Youth and Sex | Page 6

when taken in the proper way for sweetening beverages, fruit,
and puddings, it is entirely good. The afternoon meal should consist chiefly of bread and
butter and milk or cocoa, with a fair proportion of simple, well-made cake, and in the
case where animal food has been taken both at breakfast and dinner, the evening meal

might well be bread and butter, bread and milk, or milk pudding with stewed or fresh
fruit. But it is different in the case of those adolescents whose midday meal is necessarily
slight, and who ought to have a thoroughly good dinner or supper early in the evening;
One would have thought it unnecessary to mention alcohol in speaking of the dietary of
young people were it not that, strange to say, beer is still given at some of our public
schools. It is extraordinary that wise and intelligent people should still give beer to young
boys and girls at the very time when what they want is strength and not stimulus, food for
the growing frame and nothing to stimulate the already exuberant passions.
An invariable rule with regard to the food of children should be that their meals should be
regular, that they should consist of good, varied, nourishing food taken at regular hours,
and that nothing should be eaten between meals. The practice of eating biscuits, fruit, and
sweets between meals during childhood and adolescence not only spoils the digestion and
impairs the nutrition at the time, but it is apt to lay the foundation of a constant craving
for something which is only too likely to take the form of alcoholic craving in later years.
It is impossible for the stomach to perform its duty satisfactorily if it is never allowed rest,
and the introduction of stray morsels of food at irregular times prevents this, and
introduces confusion into the digestive work, because there will be in the stomach at the
same time food in various stages of digestion.
Warmth.--Warmth is one of the influences essential to health and to sound development,
and although artificial warmth is more urgently required by little children and by old
people than it is by young adults, still, if their bodies are to come to their utmost possible
perfection, they require suitable conditions of temperature. This is provided in the winter
partly by artificial heating of houses and partly by the wearing of suitable clothing. Ideal
clothing is loose of texture and woven of wool, although a fairly good substitute can be
obtained in materials that are made from cotton treated specially.
This is not the time or place in which to insist on the very grave dangers that accompany
the use of ordinary flannelette, but a caution must be addressed in passing to those who
provide clothing for others. In providing clothes it is necessary to remember the two
reasons for their existence: (1) to cover the body, and (2) as far as possible to protect a
large area of its surface against undue damp and cold.
Adolescents, as a rule, begin early to take a great interest in their clothes. From the time
that the appreciation of the opposite sex commences, the child who has hitherto been
indifferent or even slovenly in the matter of clothing takes a very living interest in it;
indeed the adornment of person and the minute care devoted to details of the toilet by
young people of both sexes remind one irresistibly of the preening of the feathers, the
strutting and other antics of birds before their mates.
Girls especially are apt to forget the primary object of clothing, and to think of it too
much as a means of adornment. This leads to excesses and follies such as tight waists,
high-heeled shoes, to the ungainly crinoline or to indecent scantiness of skirts. Direct
interference in these matters is badly tolerated, but much may be accomplished both by
example and by cultivating a refined and artistic taste in sumptuary matters.
Sleep.--Amongst the most important of the factors that conduce to well-being both of
body and mind must be reckoned an adequate amount of sleep. This has been made the
subject of careful inquiry by Dr. Dukes of Rugby and Miss Alice Ravenhill. Both these
trained and careful observers agree that the majority of young people get far too little rest
and sleep. We have to remember that although fully-grown adults will take rest when

they can get it in the daytime, young people are too active, and sometimes too restless, to
give any repose to brain or muscle except during sleep. In the early years of adolescence
ten hours sleep is none too much; even an adult in full work ought to have eight hours,
and still more is necessary for the rapidly-growing, continually-developing, and
never-resting adolescent. It is