ordinary, not over manfactured vegetable foods, such as are generally
eaten, may be taken as sufficient. Several cookery books have been
compiled in conformity with certain proteid standards and also with some
more or less fanciful requirements; these give the quantities and kinds of
food which it is imagined should be eaten each day. Theoretically, this
should be calculated to accord with the weight, temperament, age and sex
of the eater and the work he or she has to perform. The dietaries that we
have seen have their proteid ratio placed unnecessarily high. This high
proteid ratio can be got by the use of the pulses, but except in small
quantities they are not generally admissible, and in some of the dietaries
they are ruled out. The difficulty is got over by the liberal use of eggs,
cheese and milk. To admit a necessity for these animal products is to show
a weakness and want of confidence in the sufficiency of vegetable foods.
Some of these cookery books are of use in sickness, especially as
replacing those of the beef-tea, chicken-broth, jelly and arrowroot order.
They provide a half-way stage between flesh and vegetable food, such as is
palatable to those who have not quite overcome a yearning for flesh and
stimulating foods. The liberal use of animal products is less likely to
excite the prejudice of the ordinary medical practitioner or nurse.
Possibly, also, a higher quantity of proteid may be required on first
giving up flesh foods.

The Use of Salt.--One of the most remarkable habits of these times is
the extensive use of common salt or sodium chloride. It is in all ordinary
shop bread, in large quantity in a special and much advertised cereal
food, even in a largely sold wheat flour, and often in pastry. It is added
to nearly all savoury vegetable food, and many persons, not content, add
still more at the time of eating. No dinner table is considered complete
without one or more salt-cellars. Some take even threequarters of an
ounce, or an ounce per day. The question is not, of course, whether salt