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FLETCHERISM: WHAT IT IS


HORACE FLETCHER'S WORKS


 THE A.B.-Z. OF OUR OWN NUTRITION. Thirty-fourth thousand. 462 pp.

 THE NEW MENTICULTURE; OR, THE A-B-C OF TRUE LIVING. Fifty-third
 thousand. 310 pp.

 THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE; OR, ECONOMIC NUTRITION. Eighteenth
 thousand. 344 pp.

 HAPPINESS AS FOUND IN FORETHOUGHT MINUS FEARTHOUGHT. Fifteenth
 thousand. 251 pp.

 THAT LAST WAIF; OR, SOCIAL QUARANTINE. Sixth thousand. 270 pp.

 FLETCHERISM: WHAT IT IS; OR, HOW I BECAME YOUNG AT SIXTY. 240 pp.


[Illustration: THE AUTHOR]


    FLETCHERISM

    WHAT IT IS

    OR

    HOW I BECAME YOUNG
    AT SIXTY

    BY

    HORACE FLETCHER, A.M.

    _Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science_

    NEW YORK
    FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
    PUBLISHERS


    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
    FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

   _September, 1913_

    THE.PLIMPTON.PRESS
    NORWOOD.MASS.U.S.A




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                              PAGE

  INTRODUCTION                            ix

  PREFACE                                 xi

  I HOW I BECAME A FLETCHERITE             1

  II SCIENTIFIC TESTS                     15

  III WHAT I AM ASKED ABOUT
  FLETCHERISM                             32

  IV RULES OF FLETCHERISM                 51

  V WHAT IS PROPER MASTICATION?           64

  VI WHAT IS HEAD DIGESTION?              73

  VII CHITTENDEN ON CAREFUL
  CHEWING                                 84

  VIII THE THREE INCHES OF PERSONAL
  RESPONSIBILITY                          91

  IX QUESTION PRESCRIPTION AND
  PROSCRIPTION                           104

  X WHAT CONSTITUTES A FLETCHERITE       116

  XI ALL DECENT EATERS ARE
  FLETCHERITES                           126

  XII FLETCHERIZING AS A TEMPERANCE
  EXPEDIENT                              138

  XIII THE MENACE OF MODERN MIXED
  MENUS                                  158

  XIV THE CRUX OF FLETCHERISM            170

  XV FLETCHERISM AND VEGETARIANISM       180

  APPENDIX                               197

  INDEX                                  221




ILLUSTRATIONS


  The Author      _Frontispiece_

                                               FACING
                                                PAGE

  The Author Testing His Endurance by Means
  of the Kellog Mercurial Dynamometer             16

  The Author Undergoing a Test at Yale When
  He Made a World's Record on the Irving
  Fisher Endurance Testing Machine                28

  The Author Feeling Himself to Be the Most
  Fortunate Person Alive                          70

  Horace Fletcher in His Master of Arts Robes     98

  The Author, on his Sixtieth Birthday, Performing
  Feats of Agility and Strength which
  Would Be Remarkable Even in a Young
  Athlete                                        100




INTRODUCTION


Fletcherism has become a fact.

A dozen years ago it was laughed at as the "chew-chew" cult; to-day
the most famous men of Science endorse it and teach its principles.
Scientific leaders at the world's foremost Universities--Cambridge,
England; Turin, Italy; Berne, Switzerland; La Sorbonne, France; Berlin,
Prussia; Brussels, Belgium; St. Petersburg, Russia; as well as Harvard,
Yale and Johns Hopkins in America--have shown themselves in complete
accord with Mr. Fletcher's teachings.

The intention of the present volume is that it shall stand as a compact
statement of the Gospel of Fletcherism, whereas his other volumes treat
the subject more at length and are devoted to different phases of Mr.
Fletcher's philosophy. The author here relates briefly the story of
his regeneration, of how he rescued himself from the prospect of an
early grave, and brought himself to his present splendid physical and
mental condition. He tells of the discovery of his principles, which
have helped millions of people to live better, happier, and healthier
lives.

Mr. Fletcher writes with all his well-known literary charm and
vivacity, which have won for his works such a wide-spread popular
demand.

It is safe to say that no intelligent reader will peruse this work
without becoming convinced that Mr. Fletcher's principles as to
eating and living are the sanest that have ever been propounded; that
Fletcherism demands no heroic sacrifices of the enjoyments that go to
make life worth living, but, to the contrary, that the path to Dietetic
Righteousness, which Mr. Fletcher would have us tread, must be the
pleasantest of all life's pleasant ways.

  THE PUBLISHERS




PREFACE

 "_What is good for the richest man in the world, must be also good for
 the poorest, and all in between._" _Daily Express, London, May 15th,
 1913._


This quotation was apropos of an announcement in the _Evening Mail_, of
New York, telling that the Twentieth Century Croesus and financial
philosopher, John D. Rockefeller, had uttered a Confession of his Faith
in the fundamental principles of Dietetic Righteousness and General
Efficiency as follows:

"Don't gobble your food. Fletcherize, or chew very slowly while you
eat. Talk on pleasant topics. Don't be in a hurry. Take time to
masticate and cultivate a cheerful appetite while you eat. So will
the demon indigestion be encompassed round about and his slaughter
complete."

       *       *       *       *       *

At the time this compendium of physiological and psychological wisdom
concerning the source of health, comfort, and happiness came to my
notice I was engaged in furnishing my publishers with a "compact
statement of the Gospel of Fletcherism," as they call it, and hence the
able assistance of Mr. Rockefeller was welcomed most cordially. Here it
was in a nutshell, crystallized, compact, refined, monopolized as to
brevity of description, masterly, and practically leaving little more
to be said.

The Grand Old Man of Democracy in England, William Ewart Gladstone, had
had his say on the same subject some years before, and will be known
to the future of physiological fitness more permanently on account
of his glorification of Head Digestion of food than for his Liberal
Statesmanship.

In like manner, Mr. Rockefeller will deserve more gratitude from
posterity for having prescribed the secret of highest mental and
physical efficiency in thirty-three words, than for the multiple
millions he is dedicating to Science and Sociological Betterment.

It will be interesting, however, to seekers after supermanish health
and strength to know how the author took the "straight tip" of Mr.
Gladstone, and "worked it for all it was worth" until Mr. Rockefeller
referred to the process of common-sense involved as "Fletcherizing."

I assure you it is an interesting story. It has taken nearly fifteen
years to bring the development to the point where Mr. Rockefeller,
who is carefulness personified when it comes to committing himself
for publication, is willing to express his opinion on the subject. It
has cost the author unremitting, completely-absorbing, and prayerful
concentration of attention, and nearly twenty thousand pounds sterling
($100,000), spent in fostering investigations and securing publicity of
the results of the inquiries, with some of the best people in Science,
Medicine, and Business helping him with generous assistance, to
accomplish this triumph of natural sanity.

In addition to other co-operation, and the most effective, perhaps, it
is appropriate to say that there is scarcely a periodical published in
all the world, either technical, news-bearing, or otherwise, on the
staff of which there has not been some member who has not received
some personal benefit from the suggestions carried by the economic
system now embodied in the latest dictionaries of many nations as
"Fletcherism."

The first rule of "Fletcherism" is to feel gratitude and to express
appreciation for and of all the blessings which Nature, intelligence,
civilization, and imagination bring to mankind; and this utterance
will be endorsed, I am sure, by the millions of persons who have
found economy, health, and general happiness through attention to the
requirements of dietetic righteousness. It will be especially approved
by those who, like Mr. Rockefeller, gained new leases of life after
having burned the candle of prudence at both ends and in the middle, to
the point of nearly going out, in the struggle for money.

Yet the secret of preserving natural efficiency is even more valuable
than cure or repair of damages due to carelessness and over-strain.
In this respect the simple rules of Fletcherizing, embodying the
requirements of Nature in co-operative nutrition, are made effective by
formulating exercises whereby habit-of-conformity is formed, and takes
command of the situation so efficiently, that no more thought need be
given to the matter than is necessary in regard to breathing, quenching
thirst, or observing "the rule of the road" in avoiding collisions in
crowded public thoroughfares.

Mr. Rockefeller's thirty-three words not only comprise the practical
gist of Fletcherism, but also state the most important fact, that by
these means the real dietetic devil, the devil of devils, is kept at a
safe distance.

The mechanical act of mastication is easy to manage; but this is
not all there is to head digestion. Bad habits of inattention and
indifference have to be conquered before good habits of deliberation
and appreciation are formed. These requirements of healthy nutrition
have been studied extensively and analyzed thoroughly, to the end that
we know that they may be acquired with ease if sought with serious
interest and respect.

I began the preface by quoting the statement that "What is good for the
_richest man in the world_ must be also good for the poorest, and all
in between." I will close by asserting that

 "_Doing the right thing in securing right nutrition is easier than not
 if you only know how._"




    FLETCHERISM:

    WHAT IT IS




CHAPTER I

HOW I BECAME A FLETCHERITE

 My Turning Point--How I had Ignored My Responsibility--What Happens
 during Mastication--The Four Principles of Fletcherism


Over twenty years ago, at the age of forty years, my hair was white; I
weighed two hundred and seventeen pounds (about fifty pounds more than
I should for my height of five feet six inches); every six months or so
I had a bad attack of "influenza"; I was harrowed by indigestion; I was
afflicted with "that tired feeling." I was an old man at forty, on the
way to a rapid decline.

It was at about this time that I applied for a life-insurance policy,
and was "turned down" by the examiners as a "poor risk." This was
the final straw. I was not afraid to die; I had long ago learned to
look upon death with equanimity. At the same time I had a keen desire
to live, and then and there made a determination that I would find
out what was the matter, and, if I could do so, save myself from my
threatened demise.

I realised that the first thing to do was, if possible, to close up my
business arrangements so that I could devote myself to the study of how
to keep on the face of the earth for a few more years. This I found it
possible to do, and I retired from active money-making.

The desire of my life was to live in Japan, where I had resided for
several years, and to which country I was passionately devoted. My
tastes were in the direction of the fine arts. Japan had been for years
my Mecca--my household goods were already there, waiting until I
should take up my permanent residence; and it required no small amount
of will-power to turn away from the cherished hope of a lifetime, to
continue travelling over the world, and concentrate upon finding a way
to keep alive.

I turned my back on Japan, and began my quest for health. For a time, I
tried some of the most famous "cures" in the world. Here and there were
moments of hope, but in the end I was met with disappointment.


THE TURNING POINT

It was partly accidental and partly otherwise that I finally found a
clue to the solution of my health disabilities. A faint suggestion
of possibilities of arrest of decline had dawned upon me in the city
of Galveston, Texas, some years before, and had been strengthened by
a visit to an Epicurean philosopher who had a snipe estate among the
marshlands of Southern Louisiana and a truffle preserve near Pau,
in France. He was a disciple of Gladstone, and faithfully followed
the rules relative to thorough chewing of food which the Grand Old
Man of England had formulated for the guidance of his children. My
friend in Louisiana attributed his robustness of health as much to
this protection against overeating as to the exercise incident to his
favourite sports. But these impressions had not been strong enough to
have a lasting effect.

One day, however, I was called to Chicago to attend to some unfinished
business affairs. They were difficult of settlement, and I was
compelled to "mark time" in the Western city with nothing especially
to do. It was at this time, in 1898, that I began to think seriously
of eating and its effect upon health. I read a great many books, only
to find that no two authors agreed; and I argued from this fact that
no one had found the truth, or else there would be some consensus of
agreement. So I stopped reading, and determined to consult Mother
Nature herself for direction.


HOW I HAD IGNORED MY RESPONSIBILITY

I began by trying to find out why Nature required us to eat, and how
and when. The key to my search was a firm belief in the good intentions
of Nature in the interest of our health and happiness, and a belief
also that anything less than good health and high efficiency was due to
transgressions against certain good and beneficent laws. Hence, it was
merely a question of search to find out the nature of the transgression.

The fault was one of nutrition, evidently.

I argued that if Nature had given us personal responsibility it was not
hidden away in the dark folds and coils of the alimentary canal where
we could not control it. The fault or faults must be committed before
the food was swallowed. I felt instinctively that here was the key to
the whole situation. The point, then, was to study the cavity of the
mouth; and the first thought was: "What happens there?" and "What is
present there?" The answer was: Taste, Smell (closely akin to taste
and hardly to be distinguished from it), Feeling, Saliva, Mastication,
Appetite, Tongue, Teeth, etc.

I first took up the careful study of Taste, necessitating keeping food
in the mouth as long as possible, to learn its course and development;
and, as I tried it myself, wonders of new and pleasant sensations were
revealed. New delights of taste were discovered. Appetite assumed new
leanings. Then came the vital discovery, which is this: I found that
each of us has what I call a food-filter: a discriminating muscular
gate located at the back of the mouth where the throat is shut off from
the mouth during the process of mastication. Just where the tongue
drops over backward toward its so-called roots there are usually five
(sometimes seven, we are told) little teat-like projections placed
in the shape of a horseshoe, each of them having a trough around it,
and in these troughs, or depressions, terminate a great number of
taste-buds, or ends of gustatory nerves. Just at this point the roof of
the mouth, or the "hard palate," ends; and the "soft palate," with the
uvula at the end of it, drops down behind the heavy part of the tongue.

During the natural act of chewing the lips are closed, and there is
also a complete closure at the back part of the mouth by the pressing
of the tongue against the roof of the mouth. During mastication, then,
the mouth is an airtight pouch.

After which brief description, please note, the next time you take food,


WHAT HAPPENS DURING MASTICATION

Hold the face down, so that the tongue hangs perpendicularly in the
mouth. This is for two reasons: one, because it will show how food,
when properly mixed with saliva, will be lifted up in the hollow part
in the middle of the tongue, against the direct force of gravity, and
will collect at the place where the mouth is shut off at the back, the
food-gate.

It is a real gate; and while the food is being masticated, so that it
may be mixed with saliva and chemically transformed from its crude
condition into the chemical form that makes it possible of digestion
and absorption, this gate will remain tightly shut, and the throat will
be entirely cut off from the mouth.

But as the food becomes creamy, so to speak, through being mixed with
saliva, or emulsified, or alkalised, or neutralised, or dextrinised, or
modified in whatever form Nature requires, the creamy substance will
be drawn up the central conduit of the tongue until it reaches the
food-gate.

If it is found by the taste-buds there located around the
"circumvalate papillae" (the teat-like projections on the tongue
which I mentioned above) to be properly prepared for acceptance
and further digestion, the food-gate will open, and the food thus
ready for acceptance into the body will be sucked back and swallowed
unconsciously--that is, without conscious effort.

I now started to experiment on myself. I chewed my food carefully until
I extracted all taste from it there was in it, and until it slipped
unconsciously down my throat. When the appetite ceased, and I was
thereby told that I had