“At the age of 64, by lessening my food, and increasing the proportion of my meat to my drink, i. e. by lessening my drink about a third part, (i. e. to 20 ounces) and my meat about a sixth, (i. e. 38 ounces) of what they were in 1721, I have freed myself for these two years past from the returns of a Sore throat and Diarrhœa,—Disorders I often had, though they were but slight, and never confined me. I have been much more costive than I was before, when I lived more fully, and took more Exercise, and have greatly, for my age, recovered the paralytic weakness I was seized with three years ago.
“Hence we gather, that good and constant Health consists in a just quantity of food; and a just proportion of the meat to the drink: and that to be freed from chronical disorders contracted by Intemperance—the quantity of food ought to be lessened; and the proportion of the meat to the drink increased—more or less, according to the greatness of the disorders, p. 61.
“I commonly ate four ounces of Bread and Butter, and drank half a pound of a very weak infusion of Green Tea for Breakfast. For Dinner I took two ounces of Bread, and the rest Flesh-meat,—Beef, Mutton, Pork, Veal, Hare, Rabbit, Goose, Turkey, Fowl tame and wild, and Fish. I generally chose the strongest meats as fittest, since they agreed well with my stomach, to keep up the power of my body under this great diminution of my food; I seldom took any Garden stuff—finding that it commonly lessened perspiration and increased my weight.—I drank four ounces of water with my meat and a pound of Claret after I had done eating. At night I ate nothing, but drank 12 ounces of water with a pipe of Tobacco, p. 63.
“There is but one Weight, under which a grown body can enjoy the best and most uninterrupted Health. p. 91. That Weight is such as enables the Heart to supply the several parts of the body with just quantities of Blood. p. 100.
“The weight under which an Animal has the greatest strength and activity—which I shall call its Athletic weight,—is that weight under which the Heart—and the proportion of the weight of the Heart to the weight of the body are greatest: the strength of the Muscles is measured by the strength of the Heart, p. 117.
“If the weight of the body of an Animal be greater than its Athletic Weight, it may be reduced to that weight by evacuations, dry food and exercise. These lessen the weight of the Body, by wasting its fat, and lessening its Liver; and they increase the weight of the Heart, by increasing the quantity and motion of the blood. Thus a game Cock in ten days is reduced to his athletic weight, and prepared for fighting.
“If the Food, which with Evacuations and Exercise, reduced the Cock to his athletic weight in ten days, be continued any longer, the Cock will not have that strength and activity which he had before under his athletic weight; which may be owing to the loss of weight going on after he arrives at his athletic weight.
“It is known by experiment, that a Cock cannot stand above 24 hours at his athletic weight, and that a Cock has changed very much for the worse in 12 hours.
“When a Cock is at the top of his condition, that is, when he is at his athletic weight, his Head is of a glowing red colour, his Neck thick, and his Thigh thick and firm;—the day after his complexion is less glowing, his Neck thinner, and his Thigh softer;—and the third day his Thigh will be very soft and flaccid. p. 119.
“If the increase of weight in a small compass of time, rise to above a certain quantity, it will cause disorders.