food. The quantity, as a rule, should not exceed eight ounces.

In replacing them with wine, especial regard should be had to its quality. The artificial mixtures called wines may be a source of much mischief. If really good wine can be obtained, "the pure blood of the grape," the selection of the kind to be preferred is of less moment. The light wines of France are suitable for six months in the year only, in this climate. For the rest of the

The change from

year, good port has no equal. one to the other is also beneficial. If those who have taken wine liberally would gradually reduce the amount to four or even two ounces of port, sherry, marsala, or madeira, at dinner, they would do well. The same amount for those not previously accustomed to it, and who, from debility, sluggish circulation, or other reasons, adopt it, should never be exceeded.

Sherries are too often sophisticated; marsala is much recommended as likely to be pure and less acid. It is good to vary the kind taken. The · number and names of wines submitted to our choice is legion. It should be a rule to avoid for

ever any wine found uncongenial to the stomach or to produce head-ache. (See Note H, p. 163.)

It is always best and most advisable for all persons to abstain from the daily and habitual use of ardent spirits altogether. They should be reserved for emergencies. And it is wise not to refuse them when real need arises.

A sudden indigestion, spasms, a chill caused by exposure to wet or cold weather, temporary depression of the vital forces, justify the use of spirits in proper quantity; and in such cases they are invaluable.

Elderly persons who in winter suffer from cold feet, and find artificial heat applied externally fails to afford relief, may with undoubted propriety and advantage take half an ounce to one ounce of brandy, rum, or whisky in hot water on going to bed. The choice must be determined by the effects. If a headache or foul tongue in the morning follows, the inference is, the spirit was impure, probably containing fusel oil. A very slight trace of this noxious ingredient in spirits, will, in some constitutions, produce headache—as accurate a test of impurity as chemistry can employ.

There is a form in the British Pharmacopoeia for a brandy mixture, intended for use in the collapse occurring in many diseases. As all the colleges concurred in producing that work, we may assume that a large proportion of the physicians of Great Britain approve of this occasional use of ardent spirits. A pamphlet circulated extensively by the Temperance League, charges the profession with exciting and abetting drunkenness by this use of spirits. It maintains that we ought in emergencies rather let our patients die than administer alcohol in any form. Such fanaticism neutralizes all the arguments in favour of total abstinence.

CLIMATE, ITS EFFECTS ON LONGEVITY.

If the recorded cases of persons who have attained to a great age, say 90 and upwards, are tabulated according to the locality where they have occurred, it might be concluded that climate has had little influence. In every part of the world, in every county and district in this country, such aged persons have been and

are still met with. Against the acknowledged longevity of those classes whose wealth enables them to enjoy a change of climate whenever they please, we may set the frequent observation of the clergy, the female sex, the pauper, all of whom are most commonly obliged to spend their time within a very narrow range of place.

And yet it must be admitted we have ample testimony to the great benefit to health derived from a resort to milder climates during our cold, wet, fickle, and inconstant winters. If, however, during this season due precautions are taken by elderly people, a rigid avoidance of exposure to cold, damp, unfavourable winds, they will, in most cases, do as well in England as anywhere. Of course, in exceptional cases, where some failure of a local organ, the lungs and air passages more especially, already exists, resort to a warm climate may be advisable. The range of choice is now thanks to steam and rail-very wide. Every quarter of the globe is available. Fashion has ever been the guide, and probably will continue to be so. Without being able to give any very definite statistics on the subject, I have à

well-grounded suspicion that in many places of resort for change of climate, there are circumstances and conditions tending to counterbalance their advantages, by exposing visitors to forms of mischief different perhaps in kind from those they would encounter at home, but equally injurious and opposed to the attainment of long life.

A really fair and impartial estimate of the character of scarcely any of those resorts is obtainable; so many interests are involved, concealments practised, and motives existing, to allure the stream of visitors, that the real facts cannot be ascertained.

The refreshment of change to this place or that, of immunity from the cares of home and business, the mild occupations of the mind, and the bodily exercise usually associated with the climate, greatly benefit the young and the adult; although how often do we witness one or more children of a large family-and even an adultgiven to these migratory habits fall victims to some local and fatal disease?

The choice of a place to elderly people in search