Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
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Horse--An Animal Of Nearly Allied Structure, But Habituated To A More
Concentrated Diet. Here The Body, And More Especially Its Abdominal
Region, Bears A Smaller Ratio To The Limbs; The Powers Are Not Taxed By
The Support Of Such Massive Viscera, Nor The Digestion Of So Bulky A
Food; And, As A Consequence, There Is Greater Locomotive Energy And
Considerable Vivacity. If, Again, We Contrast The Stolid Inactivity Of
The Graminivorous Sheep With The Liveliness Of The Dog, Subsisting On
Flesh Or Farinaceous Matters, Or A Mixture Of The Two, We See A
Difference Similar In Kind, But Still Greater In Degree. And After
Walking Through The Zoological Gardens, And Noting The Restlessness With
Which The Carnivorous Animals Pace Up And Down Their Cages, It Needs But
To Remember That None Of The Herbivorous Animals Habitually Display This
Superfluous Energy, To See How Clear Is The Relation Between
Concentration Of Food And Degree Of Activity.
That These Differences Are Not Directly Consequent On Differences Of
Constitution, As Some May Argue; But Are Directly Consequent On
Differences In The Food Which The Creatures Are Constituted To Subsist
On; Is Proved By The Fact, That They Are Observable Between Different
Divisions Of The Same Species. The Varieties Of The Horse Furnish An
Illustration. Compare The Big-Bellied, Inactive, Spiritless Cart-Horse
With A Racer Or Hunter, Small In The Flanks And Full Of Energy; And Then
Call To Mind How Much Less Nutritive Is The Diet Of The One Than That Of
The Other. Or Take The Case Of Mankind. Australians, Bushmen, And Others
Of The Lowest Savages Who Live On Roots And Berries, Varied By Larvae Of
Insects And The Like Meagre Fare, Are Comparatively Puny In Stature,
Have Large Abdomens, Soft And Undeveloped Muscles, And Are Quite Unable
To Cope With Europeans, Either In A Struggle Or In Prolonged Exertion.
Count Up The Wild Races Who Are Well Grown, Strong And Active, As The
Kaffirs, North-American Indians, And Patagonians, And You Find Them
Large Consumers Of Flesh. The Ill-Fed Hindoo Goes Down Before The
Englishman Fed On More Nutritive Food; To Whom He Is As Inferior In
Mental As In Physical Energy. And Generally, We Think, The History Of
The World Shows That The Well-Fed Races Have Been The Energetic And
Dominant Races.
Still Stronger, However, Becomes The Argument, When We Find That The
Same Individual Animal Is Capable Of More Or Less Exertion According As
Its Food Is More Or Less Nutritious. This Has Been Demonstrated In The
Case Of The Horse. Though Flesh May Be Gained By A Grazing Horse,
Strength Is Lost; As Putting Him To Hard Work Proves. "The Consequence
Of Turning Horses Out To Grass Is Relaxation Of The Muscular System."
"Grass Is A Very Good Preparation For A Bullock For Smithfield Market,
But A Very Bad One For A Hunter." It Was Well Known Of Old That, After
Passing The Summer In The Fields, Hunters Required Some Months Of
Stable-Feeding Before Becoming Able To Follow The Hounds; And That They
Did Not Get Into Good Condition Till The Beginning Of The Next Spring.
And The Modern Practice Is That Insisted On By Mr. Apperley--"Never To
Give A Hunter What Is Called 'A Summer's Run At Grass,' And, Except
Under Particular And Very Favourable Circumstances, Never To Turn Him
Out At All." That Is To Say, Never Give Him Poor Food: Great Energy And
Endurance Are To Be Obtained Only By The Continued Use Of Nutritive
Food. So True Is This That, As Proved By Mr. Apperley, Prolonged
High-Feeding Enables A Middling Horse To Equal, In His Performances, A
First-Rate Horse Fed In The Ordinary Way. To Which Various Evidences Add
The Familiar Fact That, When A Horse Is Required To Do Double Duty, It
Is The Practice To Give Him Beans--A Food Containing A Larger Proportion
Of Nitrogenous, Or Flesh-Making Material, Than His Habitual Oats.
Once More, In The Case Of Individual Men The Truth Has Been Illustrated
With Equal, Or Still Greater, Clearness. We Do Not Refer To Men In
Training For Feats Of Strength, Whose Regimen, However, Thoroughly
Conforms To The Doctrine. We Refer To The Experience Of
Railway-Contractors And Their Labourers. It Has Been For Years A
Well-Established Fact That An English Navvy, Eating Largely Of Flesh, Is
Far More Efficient Than A Continental Navvy Living On Farinaceous Food:
So Much More Efficient, That English Contractors For Continental
Railways Found It Pay To Take Their Labourers With Them. That Difference
Of Diet And Not Difference Of Race Caused This Superiority, Has Been Of
Late Distinctly Shown. For It Has Turned Out, That When The Continental
Navvies Live In The Same Style As Their English Competitors, They
Presently Rise, More Or Less Nearly, To A Par With Them In Efficiency.
And To This Fact Let Us Here Add The Converse One, To Which We Can Give
Personal Testimony Based Upon Six Months' Experience Of Vegetarianism,
That Abstinence From Meat Entails Diminished Energy Of Both Body And
Mind.
Do Not These Various Evidences Endorse Our Argument Respecting The
Feeding Of Children? Do They Not Imply That, Even Supposing The Same
Stature And Bulk To Be Attained On An Innutritive As On A Nutritive
Diet, The Quality Of Tissue Is Greatly Inferior? Do They Not Establish
The Position That, Where Energy As Well As Growth Has To Be Maintained,
It Can Only Be Done By High Feeding? Do They Not Confirm The _À Priori_
Conclusion That, Though A Child Of Whom Little Is Expected In The Way Of
Bodily Or Mental Activity, May Thrive Tolerably Well On Farinaceous
Substances, A Child Who Is Daily Required, Not Only To Form The Due
Amount Of New Tissue, But To Supply The Waste Consequent On Great
Muscular Action, And The Further Waste Consequent On Hard Exercise Of
Brain, Must Live On Substances Containing A Larger Ratio Of Nutritive
Matter? And Is It Not An Obvious Corollary, That Denial Of This Better
Food Will Be At The Expense Either Of Growth, Or Of Bodily Activity, Or
Of Mental Activity; As Constitution And Circumstances Determine? We
Believe No Logical Intellect Will Question It. To Think Otherwise Is To
Entertain In A Disguised Form The Old Fallacy Of The Perpetual-Motion
Schemers--That It Is Possible To Get Power Out Of Nothing.
Before Leaving The Question Of Food, A Few Words Must Be Said On Another
Requisite--_Variety_. In This Respect The Dietary Of The Young Is Very
Faulty. If Not, Like Our Soldiers, Condemned To "Twenty Years Of Boiled
Beef," Our Children Have Mostly To Bear A Monotony Which, Though Less
Extreme And Less Lasting, Is Quite As Clearly At Variance With The Laws
Of Health. At Dinner, It Is True, They Usually Have Food That Is More Or
Less Mixed, And That Is Changed Day By Day. But Week After Week, Month
After Month, Year After Year, Comes The Same Breakfast Of
Bread-And-Milk, Or, It May Be, Oatmeal-Porridge. And With Like
Persistence The Day Is Closed, Perhaps With A Second Edition Of The
Bread-And-Milk, Perhaps With Tea And Bread-And-Butter.
This Practice Is Opposed To The Dictates Of Physiology. The Satiety
Produced By An Often-Repeated Dish, And The Gratification Caused By One
Long A Stranger To The Palate, Are _Not_ Meaningless, As People
Part 1 Chapter 4 (Physical Education) Pg 55Carelessly Assume; But They Are The Incentives To A Wholesome Diversity
Of Diet. It Is A Fact, Established By Numerous Experiments, That There
Is Scarcely Any One Food, However Good, Which Supplies In Due
Proportions Or Right Forms All The Elements Required For Carrying On The
Vital Processes In A Normal Manner: Whence It Follows That Frequent
Change Of Food Is Desirable To Balance The Supplies Of All The Elements.
It Is A Further Fact, Known To Physiologists, That The Enjoyment Given
By A Much-Liked Food Is A Nervous Stimulus, Which, By Increasing The
Action Of The Heart And So Propelling The Blood With Increased Vigour,
Aids In The Subsequent Digestion. And These Truths Are In Harmony With
The Maxims Of Modern Cattle-Feeding, Which Dictate A Rotation Of Diet.
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.
With Clothing As With Food, The Usual Tendency Is Towards An Improper
Scantiness. Here, Too, Asceticism Peeps Out. There Is A Current Theory,
Vaguely Entertained If Not Put Into A Definite Formula, That The
Sensations Are To Be Disregarded. They Do Not Exist For Our Guidance,
But To Mislead Us, Seems To Be The Prevalent Belief Reduced To Its Naked
Form. It Is A Grave Error: We Are Much More Beneficently Constituted. It
Is Not Obedience To The Sensations, But Disobedience To Them, Which Is
The Habitual Cause Of Bodily Evils. It Is Not The Eating When Hungry,
But The Eating In The Absence Of Hunger, Which Is Bad. It Is Not
Drinking When Thirsty, But Continuing To Drink When Thirst Has Ceased,
That Is The Vice. Harm Does Not Result From Breathing That Fresh Air
Which Every Healthy Person Enjoys; But From Breathing Foul Air, Spite Of
The Protest Of The Lungs. Harm Does Not Result From Taking That Active
Exercise Which, As Every Child Shows Us, Nature Strongly Prompts; But
From A Persistent Disregard Of Nature's Promptings.
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