Licence: In copyright
Credit: On means for the prolongation of life. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![after 70 with still less. We can speak, how- ever, only of a rule which allows many ex- ceptions, due either to peculiarities of constitu- tion, or to habit, or to special occupation, or to increased or diminished physical or mental exer- cise. Thus, for instance, soldiers or labourers on fatigue duty or extra work require more than the average ; even old men doing an unusual amount of labour are through this enabled to consume more than those at only ordinary work. On the other side, persons doing comparatively little work require for the same body-weight rather less than the more active ones. It is often said that persons doing a large amount of brain-work require a large amount of food and stimulants ; but careful observation does not prove this to be the case. I have known many hard brain-workers who did their work best when they ate and drank very little. Dr. Keith, in his Plea for a Simpler Life [64], mentions that Sir Isaac Newton, Napoleon, and Wellington took scarcely any food while they were engaged in great problems. Several of my own friends occupied during long periods in arduous literary work took during such periods much less food than at periods of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2398465x_0120.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
