“Experience[17] has fully convinced me, (says an eminent Physiologist), that the latter stages of human life, are often abridged by unsuitable diet.”
[17] Carlisle on the disorders of Old Age, ps. 2 and 27. This book exhibits an excellent view of the most suitable diet for aged, weak, and sickly people.
“The most numerous tribe of disorders incident to advanced life, spring from the failure or errors of the stomach, and its dependancies, and perhaps the first sources of all the infirmities of inability, may be traced to effects arising from imperfectly digested food.”
EXTRAORDINARY GREAT EATERS, AND OBSERVATIONS ON ABSTINENCE.
In some persons, an extraordinary great appetite seems to be constitutional.
Charles Domery, aged 21 years, when a prisoner of war, at Liverpool, consumed in one day
| 4lbs. | of | Raw Cow’s Udder. | |
| 10lbs. | Raw Beef. | ||
| 2lbs. | Tallow Candles. | ||
| Total | 16lbs. |
and five bottles of porter; and although allowed the daily rations of ten men, he was not satisfied.
Another extraordinary instance has been recorded by Baron Percy:—A soldier of the name of Tarare, who, at the age of 17, could devour in the course of 24 hours, a leg of beef weighing 24lbs. and thought nothing of swallowing the dinner dressed for fifteen German peasants. But those men were remarkable not only for the quantity of food they consumed, but also for its quality, giving a preference to raw meat, and even living flesh and blood.
Domery, in one year, eat 174 cats, dead and alive; and Tarare was strongly suspected of having eaten an infant.