Even without definite pathologic change in any organ, the gradual failure of function in old age at once diminishes the need of food and the ability of the digestive, assimilative and eliminative organs to care for more than a moderate quantity. At seventy, not much more than half the standard ration of adult life, is required. Proteins should be kept at the Chittenden minimum, and purin-containing foods should be used in very small amounts. Dietetic excesses, including the use of fodder vegetables in any considerable quantity and, in general, the use of foods theoretically objectionable but usually taken with impunity by active adults, should be interdicted. Alcoholics, in small quantity, are considered allowable by many authorities, to stimulate digestive secretion and to relax the arteries which are less resilient than in youth.