have been well nourished if the food had only contained 100 grams of proteids, and had had a fuel value of 3000 calories per man per day. The nutritive ratio of the food eaten (1: 5.5) was about equal to the dietary standards. Atwater and Woods suggest that the amount of food purchased might have been reduced from 25 to 30 per cent., and a considerable saving of money effected. A more judicious selection of food and greater attention to details of marketing and preparation of the food might have still further reduced the cost. Such carefulness in purchase and preparation would have also reduced the kitchen and table wastes, so that practically no food would have been wasted.

The more intelligent selection of food, both from the nutritive and pecuniary stand-points, would preclude the purchase at the prices paid of such foods as chicken, cod, flounder, shad, condensed milk, canned asparagus, prepared flours, radishes, celery, cherry jelly, etc., which this inexperienced little market child bought, and would have led to the increased purchase of more economical foods, including peas, beans, wheat flour, rice, and the cheap but nutritious cuts of beef, veal, and mutton. In this way a large proportion of the money spent for food could have been saved with advantage to health without interfering with the palatability of the food eaten.

All this is interesting and is shown here as an object lesson as to the slipshod manner in which such people live. The balanced ration is the important matter for man. A man who does not eat enough often gets an unbalanced ration; so does the man who eats too much. Pork, butter, and eggs would be an unbalanced ration, - too much fat and too little carbohydrates. A man cannot live on potatoes alone and thrive, - it would take a peck of potatoes daily to give him enough proteids.

Again, let me give the estimated food necessary for a healthy man from, say, eighteen to forty-five years of age, for twenty-four hours. Proteids, 125 grams; fats, 125 grams; carbohydrates, 450 grams; calories furnished, 3500, with salts 30 grams.

A mere subsistence ration would be as follows: Proteids, 75 grams per day; fat, 40 grams; carbohydrates, 325 grams; calories, 2000, with salts 25 grams. An ideal ration for twenty-four hours would be: Wheat bread, 16 ounces; beef, 8 ounces; oysters, 8 ounces; cocoa, 1 ounce; cows' milk, 4 ounces; broth, 16 ounces; sugar, 1 ounce; butter, 1/2 ounce. This for a man doing average work, and would furnish 2575.52 calories.

These diets must be modified by age, by occupation, and by the physical condition. The sedentary man, the sick man, the physically weak man must modify his diet accordingly. If too much nitrogen for the condition is taken, the combustion is incomplete, and, instead of ending as it should in urea, it ends as it should not, - in uric acid and trouble. If too much fats and carbohydrates are taken, we get excess of fat, etc., and so on as we transgress in our diet. This all becomes more and more apparent as age progresses and we become less active and unable to burn up and oxidize the excess of food taken.

As an object lesson as to the amount of food required for a healthy, strong man, let us take the following, as given by Church: A laborer of one hundred and fifty pounds weight requires of albuminoids, 4.8 ounces; fats, 4.4 ounces; starch, etc., 14.4 ounces per diem. An East Indian of one hundred and five pounds weight, albuminoids, 3.6 ounces; fats, 2.5 ounces; starch, etc., 11.2 ounces per diem. An athlete in full training requires, albuminoids, 7.9 ounces; fats, 2.3 ounces; starch, etc., 27 ounces. The athlete will also take a large amount of water. School-boys, ten to twelve years old, require about half as much flesh-formers as active men and about three-fourths as much fats, starch, etc. Women living luxurious lives require about the same amounts as these school-boys. A blacksmith working will require, albuminoids, 5.6 ounces; fats, 2.5 ounces; starch, sugars, etc., 20.4 ounces; mineral matter, 0.9 ounce. Prison diet may average, albuminoids, 1.8 ounces; fats, 0.5 ounce; starch, sugar, etc., 10.7 ounces; and mineral matter, 0.6 ounce. If at hard labor they require a stronger diet, of course. The modification of diet as to age, etc., has been before spoken of, and it is not necessary again to refer to it here.