Counting from the time of beginning one meal to that of beginning the next, food should be taken at regular intervals of from four to five hours; except the interval between dinner and a very slight tea, which may be reduced to three hours. In weakly persons, and when the appetite will allow only a very small meal to be taken at one time, the intervals between all the meals may be reduced to from three to four hours. In illness, the interval must be ordered day by day by the medical man. In proportion as the interval is shorter, the food at each meal must be less in quantity and more easy of digestion. (See Proper Hours for Meals, also Diet of Infancy and Childhood.)

The chief meal of the day - the full meal - by whatever name it is called, should be taken at any hour when active occupation, both bodily and mental, can be suspended for from one and a-half to two hours. (See Sleep.)

Breakfast should be the second best meal of the day, and should be taken leisurely immediately after rising in the morning. (See Exercise.)

The other meals should be taken punctually at fixed hours, but should be only light refreshments, and small in bulk.

No food should be taken in the intervals between the regular meals.

As a general rule, pure water may be taken at any time, if indicated by thirst; so that the body is not heated by exercise, and the quantity drunk at once does not exceed a quarter of a pint. (See Exercise.)

Spirituous liquors should not be taken the first thing in the morning or the last thing at night, without medical orders; they should not be taken when the stomach is empty, and they should not be drunk stronger than in the proportion of one ounce avoirdupois of absolute alcohol in about ten fluid ounces of liquid. (See Alcohol Table.)

One of the principal sources of mischief in the use of alcoholic liquors is the practice of taking them to quench thirst in the place of unfermented drinks. The sense of thirst is a call from the organism for water, not for alcohol. Let the alcohol be taken as food, as medicine, or as a luxury, but not to quench thirst in the place of those unfermented liquors which are essential to health as diluents and solvents. (See Alcohol Table; Remarks on Alcohol in "Preliminary Remarks;" and Appendix.)

Alcohol Fasts. - Those who habitually take alcohol daily, should abstain from it entirely for a few days twice or thrice a year.