Another source of harm is the ordinary diet of the citizens. There is
probably no large city of the Old World where the lower classes are
able to obtain so much substantial food as in Munich. Indeed, there
is, properly speaking, no abject poverty in that city, although the
population, as a whole, possesses less wealth than is usually found in
capitals; one reason of this being the fact that many families who are
rich enough to choose their place of residence avoid Munich on account
of its notorious sickliness, while their places are filled by
tradesmen and artisans of all kinds, who must make a living at
whatever risk of life. But, at any rate, no one dies there of
starvation, and the great majority of the citizens are able to have
meat for dinner every day. Unfortunately, veal--and very young veal at
that--is the favorite dish of all classes, so that the benefit derived
from animal juices is not so great as it might be. During the recent
Franco-German war it was remarked that the Bavarian soldiers were able
neither to resist nor to endure so well as the troops of North
Germany; and by many this difference was ascribed to the habitual use
by the former of veal as the chief article of diet. There is no doubt,
too, that the immoderate drinking of beer tends to weaken instead of
strengthen the inhabitants, especially as so many of them drink when
they ought to eat, even beginning a day's work by chilling their
stomachs with this cold beverage, and necessitating thereby a
supplementary draught of "schnapps," thus creating excitement instead
of nourishment, and superinducing a second bad habit upon a first.
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