To the scientific person of ultra conservative bent of mind this free
and easy screed, offered as the exponent of a great economic idea,
will seem offensive, and justly so; but it has been written with a
purpose, and happily the purpose is being effected as speedily as the
author hoped for when his own discovery relative to the profitableness
of an epicurean, economic nutrition became a reality of experience and
suggested publication.
To this free presentation, couched in a variety of class expression, is
due, in a large measure, the new revival of feeding reform which has
spread far over the civilised world, where it was most needed, within
the past five years.
Up to five years ago, and to some extent now, the prescription method
of recommending diets was and is common. In fact it was universal up to
a few years ago; for no one, as far as is known, had yet suggested that
normal appetite was the _only_ competent prescriber, and that it was
the office of the physician to teach his clients and patients how to
normalise the appetite.
It required two years of the circulation of the original publications
and the constant, persistent, personal assertion of the author before
any continued credence of his assertions was secured, with the one
exception of a lay friend in New York who happened to be in a state of
great need of reform at the time, as related under the heading of "A
Five Year's Lay Experience."
It was only about two years ago that the new claims had received
sufficient recognition to admit of explaining them to busy men of
prominence in the medical profession. After the confirmation at the
laboratories of the University of Cambridge, England, the author had
an opportunity to make a statement and give a demonstration to Sir
Thomas Barlow, the private physician of King Edward VII. Sir Thomas
was most sympathetic with the physiological possibilities, and there
has been frequent evidence since to show that he pursued thought of
the suggestions, and that his interest has been responsible for the
aristocratic lay interest which originated the so-termed "Munching
Parties" in London.
The English term "munching," signifying chewing or masticating, is
an excellent amendment, which is gladly adopted. "Masticating" is
technical and formal. "Chewing" has been disgraced by its application
to gum and to tobacco, and the other English expression, "biting,"
suggests the carnivorous, savage use of the jaws and teeth, while
"munching" implies enjoyment, as the munching of delicacies by
children.
As reported from London, "Munching Parties" were inaugurated to teach
attention, to encourage mouth preparation of food for digestion, and
also for the æsthetic purpose of gaining all the gustatory pleasure
possible from food while conserving the economies of nutrition. The
method employed was most ingenious, and with some modification is
approved by the author. When a course was served at "Munching Lunches,"
the manager of the ceremony employed a stop watch to time the treatment
of the first morsel of food taken by each of the guests. Five minutes
was prescribed for consideration of the morsel. It was an extravagantly
long delay over any one morsel, but it set the pace of deliberation,
and time, under the circumstances of a social function, was not a
matter of moment.
A five minute, or even a one minute consideration of a morsel of
delicious food, tends to give a new appreciation of its taste value
and suggests more careful enjoyment than is usual when nervous
conversation is the main business of a meal and food is a mere
accompaniment.
Industrious munching performs about one hundred acts of mastication
to the minute, and from twelve to fifteen mouthfuls of ordinary food
is sufficient to satisfy completely a hearty appetite. Tender or
well-prepared or well-cooked food is fully treated by munching for
natural swallowing in even much less time than a minute. The necessary
time ranges from one-twentieth to one-fifth of a minute, or ordinary
food is reduced so as to excite the natural Swallowing Impulse by
from five to twenty masticatory acts; and this applies equally to the
tasting movements required by sapid liquids. Hard or coarse breads, and
even potato, may require more attention and longer time, and deficiency
of saliva delays the process; but it is a very refractory food that
will require more than half a minute to the ordinary mouthful. Small
sips and small mouthfuls demand less proportionate time, so that the
actual time necessary to satisfy a good appetite does not exceed twelve
or fifteen or at most twenty minutes when the secretion of saliva is
ample, as in the case of _real_ hunger; but the enjoyment of taste
does not stop short with the actual cessation of the psychological
sensation. The memory of taste continues after the actual sensibility
has ceased, and one of the most agreeable compensations of a meal
is enjoyed in the form of _complete satisfaction_ following the act
of eating. It is a very different and a very much more agreeable
sensation than that attending a distended stomach, and must be felt and
understood to be fully appreciated.
"Munching Party Functions," then, reveal more possible pleasure and
benefit than the mere tickling of the palate, so-called, and diffuse
their benefits to cover the mechanical act and a long-continued feeling
of satisfaction that is more subtly pleasing than the immediate
physiological cause of the contentment.
The "Munching Party" scheme of education and enjoyment has been carried
to America, and has received the name of the "Chewing Fad." As such it
has been cartooned in the newspapers, but in no matter what form the
suggestion is spread it can do only good.
Appreciation of the suggestion has been generously expressed in the
letters of Dr. Kellogg of the great Battle Creek Sanitarium and by
Dr. Dewey, the author of the "No Breakfast Plan," as well as by the
author's intimate colleagues, Drs. Van Someren and Higgins, of Venice,
Italy.
There are many physicians from whom the author has heard report, and
perhaps thousands who have not yet been heard from, who are conveying
the slow-eating and appreciative-attention suggestions to their
patients; and as the reform in dietetic _technique_ has sprung up
since the publication of the booklets of the author--"What Sense? or,
Economic Nutrition," and "Nature's Food Filter; or, What and When to
Swallow," which were afterwards coupled together under the title of
"Glutton or Epicure"--he has good reason to suppose that the spread of
the idea originated with the publication of his discovery even where
the personal influence had not been given direct.
While visiting recently in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the author met a
distinguished professor of Harvard University who had been suffering
from nervous prostration. He had spent some time in Europe consulting
the most eminent neurologists, but with little or no relief. On his
return to the United States he was advised to go to a sanitarium in
Bethel, Me., under the direction of Dr. Gehring, where effective cures
of cases of nervous prostration have been performed. The professor
was given "Menticulture" and "Glutton or Epicure" to read, and was
recommended to practise the advice of the books in connection with
his treatment. These two books are an account of the way the author
promoted his own salvation from the uncertainty relative to physical
health and mental control, and it is by these means that the psychic,
mechanical, and chemical necessities of nutrition are satisfied.
The author spent an hour with Dr. Alexander Haig, of London, while
undergoing the Cambridge University Examination reported upon by Sir
Michael Foster, and exhaustively argued the claims of thorough mouth
treatment of nutriment to that distinguished dietetic specialist. The
argument met with much incredulity, as has been the case in all first
presentations of the idea. Dr. Haig pronounced the appeal to even a
normalised appetite dangerous, and clung to the prescription theory of
regulating food. He seems, however, to have since learned the efficacy
of munching and tasting in assisting the empirical prescription method,
and now recommends it as enthusiastically as do Drs. Van Someren,
Higgins, Kellogg, and Dewey. He has even sent patients to a resort in
the country in England to acquire the habit of munching where there
was present in them the strong pernicious habit of nervous haste and
inattention in connection with their ingestion of food.
This is bound to be the case with physicians where the subject is given
attention and the method is accorded a fair trial without lapses.
Credit for the origination of the suggestion is here taken to increase
the effectiveness of the claims presented in the "A. B.-Z. of Our Own
Nutrition" and in this book. Readers are recommended not to imitate
the prevalent error of thinking that so simple a suggestion is not
important or otherwise scientists would have proclaimed it long before
now. The ancient hypotheses of text-book physiology were mainly based
upon the study of nutrition, beginning in the stomach, and after the
danger of indigestion had been forced upon the alimentary system;
and hence they often dealt with confused, abnormal, and pathologic
conditions, and they rarely had opportunity to observe the normal
condition intended by Nature.
Professor Pawlow, of St. Petersburg, confirmed the necessity of a
right psychic environment; Dr. Cannon, of the Harvard Medical School,
showed the influence of mechanical thoroughness and nervous shock upon
digestion; and Dr. Harry Campbell, of London, explained the mechanical
and salival efficacy of mastication in procuring good assimilation of
nutriment and an economic nutrition. The work of Professor Pawlow and
Dr. Cannon was independent scientific research, and so was that of
Dr. Campbell; but the latter was undoubtedly suggested or stimulated
by Dr. Van Someren's presentment of his paper to the British Medical
Association. The investigations of Sir Michael Foster, Professor
Chittenden, Drs. Higgins, Kellogg, and Dewey were directly inspired
by the author in connection with his Venetian colleague, Dr. Ernest
Van Someren. The papers, reports, articles, and lectures of these
authorities are given in the "A. B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition," and are
repeatedly mentioned in this volume because this book is revised and
reissued as an extended explanatory companion of the larger scientific
presentation.
In pursuit of true menticulture the personality of the individual
should be completely suppressed. He becomes the agent of his
inspirations, his revelations, or his altruistic convictions, and
as such speaks for the ideas presented, and in no immodest spirit
of vain egotism. In descending from the plane of high literary
propriety to impress by simile and analogy, the object foremost in
mind is to attract a variety of sympathies. The author reveres the
dignified in art and in demeanour, and deplores the necessity of
personal association to spread the merits of what he believes to be
fundamental truths of the philosophy of true living. But so strong is
the conviction of the author that he possesses fundamental truths which
have been overlooked in the rapid progress of the race in the luxuries
of living, that where it is seemingly desirable to employ unusual means
to attract attention he feels compelled to do so.