Necessity of Food for Students.
The notion that those who work only with their brains need less food than those who labor with their hands has been the cause of untold mischief. Students and literary men have often been the victims of a slow starvation from this ignorance of the fact that mental labor causes a greater waste of tissue than muscular. According to careful estimates, three hours of hard study wear out the body more than a whole day at the anvil, or on the farm. “Without phosphorus no thought,” is a German saying, and the consumption of that essential ingredient of the brain increases in proportion to the amount of labor which the organ is required to perform. The wear and tear of the brain are easily measured by careful examination of the salts in liquid secretions. The importance of the brain as a working organ is shown by the amount of blood it receives, which is proportionately greater than that of any part of the body. One-fifth of the blood goes to the brain, though its average weight is only one-fortieth the average weight of the body. This fact alone would be sufficient to prove that brain workers need more food and better food than mechanics and farm laborers.—Journal of Chemistry. “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.”—Solomon.