It is almost unnecessary to state that it would hardly be possible to live for any length of time on a combination of pure protein, pure fat, and pure carbohydrate. It would not only be inconvenient but ultimately become decidedly nauseous. The nearest approach to such a combination with which I am acquainted was consummated by a patient of my own who had been living on a pure fruit and nut diet and suffered severely from indigestion and malnutrition. He was unable to take milk, but each day made the following concoction : 4 raw eggs, 1 ounce of olive oil, and 1 lb. of steamed rice. These were carefully mixed up and divided into three meals, and despite the Spartan severity of the diet, proved such satisfactory nutrients that the patient gained weight rapidly.

For natural foods, it would hardly be possible to conceive of a simpler and more effective combination - olive oil being the simplest and purest fat; rice being practically the purest carbohydrate - it only contains 5 per cent. of protein, and no fat; and eggs containing the purest of protein along with a little fat, no carbohydrate, and a large number of protein-like substances containing phosphorus, iron, and a most important body called lecithin, all of the greatest value in administering to the demands of a healthy nervous system.

In time, however, even such a diet came to pall upon the appetite, probably because the patient became too fat upon it, and malnutrition again asserted itself. This is the reason which makes a varied diet an absolute necessity even although one were to supply a full measure of calories per day. Monotony in diet is detrimental to the best interests of the body.

Attempts have been made to live on single-article diets, but these have always been attended with disastrous consequences. I have elsewhere recorded the case of the medical man who partook of two meals each day, each containing only one, although usually a different, article of diet. Beef for lunch, milk for dinner, potatoes for lunch another day, or any other single item with a glass of water appeared on his own testimony to satisfy his requirements both physically and aesthetically. His early demise from a mental ailment was doubtless hastened by his ill-timed experimentation.

Folin has lived for a few days on arrowroot starch and water, and in a similar experiment on the tenth day Hammond was obliged to desist owing to debility and fever. Porridge, baked beans, and wholemeal bread have all been tried as exclusive diets, but as a rule had to be abandoned because of diarrhoea or some digestive disturbance. I knew an athlete who lived for a whole month on bananas and water, and said he was perfectly fit at the end of the time although he had lost weight.

Anyone who has followed with intelligence the statements I have made will see that experimenters along this line are guilty of the crassest folly, and perseverance in such a course demands punishment as certainly as an attempt at suicide. In this country there are few people so ignorant as not to know the dangers attendant upon such dieting, and further still, who are not guided by instinct or reason to a more substantial menu. Hence the futility of the argument that it is essential to eat standard bread to prevent being defrauded of valuable ingredients, all of which can be obtained in a much more satisfactory fashion from other foods. For example, fat can be obtained from butter or delightful margarine and mineral salts from milk, even skim milk, and it is hardly possible to conceive of even the very poorest child being deprived of these humble accompaniments to the much-preferred white bread.

Milk: a Complete Food. - Appropriate food combinations have been attained by experience, and each nation and even district has its own List which fulfils all the nutritive requirements of the body. It will always be found that articles rich in carbohydrate or fat are combined with those containing large quantities of protein - bread and cheese, bread and omelette, bacon and beans, potatoes and beef, or cheese or even milk, being all well-known examples. Few people, however, will stop to think that none of these substances except milk was ever actually intended by Nature as a food and for no other object, and hence it comes that milk is practically the only food which contains all the alimentary principles in anything like the normal proportions. It is indeed the only substance which has any pretensions to be called a complete food, serving as the sole natural nutrient for many months in early fife, and many adults have been known to subsist on it alone for years at a time and remain in abounding health and vigour.

Cow's milk is most frequently used, and contains in round figures 87 per cent. of water, 4 per cent. of protein, 4 per cent. of fats, 4.5 per cent. of sugar, and .5 per cent. of mineral matter. This last ingredient is of great importance, containing as it does a large proportion of phosphates and lime and a small proportion of iron.

Its chief defects are its liability to be contaminated with disease germs and its rather serious constipating qualities. Boiling the milk, which kills the disease germs, only seems to increase the constipating effect, but this can be counteracted to a certain extent by eating wholemeal bread with it. A lunch of 10 ounces of such bread with a pint of skim milk will easily supply, at a cost of twopence, one-third of the nutriment required for the whole day, and this compares favourably with a restaurant lunch costing a shilling or more.

If mixed with equal quantities of cream it is an excellent natural cure for "acid" stomach, or heartburn, which is such a troublesome ailment for those who work in city offices.

For those who are "run down" or suffering from nervous exhaustion nothing can equal the restorative qualities of one tumblerful of hot milk three times a day in addition to the ordinary meals.

Whey is prepared by adding two teaspoonfuls of rennet to one pint and a half of milk heated to 104° F., carefully but thoroughly breaking up the clot which forms, and straining through muslin. It possesses few nutritive properties, and is chiefly used as an agreeable drink, although a whey cure consisting of nothing but whey, fruit, and vegetables is much in vogue for those who have lived too freely.

Cream, butter, butter-milk, "soured" or curdled milk, koumiss (fermented mare's milk), kephyr (fermented cow's milk), and many proprietary foods such as casumen, plasmon, protene, are all derived from milk.

Cheese perhaps is its most important product, however, and those who find it difficult to digest, may either eat it with zwieback after being carefully grated, or try the following excellent preparation. Chop or grate a quarter of a pound of cheese, dissolve a saltspoonful of bicarbonate of potash in a little water, place in a stew-pan and gently heat. The cheese will soon dissolve, and may be eaten in this form, or half a pint of milk and a couple of eggs added, carefully stirring all the time. Eaten with zwieback, oatmeal cake, or wholemeal bread, the body will easily be supplied with all the alimentary principles in ample proportions.

Another favourite way of preparing cheese is with macaroni as in the well-known macaroni au gratin. Soak 1 ounce of macaroni overnight in cold water until required, then pour off the water. Grate 4 ounces of cheese. Place a layer of grated cheese in the bottom of a well-buttered pie-dish, a little pepper, then a layer of macaroni, and so on alternately, having a layer of cheese on the top. Place in the oven for a few minutes to brown. This, eaten with toast, constitutes a complete food.