IP 999999954 23043667 9999999992 NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NLM DOlimi 5 iQ'0&0&0Q'OQ'0QOQ>OQj(JQ/3<^O^OQjOQOQGQ/JQG'^< ■j}- "**. NLM001419995 \.yS«*-.4. See '. . A**!*&fc-v ■-: <' - mtm >'*'« &•' !&£:£& i*y.'- TV ^*8?**\ w^-i DYSPEPSIA, AND tTS KIJN DEED DISEASES, BY Dr. W. W. HALL, Autboi of "How to Live Long," "Fun Better than Physic " Health by Good Living," etc., etc. jYi^.'a ip.- ^ NEW YORK: R. WORTHINGTON, 750 BROADWAY. 1877. Ar\nt* WI COPYRIOHTED. BKLFORD BROTHERS. A. D. 1877, INDEX. PAGE. Avoid experiments...................................... 2G1 Avoidable things in dyspepsia ........................... 227 Avoid noticing symptoms............................... 107 A case................................................ l i Acidity, heart-burn, &c.................................. 2i Acidity of stomach..........\^*>~*—^................... 9 Avoid concentrated food.. ,< ^, A /".' .'..................... '83 A bad taste..............,."---T.. .TT................... 18S Baths and bathing........................■ • /?«.......... 5^ Bad breath................................V • -...... io3 Bread and cheese............................•'• ■ • 1...... *4" Biliousness....................."...........•............ °3 Bile........................................*.......... S5 Cold feet.............................................. 4> Checking perspiration.................................... 53 Consumption.............. .......................... 72 Children's eating,....................................... 79 Consequences of dyspepsia............................... °° Craving appetite........................................ '93 Change of scenery beneficial............................. 2°7 Colic.................................................. 99 Change in habits.......................<................ 23° Costiveness............................................ 44 88 Constipation..........................r...... .......... Congestive chill........................................ I2 Cure for drunkenness.................................... '95 iv INDEX. PAGl Digestion of food...................................... 9? Digestibility of food..................................... 105 Delicacies.............................................. ' 23 Drinking at meals.................................125, 199 Digestibility of food—Table No. V...................... 173 •• '• » ■• VI...................... 175 Dieting the stomach................................... 197 Disregard of physical laws............................... 22 J Dyspepsia................. ............................ 9 Desserts are hurtful..................................... 122 Dyspeptic torments...................................... 131 Exercise before breakfast............................... 32 Early rising........................................... 35 Eating too much........................................ 69 Eating too often........................................ 70 Elements of food....................................... 177 Eating between meals................................... 115 Experiments............................................ 143 Essential elements of nutrition............................ 147 Experimental eating.................................... 237 Eating slowly.......................................... 181 Fagged out............................................ 30 Fresh meats............................................ 19] Gnawing hunger........................................ 11 j Gall-stones............................................. 87 General instructions.................................... 229 Good Teeth.,.......................................... 102 Humoring............................................ ir I luman depravity...................................... 31; How much to eat....................................... 179 Hand-feeding of infants.................................. X51 Homoeopathic treatment of dyspepsia..................... 249 Heartburn............................................. 271 Ind;gestion............................................ 5^ Insupportable gnawing.................................. 22 Keeping the fee: warm.................................. 40 IXDtiX. V PAGE. Loose bowels.......................................... 47 Mode of treatment...................................... x3 Mode of digestion...................................... IO) Mode of preparing food.................................. I09 Muffling up............................................ 81 Masked dyspepsia...........................*.......... T&9 Nutritive equivalents—Table No III..................... 166 Nutritive value of food— Table No. 1...................... 146 "Notions"........................................... '9 Night air.............................................. 37 Out-door activities...................................... 32 Oatmeal diet........................................... 2I0 Out-door exercise after nu als............................. 109 Over-feeding of infants................................. *39 Object of eating........................................ 171 Preface............................................... 7 Preparing baby food................................... '49 Precautionary measures.................................. 29 l'erils of water cure.................................... "4 Philosophy of exercise................................... 238 Regulating the diet..................................... J4* Recapitulation.......................................... ' 5 Radical cure............................................ 2°9 Regulating the bowels................................... 45 Splendid dinner....................................... I24 Spasms in the stomach................................... 269 „ . ...............11, 261 Symptoms...... .......................... Sick headache...........................................253 Sleeping rooms................................... Steady headache...................................... 23 Sickness the result of overstrain......................... 2l8 Sickness at stomach..................................... I3 Surfeit................................................ I3i Solidity and matter of food-Table No. IV................ it>5 Treatment of the disease................................. 2 3 The great remedy................................... 255 vi INDEX. PAGE. The lungs............................................^53 The grape cure....................................... 203 The rest cure........................................... 215 The benefits of rest....................................225 Taking cold........................................... 4$ The philosophy of dyspepsia............................. 94 The use of strychnine.................................. 267 Treatment............................................. 276 The gastric juice...................................... 101 Unwise practices........................................ 265 Vomiting of blood...................................... 270 Variety of food......................................... 121 Varieties of dyspepsia................................... 255 Vaunted cures.......................................... 91 Working soon after eating................................ 128 Weakness of debility.................................... 250 What is dyspepsia ?..................................... 26 Voung mothers......................................... 139 PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. " Know thyself " is a maxim as fully applicable to one's physical system as to one's moral nature. And yet how great is the number of people who are blindly ignorant of the rules of health. Dyspepsia is one of the most common, as it is one of the most distressing, of human ailments. There is no need to depict the miseries which are incident to it. And yet it may not only be pre- vented by careful habits of living, but effectually cured. Dr. W. W. Hall, of New York, for many years editor of the Journal of Health, and the author of several works on hygiene and medical treatment, wrote this book for exclusive publication in Canada and the United States by our house; but though he had completed the writing of it, he did not live to read all the proofs. As the last production of so eminent a specialist, it will have exceptionable claims on the public. Apart from this, however, it will be found to be a book of rare merit, giving full detailed instructions regarding Dyspepsia, which, if followed, must result in the alleviation of a great amount of suffering. DYSPEPSIA. A gentleman's younger daughter had been a sufferer for several years, had taken a great deal of medicine from numerous physicians, had been abroad travelling through various European coun- tries in search of health, but had returned home not materially benefitted, and became such a sufferer that some anxiety was felt as to the result. The family was one of social position and means, and lived in a part of the city so well situated for convenience and healthfulness and desirable sur- roundings, that it might have been considered a mystery why, with all the additional advantages that money could procure and facilities for all sorts of exercise on foot, or horse, or carriage, with the Central Park near at hand, and opportunities for every kind of diversion, and books and periodicals, the sympathies and visits of friends, with domestic relations, surroundings, and associations seldom equalled—why, with all these, the young lady } et 10 DYSPEPSIA. in her teens, was not only not improving, but was becoming more and more a sufferer every day, not only from her original malady, but from ugly com- plications very naturally arising therefrom. The patient was confined to the house and her bed ; in person approaching to tall, in a lady ; pale in face, slim in body, and wasted generally; the skin was fevered and the pulse fast and weak; no appetite, no strength, no ambition, no courage, and without that force of will so necessary as an aid in getting well from any disease. She seemed to have suffered at one time or another almost every ail- ment possible to the human body, in a greater or less degree. She could not even drink a cup of tea, take a glass of the purest and freshest milk, or sip a little cold water, without more or less suffer- ing at times. One thing was clear, she had no cough, no con- sumptive disease, no organic malady, no heart affection; nothing that threatened life. In short, it was a plain case of an aggravated form of dyspeptic disease ; made worse ever yday literally, by a persistent forcing on the stomach, what was inevitably followed by human agony; such dread- ful head-aches, such unendurable pains in the stomach, which only persistent drinks of brandy SYMPTOMS. 3 suffered so greatly; had such violent stretcl- ing out of the ar.ns, and, at times, fainting away, that life seemed undesirable even if possible. A minute examination of the case and its history from the beginning elicited the information that all of the following symptoms, in varying intensities and at irregular intervals, had presented them- selves, and for convenience of reference are placed in alphabetical order, but not in that of theii appearing; this was learned from the lady-like and intelligent mother, who was also the devoted nurse : Acidity, Appetite excessive, Appetite fitful, Appetite vitiated, Appetite capricious, Appetite wanting, Bad taste, Belching, Burning in throat, Burning in stomach, Cold feet, Costiveness, Distension, Dizziness, Emptiness, Eructation, Flatulency, Flushings, Pain, sharp Fulness, Palpitation, General distress, Rumination, "Gnawing" sensation,Sinking, " Goneness," Haggard face, I lead-ache, Heartburn, Heaviness, Load at stomach, Nausea, Nightmare, Skin, dry Skin, harsh Skin, hot Sleep, often restless Sour stomach, Stretchings, Tenderness at stomach Tongue white, Oppression on chest, Ugly dreams, Pain in bowels, Wakefulness, Pain, dull Water-brash, Pain, gnawing Weakness, Pain, griping Weight at stomach. 12 DYSPEPSIA. In addition, there were diseases of the mind, not the less distressful from their being denominated nervous ; for all suffering is nervous, all feeling is nervous—that is, in the nerves. MENTAL SYMPTOMS. dyings, Fretfulness, Nervousness, Depression of spirits, Forebodings, Self-distrust, Despondency, Irritability, Want of energy, Discouragement, Moodiness, Want of decision. Two things were clear : the disease was indiges- tion and that the young lady would get well, pro- vided she would co-operate with her physician in the means which would be proposed from time to time. Within a month she had nothing to com- plain of, except that she could not get enough to eat; no head-ache, no distress after meals, sleep sound, bodily functions requiring no attention. The object of this book is to give information, plain, exact, practical, so that it can be consulted for the reader's benefit, personally, if he is a dys- peptic. The key to the cure of this interesting young ^dy was found in a single remark of the mother—that she had been living largely on sweet milk, as it wa5 thought that it was the most natu- ral and healthy food ; sometimes a quart or more a MODE OF TREATMENT. day, although she detested it and wanted every cow in the universe to get as dry as a bone and remain so forever: not only because the milk was distasteful to her, but because of the inevitable distress and torment which followed; in fact, almost everything taken into the stomach distressed and sometimes almost crazed her. The only thing the physician had to do in this case was to find something which she could eat that would not distress her. As she was exceedingly thirsty, and milk, and tea, and even cold water, were causes of great dis- comfort, while spirits of every description were inapplicable, the way was clear and plain—not to drink anything, and this is often an essential ele- ment in the cure of dyspepsia; especially to forbid fluids at meal-time, because by diluting the food- dissolving liquids in the stomach, their power of digestion is lessened, when the great, the essential, requirement is to increase the digestive power, if possible. An important element in the cure of dyspepsia, is to keep the mind of the patient in a comfortable condition, to keep up the spirits; for this promotes the more natural, the freer circulation of the blood, drives it out from the heart. All know that the li« DYSPEPSIA. heart, the pulse, beats faster while exercising the body, and so do they beat faster from exhilaration of the mind, as may be tested any hour in any person. Let any one, man or woman, sit two or three hours or more, pretty much alone in the house, of a rainy day. nobody to talk to, nothing to do, tired of reading and tired of work, depression of spirits will creep over the mind, the pulse is going to sleep and the blood is becoming stagnant; let a lively, cheerful visitor, or some dear friend or relative, unexpectedly come in, and there will be such a joy and animation that the heart throbs apace, the pulses beat to a new life, flushing the face and sparkling the eye, and driving the life currents tingling to the very ends of the fingers and toes, and in larger proportions to every part of the body, and to the stomach as well. But it's liquids, the gastric juices, which dissolve and digest the food, are made out of the blood ; and the more blood, the more gastric juice, and the more easily, and perfectly, and healthfully is the food prepared for giving nourishment and strength to the system ; not being thus easily prepared, is dys- pepsia or indigestion — two words meaning the same thing, the former being of Greek origin, the latter Latin. HUMORING. 15 These statements are made to show how it is that a pleasant state of the mind of a dyspeptic aids in the cure of his disease, and what a large influence it may have in promoting recovery to do all that is possible in studying out ways and means of diver- sion waking up hopeful and joyous feelings. This is an important element in the removal of all human maladies, but exceptionally so in dyspepsia because there are so many ailments to contend against. It is not one discomfort or pain in one part of the body, but in many—so many sometimes as to cause an almost insupportable miserableness in the whole system, corporeal and mental. HUMORING. It has a great good effect to humor the patient generally, to fall in with what are called his " notions," provided they do not interfere with the treatment. All know that it is better not to irri- tate a drunken man or a maniac unnecessarily. It is useless to endeavour to turn off a complaint by an impatient word, or wave of the hand, or con- temptuous sneer; to call it a mere figment of the imagination; to say that it is " nervous;" for whether nervous or imaginary, there is just as much discomfort, or annoyance, or torment, or 16 DYSPEPSIA. actual pain, as if it were a reality, and just as com- plete a prevention of all bodily and mental comfort. To " humor," to fall in with the peculiar or sin- gular views or hallucinations of a patient, is some- times to cure. It is unquestionably true that every dyspeptic is the subject of whims, and caprices, and notions, more or less distressing; in fact, unmistak- able insanity is often a result, an insanity so com- plete as to lead to suicide. Many a physician has been made the recipient of the confession either of the fear of suicide or of its contemplation; and many a man has been fretted out of the world by his own hands from either inability to endure the depressions or the tortures of dyspepsia. Hence, it is a humanity on the part of those who are asso- ciated with a dyspeptic to " humor " him; to fall in with any innocent notions, however absurd they may be, and never attempt argument, or opposition, or ridicule; for, in reality, the prevailing state of the mind of the dyspeptic for days and weeks sometimes tends to make him as really an unac- countable being as if he were insane; and as much may be done by acquiescing as with a maniac A CASE. A titled English lady was one day in her recep- tion-room in expectation of some visitors; she sat A CASE. 17 in her arm-chair elegantly dressed, a snow-white article of apparel falling on her person, from her chin, making a striking contrast with other parts of her clothing. Just at this juncture a gentleman came in, closed the door, and, putting the key in his pocket, turned to the lady, who was his mother, and said: " Mother, I am going to cut your throat." " Not now, my son; it would be a pity to soil this beautiful white handkerchief with blood; I will go up stairs and get a coloured one, and it will not show so much." The mother knew her unfortunate child, had studied all his moods, and had schooled herself into a perfectly calm demeanor under all emergencies; hence was able to answer in a way so natural, so undisturbed, and so reasonable to his weak mind, that it threw him off his guard, and he instantly unlocked the door, saying : "Yes, true, mother; go up stairs and get another," thus affording an opportunity to have him taken in charge. A man having a nose larger at the end than was natural to him became a victim to the hallucina- tion that a large bottle had grown on to the extremity of his proboscis, to the great annoyance 18 DYSPEPSIA. of his family and friends. Argument, contempt, ridicule, only confirmed him in his convictions, until it became in him a subject of incessant complaint, mortification, and alarm, for he said the slightest stroke upon it would break it all to pieces, and he would bleed to death. At last it was determined to consult a distinguished plrysician of a distant city, who, having duly listened to an almost inter- minable history of the case, said to the astonished relatives present: " Mr. H. is perfectly right; it is you who are mistaken; don't you see the bottle just there ? But I will take it off." So, arranging a case of instruments, placing the man in a sur- geon's operating chair, throwing the head so as to rest on the back, and tying a towel in a way to cover the eyes, he manipulated awhile, then instantly a stroke, a clash of broken glass scatter- ing upon the floor in a thousand fragments, and all was over. The man's eyes were unbandaged, there were the pieces of the broken bottle; he could feel nothing on his nose, he was satisfied of the completeness of his cure, paid his fee, and went home with a moun- tain weight off his mind, a happy man. The principle is exemplified in minor cases almost every day in city practice, when the physician " NOTIONS." 19 discovers mere "notions" and gives bread pills; or, as in the case of Mr. Abernethy, one of tire most skilful physicians of his time, when consulted by a gentleman whom he discovered to have dyspepsia and that no medicine could cure him, advised him to visit Mr. Andrew Robertson, a descendant of Mary, Queen of Scots, and of the clan of Struan. who had peculiar skill and remarkable success in such cases. The patient left London next morn- ing on horseback ; there being no railroads in those days, and the roads were difficult. After several months' absence, the patient returned and called on Mr. Abernethy in almost uncontrollable wrath, with the information that he had visited the place and found that no such person lived there, nor ever had ; and that he had spent weeks of travel in endeavoring to find him, but no such physician was known in all the north of Scotland. " But, tell me, how is your health ?" " O, I'm perfectly well, but I don't like to be made a fool of in that way, sir, and I won't put up with it." "But, sir, you came to me to know how you might get well. I saw that yours was a case which medicine could not cure ; that you wanted air and exercise, and an object in view, and I believed that 20 DYSPEPSIA. the plan proposed would secure the desired end; and such has been the result. What more could you want ?" A new light broke in upon the patient's mind, and, making suitable apologies, he paid a handsome fee and left, believing, as many others did, that Mr Abernethy was one of the greatest doctors in the world. This incident is narrated foi two reasons: First, to show that medical men of large experience find it advantageous to fall in with the prejudices of the weak-minded, made weak by disease, or to put them on methods of recovery without suspicion of the means. Second, the great but eccentric phy- sician knew at that early day that medicine could never cure dyspepsia when once it got a firm hold upon the system. Sometimes it may aid in bring- ing about desirable results ; or, in certain complica- tions, it may be necessary and may save time; but the main fact still remains that MEDICINE CANNOT CURE DYSPEPSI because the gastric juice which is essential for dis- solving the food and placing it in a condition to yield nutriment to the body is made out of the blood, cannot be made in any other way, and no MEDICINE CANNOT CURE DYSPEPSIA. 21 medicine can make blood, for it is constituted of elements found in nutritious food, and is found nowhere else, hence can be made in no other way. Thus the key to the cure of every case of dyspep- sia is the healthful digestion of food, and whatever promotes that promotes the cure. And here let the intelligent reader bear in mind that, as a necessary result of the statements made, all newspaper advertisements of medicines which cure dyspepsia are misleading, and that the employment of such remedies is worse than use- less ; for it not only is a waste of valuable time and a wicked waste of money, but their employment gives an opportunity to the disease to fix itself more deeply in the system, become more aggrava- ted, and hence more difficult of cure, to say nothing of the protracted, and additional, and aggravated sufferings which the malady occasions. In the case narrated, only a single dose of medi- cine was administered up to the time when it was considered that the foundation of the cure had been laid, and that nothing additional was needed but persistence and care in following out the gene- ral plan laid down. The case is not given as peculiar or very remark- able, except for the variety of the symptoms. In 22 DYSPEPSIA. ordinary cases, there are but few sources of annoy- ance or discomfort. One man complains of a heavy weight at the pit of the stomach after every meal. Another has such an INSUPPORTABLE GNAWING at the stomach awhile before the regular time for eating that he feels as if he must take something, having found by accident that a cracker, or an apple, or a piece of bread and butter, removes the uncomfortableness. Yielding to this becomes a habit which intensifies the disease and fixes it more firmly in the system. Persons thus affected should heroically resist, and wait until the regular time of eating, and then the gnawing will gradually dis- appear, if other means are carried out named in these pages. Another person, a short time after he has eaten, begins TO SPIT UP HIS FOOD. The stomach seems to be unable to retain it, nature, in her desperation, seeming to know that there is no gastric juice there to dissolve it, casts it out of the system, as unfit for retention. Others again soon after eating, perhaps half an hour, or an hour, or more, have no other sense of discomfort than a ACIDTTY. 23 STEADY HEADACHE, which generally increases in intensity, until it reaches its highest point, then gradually disap- pears, and, until the next meal, the person is as well as usual. A more common symptom is fre- quently denominated HEART BURN, a popular designation which does not properly e::press the nature of the symptom. There is, indeed, a burning sensation at the bottom of the throat, or at the pit of the stomach, or, in more aggravated cases, extending from the stomach to the throat along the centre of the chest, caused by the fermentation of the food, which means that it begins to rot, and turns sour, hence ACTDITY is sometimes such a tormenting symptom that it takes away all the life and strength and energy of a man. A case of several years standing was lately presented; that of an intelligent clergyman. He had been troubled for some years and in such an aggravated form that all joyousness had disappeared from his face and such a multitude of remedies had been advised and prescribed, and 24) DYSPEPSIA. Buch a variety of systems of diet had been resorted to that he had lost all confidence in every form of treatment and seemed to move about more mechanically than anything else; the prominent statements were that he was near fifty years of age, had led an out door life, was of strong build, and of a make of body which promised a life of full three score years and ten, yet with all that apparent strength of body he would sometimes be compelled, while conducting religious services, to ask to be excused, and at other times would feel as if he could not live ; his acidity was very aggravat- ing, and more so in the morning before breakfast than at any other time ; it was the bane of existence and he seemed to be incredulous of any mode of cure. Within a week, carrying out the principles referred to already, he was met in the street; no acidity, not a particle, the change amazing, and that he described himself as being an ENTIRELY NEW MAN. In reading standard works on dyspepsia, the reader will be impressed with the great variety of phases of dyspeptic disease, a wonderful combina- tion of symptoms, and nice distinctions, but these have not been entered into, the object has been to ACIDITY. 25 treat of that common form of the malady which manifests itself among the masses; which is seen in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, organic diseases, those involving the texture of the organ, as cancer and others, being incurable, have not been con- sidered, only those which present the ordinary symptoms as enumerated in the first pages of the book, and it is believed that if the principles of treatment which have been enumerated are carried out with reasonable fidelity a permanent cure will be the rule and failure an exception, but even in these, the amelioration of the disease will be most grateful. It would extend beyond the intended limits of this book to treat in detail and explain the philosophy of all the symptoms of dyspepsia which have been enumerated. It was merely designed to present the idea to the reader that while all the symptoms enumerated were to be observed among dyspeptics, it was not common for any one person to have but few of them, and, sometimes, but a single one is prominent in the onset of the malady; yet, in almost all cases, if the ailment is allowed to progress, most of the symptoms will manifest themselves sooner or later. 2 26 DYSPEPSIA. WHAT IS DYSPEPSIA ? When a person notices that invariably after eating a regular meal, half an hour, or hour, or more, some sensation attracts the attention unplea- santly, it matters not what that sensation is, THAT IS DYSPEPSIA, and unless attended to will gradually grow more decided, until the torments become numerous and incessant. The uncomfortable sensation may be very slight, almost inappreciable; it may not be a single one of those which have been mentioned in alphabetical order on page 11. For example a gentleman noticed every night, an hour or two after he got into bed, his feet began to get un- comfortably warm ; this increased gradually until it resulted in such an intolerable burning that he would frequently go out of doors in the dead of tha night in mid-winter, and walk on the snow in his bare feet. His dyspepsia was cured and there was no more need of the purgatorial remedy, bringing us back to the bottom fact, that, whenever a man has any un comfortableness about him at a regular time, after eating, he is dyspeptic. It is WHAT IS DYSPEPSIA? 27 indigestion in its first beginnings, and if then attacked it can be promptly and effectually cured, without a particle of medicine, but simply by a judicious regulation of what a person eats and drinks. If no efficient attention is paid to these beginning symptoms, they multiply in number and violence indefinitely; seldom proving fatal of them- selves, but gradually undermining the constitution, making it an easy prey to some acute malady, as the result of A LITTLE COLD, or slight over-exertion, or mere physical accident; but whether in its. beginnings or in its more advanced and aggravated forms the principles of cure are the same, requiring more or less special observance for a greater or less time, according to the intensity of the symptoms and the duration of their existence. Dyspepsia is inability on the part of the stomach to change the food intro- duced into it so as to yield nutriment to the body. Inability is weakness. The stomach is too weak to perform its necessary work. A servant who has been sick, but is slowly getting well, is weak, is unable to do much work, but can do a little, and do that little well; but if you give him 28 DYSPEPSIA. too much to do, more than he is able to do, he may, in his faithfulness, attempt to do it ail, and he may get through with it, but, in the effort to do it all, none of it is done well. In dyspepsia the whole man is weak, every part of him, and the stomach bears its proportion of the weakness; it can work up a little food, can digest a little, and if a little is given to it, will digest it well, with the result that the blood made out of it is good blood, and gives substantial strength to the system ; thus laying the foundation for recovery; for, as the body gets stronger, the stomach gets stronger, can do more work, can do it better, thus in turn imparting more and more strength to the system, enabling the patient to take more exercise, be longer in the open air without fatigue and without taking cold, and, with increasing strength, makes better blood, begins to gain in flesh, in good spirits and in hopefulness, in short is a new being. THE FIRST STEP then in the cure of dyspepsia is to ascertain, in each particular case, how much food the stomach can bear, what amount of work it can do, and do well. This is soon ascertained by the exercise of a close observation and a good judgment. But a PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES. 29 person of the humblest capacity can make a begin- ning at the very next meal, say dinner. First, drink nothing, not a drop of anything, not even pure water. Make no other change, but notice if there is any abatement of the symptoms. Perhaps it would be well to drink nothing at either meal for twenty-four hours, and then, whether there is any change or not, take no dessert of any kind at the second dinner; at the third, take but one kind of meat, and but one vegetable ; at the fourth din- ner, take no vegetable except boiled turnips, and if they produce no special discomfort, they can be eaten to advantage every day at dinner. On the fifth day at dinner, take brown bread, fresh meat, fish, or fowl, and boiled turnips, without any drink of any kind. Then, as to suppers, they should be made of brown bread and butter, or oatmeal por- ridge, or wh eaten grits, or cracked wheat, with a little salt, or butter, or sugar, no milk or anything else; varying the article every two or three days. For breakfast about this time, take the same as at supper, adding any kind of fresh meat above named, cut up as fine as a pea, eaten very slowly, and thoroughly chewed. If, after every mouthful, a newspaper or new testament were taken up and read a few minutes, chewing all the time, it would 30 DYSPEPSIA. be so much the better, because, in the process of chewing, the muscles of the cheeks work out a cer- tain kind of fluid, the province of which is to aid in the better and quicker disintegration, and perfect dissolution of the food into a liquid mass, depriv- ing it of its solid quality, preparing it to be taken into the blood with all its nutritiousness. It is to be understood that an indispensable requisite in this method of treatment, is to reso- lutely and most strictly avoid eating anything whatever between meals, unless it is sometimes found that part of a lemon, gradually sucked into the mouth, is palatable and refreshing, as it some- times is; for acid is supposed to be cooling, to aid in digesting the food, and acts on the liver, thus tending to prevent sickness at the stomach and costiveness. About this time begin to take a quarter of a pound of fresh grapes before the three regular meals, long enough to be done eating them half an hour before the meal, and increase the amount gradually until three-quarters of a pound are taken before each of the three meals of the day. Or, in their place, apples, or berries, or cherries, or currants, or other fresh fruits in their natural ripe state, may be taken ; but the grapes answer a so OUT-DOOR ACTIVITIES, 31 much better purpose, that, if within the easy means of the patient, they should be preferred. In case it is at a season of the j'ear when the ordinary black grape is not to be had, then use the white grape, which may be readily obtained almost the year round at any good fruit or grocery store. Sometimes an orange, or two, or three, may be sub- stituted for the grapes But in all this course keep steadily in view the one fundamental point, when- ever any symptom or sensation after eating attracts the attention unpleasantly, make a change in the quantity of the food taken at the regular meal; less and less at each meal, until no discomfort is observable. So far as to the eating; but, from the very first day of entering on the treatment, more or less of OUT DOOR ACTIVITIES are indispensable to speedy and encouraging results. Never go outside of the door in the morning, at any time of the year, until after breakfast, because, in cold weather, there is a rawness and dampness in the atmosphere which tend to chill the whole body; the reaction of this is more or less of fever, which tends to impair the appetite, or otherwise derange the system, leaving the person in a more or 32 DYSPEPSIA. less uncomfortable condition for hours afterwards; if not for the whole day. EXERCISE BEFORE BREAKFAST. In the summer-time, going out of doors before breakfast is more pernicious than in winter, because the stomach, being empty after so long a fast, is weak, and absorbs into its circulation those malarial ingredients which enter the mouth and nose, and make their way direct into the stomach and lungs, and mingle with the blood, poisoning it in an hour, and sometimes fatally so, in proportion to the luxu- riance of the vegetation, the warmth of the season, and the flatness of the country. There is always dampness in the morning air in addition to the miasmatic pollution, and both combined, acting upon a weak and empty stomach, and when the circulation is the least active of the whole twenty- four hours, the system is unable to repel the attacks of injurious causes. THE SON OF A KING, aged eighteen, went on a hunting excursion at a distance from home. He arrived at the hunting grounds late in the day, and put up at a country inn, saying to the landlord that he wished to take an EXERCISE BEFORE BREAKFAST. 33 early ride, before breakfast. He was informed that the morning air was very injurious, and that it was sometimes even fatal to strangers; but, "boy-like," the heir apparent to the throne of Portugal said it would not hurt him; and, although he was entreated to eat at least something, he persisted in taking his hunt. In twenty-four hours he was attacked with fever, and eventually died, from breathing a miasmatic atmosphere before breakfast on a sum- mer's morning ; and there is always more or less of it in the early morning air in all latitudes south of the sixtieth parallel, hence the universal idea of the healthfulness of the early summer morning air is a myth, an absurdity, because it is demonstrably dangerous, and dyspeptics, as well as all who are in any way weak, would do a great deal better to lie in bed on summer mornings, until an hour or more after sunrise, if they can afford it. If they are too poor to spare the time, it is their misfortune, as is proven by the result, that out-door labourers, as a class, die ten years sooner, on an average, than those who are not compelled to bounce out of their beds at daylight, and go poking about in the dark for boots, and shoes, and odd stockings, and matches, and, now and then, knocking out the few brains they have got, against the bed-post, and hurrying 34 DYSPEPSIA. to their out-door work before their eyes are fairly open. Sensible people never rise before the sun in any latitude, if they can help it, hence they live longer by a good many years, on an average, than the insensible ones. Later chemical investigations seems to show that the injurious constituents of the early morning air are living things, cells or spores which are the " germs " or poison-producing effects, most numer- ous, hence most malignant, for the hour including sunrise and sunset, because, the air being cold, con- denses on the surface of the earth, is thicker, as it were, just as wool or feathers are more compact at the bottom of a barrel than at the top. As the sun rises, it naturally, according to invariable physical laws, rarities the atmosphere, causing it to ascend above the breathing point; but, as evening comes on, the air cools again, condenses at the surface, becomes heavy and damp, as the most unobservant know, demonstrating the health- fulness of the custom of taking a regular breakfast before going out of the house in the morning; and the most certain way to bring this about, as a habit, is to stay in bed until after sunrise, especi- ally in summer time, to say nothing of its delicious comfortableness. EARLY RISING. 35 HUMAN DEPRAVITY, or, at least, human perversity and obtusiveness, is not more clearly demonstrated, than in the fact that people will punish themselves in getting out of bed early, as if there was some kind of physical merit in self-denials, the more beneficial, as they are the more distressing. Stout, strong, healthy people can afford to get up day before yesterday, if they think it important, but for all persons who live mostly indoors, if at all weak and for all dyspeptics, the rule ought to be imperative to be indoors, for the hour including sunrise and sunset, and to take breakfast before they go out of doors in the morning; and take " tea " or supper a while before sundown, especi- ally in the summer time, or that portion of the year when fires are not needed for house-warming purposes. More space has been given to this subject than would otherwise have been done, because of the universally prevalent idea that early rising is of itself healthful, and to convince the judgment of the dyspeptic that taking a walk or ride before breakfast is not healthful. 36 DYSPEPSIA. Dyspeptics are usually persons who live indoors, as women, or persons of leisure, or professional men, and upon such it is more imperative that out- door exercise should be systematic and persistent and moderate. It is always injurious to exercise rapidly or violently or continue it so long as to cause great uneasiness, the person expressing himself as being FAGGED OUT, because all disease is connected with an irregular distribution of the blood or violent action of the heart, which during excessive exercise throws it out towards the surface too fast, to be succeeded by an exhaustion which prevents it from throwing it out not fast or far enough, and the result is a chill; then comes a fever and a bad cold. To avoid these things and to derive the greatest possible advan- tage from exercise, it should be out of doors ; it should be deliberate, it should be persistent, with- out extending to actual weariness or fatigue. The plan should be to turn back towards home, before being much tired. If practicable, even if it requires an effort or is inconvenient, take a leisure walk, or work in moder- ation after breakfast, then again before dinner; NIGHT AIR. 37 then after dinner, and, unless it is cold or raining, or otherwise inclement, a walk or a visit one hour or two after sundown is better than to stay indoors doing nothing for the long interval between supper and the hour for retiring. The only precaution needed is to keep in exercise, or dress warm enough to keep off a feeling of chilliness. There is a gene- ral impression that there is something baleful in the NIGHT AIRJ but it is better and purer than the indoor air of the same locality, because in reality the indoor air is but the outside air contaminated with a multi- tude of odors coming from the cellar and kitchen and closets under the same roof. The night air under ordinary circumstances is injurious only in connection with dampness or chilliness; beside there are advantages in going out and making social visits, in that it dive.- ts the mind from bodily ailments, makes it more elastic and joyous, promotes the circulation of the blood and forwards the process o'; digestion or assimilation and nutri- tion. In taking these four exercises during the ds>v. or a3 many of them as is practicable without making 33 DYSPEPSIA. unnecessary sacrifices, it is better to vary the form and ride, and walk and work alternately. The looking forward to these times of exercise and the preparation for them are of themselves exercises having beneficial effects on both mind and body and disposition. The best possible benefit from any form of exer- cise is derived from carrying it to the extent of causing a very slight perspiration on the forehead, if the hat is on and then to cool off cautiously and slowly. It is more difficult to get the average patient to take medicine than to take exercise, for it is easier to do, takes but little time, and the task is over. That is one of the reasons of the non-success of physicians in curing dyspeptic ailments: every little thing is allowed to prevent going out of doors, the slightest obstacles become mountain barriers, the dust, the wind, the cold, the dampness, tho mud, the slush in the streets, the expense, the time, the trouble, engagements, and a thousand other little nothings, which, if the patient had any force of character, would be swept away as a cob- web with a dash of the hand. In fact cue cf the most uniform concomitant symptoms of dyspepsia SLEEPING-ROOMS. 39 is irresolution, want of fixity of purpose, at least as to anything worth doing. SLEEPING-ROOMS. It is important that the dyspeptic should sleep in a good sized room, its breadth and length multiplied equalling about two hundred feet; in addition it should be on the sunny side of the house, with an open fire place, the window being open an inch or two unless the theremometer is down to thirty degrees above zero, then there is no advantage, but a positive injury, from hoisting an outside window, because that degree of cold —any cold in a cham- ber which will cause the water to freeze—makes the air positively poisonous, because the carbonic acid coming from every sleeper is made heavy by the cold and settles near the floor, poisoning the blood at every inbreathing. When a window is not open, the door of the chamber should be left ajar, then the air coming into the room from that point and from the crevices about the window casings will form a draft towards the open fire place and drive the carbonized air up the chimney. Besides the regulation of the eating, and the out- door exercises, and the sleeping in dry, sunny rooms, attention should be given to 40 DYSPEPSIA. KEEPING THE FEET WARM, regulating bodily functions, and avoiding colds. Not that all these things are essential in the suc- cessful treatment of the ordinary form of dyspepsia, but they assist; and in most cases of sedentary persons, especially if weakened, and if they have been long ailing, it is desirable to do every little thing which is calculated to be even a slight bene- fit, so that all combined may make a decided im- pression for good and forward the desired result. COLD FEET. Good health, with habitually cold feet, is impos- sible, as it soon causes cough, hoarseness, sore throat, headache, billiousness, or other ailments. Going to bed with cold feet prevents good sleep in adults, and is frequently followed by croup in children. It is a good plan to hold the naked feet to an open fire the last thing before going to bed, rubbing them with the hands until perfectly dry and warm in every part. It is still better to do this on first getting home at night so as to have them comfortable until bedtime. If there is no fire, dry-rub them with a coarse towel, or take a brisk walk, or wrap them up in brown paper or a COLD FEET. 41 blanket, or warm the bed where they will rest with hot bricks, soapstone, wood, or water bottles then remove them, for it makes the feet tender to have them rest against artificial warmth during the night. The feet will keep warmer by stretch- ing the limbs out straight, for the blood circulates more vigorously in right lines than curved. There should always be a folded blanket within easy reach, in case one should wake up with cold extremities. Sometimes red pepper or mustard in the bottom of the stockings keeps the feet warm. But it is always best that the warmth should come from within, and the first necessity is perfectly clean feet, because the pores in the soles are very much larger than in any other part of the body, hence are more easily clogged with accumulations, which prevent the blood from reaching the surface to warm it hence they should be washed every night in warm water, then dip them for an instant in cold water, covering the toes, to promote reaction; if this is not sufficient, the same should be done every morn- ing also. Some persons claim to have kept the feet per- fectly warm by wearing no stockings, but leather shoes, buttoned well up to the ankle, stating, how- 3 42 DYSPEPSIA. ever, that it is essential to keep the feet perfectly clean. Some feet are more comfortable in cotton than woollen, some with thin than thick, some with two thin pair, than one of stouter material; each should be a rule for himself, observing closely. In stubborn cases of cold feet, bathe them in hot water for ten minutes, then dip them in cold water for a few seconds, and repeat this cold and hot operation two or three times, not only at night but also in the morning; in all cases follow up the remedies until the object is accomplished. In damp weather, and for the weakly in all weathers, felt soles should be worn inside the shoe. removed and thoroughly dried every night; cork absorbs moisture, and is not readily dried. . India rubber shoes are the only perfect protectors of the feet in wet weather, and they keep out the cold and retain the inner heat in the winter time ; remove them after getting into the house, if you expect to remain an hour or more. In riding in vehicles, a newspaper, well wrapped around the stocking-feet, will keep them warmer than a tight boot, as the latter prevents the circu- lation of the blood ; paper under the feet in public assemblies out of doors, prevents the dampness of COLD FEET. 43 the earth from striking in, and it keeps the feet warmer in rail cars than if they are allowed to rest on the floor; in fact, a shawl or wrap on the floor, for the feet to rest on, is often of more importance than on the lap or shoulders. The floor is colder than the foot-rests in car seats. Many, especially ladies, do a great deal towards undermining their health by wearing tightly-fitting shoes ; while in the house they should wear loosely-fitting slippers all the time; if the feet are inclined to be cold, they should be made of woollen cloth or felt—soles and all. Mothers should always notice if the feet are warm on putting the children to bed, and also the last thing on retiring at night, as croup is always preceded by cold feet. In short, perfectly clean feet, with loose covering, are the main things for keeping them comfortably warm ; and always. the instant they are cold enough to attract the attention unpleasantly, even slightly, let nothing prevent warming them at the fire or by a brisk walk, or rubbing them with the hands. If very cold, do not put them within five feet of the fire; better put them in cool water for a while. A young lady, returning from skating, noticed one foot to be painfully cold. She was advised to put it in hot water, resulting in amputation. It should 44 DYSPEPSIA. have been wrapped in snow, or put in cool water first. REGULATING THE BOWELS. The alimentary canal, constituting the " bowels," is about thirty feet long, and is constantly moving, like worms in a carrion, hence called, the " vermi- cular motion," or " peristaltic action," which action is healthy when it causes an evacuation every day, soon after breakfast; without this, it is impossible to be well, keep well, or get well. If this action is not vigorous enough, there is an interval of two or three days; this is " costiveness;" if five or six or nine days intervene, it is " constipation;" if the action is too vigorous it is called looseness, or diar- rhoea, which, exaggerated, is cholera; hence the cure of costiveness and diarrhoea is the regulation of the bowels to one action a day ; the natural, safe, and efficient means are exercise, food, and drink. COSTIVENESS. Every movement of every muscle of the body tends to throw from it, on the outside, all useless waste, hurtful matter, so as to keep the human mechanism unclogged ; if a needle is stuck clear into the flesh anywhere, the next day the muscles REGULATING THE BOWELS. 45 begin to get rid of it; and in one, two or five years or more, it presents itself at the surface of some distant part of the body. The object of this exquisitely skilful arrangement is to carry away the refuse of the food daily eaten. The best form of exercise is steady, moderate work, especially out-doors, as in plowing, hoeing, spading, and the like. Next best is moderate, continuous walking two or three times a day, causing a slight perspira- tion and fatigue, especially with an agreeable or profitable end in view. Next to this, is riding on a trotting horse before dinner, for a time, which will be efficient next day. Or, for five or ten minutes, night and morning after meals, thumping, for a space of six inches around the navel, with the ends of the fingers and thumbs, to stimulate the bowels to motion when torpid or asleep. Or, with the ball of the hand, beginning at the right hip, under the ribs, rub downwards, moving towards the other side of the navel, for the liver is above that locality, and, in a sense, the bile which it contains is pressed out as water from a sponge, and is carried into the bowels, the want of its presence there being the cause of the constipation. 46 DYSPEPSIA. Sometimes an injection or " eneman of half a pint of tepid water answers the purpose; this is the favorite French method, but the system soon begins to look for it, and a troublesome, life-long habit'is induced, which must be kept up. Some swallow a tablespoonful or two of white mustard seed whole, in water, an hour before meals ; the seed acts mechanically, irritating the parts( causing them to throw out water, as the eye when touched; this dissolves the hardened contents, carry- ing them downwards, all causing accumulation and distension, like the enema. Others drink a glass or two of fresh, cool water, on rising, and, if necessary, midway between meals, and on retiring. Others again use freely stewed prunes, dates, tomatoes, dried figs, and other things having small seeds, acting as the whole mustard above. Coarse foods are efficient, having a great deal of waste, to distend the lower bowel; as boiled tur- nips, and bread made of the meal of the whole of the grain of wheat, barley, oats, or Indian corn with the bran, the sharp edges of which are sup- posed to act as the mustard seed; hence, some stir a tablespoonful of bran in two glasses of water, of mornings, to move the bowels. REGULATING THE BOWELS. 47 Few will fail, if half a pound or more of grapes, oranges, fresh fruits, or berries are eaten an hour before a meal of oatmeal porridge, or crushed wheat, or wheaten grits, or hominy with a little butter, or salt, or sugar,—no milk, or cream, or other fluid. The exercise, the food, the water, the fruits, are natural agencies, safe and efficient, if well carried out. If drugs are taken even for a few days, they leave a still greater tendency to constipation, and soon medicine is needed every day; a miserable and ruinous habit. LOOSE BOWELS. As every step causes their motion, don't move, but lie down; nature prompts that by sending a feeling of weakness; next, bind woollen flannel. a foot broad, around the body, double in front, tight; this gives warmth and prevents the bowels from hastily moving, as a man in a packed crowd; the relief is instantaneous and delicious, especially in cholera. For food, eat nothing but rice parched brown, like coffee, then boiled, with a little butter, or salt, or sugar over it, thrice a day; nothing between; drink nothing, but eat all the ice you can, swallow- 43 DYSPEPSIA. ing it in as large lumps as possible, to quench thirst and cool the internal fever. In all cases when the objeet is accomplished. leave off the remedy gradually, so as to have the same things to fall back upon in subsequent attacks TAKING COLD. " He took a little cold," has been heard multi- tudes of times in answer to the question, " What was the matter with him," in reference to some one who had just died. In all such cases the person would not have died then, might have lived a good while longer, had the cold not have been taken, Just as the foor of a room in the house may be covered with powder, and no harm ever result until a spark is applied. Almost every reader can remember having often, during his previous life, taken " a little cold," re- sulting in great discomfort, lasting for many days sometimes, if not ending in serious illness. It is not that " a little cold " is of itself a serious thing ; for, if the person had been in vigorous health, it would have passed off in a short time, without leaving any special ill result; but very few persons are in vigorous health, hence almost every one is personally and vitally concerned in understanding TAKING COLD. 49 all about the nature, cause, and cure of " a little cold." The blood vessels are large near the heart, but spread out, as the trunk of a tree divides into branches, getting smaller and smaller, until when they reach the outer surface of the body, the skin, they are too small to be seen by the naked eye, yet they are all hollow, and the warm blood from the heart is constantly coming into them, imparting that warmth to the skin, and then returning, thus going and returning all life long. But if the skin gets cold these little blood vessels wont work, they contract; the warm blood does not reach the skin; it was cold on the outside before, but now it gets cold, as it were, deeper, on the inside, where there are more nerves to feel it, and the result is we feel cold, and a chill or shiver runs all over us; that instant a cold has been taken. The blood does not get to the surface of the body by a greater and greater distance ; it tends to accumulate about the heart and lungs, fill- ing them so full that air enough cannot get in, and we have the sensation of being " stuffed up," of being " short of breath," of being " oppressed." If the cold is still longer prolonged, the brain itself gets oppressed by the increased amount of 50 DYSPEPSIA. blood there; this oppression causes sleepinessj which becomes more and more irresistible and overpowering; such a sense of its deliciousness comes over the person that he would " give the world," if he had it, for a little sleep, just to be permitted to lie down and go to sleep for a minute or two, until, at last, he can resist nc longer. Then he falls asleep, and wakes no more, because he has FROZEN TO DEATH, the most delicious death that can ever come to man. This is when the cold is continuously applied to the skin, and the cold air is carried into the lungs at every breath. But, in ordinary taking cold, when the heart gets to a certain point of fulness, it makes an instinctive effort to relieve itself from impending suffocation; just as a man would strive in desperation to remove a pillow from his face, when forcibly pressed upon it by others attempt- ing to smother him. In this condition of things, the heart begins to work faster, in order to pump the excess of blood out of it; not only faster but more vigorously, feel the pulse, and instead of beating about seventy times in a minute as in health, it works ''like lightning," ninety, or a TAKING COLD. 51 hundred times, or more, in a minute ; this is " re- action ;" we call it fever. Every one can remember how chilly he was when he first took the cold, how he failed to get warm before the hottest fire ; the chills would run over him in front or rear, but, when the reaction comes, the fever sets in, and the man is " sick." Just as every man is said to have a "weak spot in his head," so nearly every man has a weak point somewhere in his body; by weakness, meaning a want of power of resistance to keep off the enemy, disease. As before described, in a cold, the blood, is driven to the interior of the body, flooding it, as it were. The heart is always strong and able to protect itself, it throws the blood back ; not so with the lungs, and stomach, and bowels, and kidneys, and other parts, and, whichever of them is weaker than is natural, has to " bear the brunt" of the battle. If the bowels are weak, the person has " loose- ness," called diarrhoea, and the cold " works itself off " in that way, they are relieved, and the man gets well; some persons are impatient and take a dose of castor oil, and set the bowels to " working off" the cold in a similar manner. Another man has weak eyes, the cold settles there, and the "eyes 52 DYSPEPSIA. water." Others again have weak lungs and the result is " a bad cold" or pneumonia, that is in- flammation of the lungs, etc.; thus it is that a cold affects different persons differently. If a person neglects a cold forty-eight hours, nothing will " cure it;" it will run its course, in spite of everything, like measles, in about two weeks; but if "little colds" are added from time to time, the cure is protracted into months, ending in a hacking cough, and then follows consumption. If a cold is properly attacked the instant chilli- ness comes on, it can be certainly cured, and gen- erally so if, within twenty-four hours, the person will go to bed, wrap up warm, and stay there a day or two, eating nothing but apples, oranges, grapes, berries, etc., in their natural state, and drinking nothing but hot beef teas, thus keeping the body in a slightly perspiring condition; especi- ally keep the feet warm; if very chilly at first, put bottles of hot water in the arm pits. The sooner a person attends to these thing after taking the cold, after the first sense of chilliness, the more prompt and infallible will be the cure. Never go outside the door when you have a cold, and live on fruits and coarse bread for two or three days. Every time a dyspeptic takes a cold, he is thrown back CHECKING PERSPIRATION. 53 in the treatment, and sometimes it requires two or three weeks or more to regain what was lost, not taking into account the bodily sufferings endured in the meantime through debilitating diarrhoeas, distressing pains in the stomach, head, or spine, according to circumstances : hence special atten- tion is invited to the following article as additional warning on the subject of taking cold : CHECKING PERSPIRATION. Edward Everett, the finished scholar, the accom- plished diplomatist, the orator, the statesman, the patriot, became overheated in testifying in a court-room, on a Monday morning, went to Fanueil Hall, which was cold, sat in the draft of air until his turn came to speak; "but my hands and feet were ice, my lungs on fire. In this condition I had to go and spend three hours in the court-room." He died in less than a week from this checking of the perspiration. It was enough to kill any man. Professor Mitchel, the gallant soldier, and the most eloquent astronomical lecturer who has ever lived, while in a state of perspiration in yellow fever, the certain sign of recovery, left his bed, went into another room, became chilled in a moment and died the same night. 4 54 DYSPEPSIA. If while perspiring, or while something warmer than usual, from exercise or a heated room, there is a sudden exposure in stillness to a still, cold air, or to a raw, damp atmosphere, or to a draft, whether at an open window or door, or street- corner, an inevitable result is a violent and instan- taneous closing of the pores of the skin, by which waste and impure matters, which were making their way out of the system, are compelled to seek an exit through some other channel, and break through some weaker part, not the natural one, and harm to that part is the result. The idea is presented by saying that the cold has settled in that part. To illustrate : A lady was about getting into a small boat to cross the Delaware ; but wishing to get an orange at a fruit-stand, she ran up the bank of the river, and on her return to the boat found herself much heated, for it was summer, but there was a little wind on the water, and the clothing soon felt cold to her; the next morning she had a severe cold, which settled on her lungs, and within the year she died of consumption. A stout, strong man was working in a garden in May; feeling a little tired about noon he sat down in the shade of the house and fell asleep ; he CHECKING PERSPIRATION. 55 woke up chilly ; inflammation of the lungs followed, ending, after two years of great suffering, in con- sumption. On opening his chest there was such an extensive decay, that the yellow matter was scooped out by the cupful. A Boston ship-owner, while on the deck of one of his vessels, thought he would " lend a hand " in some emergency; and pulling off his coat, worked with a will, until he perspired freely, when he sat down to rest awhile, enjoying the delicious breeze from the sea. On attempting to rise he found himself unable, and wa3 so stiff in his joints that he had to be carried home and put to bed, which he did not leave until the end of two years when he was barely able to hobble down to the wharf on crutches. A lady, after being unusually busy all day, found herself heated and tired toward sundown. She concluded she would rest herself by taking a drive to town in an open vehicle. The ride made her uncomfortably cool, but she warmed herself up by an hour's shopping, when she turned homeward ; it being late in the evening, she found herself more decidedly chilly than before. At midnight she had pneumonia (inflammation of the lungs), and in 56 DYSPEPSIA. three months had the ordinary symptoms of con- firmed consumption. A lady of great energy of character lost her cook and had to take her place for four days; the kit- chen was warm, and there was a draft of air through it. When the work was done, warm and weary, she went to her chamber, and laid down on the bed to rest herself. This operation was repeated several times a day. On the fifth day she had an attack of lung fever; at the end of six months she was barely able to leave her chamber, only to find herself suffering with all the more pro- minent symptoms of confirmed consumption ; such as quick pulse, night and morning cough, night- sweats, debility, short breath, and falling away. A young lady rose from her bed on a November night, and leaned her arm on the cold window-sill to listen to a serenade. Next morning she had pneumonia, and suffered the horrors of asthma for the remainder of a long life. Multitudes of women lose health and life every year, in one or two ways; by busying themselves in a warm kitchen until weary, and then throwing themselves on a bed or sofa, without covering, and perhaps in a room without fire; or by removing the outer clothing, and perhaps changing the dress CHECKING PERSPIRATION. 57 for a more common one, as soon as they enter the house after a walk or a shopping. The rule should be invariable to go at once to a warm room and keep on all the clothing at least five or ten minutes until the forehead is perfectly dry. In all weathers if you have to walk and ride on any occasion, do the riding first, for then the walk will warm you, but if you get heated by walking and then sit still in a vehicle, especially if there is an open window, a chill is inevitable. A young man who was recovering from a tedious and dangerous disease, in walking from a physi- cian's office to take an omnibus, became overheated. A young lady sat at the front of the vehicle before the open window. He felt the chill air, but did not like to ask to have the window closed. Before he reached his destination, he was " chilled through and through," with the result of an attack of in- flammation of the lungs, from the effects of which he died. "Checking Perspiration" means cooling-off too soon after exercise or work which has made the body warmer than natural; this is done most easily, if a person thus a little warm, sits in a draft at an open window or door, or stands still for even 58 DYSPEPSIA. a minute or two at the corner of the street, where there is always more or less air stirring. , When it is taken into account how many persons have attributed their sickness to having " taken a little cold," and how many of the friends of our youth have died from this cause, we may well be always on our guard against " checking perspira- tion," and should diligently, patiently, and consci- entiously teach the lesson to our children, and even read these facts to them once a year. BATHS AND BATHING.* So many persons are in the habit of bathing more or less, that in most cases when a physician has given his prescription, some inquiry is made as to whether the bathing shall be continued. In dyspeptics, the blood is said to be poor and cold, as well as impure, making it very easy to take a cold, or to renew it, always aggravating the disease ; in- creasing the dyspepsia, if the force of the cold falls on the stomach, while if it attacks the brain or * The articles on "Baths and Bathing," "Taking Cold," "Checking Perspiration," and one or two others, were written expressly for the Illustra- ted Christian Weekly, published at 150 Nassau street, New York, at $2.50 a-year, by The American Tract Society, one of the most useful, beautiful, and unexceptionable weekly papers for families of culture and refinement issued heretofore. BATHS AND BATHING. 59 nervous system, distressing pains, if not more serious results, are sure to follow, and to retard the cure ; hence it is thought desirable to make the following suggestions on the general subject, especi- ally as it is a continuation of the preceding pages on taking colds and checking perspiration: Long before Priessnitz was born, cold water and warm water were known to be valuable agencies in the promotion of health and in the cure of disease, and so have the medical profession regarded them for centuries : but the use of them has not been put forward prominently, because of their dangerous character, on account of the ignorance, careless- ness, and want of experience in their application on the part of the masses. This has been so apparent of late years that the most able hydro- pathists, among whom may be named Trail and Jackson, have repeatedly taken occasion in their respective periodicals to reprehend their indis- criminate application. It is for this that so many " cold-water cures " in different parts of the coun- try have failed to be self-supporting with all their advantages of pure water, mountain air, and mag- nificent scenery. Like any other powerful reme- dial agent for the cure of disease, even cold water must be used with judgment, as a result of close 60 DYSPEPSIA. observation, long practice, and intelligent applica- tion. There can be no uniform rule generally appli- cable for cold bathing, because almost every indivi- dual must be a rule for himself in view of his age, his temperament, his constitution, his habits of life, the state of his health, and the character of any ailment which he may have. I have seen cold water applied to an apparently dying missionary on the banks of the distant Mississippi over forty years ago. Intelligence was gone, the teeth set, the eyes glazed, the pulse almost imperceptible ; in fifteen minutes he sat up and conversed intelli- gently with the friends around him. On the other hand, medical authorities give cases where persons not much sick have died in an hour from the application of cold water. Last summer a New York banker went home from Wall Street, after a day of unusual excitement, weary, depressed, tired, and over-heated. He thought a cool bath would refresh him; he died that night. The papers stated that the immediate cause of the fatal attack of illness of Vice-President Wilson, whom a nation truly mourns, was a bath. If a man of his age, intelligence, and judgment, erred fatally in the matter of taking a bath, it will re- BATHS AND BATHING. 61 quire a long time for the masses to be educated up to the point of safe bathing, either cold or hot. A gentleman at the Astor House took a. cold, was advised to take a Turkish bath, did so, return- ed to his lodgings, was taken ill the same night; at the end of four weeks and at an expense of several hundred dollars, it was thought he might be taken to a carriage at the door on a litter in order to go home. He had gone out of his bath facing a cold, raw north-east wind, became thoroughly chilled; hence the result. One would suppose that his own intelligence, and more notably so, that of the bath- keeper's, ought to have told him better. The in- telligent reader may recall instances coming under his own observation of ill-results from both cold and warm bathing. It is for reasons like these that educated medical men all over the world are not forward in recom- mending baths and bathing as a remedy for sick- ness, except in the comparatively few cases where a wise application can be certainly calculated upon. The subject cannot be discussed in a single short article, hence bare facts only are submitted to the consideration of the intelligent reader. 62 DYSPEPSIA. A warm bath once a week and a hand-air bath night and morning are of universal application, and would, if generally used, do less injury and more promote health than daily cold or warm water bathing, as now generally understood and prac- tised. The warm bath above, in fire-time of year, means a good washing of the whole body once a week with soap and warm water, with the aid of the naked hand alone, or sponge, in a room measuring seventy degrees of Fahrenheit, and the water quite as warm, or warmer. The hand-air bath means rubbing the hands vigorously all over the surface of the body as far e as can be reached ; all garments but stockings laid aside; mouth shut, and with such activity as will keep off the slightest feeling of chilliness ; keep it up five minutes and dress quickly. The effect of this is to expose the whole surface to the air, to ventilate it, to remove from the skin any scales or other solid particles which might obstruct its pores, leaving it in that soft and slightly oily condition which gives the mobility characteristic of the healthy skin of an infant. If all the natural oil of the skin is washed from the body night and morn- BATHS AND BATHING. 63 ing, it is to that extent left harsh and dry, which is precisely the opposite of the healthy skin. Anatomists tell us that the skin of the human body is really a series of scales, as in the fish. If the " slime " on the fish is removed the scales will not slide over each other as they do, and the fish would die, because that is a secretion designed not only to repel water, but to facilitate the motion of one scale over another. It does not seem an unreasonable conclusion that it would be as great a violence to nature to remove her lubricating material from the skin of man as from the scales of the fish. The fact is, patiently rubbing oil into the dry skin will cure fever, it will cure a cold on the chest of an infant, and other maladies besides. Oil is as valuable a remedy to-day as in Old Testa- ment times; it was used externally; the modern teachings of a certain class of minds are that it should be washed off as soon as it presents itself from nature's laboratory ; this cannot be wise, safe, or healthful, although to many it may seem " very reasonable." 64 PERILS OF WATER CURE. PERILS OF WATER CURE. Even the application of cool or warm water, as a remedial means, is not without its good and ill effects, undoubtedly beneficial when carefully and judiciously applied, but, far otherwise if atten- ded to by the ignorant, or careless, or negligently by those who do not understand it well. Miss B. attended a place of amusement and returned home about eleven o'clock at night, feeling somewhat chilly; the sleep was not refreshing, and in the morning there was not observed the joyousness and life which was peculiar to her. She had no appe- tite for breakfast and during the whole day there was a degree of listlesness and quiet, very unusual to her, and in such striking contrast with her every day life, that a physician was called, who, within a day or two, seeing the symptoms were grave, advised a consultation, and another gentleman was invited to examine the case; the conclusion was that nothing was to be expected from medicine, but if perspiration could be excited, it would relieve that oppression of the internal organs which seemed tending to typhoid fever. The gentleman who was called in consultation was considered an experi- DYSPEPSIA. 65 enced, capable physician, and having had consider- able practice in what is called the " wet sheet," or pack. He had acquired a skill and judgment in its application, which usually enabled him to accom- plish uniformly valued results. The patient was wrapped in a wet sheet, and in due time a health- ful warmth and perspiration were observable with an encouraging relief of all the interior organs; observ- ing which, he left the remainder of the manage- ment to inexperienced hands, with the result that the favorable symptoms gradually disappeared, to be replaced by those which were more grave, and the interesting patient died in a day or two, in her nineteenth year, notwithstanding all that wealth and social position, and devoted friends and loving parents could do; the cherished and admired of all who knew her, to be remembered for long years to come, for her cheery face, her laughing eyes, her joyous mood, and her affectionate ways, and most by him whose bride she would soon have been. It is very true that man is born to die, and that the day comes to all which must be the last on earth ; and the history of those who have ever died of disease or will ever die of sickness will make the fact notable that the heedless hurry in doing or omitting some little thing; failing to take advan- 66 PERILS OF WATFR CURE. tage of some little circumstance, seemingly so to us, but in this case, humanly speaking, and in the light of our short forecast, the strong presumption is that had the physician remained at his post and closely observed the indications and needs oj the case, the interesting patient would have been ALIVE AND WELL to-day, for evidently there was recuperative power left, there was life enough for living; the violence of the disease had passed, and good nursing only was required, because there was such a ready answer to the means of perspiration, and as prompt a response to the healthful effects, which only needed to have been kept up ; a striking illustra- tion of the sentiment first advanced, that the water cure requires too much intelligence, judgment, observation, skill, experience, tact, and wise watch- fulness, to be placed in common hands, or to be employed by the masses, and hence the numerous failures of success in the multitude of WATER CURES which have been set up in all parts of our country, not failures on account of their inherent value, but DYSPEPSIA. 67 on account of their reckless and ignorant adminis- tration, hence BATHS AND BATHINGS in water are not advised as remedial means in dys- pepsia, although they appear so " reasonable, and can do no harm if they do no good," as is claimed for them. One good washing and scrub- bing with soap and brush and warm water in a room of seventy or eighty degrees, once a week, being ail that the dyspeptic usually requires in eo-inection with the HAND AIR BATHS every night and morning, performed with a will. To take another practical look at the case, first narrated the dyspeptic may learn a valuable lesson. It can not be supposed that a slight chilliness could have inaugurated such a series of symptoms, finally ending fatally under any usual circum- stances, or in any person of good health; there must have been in this case some hidden causes in operation whose tendency was to weaken the gen- eral system, working and working for weeks and months, using up the stamina of life, and leaving less power to resist the onset of any disease pro- ducing effects. 68 DYSPEPSIA. INDIGESTION. Indigestion is a Latin word, meaning the same thing, in a general way, as the Greek term from which the word dyspepsia is taken. The Greeks had an idea that the digestion was performed with difficulty, whereas the Romans thought it was not performed at all; or, at most, imperfectly, which is more accurate and more philosophical; for really, the food is not healthfully digested, does not make healthy blood, does not impart natural nutriment to it; for it is through the blood that nourishing and renovating particles are carried to every pin-point of the body; hence, no portion of it is properly nourished, and all dyspeptics lack strength and vigor and elasticity. But when the blood is not made of a healthy material it steadily becomes impure and thick and black ; is significantly called by the people " bad blood;" it does not flow freely, becomes congested, accumulates, " dams up " in the veins, distends them ; and as this unnatural quality of blood is carried to all parts of the body, it pro- duces disquietude, discomfort, and annoyance of some kind wherever it goes, and that is the reason why a dyspeptic v/ill tell you that he " feels bad all INDIGESTION. 69 over." But the nerves are fed by this same blood, and, being impure and imperfect, it does not satisfy them, it does not feed them, and each one, like a hungry man, complains, is disgusted, and restless and weak; hence dyspeptics are said to be " ner- vous ;" they are fidgety always, and always com- plaining. EATING TOO MUCH. Dyspeptics generally eat a great deal, yet are always hungry, for the instincts are misled thus: the blood being imperfect, the system is imperfectly nourished, hence imperfectly strengthened, conse- quently weak ; and nature, knowing as it were that food strengthens, calls for more food, when it is not more food that is needed, but more nourishment. The dyspeptic eats enough, in fact too much, but the nutriment is not extracted from it, the stomach not having the power to act upon the food properly; it then very naturally follows, that when the stomach does not have strength enough to digest a large amount of food, it might have the power to digest a smaller quantity, as a faithful invalid ser- vant may not have the power to do a large amount of work, but could perform a smaller quantity. And yet, when persons are dyspeptic, instead of 70 DYSPEPSIA. eating less, the very common practice is to take bitters and tonics, in the shape of wines and liquors, to whet up the appetite, to promote diges- tion ; but liquor is not gastric juice, consequently cannot facilitate the digestion, and even if it increased the appetite, it is directly the reverse of what ought to be done: for the appetite is already too great, is unnaturally vigorous. So do men, through ignorance, medicate themselves, aggravate their maladies, and are hurried into untimely graves. Medicine never did and never can cure dyspepsia; the true remedy is to eat less and less at each meal, until no discomfort is felt afterwards; continue this for a short time, and then gradually increase the amount eaten, as a convalescent gradu- ally increases exercise or labor, in proportion to the gradually increasing strength ; but as often as dis- comfort follows after eating—that, is, any feeling or sensation which attracts the attention unpleasantly —diminish the food to the requisite amount, as before stated. This is the true key to the allevia- tion and cure of our national disease, dyspepsia. EATING TOO OFTEN. While eating too much causes one case of dys- pepsia, eating too often causes a hundred, if not ten INDIGESTION. 71 thousand; some of the Indian trappers in the Rocky Mountains rise early, hunt all day for their game, come to camp at night, eat six or seven pounds of meat, lie down to sleep, and live a hun- dred years. An old beau in the Federal city, in Henry Clay's time, attended every party to which he was invited ; but if, at any time, he was unex- pectedly called after his regular meal, he would go, help himself bountifully, but would not eat any- thing next day, so as to average only one meal in twenty-four hours; he lived beyond fourscore, a lively, joyous " old boy." Greenland is not depop- ulated, yet the Esquimaux eat once a day, or week, or more, five, ten, and even twenty pounds of pro • visions at a single meal; and sometimes when they have strength to eat no longer, some one puts the food in their mouths for them. One man is reported to have gone to sleep with part of a sausage hang- ing out of his mouth. This is a matter of habit and custom. Steady workers should eat three times a day. Some have lived to old age, eating but twice a day, others only once; in this latter ease eating becomes a disgust- ing gluttony. Until fifty it is better to eat thrice a day, noth- ing whatever between. If workers eat but twice a 72 DYSPEPSIA. day, the system is so ravenous for food that it is very apt to be over-pressed and to fall into disease. After fifty, sedentary persons may do very well with two meals a day. It is very certain that many persons have been cured of the ordinary forms, of dyspepsia by taking but two meals and rigidly avoiding anything between. The advantage of this is that the stomach has abundant time to rest and to accumulate a large amount of gastric juice, and if little or nothing is drank to dilute it and thus destroy its strength, the food is dissolved rapidly, provided the person eats very slowly and chews everything well; with these precautions the stomach is not over-filled and the appetite is gratified without having eaten too much. Some who have become very much weakened by having had indigestion for a long time, or from other causes, cannot wait four or five or six hours, for the stom- ach gets so weak in that time that it loses the power to digest anything. In these cases such food should be taken as can be digested in a short time. If those articles are eaten which are known to be digested fully in two hours then another meal may be taken in three hours and so on. This should be continued until the patient becomes strong enough to walk a mile or two, when it may INDIGESTION. 73 be advantageous to eat less often until two or three meals in twenty-four hours will be advisable. But in almost all cases where the person eats but two or three times a day, very great advantages will be derived from eating grapes, half a pound and up to a pound, before each meal, in such a way that the eating is finished half an hour before the meal, and, if it is at all practicable, they should be eaten, a grape at a time, while a person is walking in the open air in a good frame of mind, and if it amounts to the agreeable and even pleasurable, it will be very much better and will certainly speed the restoration to the natural condition of things and to good health. And the reader must see, that if no medicine is given, every little thing should be taken advantage of, as MANY RILLS MAKE A RIVER. In all cases of eating grapes the skin should be ejected. If the bowels are loose the skin should be chewed well so as to get out of it the fluid sub- stance which it contains, which is decidedly con- stringing as it is known to have astringent powers. If the person is confined, does not have one action of the bowels, full and free, in every twenty-four hours, the seeds should be 5 74 DYSPEPSIA. swallowed, as they have the mechanical effect to stimulate the mucous surfaces by their friction to pour out an extra amount of fluid, as the eye docs when touched; this fluid dissolves the hardened con- tents, acting as an injection, and is thus a more natural means. The pulp of the grapes is nutritious and has a sub-acid which is believed by European physicians to have a stimulating action on the liver; hence, in some cases, four or five or more pounds of grapes are required to be eaten every day in the open air, and very little other food; oatmeal porridge, wheat- en grits, stirabout, or other forms of coarse cereal food being taken half an hour after the grapes. If a person is really anxious to get rid of his dys- pepsia in the shortest time possible, and wishes to encourage himself in the belief of speedy restora- tion, it would be well to adopt the full plan on the instant, beginning with the very next meal—thus : take half a pound of grapes in the open air, to be finished half an hour before meal-time, eat nothing at the meal, but as much of the porridge, grits, or stirabout (mush) as may be pleasurably taken, but to be diminished if discomfort is experienced after- wards. A little fresh lean meat may be added. Many persons are very anxious to take milk with INDIGESTION. 75 the articles above named under the impression that it is "very healthy;" it certainly is for infants and pigs, and puppies, and lambs, and rabbits, and mice, and such like; and for them it is intended, but not for long, in any case, because nature dries up the fountain. Hard-working persons, farmers and the like, may take sweet milk at their meals with impunity, for years together, but they are healthy in spite of it; not on account of it. Per- sons of an INQUIRING TURN OF MIND, whose lives are sedentary, may make the experi- ment for themselves and drink largely of luscious, fresh sweet milk, at each of the three daily meals for a week, and note for themselves. Not many will care to repeat the experiment. The articles named may be made very palatable by sprinkling on them a little salt, at one time, sugar at another, or use butter or syrups alter- nately. If the dy speytic is really hungry as he ought to be before he eats anything, he will be glad to get any of the articles named, and it is not at all likely that they will disagree with the stomach of any hungry person. And although the patient may not " feel like " eating porridge or cracked wheat, 76 DYSPEPSIA. and may have no inclination to do so, he is advised to wait until he does feel as if they would TASTE GOOD. The dyspeptic should have force of character, determination, and self-denial; the proper exercise of these will add to the certainty and rapidity of his recovery. If the grapes or other fruits are thus taken before each of the three daily meals, it will be eating but thrice a day, which is not too often, although many will do better to eat but twice, THE PRISON CURE. In any ordinary case, dyspepsia can be uniformly cured by a proper attention to two of the points above named—regulating the eating, steady em- ployment in the open air for six or eight hours or more between sunrise and sunset. It is certainly corroborative of the truth of this statement that persons sent to penal institutions, which are sys- tematically and properly conducted, always get well of dyspepsia, if they have it, because they eat regularly of plain nourishing food at regular times, and at no others, and are kept steadily at work, in moderate labor, and that, too, under all the depres- sing circumstances connected with their condition. CONSUMPTION 77 they eat plentifully but not often; not " tit-bits,'' not the wing of a "sucking dove," but plain,nutri- tious food; no bitters, no tonics, no liquor. This is most suggestive. CONSUMPTION. Standard medical writers are agreed that the largest number of dyspeptics and consumptives, especially among women, are made in the teens of girlhood. Dyspepsia naturally leads to consump- tion, because being imperfectly nourished, the unfortunate grow thin, their blood is poor, their circulation languid; hence they are chilly, take cold easily; in fact, " the least thing in the world " gives them a cold, which is more and more easily renewed, until before one cold gets well they take another, and the cold is continued ; and that is the seed of consumption, to sprout up and spread and grow, like some baneful weed, to eat out all life's substance, and the hectic and the grave close the sad history. Thus, there is scarcely a family of any size which cannot point to some dyspeptic or con- sumptive daughter brought about thus: Girls are around the house all the time; as they are growing, the appetite is vigorous, they are always ready to eat; and as they are passing about through 78 DYSPEPSIA. kitchen, pantry, or hall, the eye is pretty sure to fall on something "good," which they are very sure to take—an apple, an orange, cake, cookie, or pie, thus deranging the process of digestion by keeping the stomach always at work, giving it no rest, causing it finally to give out from over-work. But while this is going on, the parents wake up to the fact that their daughter has no appetite for breakfast. She may sit down to the table, but it is only to nibble and to sip. The mother puts away her breakfast for her to be eaten later; or, if she is going to school, an appetizing bit of cake or pie is added, clogging the stomach and making it impossible to be healthily hungry at the regular dinner-time. Then dinner is set aside, and, being eaten too late in the day, the sleep is dreamy, and the morning comes with an unrested body and a weary brain, incapable of applying itself to the studies for the day. There is no alacrity in the comprehension, the very effort to study is painful, and she finds it a fruitless task. Then she becomes uneasy and anxious about the marks and "fail- ures " in the lessons; this takes away all appetite for food; she leaves home for school weak, worried, and depressed. And this is children's eating. 79 " SCHOOL-LIFE " to many, too many, of our daughters, who are thus trained to a tedious invalidism, or to an over-early grave, instead of a long and useful and enjoyable career. CHILDREN'S EATING. No child, no one, man or woman, is well who comes to the breakfast table without an appetite. If this happens only occasionally, it is ground for disquietude, and if habitual for young girls, it is cause for alarm, because it is very sure to be fol- lowed with cold feet, headache, chilliness, the fore- runners of troublesome ailments always, and some- times of incurable disease. There can be but little doubt that the dyspeptics of the nation would be diminished one-half in a few years if children were not sent to school until seven years of age, and were not allowed to eat anything between the three regular meals of the day, except an apple or an orange. The subject merits the thoughtful con- sideration of every conscientious parent. Mothers, especially, are under great responsibilities in this connection. CONSEOUENCES OF DYSPEPSIA. When the stomach becomes dyspeptic, disease is transmuted to other parts of the system in two ways. First, through the blood; second by sym- pathy, nervous connection; or no good blood is made by the dyspeptic; because the food being imperfectly digested, cannot afford that healthful nutriment to the nerves which feed on it, and which they require; and, as a result, they complain, become debilitated from want of nourishment, then follows irritability and a variety of diseased mani- festations or symptoms, dependent upon the part affected, and the age, sex, constitution, and tem- perament of the patient. The blood being imperfect, becomes poor, and does not contain the nutriment necessary to sustain the structure of the muscles and bones and sinews of the body ; hence, dyspeptics are always deficient in strength. This deficiency is not confined to voluntary motion, to ability to labor, it extends to every function of the system, to all its manufac- tories; they are not carried on with healthful vigor ; their products are neither perfect nor pure; and do not accomplish the designs intended ; hence, (80) CONSEQUENCES OF DYSPEPSIA. 81 the whole machinery of the body is out of order, and to such an extent, sometimes, that there is neither the disposition nor strength to work ; effort is painful, it is a labor to think; study is impossi- ble; and, under a sense of prostration of the whole body, the patient sometimes feels as if he were GOING TO DIE. The blood is not only imperfect and poor, it is impure ; and just in proportion as that is the case, it is thick ; it does not flow through the blood ves- sels as freely as it ought to do; the propulsive power of the heart may send it along the larger arteries; but it does not reach their extremities in necessary amounts, hence the skin is dry, and rough, and cold; and the dyspeptic complains of being chilly if exposed to the slightest wind, and cannot go out of doors without MUFFLING UP, when the healthy feel that the weather is balmy and delightful. Under these conditions, the dys- peptic finds that "THE LEAST THING IN THE WORLD," gives him a cold ; the causes being so slight some- 82 DYSPEPSIA. times, that it is almost impossible for him to find out how he did take cold; but it has been taken, and the result is, that the stomach being the weaker part, feels the effect of it most. Sometimes the whole force of the cold falls on that organ; in- creasing its debility and making it more and more unable to perform its functions ; with the result of aggravating every symptom. In the course of time the patient learns that the slightest out door expo- sure gives him a cold and gradually growing more and more nervous in the fear of this, all his pre- cautions are in that direction; and, being under the impression that going out of doors gives him a cold, he goes out less and less, is more easily deter- ed by wind and weather: and, allowing so many things to keep him from TAKING A WALK, he is, before he knows it, confined to his house, with the result, that his circulation becomes more feeble, his digestion more imperfect, his blood poorer and colder, requiring him to wear more cloth- ing in the house, to keep up larger fires, and to sleep in warmer rooms; all ending in making him a confirmed invalid. In all this, nothing has been said about pain ; about actual suffering; but this comes on apace ; CONSEQUENCES OF DYSPEPSIA. 83 for if the blood does not force itself along the extre- mities of the arteries with all the pumping power of the heart, much less will it travel along the veins, to find its way back to the lungs for purification and a new life; hence, it stagnates in the -smaller branches of the veins; becomes impacted,plugged up, CONGESTED, distending their sides ; pushing, swelling in every direction ; filling up ; making some dyspeptics ap- pear as fat as a BUTTER BALL. But it is mere puff and water; there is no strength, no endurance, no stamina. In others however, there is a very different result. This distension of the blood vessels causes them to press against other parts, crowds them ; and when this pressure comes against a nerve, it cries out, and THAT IS PAIN ; THAT IS NEURALGIA. All are familiar with how a slight touch on the nerve of a tooth will cause a person to start or shiver or squirm. These pressures of distended veins on the nerves, are most decided in those parts of the sys- tem which are weakest, or which have been injured 84 DYSPEPSIA. previously ; hence it is, that persons sometimes find themselves ailing in a part which had suffer- ed violence, five, ten, or twenty years before; and which they thought was entirely well. Sometimes this returning of an old pain, is the only " symp- tom " that a dyspeptic has; he has no suspicion that he has dyspepsia; as no wrong feeling had been noticed about the stomach. Any one having this experience, should at once consider himself falling into dyspepsia ; should promptly adopt the means proposed for a confirmed dyspeptic, and per- sist in their employment until " THE OLD PAIN " has completely disappeared, and continue it for some time longer, in proportion to the duration of the efforts required for removal. This revival of the old pain will probably be a kind of thermo- meter, or friendly monitor, to the patient for the remainder of his life, and his wisdom will be to put himself on the treatment, the very first day he notices even slight MUTTERINGS of coming things in the part affected; and the result will be, that such a person will live longer CONSEQUENCES OF DYSPEPSIA. 85 than he would otherwise have done; being compelled to carefulness and temperance. In other parts of the system, this congested blood in the veins, in consequence of its impurity and increased thickness, as a result of indigestion, brings about other results, according to the organ which most feels the effects, in consequence of its having been injured in some way or some time in the past. A BILIOUS person is one whose " liver is out of order," more or less often; showing that by inheritance or tem- perament or condition or accident, it has not that healthful vigor, necessary to the proper perform- ance of its work, which is twofold. All the blood sent to the different and distant parts of the body through the arteries for purposes of imparting nourishment and warmth and strength and life, is returned through the veins deprived of all these, and, instead, loaded with the impurities and wastes of the system ; in passing through the liver, these impurities are separated by it, and the product of that separation is called BILE. If the liver does not perform its part, does not do its work, these impurities remain in the blood ; and 86 DYSPEPSIA. if that continues, there is so much bile in the blood that it becomes the color of bile, and that discolor- ed blood, being sent to the surface tinges it and the skin is yellow, sometimes, in excessive cases, AS YELLOW AS A PUMPKIN, and is called mere biliousness, or jaundice, or yellow fever, according to season and degree. In slight cases, the yellowness is only observed in the whites of the eyes. It is not meant to say that yellow fever is caused by dyspepsia, for it nevtr proceeds to that extent; rarely, if ever, to the extent of causing jaundice, but merely to throw out the ideas and the fact that yellow fever and jaundice are the effects of A TORPID LIVER, when that torpidity is carried to a great extent; thattorpidity being caused sometimes by dyspepsia, but in a comparatively slight degree. The second office of the liver is to convey the bile, after it has been separated from the blood, into the gall bladder; but sometimes it stays there, and forms into hard lumps, having been transformed by chemical pro- cess, and we call them CONSEQUENCES OF DYSPEPSIA. 87 GALL STONES, which, in their passage out of the gall blaaaer,thk passage being very small,1 called the gall duct, causes one of the most torturing pains that human nature can endure; often exciting inflamma- tion, which leads to a dreadful death, and which death a dyspeptic condition of the system can bring about. At other times, the bile, by being detained in the gall bladder, becomes inspissated, hardened, but not chemically changed ; the writer saw four little balls of hardened bile taken from the gall bladder of a lady; they were round, hollow, of feathery lightness, and of the size of a black cherry; these lodged against the entrance of the gall duct, and prevented the passage of the bile out of it. This lady became jaundice and died of cancer of the liver, an utterly incurable disease, and which dys- pepsia is capable of causing, when its effects fall upon the liver. But the bile may be detained in the gall bladder without turning into stone, or into feathery balls, merely remaining there in its natural state, but in larger quantities than is normal. In a healthy 88 Dyspepsia. condition of the system, this bile is passed into the intestine canal, drop by drop, after meals especially, at a point just below where the contents of the stomach pass into the same receptacle, and is a beautiful representation of the wise economies of nature ; for this bile is the refuse of the body, and must be passed out of it, or there can be no health; on its entering the alimentary canal, it passes down- wards, carrying with it the contents of the intes- tines, by its chemical effect upon them; these effects do not cease until these contents, which are the refuse of food, are passed out of the body, this, in a natural, healthful state, takes place once in twenty-four hours; if it does not take place, the result is CONSTIPATION. Thus, the refuse, worthless bile is made, in its pas- sage out of the body, to pay tribute to its well being, in causing daily defecations, without which there can be no real good health for one week together ; hence, dyspepsia may cause costiveness. which the grapes, and fruits, and oatmeal porridge, and wheaten grits, are intended to obviate; but that particular diet has other, quite as important, objects to accomplish. CONSEQUENCES OF DYSPEPSIA. 89 Thus it is seen that dyspepsia causes biliousness, laying the patient liable to attacks of bilious diarrhoeas and bilious colic, or cramp colic, so vio- lent sometimes as to be almost unendurable, threat- ening speedy death. To use opiates in such attacks is bad practice; it makes the patient insensible to pain, but the causes of the pain are still in opera- tion, and valuable time is lost. Instead of opium, or morphine, Or laudanum, or paregoric, an efficient injection of tepid water should be employed, or fomentations of flannels, dipped in boiling water, wrung out, and laid over the pit of the stomach, renewed every three minutes, until entire relief is experienced ; sometimes getting into a warm bath is efficient, nothing out of the water except the head ; the water at first should be eighty degrees, and made warmer and warmer until relief is expe- rienced. The effects of these congestions, excited, or more immediately brought about by little colds, some- times fall on other parts of the system, causing head-aches, diarrhoeas, and nausea, and enormous accumulations of wind on the stomach, which may be relieved by a large draught of brandy or a table- spoonful or more of pulverized charcoal swallowed in half a glass of water, each atom of charcoal 90 DYSPEPSIA. absorbing very nearly twenty times its bulk of wind. At other times, the dyspepsia is manifested by unbearable burnings in the feet, flushes in the face, or fiery sensations along the spine, or intolerable neuralgias, which, in passing, it may be well to say, are promptly relivered by hot baths or hot fomentations to the ailing spot. The reader must bear in mind two things : first, that what is the ordinary symptom of dyspepsia to him, whether a load at the pit of the stomach, or rawness in the throat, or fiery sensation along the breast bone, extending from the stomach to the throat, may sometimes disappear, and he may im- agine that he has got rid of his old enemy, but at the same time, or soon after, he may notice a new ailment springing up in some other part of the body. This shows that the dyspepsia, instead ol being cured, has only been transferred to another locality, this transfer taking place by the operation of natural causes, or by the use of means of cure which have injured that part, when the last thing taken is regarded as the cure of the dyspepsia, and the person heralds the news to all who are willing to listen to him, and recommends the remedy with the most constant pertinacity; being pretty sure to CONSEQUENCES OF DYSPEPSIA. 9] add that it will do no harm, if it does no good; enumerating the cases in which it was successful in consequence of his advice having been followed. The willing and credulous patient takes the pre- scription only to find that however much good it may have done to others, it was of no possible benefit to him, and this is the origin of an innu- merable multitude of much VAUNTED CURES. When symptoms of dyspepsia change in this way to other localities, to a pain in the face, or a rheu- matism in the joints, or a lameness in the muscles there is a very natural impression that if some- thing is done at the ailing spot, it can be cured; but the result is that while many things alleviate the suffering, nothing cures, nothing eradicates, it constantly returns, the reason is, the seat of the disease, the real cause, is in the stomach, a foot or two or more away—in short, that it is the dyspep- sia misleading, making a false alarm, in all such cases. The dyspepsia must be attacked, and the remedies must be addressed to the stomach, and they must be such as will be adapted to strength- ening it, and enable it better to digest the food, first by giving it rest, and then by giving it work which 92 DYSPEPSIA. is easy of performance, as it is believed the mode of living already marked out will accomplish in a great number of cases. The thoughtful reader will see in these state- ments how the young physician or one of limit. ed practice, is sometimes at a perfect loss, finds himself in an impenetrable fog. He applies a remedy to a certain spot, or to meet a certain symp- tom, it has acted LIKE A CHARM in a dozen or more cases, exactly like it to all ap- pearance but in this it does not act "like a charm " or like anything else, in fact it does not act at all, does no more good than would a handful of ashes on the part. Hence the importance, in consulting a phy- sician for any symptom of long standing, as the whole history of the patient should be minutely in- quired into and plainly spread out; for lack of this, failures in curing what are called simple ailments, are constantly occurring; the remedies were not addressed to the proper point. Then comes a practical deduction of an impor- tance, literally incalculable, if a dyspeptic finds that his stomach ceases to incommode him, that the familiar ailment there has disappeared, and that CONSEQUENCES OF DYSPEPSIA. 93 symptom appears in other parts of the body, he should persist in directing his remedies to the stomach, for the seat of the disease is there still, and if those efforts are such as have been already advised, he will generally be able at the end of forty-eight hours to note favorable results; if so, parsist in the treatment, if not, send for a skilful physician and waste no time in self-medication—in blind, blundering, hap-hazard attempts at the em- ployment of means which are as little understood as the object sought to be accomplished. No man of intelligence would attempt to mend an old shoe or repair his own watch, if a competent workman was at hand to do it; but to attempt to put in order the disarranged and wonderfully com- plicated machinery of the system when impaired by disease, is the perfection of unwisdom, and yet, un- counted lives are sacrificed in this way, every year; a dollar saved to PURCHASE DEATH. THE PHILOSOPHY OF DYSPEPSIA. When a dyspeptic purchases a book which treats of its cure, he wants to come at the point at once, see what the treatment is, study it, and then en- deavour to carry it out. After that, he begins to feel a desire of knowing more about the nature of the malady, its causes, its actions, its effects on the system, and the how and the why of a great many things connected with the stomach and eating. The knowledge of these is not essential to the cure, but with an intelligent and observing mind, the understanding of these things makes it more easy to carry out the treatment than if it were in the shape of a blind, unexplained direction; hence it was thought better to propose the method of cure in all ordinary cases first, and then explain the reasons for that method in preference to all others, fortified by observed facts, which cannot be dis- puted. It has not been thought profitable to enter into minute philosophical disquisitions and nice distinc- tions about the meaning of words and phrases, but to speak of dyspepsia in the broad sense as it mani- fests itself among the people in ordinary cases; for, ( 94 ) THE PHILOSOPHY OF DYSPEPSIA. 95 after all, the mode of treatment which will cure any one curable case will cure another; and it is considered very safe to say, and a very moderate claim, that the dietic plan proposed will very cer- tainly cure four cases out of five. If one or more vegetables or other articles of food are boiled sufficiently in some water they are resolved into a pulpy, homogeneous substance of a more or less liquid or flowing character. The Greeks observed that after food had been taken into a healthy stomach, whether of animal or man, it became more or less of a thick fluid in the course of a few hours, and pretty much of the same color and consistency whatever may have been the sub- stance eaten; hence they considered that the pro- cess by which nature converted food into a form from which nourishment was derived was allied to that of boiling; hence they applied to it a word which meant boiling in their language, expressed in English letters by the term pipto. They further observed that, if persons ate too much or ate substances which were not easily changed to the proper condition, more or less bodily discomfort was experienced; they then ap- plied another word to express the idea of difficulty or painful conversion of food spelled dus, making 96 DYSPEPSIA. one word duspipto, and, for beauty of sound, it was formed into the familiar appelation dyspepsia. The Romans at a later date, seemingly not will- ing to commit themselves to the idea that food in the stomach underwent any specified process in order to fit it for meeting the wants of the system, knowing that if that process was not carried on properly, it would not fulfil the purposes of nature, and wishing to have a word which would express that idea, without committing themselves to its manner, used the word indigestio ; made up of in, meaning without, and digcstio, meaning preparation; both together giving the full idea of without preparation, or not properly pre- pared ; and, by adding the letter n, we have the world-wide familiar name " Indigestion," which is now getting to be more commonly employed than " dyspepsia." Many years ago a Canadian soldier named Alexis St. Martin received a gun-shot wound in the side, which, on healing, left an opening which allowed any one to see what was going on in the stomach at anytime. This was considered by Dr. William Beau- mont a rare opportunity for making some scientific DIGESTION OF FOOD. 97 observations and experiments in connection with so important a subject as that of the digestion of food. These observations were patiently and faithfully made in the progress of many months, and their subsequent publication excited an intense interest among scientific men all over the world, as being of great approximative value, and the book has been considered a standard work of authoritative refer- ence ever since, and has been made the foundation of many works on human physiology in general, and of digestion and dyspepsia in particular. It is proposed to make use of some of the facts published by Dr. Beaumont, with a view of con- vincing the reader of the demonstrable character of the deductions drawn from these facts, as an aid to him in carrying the principle of action into practical life; for it is very much easier, and a great deal more satisfactory, to follow the pre- scription of a physician when the judgment is con- vinced that they are founded on truth, than merely in a blind confidence of the statements of a medi- cal adviser. Dr. Beaumont saw that when the food was cut up in small pieces before it was eaten, it was dis- solved, digested, sooner and more easily, as well as 98 DYSPEPSIA. more perfectly, than when it was swallowed in large pieces. He also observed that, if the pieces were very large, it required so long a time for them to be dis- solved that, before the completion of the process, they began to rot, to decompose, to become sour, and the patient complained of a burning or scald- ing sensation in the throat at the little hollow at the top of the breast bone and bottom of the neck in front. Sometimes this sensation extended from the stomach in a straight line upwards to the throat, this is ACIDITY OF STOMACH, one of the most common, as well as annoying symptoms of dyspepsia. And now that the intelli- gent and refined reader knows that the sensations named arise from food rotting in the stomach, as a result of the indelicacy of bolting, swallowing large chunks of food at his meals, it is not at all likely that he will do such a thing again as willing- ly; to leave carrion in his stomach, his whole nature revolts against it. Beaumont also observed that if St. Martin ate rapidly, as he was very apt to do when he was hungry, or ate a great deal too much, the invari- COLIC. 99 able result was the rotting process of the whole mass, causing acidity, the formation of large quantities of wind, passing up and down ; or, if it did not thus escape, its accumulation in the in- testines and stomach caused at times an insupport- able sense of oppression, difficulty of breathing, or intense pain, which, in infants, is called COLIC, or by a still more familiar name. It is very clear that any reader with even a small amount of delicacy and refinement will have such a sense of disgust and abhorence of a deliberate and voluntary act, which fills his stomach with rotting food, that he will be at pains for the remainder of his life to cut it up fine, and eat it slowly. These two things are es- sential to the cure of any dyspeptic, making it literally true that one of the best remedies for dys pepsia is A SHARP CASE KNIFE because it divides the meat perfectly, its sinews and tendons, what a cook calls strings; and for the want of the complete division of which, persons before now have often been CHOKED TO DEATH. Perhaps the reader may remember that more than once in his life, he was swallowing a mouth- 100 DYSPEPSIA. ful at the table, and it seemed to be held from going down by some communication with what was in the forward part of the mouth, and was only re- lieved from choking by another desperate attempt at swallowing, which fortunately carried both parts of the mouthful downwards, leaving hiinin a con- siderable perturbation of mind. If he had had a sharp knife such an unpleasant occurrence could not have taken place. It is a national trait with the English, who are great lovers of roast beef and mutton, to have sharp dinner knives; it is universal, a custom found in practical wisdom. A judicious and conscientious parent will be at pains to explain this matter to the children, to their life-long advantage ; and it may be done in so impressive a manner, and so easily, that it will be almost a crime not to do it. Have two glasses, or " tumblers," each half full of water, take two pieces of ice, each as large as the egg of a goose, or of equal weight; cut one of those pieces into bits as small as plum stones ; put them into one glass, and the one piece in the other; stir them with spoons ; all the time with watch in hand, and notice how much sooner the small pieces are entirely melted, than the one large piece; and MODE OF DIGESTION. 101 that is the reason why it is better to have sharp knives at the table, and to cut up the food in small pieoes. It may be made more impressive because of the curious interest connected with the subject, to state that Beaumont observed, as the food entered the stomach, it was given a churning or circling motion. It went round and round the stomach, touching its sides, and, as it did so, a fluid substance seem- ed to come out of little reservoirs or vessels scat- tered about the inner surface of the stomach, and this liquid enveloped each particle of food, as did the water in the glass where were the small pieces of ice, and, by an eating or melting or otherwise dissolving process, the bits of food became smaller and smaller until they disappeared altogether, and the whole was converted into a fluid, just as the whole mass in the tumbler became water, eventu- ally. This stomach fluid is called by physicians THE GASTRIC JUICE, the first word being a Greek term meaning " stom- ach." The whole observation showed that the food was not dissolved as is a lump of sugar in'a cup of tea, by the water sinking into it, and caus- ing it to fall apart, but causing a dissolution by 102 DYSPEPSIA. layers, from without inwards, just as a piece of candy in the mouth becomes smaller and smaller. Another observation was, that if the food was cut up very fine as in mince meat, it was dissolved almost as soon as if it were chewed very slowly and for a long time. From this we derive the practical fact, that persons who have not GOOD TEETH should make up for it by having very sharp table knives, and taking time and pains to cut up every particle of food in pieces as small as a pea. Beaumont observed further that when St. Martin was very hungry, and he looked into the stomach, the vessels along its sides were so full of gastric juice that they " stood out" as the veins do on a man's forehead sometimes, when greatly excited, or after he has been in a stooping position with his head downwards for some minutes. But when St. Martin was not hungry these vessels were scarcely visible. Putting these two things together, with a third observation, that the more gastric juice there was the sooner the food was dissolved, the practi- cal conclusion is irresistible, that it is no use for a man to BAD BREATH. 103 EAT WHEN HE IS NOT HUNGRY, because there is no gastric juice in the stomach to dissolve the food, and it can only remain there to ferment and rot, a disgusting mass, pouring forth noisome odors. This is the reason why some people have such BAD BREATH. A dead dog rotting in the sun sends out the sickening gases in every direction; rotting meat in the stomach of a glutton does the same thing, hence it is that you can smell some people a mile off—more or less. This festering, rotting mass of food in the stomach cannot escape, it remains there for hours, a whole day sometimes. This is what is meant by " TASTING FOOD " a long time after it has been eaten, indicating that it has not been digested; if it had we would have " heard no more of it " since the moment of swallowing it. So when food is " tasted " after it has been eaten it means that the person has taken too much, or the quality was not adapted to the then conditions of the stomach—has not 104 DYSPEPSIA. AGREED WITH IT. But another result follows having indigested food in the stomach : being confined there its gases and more liquid particles are absorbed into the system, that is make their way into the blood, corrupt it, poison it, and render it unfit for natural purposes. But the nerves feed on the blood, and blood and nerves are at every pin point of the human body; when, therefore, they find that their food is not natural, is not good, they complain; that is un- natural sensations are produced—these we call " SYMPTOMS," and if any person will take the trouble to listen to the interminable narrations of an unfortunate dys- peptic, and make a note of them, he will soon find that there is scarcely a spot in the whole human body, from TOP TO TOE, which is not the seat of some symptom or other— of some ache or pain, or hurting. DIGESTIBILITY OF FOOD. Dr. Beaumont spent a great deal of labour in ascertaining what time was required for the diges- tion of various kinds of food. Cole-slaw, boiled rice, boiled pig's feet soused, tripe soused and boiled, required one hour for complete dissolution in the gastric juice ; when it was then ready to be passed out of the stomach and forwarded to other parts of the system, to yield nourishment and invigorating powers. Whipped eggs, raw ; salmon trout, boiled or fried; barley soup; sweet mellow, raw apples, and venison steak required an hour and a half; wild game, two hours and a quarter; roasted beef and mutton three hours, and roast pork, beef suet and tendon over five hours. Fresh meats broiled were more easily digested than roasted; and fresh meats were more easily digested than vegetables; hence the general rule for dyspeptics should be to select such articles of food as are soonest and most easily digested, provided no discomfort follows, and the system is strengthened. Whatever kind of food seems to strengthen a dyspeptic, and can be eaten without any ill-feelings afterwards, that is the kind for such a person, 7 C 105 ^) 106 DYSPEPSIA. regardless of the time it requires for digestion, according to the tables. The experiments on St. Martin showed the time required for digesting food by an ordinary healthy person, but these are modified in case of the sick and feeble, and as some persons relish one kind of food and some another, and, as what is eaten wiih a relish, is more likely to be digested easily, and so impart nourishment and strength, it follows that no one should be a rule for another, each must be a RULE TO HIMSELF. Hence, in laying down the diet for a dozen dyspep- tics, no two, perhaps, would be exactly alike as to quality and quantity. The first point in every case is to take that food which "agrees" best; that is, which is followed by the least possible discomfort, remembering always, that an article may agree very well if taken in small quantities at a time, but in larger, would cause very great discomfort. The easy method in all such cases is to eat less and less at each meal until no disagreeable sensation is observed to fol- low, and keep at that amount for a short time, until the system becomes stronger, and then the amount may be increased. AVOID NOTICING SYMPTOMS. 107 Some item of food may not agree with the dyspeptic to-day, or this week, or month, but may do so very well at a future time. It will be a great comfort to the dyspeptic, and of considerable importance in promoting and hast- ening a cure in ordinary cases, to avoid noticing symptoms as much as possible. It is a most miserable em- ployment to be looking about for aches and pains, and it is quite as unprofitable to be all the time thinking about what shall be eaten at the next meal. It will be a great point gained in every case to have some business, some occupation, some object to accomplish immediately after each meal, of a sufficiently engrossing and agreeable nature as to carry the mind away from the body and its con- ditions. To this end, in the case of women and others who, from any cause, are mostly indoors, it would answer a good purpose to have a leisure walk, or friendly visit, or domestic out-door errand, after each meal, having a companion to talk to as often as practicable, for solitary walks, even in the bustle of a city, are doleful occupations, and do but little to wake up the life currents; but if there is an object in view, a friend to be visited, a letter to be depositod 108 DYSPEPSIA. or a purchase to be made, or an engagement to be fulfilled, then it is a different thing ; but, in any event, endeavour to have the mind pleasantly oc- cupied all the time if practicable, and as much of the time as possible should be out of doors in the open air, at least two or three hours every day, a part of the time in the forenoon, and a part in the afternoon be fore sun own. An hour twice a day is better than two hours at a time, thus avoiding over fatigue in case of the feeble. The rule should be in all cases to turn homeward before one is much tired, for every step taken after weariness comes on, does more harm than good and paves the way for an easy taking cold after reaching home ; not forgetting that actual fatigue impairs the digestion, for, the whole body being weak, the stomach bears its proportion of the debility. It is desirable that the dyspeptic should take some moderate exercise out of doors after each meal, as well after supper, or the last meal of the day, as after breakfast or dinner. There is nothing hurtful in the night air after a regular meal, if the person takes the precaution to exercise with suffi- cient vigor to keep off a feeling of chilliness. This should be the rule in all forms of exercise out OUT-DOOR EXERCISE AFTER MEALS. 109 of doors; to keep off chilliness, for its tendency is to arrest the process of digestion on the instant, beside the danger of taking cold. The reader will bear in mind that this line of remark has been fallen into in connection with having something in hand after each meal, as a means of diverting the mind from the condition of the body, and of breaking up the miserable habit of dwelling on one's bodily discomforts, which always aggravates dyspepsia and impedes its cure. Dr. Beaumont observed that while some articles of food were digested in an hour and others in three or four or more, that an ordinary meal, made up of several articles, was digested within five hours and passed out of the stomach: but, during that entire time, the stomach was in motion, sending the food round and round, by the action of its vari- ous muscles, pushing and pushing incessantly; then, and not until then, it rested. The busy heart is in perfect repose for one-third of its time, this is its sleep ; in the same sense, the stomach sleeps after each meal, and now comes in THE BOTTOM FACT, the fundamental principle, the foundation stone, the key of the corner, in connection with the treat- 110 DYSPEPSIA. ment and cure of all cases of dyspepsia. Beau- mont observed that, if after a regular meal, half an hour or more before that meal was digested, some- thing else was eaten, the process of digestion of what was already in the stomach was arrested until what was last eaten was brought to the condition of the food which had been taken at the regular meal; thus keeping the entire mass of food in the stomach that much longer, and keeping that organ at work that much longer, overtaxing its strength, exhausting its powers ; doing this for one time causes acute dyspepsia; keeping it up is chronic dyspepsia—the dyspepsia which is the bane of the American people; in other words, dyspepsia is usually brought on by EATING TOO OFTEN. And when once firmly fixed in the system, in the course of weeks or months, it is then kept up by EATING TOO MUCH. Dyspeptics are always hungry, are only happy when they are eating, and, as soon as they are done, their torments begin, to continue one, two, or more hours, during which time they are unmis- takably miserable. This incessant, this HUNGER. Ill GNAWING HUNGER, of the dyspeptic, may be said to be a mistaken notion of the instinct; and may thus be presented, with the view of enabling the reader to understand an important principle. When a man is hungry there is an uncomfortable sensation about the stomach; he eats a good dinner and the discom- fort is removed; and thus it continues for years, the instinct calling for food to be introduced into the stomach whenever there is hunger. But HUNGER is the system's method of indicating that it wants replenishment and repair, a new supply of strength through a new supply of nutriment; and, as these supplies have been furnished hitherto by filling the stomach with food, instinct concludes that food is wanting to appease hunger, to supply nutriment, and to give strength, hei.ce calls for food in such imperative tones, sometimes as to be almost irresistible, even by persons of the strongest minds. Hence the dyspeptic feels every day that he cannot possibly wait for his dinner— that he must, at least, 112 DYSPEPSIA. HAVE A BITE, to stay his stomach ; but this is a vicious appetite, it tends to aggravate the disease, and must be re- sisted at any sacrifice of mere comfort, and the result will be, usually in a few days, that this FORM OF TORMENT will pass off, and will constitute one of the first steps towards mastering the disease. Speaking unscientifically, for the purpose of being understood by unprofessional minds, the instinct for satisfying hunger having been appeased by filling the stomach with food, the system im- bibed the impression that hunger would be ap- peased, and the body supplied with the nutriment and strength required by filling the stomach with juice again; but in its want of strength, it continued to call for food, while, in reality, it was not more food that was required but the pro- per digestion of what had already been taken ; and, as what had already been taken, was not digested, taking more only added to the trouble ; for if the stomach could not digest what was already in it, it would be still more unable to digest an increased quantity. Hence, although the confirmed dyspep- HUNGER. 113 tic is, through blind instinct, calling for more food, he should bring his reasons to bear in the light of the statements just made, and summon all his moral courage to eat less and less, instead of more and more, steadily diminishing the quantity, with the assurance that the stomach will digest a small amount when it would fail to do its work with a larger quantity, and would derive more nourishment and strength from this smaller amount well digested, than from a hearty meal not digested at all—that is, all digested to a certain extent, but none of it so well digested as to impart any strength to the system. And, as hunger is the sensation put forward by nature to indicate that she needs a new supply of strength, and the food of the dyspeptic not being healthfully digested does not give that strength, the hunger continues, and the torment is incessant, the patient is always hungry, never satisfied. Awhile ago it was stated that if a person often ate after a regular meal, that is, fell into the habit of EATING BETWEEN MEALS, the process of digestion was lengthened as therein described, and, instead of the stomach having to work five hours and then getting some rest, it had 114 DYSPEPSIA. to work one, two, or more hours longer than natu- ral, and, this thing going on meal after meal, the result is that it is kept working FROM MORNING TILL NIGHT, and is thus " worn out," " overtaxed," " worked to death," " loses its tone," as popularly expressed ; and, having been " overworked," the remedy is to remove the cause and give it rest by eating less, and thus afford it an opportunity to regain its strength; precisely as when a man has been ex- hausted by violent or protracted exertion of any kind, he regains his strength by moderate labour or absolute repose. The method to be adopted is, to eat less and less at each meal, until no discom- fort whatever is experienced; continue at that for several days, although it may not seem to be enough, and the stomach will get stronger, when the amount eaten may be gradually increased. While thus eating less, it is of quite as much im- portance to eat less often, and resolutely avoid EATING BETWEEN MEALS. It is the opinion of most medical men of extensive observation and experience that a large proportion of all dyspepsias among women is brought on dur- EATING BETWEEN MEALS. 115 ing the teens of girlhood, when, living at home and being always ready to eat, as young persons in health are, they are very apt to nibble at anything they see in passing about the house, as an apple, orange, bunch of grapes, bit of cake, and the like ; this breaks into the habit of eating regularly, keeps the stomach always at work, gives it no rest, it wears out, and confirmed dyspepsia follows on apace. It is quite probable that more cases of dyspepsia are caused by eating too often than in any other way, and, in order to regulate that, we must be guided by nature. If it requires four or five hours to digest a regular meal and pass it out of the stomach, there should be at least five hours inter- val between meals: that is, between breakfast and dinner, and dinner and supper; this will keep the stomach at work twelve or fifteen hours out of the twenty-four, and the remainder of the day will be for rest. This seems to be the natural order of things for steady workers, the day labourer, the farmer, and the mechanic. In accordance with these views it is found that a man cannot work to advantage longer than six hours without eating. In this connection it would seem to be a legiti- mate inference, that, as comparatively little work 116 DYSPEPSIA. is done after supper, and less strength is required for this, much less food is necessary at the last meal of the day. If a hearty supper is taken, it keeps the stomach at work to a late hour in the night. The other part of the body is resting and sleeping while it is toiling on to dispose of the sup- per, hence it does not get its share of rest, and is, as a consequence, worn out before the rest of the body ; but, on the proper performance of its duty, the natural amount of strength for the body depends, and, as the diseased stomach cannot adequately supply that strength, the body gradually weakens, and all its functions also become impaired ; hence dyspeptics have very little endurance, very little vitality, very little power of resisting disease, and, as a consequence, fall an easy prey to any preva- lent malady. It is a law of nature that every organic substance, everything which has once had life, but has it no longer, will soon begin to decay after a short exposure to warmth and dampness, such is the case with all meats, vegetable, and fruits, which we all know soon begin to decay in warm weather. The interior of the stomach is always at about a hundred degrees, considerably warmer than sum- mer weather, hence, if food is kept in but a little DIGESTION. 117 longer than the natural time without being properly acted upon, it will inevitably begin to decompose. Therefore, if a person eats too much or too often, the process of digestion is extended beyond the natural time, and the inevitable result is decom- position, which, as previously explained, poisons the blood and renders it unfit for imparting nour- ishment and strength to the system. It is thus seen that the three universal causes of dyspepsia are the habits of— Eating too much j Eating too often ; Eating without an appetite. This last was explained in a previous page. In the first two the stomach was kept too long at work and could not perform its functions properly ; hence the food decomposed, with its unhealthful result. In the last case, there being no gastric juice to parform the offices of digestion, the food remained unchanged, until decomposition began to take place according to invariable natural laws, the result being the same as in the two first, innu- trition, blood-poisoning, nerve-starving, and nerve- complaining, giving rise to " symptoms " as vari- able and as numerous as the parts of the body. 118 DYSPEPSIA. All dyspeptics grow worse constantly, because, when the stomach begins to fail in its functions, the nerves begin also to fail, in consequence of the Btomach failing to supply them with healthful food, and they, in turn, begin to fail in giving power to the stomach to discharge its appropriate functions ; hence one acts on the other, and continually aggra- vating the malady, making it more and more incur- able, and rendering the unfortunate patient more and more miserable, not killing him outright, but causing him, in many cases, to kill himself, as the shortest way of terminating tortures which were otherwise interminable. Beaumont observed that whatever St. Martin ate at a regular meal, whether vegetables, or meat, or both, whether of two articles or a dozen different ones, the color and consistence of the digested mass were about the same, leading to the practical infer- ence that a great variety of articles of food at any one meal, was not harmful, was not incompatible with the healthful functions of the stomach. In other words, the quality of the food was not a fac- tor in causing dyspepsia; it was quantity; we may eat almost anything without discomfort and with natural results, if it is not too much for it. We may eat half a pound of bread at a meal with comfort, but not VARIETY AT THE TABLE. 119 half a pound of sugar ; we may take a pint of soup, but not a pint of syrup. On general principles variety at the table is in- dispensable to good health, because the human body is made up of many different elements, hydro- gen, nitrogen, phosphorus, acids, alkalies, carbon, and others ; without these we cannot live. Without carbon we would freeze to death, and sugars, and fats, and oils, are, as it were, consoli- dated carbon; hence we consume them in large quantities in cold weather, in the shape of roast pork and fat meats, and the inevitable buckwheat cakes and molasses, with a large amount of butter added; it is the carbon of these which generates the extra heat within, to antagonise the extra cold without. Nature craves these in the winter time ; it is this which makes it a bliss for the Esquimaux, who live amid eternal ice and snow, to have the opportunity of eating a dozen or two tallow candles at a meal, or of drinking two or three gallons of train oil, or any other kind of oil, at a sitting. But fruits and berries, the apple and the orange, the cherry and the lemon, have not an atom of car- bon. We do not need it when these are in their season. So wise and kind is the Omnipotent One 120 DYSPEPSIA. in providing these in the summer-time, with their delicious acids, which cool off the system. The various kinds of fish and living things in all the oceans and rivers and creeks and running brooks on the globe abound in phosphorus, which is the essential and principal food of the brain, the glory of man, and more largely than any other aliment do the inhabitants of the great deep sup- ply this essential principle; and the love of fish seems to be common to all peoples. These statements show that variety of food is necessary to the highest well-being of man, that those who live amid the sources of the icebergs require the carbon of the oil to keep them warm, and there are found the walrus, and the whale, and the polar bear, all revelling in their fatness, while in southern climes, where the people dwell in tropi- cal heats, a beneficent Providence has sent the orange and the lemon and the banana and other fruits in their wonderful profusion, TO COMFORT AND TO COOL. But in the regions of the earth, in the temperate zones, where it is warm during half the year and cold for the remainder, both cooling and warming foods are supplied in almost every form, and in the VARIETY OF FOOD. 121 greatest abundance. We have meats and oils, and fruits and acids, in almost endless variety, so wise and kind is He whose loving kindness is over all His works, to provide for us, the creatures of His power, the children of His love—His offspring. But this very variety of food is a prominent cause of dyspepsia, and will continue to be, until we bring our reason to bear on the subject and have the self-denial to learn to use them WISELY AND WELL. This item of experience has occurred to the reader, in the course' of a life not very long, a dozen or a hundred, if not a thousand times. He has made a hearty meal, has pushed back his plate and has a feeling of satisfaction, delightful to con- template. He is at peace with the whole world; unlike OLIVER TWIST, he does not want " more," and indeed, there is no room for it. But, at this juncture, an unexpected dish is presented; mayhap it is a favourite one : one which he may not have seen for weeks and months before; it may be the first of the season. In an instant a marvelous change comes over 8 122 DYSPEPSIA. THE SPIRIT OF HIS DREAM, and with that he "turns to," and eats almost as much in amount as he had already done. He has doubled his dinner, and imposed an equal propor- tion of extra labour on an already labouring stom- ach, to its inevitable injury. It is for this reason DESSERTS ARE HURTFUL, not that they are of themselves unhealthy or diffi- cult of digestion, if properly made, but because they tempt the appetite and induce persons to eat after nature has been satisfied, and to that extent overtax and impair the abilities of the stomach, with the results already alluded to. Desserts are as healthful and nutritious as other ordinary articles of food, but, taken after nature has had her fill, they cause fulness, oppression, nausea, or other forms of dyspeptic symptoms, which are attributed to the last thing eaten, instead of the real cause, an overfilling of the stomach, which the regular meal had as much a part in doing as the dessert. It is a very wise custom on the part of some French and other European families, and at some DELICACIES. 123 hotels in Germany, to have little delicacies on the dinner table when the parties first sit down ; and while waiting for all to collect, and for the first dish to be served up " PIPING Hot," an apple, or an orange, or a bunch of grapes, or bit of sweetmeat, is taken and " nibbled " at during the intervals of conversation; the result being that any over-hunger is stayed, and the appetite is modified, so that fast and excessive eating is pre- vented. Hence, if the dessert is taken at the begin- ning of a good dinner, or is eaten instead of dinner, the day before or the day after, no harm can result, And, in as far as it increases the variety of the food eaten in the course of any meal, it is positively beneficial. The necessary requisites of a variety of food may be very well met, with great physiological advan- tages, by having each meal different from the next and the preceding, but let each consist of not over three articles of food. This is good for all; for, dyspeptics it is essential; for the inevitable result will be, in all cases, that there is not likely to be any over-eating at that meal. Any reader can try it for himself, and, let him be ever so hungry, and vlA DYSPEPSIA. the dinner consist of roast turkey, stale bread, and potatoes—or roast turkey, macaroni, and cran- berry sauce—it is not at all likely that he will eat too much, and yet will feel satisfied; and as a very common symptom of dyspepsia, is a craving appetite, an excessive hunger, the temptation to eat too much of a SPLENDID DINNER might be, and is often, irresistible; but he escapes this temptation, and the trying conflict of resist- ance, by sitting down at the less various dishes, and he avoids the constant conflicts of hard self- denials. The rule then for all who aim to rid themselves of the various forms of dyspepsia by the simple means of regulating the diet, without the purgato- rial infliction of feeling always hungry, and of get- ting up from a fine dinner before one is done, is im- perative that each meal should be made of not over three articles of diet, giving the preference to Lean fresh meats; Stale brown bread, and Fruits, ripe, raw, fresh, eating them half an hour before. DRINKING AT MEALS. 125 In almost all cases, it is better to drink nothing whatever; if a person is weak and chilly, a cup of hot drink, which is at the same time palatable, is a positive benefit; it revives, it makes up the cir- culation and overcomes or prevents chilliness, which conflicts with healthful digestion ; for Beau- mont observed that, if St. Martin drank cold water during a meal, it instantly arrested the process of digestion, just as instantly as the process of boiling is arrested if iced water is thrown into the vessel, and digestion was not resumed until the cold liquid introduced had become as warm as were the co^ients of the stomach before it was drank. The temperature of a healthy stomach is about one hundred degrees, that of ice water about thirty- three, and to impart to this ice water just double its heat is a very serious draft on the vital heat of the system, enough sometimes to cause instant death, as when a person in a very heated condition, drinks largely of any cold liquid, even milk or water. The writer's grandfather died after a short illness, in Devonshire, England, from drinking a glass of cold milk after a walk, on a hot summer's day. A gallant French general, in his efforts to hurry up some artillery to the top of a mountain covered with snow, dropped dead from drinking a glass of 126 DYSPEPSIA. snow-water—not from any quality in the snow, but from the temperature of the liquid; it abstracted heat from the vital parts with too great rapidity. Some persons are able to drink several glasses of ice water during a single dinner on a summer's day; it's because they have large reserves of vital forces. The reader has no doubt observed sever a] times in the course of his life, a little chill running over him during dinner; it was either because he was eating something too cold, or had taken too much cold liquid of some kind ; a greater degree of this chilliness would have been death. There are a number of cases in standard medi- cal works of persons dying at the dinner table, or soon after, of congestive chill, as the result of either Eating in a chilly condition, Drinking too freely of cold fluids, Taking cold food, or ice cream, or Eating so much, while in a weakly condition that the general system in the effort to supply the imperative demands of the stomach for warmth, wrecked all the wheels of life, shattered the whole mechanism. These are facts, not conjectures nor theories, and should impress all with the danger of running any of the risks named by either of the four habits CONGESTIVE CHILL. 127 just enumerated ; and it is vitally necessary on the part of dyspeptics to heed them. These things being true, no person should eat while feeling chilly and if not comfortably warm at the beginning of a meal, or during its progress, some drink should be taken, not merely warm but hot, the comfortable- ness of it will be almost instantaneous. The dys- peptic should ordinarily not drink anything from half an hour before to half an hour after a regular meal, cold or hot, because— First, the bulk of the draught tends to distend the stomach, which pressing up against the lungs, crowds them, diminishes their space for work, for taking in air enough for the wants of the system, hence the dyspeptic often complains of oppression, of shortness of breath in going up stairs soon after a meal. Second, if the fluid taken is cold, it causes chilliness and all its ill-consequences as above named. Third, by diluting the gastric juice, it lessens its power of dissolving the food whether the drink be warm or cold ; it is hoped the reader will feel the force of this statement without exemplify- ing it. Fourth, persons will eat less if nothing is drank at meals. The dyspeptic should steadily guard against. studying, or 128 DYSPEPSIA. WORKING SOON AFTER EATING; because it is of the first consequence that the pro- cess of digestion should begin and continue with all its force until the whole work is done, this process is carried on by what is called the nervous energy of the system; it must not only be carried on but it must be done without interruption; for if sud- denly arrested for but a short time, convulsions or death sometimes ensues. In ordinary good health, the different parts of the human body, its various works and manufactories— Brain, Heart, Lungs, Stomach, Liver, &c, are supplied with their needed amount of nervous power, as a well-defended and guarded fortress has soldiers stationed at various points, but if anything happens by which a larger force is required at any one point than the others, each ol the others detaches a portion of its strength to the needed point; so when a man wants to make an extra effort in lifting, he draws in an extra supply of breath, to do which extra nerve power is required in the lungs; so also, wrhen the stomach is filled UNDUE EXERCISE AFTER EATING. 129 with food, an extra supply of nervous energy must be sent there to perform the work, this extra amount is made up by details from all the other workshops named; but if nature's instincts are overruled and a man by force of will attempts to climb a pole or run a race or perform other extra activities, the strength is compelled away from the stomach and digestion ceases. An eminent French experimenter fed six dog8 heartily; three of them he locked up in a dark apartment where they went to sleep; the other three were sent on the chase; on their return their stomachs were examined and the food was found unchanged; while the sleeping, rest- ing dogs had digested their dinner fully. The principle is acted out in practical life in various ways. No horseman will go on a gallop the mo- ment his trusty animal has been fed, because he knows his life will be endangered, and further, even if that was not the case, he would travel farther by the end of the day and with less fatigue, if, for the first two or three miles, the gait should be that oi a leisure walk. The instinct which is given to all the animal creation, as an 130 DYSPEPSIA. AUTOMATIC LIFE PRESERVER, supplied by infinite intelligence, leads the horse, the hog, the dog, and even the feeble-minded chicken, to roost or rest or lie down soon after eating a ful^ meal; not even calling away from the stomach the nervous power necessary to stand up or do any- thing more than breathe. This brings us face to face with a practical fact of immeasurable impor- tance to ALL THINKERS. Students of all professions and of all classes and of all departments of human knowledge are most liable, next to women, to have their lives made miserable by dyspepsia, brought about by that IMPATIENCE OF DELIGHT in study, to go to their books immediately after meals, compelling the nervous energy away from the stomach, and this being repeated every day, and sometimes three times a day for weeks together a disease is engendered, which is not only to embit- ter life, but to seriously interfere with PROFESSIONAL DUTY. In connection with the fact that the blood feeds the nerves and thus supplies them with their power of PROFESSIONAL DUTY. 131 work, and the brain being the fountain head of all nervous powers, it has been recently demonstrated, that if a man is sitting still and in a quiet frame of mind, his pulse beats at a certain slow rate; but, on the very instant of the introduction of a striking thought, the pulse is increased in rapidity and the fullness of its flow, showing clearly, that one additional thought in the brain requires an additional flow of blood, both in quantity and rapid- ity and hence an additional supply of nervous force, and that supply of increased nervous force must be large, when there is continuous and exciting thought, as there is in the case of hard study; this increase of blood flow in case a single exciting thought is presented to the brain is as accurately and perceptibly measured as in a pulsometer or the glass tubes of Fahrenheit. Any student who, in the face of these statements, will persist in going direct from the dining-room to his study, outrages nature, will inevitably sacrifice his health and his usefulness and must blame himself for all the DYSPEPTIC TORMENTS, which he will certainly be called to endure, sooner or later, and not very late either. The dyspeptic 132 DYSPEPSIA. will see in this and the preceding statements that if he wishes to expedite his release from DREADFUL CHAINS he must make up his mind to Avoid study, Avoid labor, And avoid all bodily and mental excitement after eating regular meals, and that he should court quietude, repose, rest, not even reading an exciting novel, for half an hour or longer; and yet there are many persons who, following an indoor life, make it a habit to read up to the moment of sit- ting down to regular meals, and resume the read- ing immediately after; whereas, both before and after meals, it would be better to allow half an hour for mental and bodily rest; before meals so as to permit the nervous energy to be di- rected towards the stomach by thoughts of eating, so as to have a good supply to begin with. The student knows that oftentimes the call to dinner is positively disagreeable, the following out of a thought, the recording of new ideas or trains of reasoning, is more delicious than the nectar upon which PROFESSIONAL DUTY. 133 FAIRIES AND ANGELS are said to feed ; and if called to dinner under such circumstances, he sits down to the table with mechanical indifference, eats like an automaton, is glad when everything is cleared from his plate, and hies off to his beloved study and manuscript, with a sweeter interest than any lover ever kept an APPOINTMENT FOR HIS DARLING, knowing no more what he had eaten than Esau knew of the taste of Jacob's soup-bowl. Whether it is true or not, it was a perfectly natural narra- tion that when Newton, or some other great mind, was. sitting beside his lady love with one hand in hers, he took her finger and put the end of it in the bowl of his pipe to adjust the contents, to the intense disgust of the lady, who thereby divined that she, at least, WAS NOT IN ALL HIS THOUGHTS. The act was instinctive, mechanical, his thoughts among the stars. The way, then, for a dyspeptic to eat a dinner is to think about it beforehand, to think about what he's doing during its progress and give the mind perfect rest after it is over for half an hour or more. 134 DYSPEPSIA. The habit of the animal creation is not merely to rest but to sleep after a full meal, and there can be no question that for the old, the infirm, the feebles and the very dyspeptic, a few minutes sleep on a lounge, not exceeding ten or fifteen, and to be very gradually waked up, is very advantageous. If one lies down on the bed the nap is most likely to be extended to an hour, or more causing, a certain degree of unrest or want of comfortableness for the remainder of the day, besides the probability of its interfering with sound sleep during the night. SURFEIT in a man is founder in a horse. Most persons are occasionally entrapped into a too hearty meal and especially the dyspeptic, who has to withstand the remorseless demands of a depraved appetite. The result is such an uncomfortableness all over, that the person feels he must take something; that something is generally some form of spirits; putting more into the stomach, where the trouble is, that there is already too much there. A very prompt and efficacious remedy is to drink tepid water, a pint or two or more, and then introduce a finger or a feather into the throat; by this means the stomach will be speedily emptied, the patient SURFEIT. 135 fall asleep, and the error is rectified ; but these are violent means, and many times may not be con- venient or easily practicable. If in the day time a leisure continuous walk in the open air in the sunshine, if cool, for the point is to keep off a feel- ing of chilliness; the exercise should be sufficiently active to cause a slight moisture on the forehead, and should be continued until the discomfort has measurably passed away. On returning home, it is important to cool off very slowly, in a warm room or before an open fire, not taking any of the outer clothing off for five minutes, and then remove one article at a time ; otherwise, a cold may be taken, which may throw back the patient to a point which it may require several days to recover from. Very often a person becomes aware that he has eaten too much after dark, or on going to bed, or after his first nap, by a feeling of fulness or general unrest' under such circumstances, it is a good plan to put on stockings and slippers and with only a night gown, walk the floor, rubbing the hands over the body in every direction; this stimulates the skin to action, invites the blood and humors to the sur- face, cools the skin, subdues the febrile condition of the system, gradually brings the relief desired, and the wearied body finds the bed a welcome, and 136 DYSPEPSIA. falls asleep. At other times, more decided means are necessary; there may be nausea almost caus- ing vomiting, there may be a burning sensation about the stomach or throat or in the both; or there may be immense quantities of wind; this, in addition to what has been advised in a previous page may be carried out—that is patiently rub the warm hands over the abdomen, alternating it with frictions downwards, with the ball of one hand, press- ed upon by the other, from the right thigh bone towards and beyond the navel; this operation tends to press the contents of the overfull stomach out of it at its lower orifice, stirs it up to work, and sets the bowels in motion, carrying out immense quantities of wind; these walkings and frictions and kneedings should be kept up until relief is given; if before that, the patients gets tired, he can lie down awhile, and when a little rested, resume the operations. This kneeding is quite as applicable to SICKNESS AT STOMACH, as it stimulates the liver to unload itself of accu- mulated bile, passes it out into the upper intes- tines, at a part just about where the stomach empties into it, thus also relieving the gall bladder SICKNESS AT STOMACH. 137 of its contents, the natural action of which on the alimentary canal, is that of a cathartic, to carry all before it, downwards and out of the system. It is to be hoped that the reader, by this time, has become adequately impressed with the idea, that it is easier to avoid a surfeit, than to get rid of it, for he has only to eat very slowly, drink nothing, and partake of what is before him in great modera- tion, as small eaters will live long, and, in the course of a lifetime, eat a great deal more, and derive a great deal more pleasure from eating, than those who, acting otherwise, die soon and then do not eat at all. Some observant and intelligent writers have recorded of themselves, that their first recollection of dyspepsia was as early as the years before they were seven, and there can be no more doubt of the fact that the TONE OF THE STOMACH is ruined for life by giving infants opiates and soothing syrup to keep them quiet, than that drink- ing rum, and gin, and porter, and toddy, and other spirits to "make milk," is the foundation of the love of drink in after life, an unaccountable hankering after ardent spirits. 9 138 DYSPEPSIA. A healthy infant seldom cries except for pain, as the result of physical violence or over-eating; ignorant mothers and unprincipled nurses drown their cries with soothing syrups. More infants perish from over-feeding every year, than from all the other causes combined, unless it may be bad air and want of bodily cleanliness. The result of the injudicious feeding of infants and young children has made the period of child- nursing and raising, a source of suffering and death to the infants themselves, and of care, and trouble, and worry, and anxiety, and broken rest, to mothers, which cannot be expressed comprehendingly by any array of numerals, and, as the foundations of dys- pepsia, in innumerable cases, are laid in the early years of childhood, and on to mature life, it is di- rectly in the line of this book, which promises on the title page to treat of the causes of dyspepsia, or point out clearly and plainly and in the most sys- tematic manner possible, how children should be fed, beginning with the first hour of life, premising that in "Health at Home," or "Hall's Family Doctor," the whole subject is fully discussed in the course of many pages, for the express benefit of OVER-FEEDING OF INFANTS. 139 YOUNG MOTHERS, who so imperatively need just such information. The child should be first fed within six hours after birth, not delaying beyond ten hours, by any means. For the first feeding, give a teaspoonful or two of weetened barley water, or very thin gruel, or milk, and water. The stomach of a new-born child will not hold more than two tablespoonfuls of anything, and it takes a good while to get a single teaspoon- ful down, a few drops at a time. For the first week, the infant should be fed every two hours during the day time, and every three hours during the night. Make it wait. After one week feed it every three hours during the day—once at bed-time, once in the middle of the night, and then at day-light. Make it wait. Continue this for six or eight weeks ; then at inter- vals of four hours during the day, from sunrise to ten o'clock at night, and not during the night at all. At the end of three months, the child should be habituated to take nothing from bed-time until the regular breakfast next day, say an hour after sun- rise; make it wait. It may be allowed to nurse 140 DYSPEPSIA. three or four times a day until two years of age, when any child can be habituated to eat thrice a day, and nothing whatever between meals. If this clear, sharp rule is laid down and reasonable adhered to, until marriage, an amount of sickness during infancy and childhood would be prevented, not easy to compute, with the advantage that the little ones seldom cry, would seldom cause their mothers the loss of a single night's sleep, and, in addition, would be so much more healthy, would possess so much more vigor of constitution that ordinary diseases would be repelled, and those which it is necessary for them to have, as measles, mumps, and the like, would be so light in their character, that no medical aid would be needed, and they would be " carried through " by securing proper warmth, pure air, clean persons, and con- finement to the house for a week or two after the ailment has spent its force on the system. Many children have died or have had fastened on them the seeds of consumption, in consequence of little colds taken by their parents being in too great a hurry to send them out of doors. And life long dyspeptics are often engendered by hurtful medi- cines being given to cure their little cold, which fastens on the lungs, giving cough, or on the bowels REGULATING THE DIET. 141 giving troublesome diarrhoea. Soothing syrups being used in both cases with great freedom, with the very frequent result of driving the disease to the head and causing convulsions or water on the brain; stopping the cough, arresting the diar- rhoea; the foolish parent not seeing that it was only a transfer of the malady to a more vital part, lauds the medicine and bewail s the accident of the other disease coming on at that inopportune time. Tak- ing this view of the case, the next child is treated in the same way with similar results, the light not breaking in upon the mind until several children have died, that there was an intimate connection between the soothing syrup and the destruction of the darling little one. For looseness of bowels various preparations of lead are given, often resulting in organic lesions of the coats of the stomach, giving rise to incurable forms of dyspepsia. The intelligent reader should therefore bear in mind that the disappearance of a symptom from the use of medicine is not always a proof of its cure, and this consideration should be a good reason for a thorough and persistent effort to accomplish the cure of dyspepsia by means of a regulation of the diet on the principles advocated in the preceding pages. This is of special impor- 142 DYSPEPSIA. tance in the case of dyspepsia, because so many persons have what they consider a perfect cure for it, and are the more ready to communicate their method because it has the very great advantage that it can do no harm if it does no good, as it is such a simple remedy; a little saleratus for example, which will cure the belching or remove the acidity in five minutes; which is very true, but removing a symptom is not eradicating a disease ; smothering a fire is not putting it out. A gentleman who suf- fered from a mild form of dyspepsia was advised to take a little soda dissolved in water after each meal; it WORKED LIKE A CHARM. He spent a considerable portion of his time in speaking of its wonderful virtues to his friends and to everybody with dyspeptic symptoms, who hap- pened to come under his notice. One day he fell down dead. If you put a tablespoon of sugar in a cup of warm water, it disappears; but allow the vessel to remain on the stove, the water will soon disappear and every particle of the sugar will be found in the bot- tom of the cup. The soda was dissolved in water and drank; the water evaporated in the warmth of DIGESTIBILITY. 143 the body and left the soda behind in a solid mass ; weighing several ounces, and in a position in the alimentary canal which caused death, as above stated. A remedy which has no capacity for harm, has no power of doing any good EXPERIMENTS. The experiments of Dr. Beaumont, in ascertain- ing the time required to digest various kinds of food, are the foundation of all the tables which have been prepared since in Europe and America. Many things in reference to the same subject need- ed further investigation, and the author wrote to Dr. Beaumont, in 1854, to know if he intended to prosecute his inquiries. He replied that he did so if arrangements could be made with St. Martin; but before that could be brought about the doctor died. St. Martin visited New York afterwards, and then went abroad with a view to ascertain if he could hire himself out to experimenters; but, as far as known, no one was willing in all the world to take the trouble. In looking over these tables the reader should regard them as only approximative/and as general truths, for it is known that some persons can di- gest some articles of food sooner than others, and with greater ease. 144 DYSPEPSIA. The proportion of the elements of various kinds of food have been ascertained at great cost of time and labor by chemical analysis, and may be regard- ed as scientifically true. But, in reference to the whole subject, nothing can be more certain, than, if any man lives by any rule as inflexible as that of the Medes and Persians, which could never be re- pealed, he would not live long. The best and healthiest way of eating is in general to take what one likes best at regular times, and nothing be- tween; and he is among the MOST MISERABLE OF MEN, who spends a large part of his time in thinking ol what he must eat the next meal, or who eats accord- ing to rule, rather than instinct, rather than ac- cording to nature; who eats this because it is winter and he needs carbon, or takes that because it is summer, and hence he must discard meats and fats and sweets. They live longest in all climes who eat whatever is before them in moderation and live industriously either as to brain or body, for it is quite as exhausting on the reserves of strength to think hard as to work hard, and it makes a man quite as hungry. Hence the food tables which fol- NUTRITIVE VALUE OF FOOD. 145 low are to be used more as general guides for gene- ral information. In the table on the following page it is to be con- sidered that seven thousand grains make a pound, and it is to be read thus : in any pound of baker's bread there are twenty hundred grains of carbon of the heat producing principle, and ninety grains of nitrogen, the principle which gives strength and out of which flesh or muscle is made. 146 DYSPEPSIA. No. I.—NUTKITIVE VALUE OF FOOD. PROPORTION OF CARBON TO THE POUND, A180 OF NITROGEN. Whey, . Turnips, Beer and porter, Buttermilk, Skimmed milk, New milk, . Carrots, . Green vegetables, Parsnips, Potatoes, . . Whitefish, Beef liver. Red herring, . Baker's bread, . Beef, . Skim cheese, . Chedder cheese, Pearl barley, . Eye meal, . Seconds flour, Split peas and rice, Indian-meal, . Oatmeal, . Sugar, . . Mutton, . . Fresh pork, . Cocoa, . Green bacon, . Dry bacon, . Sweet butter, . Lard, . Suet, Fresh butter, Dripping, 154 238 315 335 350 378 385 420 420 770 900 1226 1435 2000 2200 2300 2350 2520 2660 2660 2660 2730 2800 2800 2800 2900 2950 3934 3990 4270 4585 4820 4700 4700 5320 13 * Sugar, syrups, dripping, suet, lard, and butter, contain no appreciabl nitrogen PREFERABLE FOOD. 147 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF NUTRITION. The dyspeptic will note with interest that the food which is best for him contains the largest pro- portions combined of the two most essential ele- ments of nutrition—meat and bread; to be more specific, lean meats and cereal food—that is the whole of the grain of oats, rye, wheat, barley, or corn, made into porridge. For example, oats and Indian meal contain among the highest, the con- stituents of carbon; and, at the same time, the fresh lean meats, of beef and mutton are among the richest articles named in nitrates, and in addition to that are among the easier kinds of foods for digestion, requiring but about three hours. The ox lives on grass and hay and corn, and his powerful stomach grinds these up for flesh-making materials in himself, does the rough and hard work, as it were, for us, turns these into flesh, leaving for us to take that flesh and do the easy remaining part of turning it into our flesh. Again, bread and cheese abound largely in both carbon and nitrogen, hence it is that the sturdy English laborers and farmers are very well satis- fied to make a dinner on 148 DYSPEPSIA. BREAD AND CHEESE, especially if the inevitable mug of beer is added to " wash it down." There is another reason why the dyspeptic should use the cereals instead of fine bread; flour made up of the whole grain of oats, rye, wheat, or corn, is very rich in tooth and bone-making material because the outside hull or skin, called the bran, has adhering to it in process of grinding the much larger portion of that element, the mineral, which is necessary to hard, sound teeth, and to keep them hard; and good teeth are as important in their beneficial bearings on digestion as sharp case- knives, named on a previous page. By the follow- ing table it will be seen that a bushel of bran weighing twelve pounds has seven times as much mineral matter, lime mainly, as a bushel of the finest, whitest, family flour; and it is this mineral matter out of which the tooth is made and the enamel which covers it. And there can be no doubt that an important cause of dyspepsia, and of its aggravation, is faulty teeth, made thus by the almost universal custom of feeding children on the finest flour from their earliest years, instead of porridge and mush and grits and hominy. PREPARING BABY FOOD. 149 No. II.—TOOTH AND BONE-MAKING MATERIAL. VEGETABLE FOOD. Fine flour, . Seconds, . Sharps, Fine pollards, POUNDS PER BUSHEL. 1.70 1.86 2.40 2.43 Bran.........I 12 | 2.40 0.71 0.99 2.90 6.00 7.00 If a pound of corn meal, or a pound of human milk, contains a hundred equivalents of nourish- ment, a pound of rice will have but eighty-one, and a pound of cow's milk two hundred and thirty-seven, thus making cow's milk more than twice as rich as human milk, causing it to be much TOO RICH FOR THE BABY ; and, to make it poorer, water is added, otherwise the baby would soon be killed, and as the cow's milk is very unequal in its richness, it is import- ant, that if an infant is fed by artificial means, the milk of the same cow should be used. But to know how much to dilute it from time to time as the child increases in age and requires stronger and stronger food—less and less dilution—it requires a closer observation, and a sounder judgment than most nurses have, to prepare the little one's food properly. To its improper preparation may well be attributed much of the dyspepsia of after life; constituting a very strong reason why every mother should nurse her own child, and then Nature, with 150 DYSPEPSIA. her unerring instincts, regulates the richness of its nutrition and adapts it to the varying needs of the system, as no other nurse can do. And since dys- pepsia often has its foundation laid in infancy and childhood, it is in the line of this book to throw out the above suggestion, that intelligent and conscien- tious mothers may have some care to avert a malady which often makes its possessor miserable for the greater part of a lifetime. Possibly the mother,' herself a dyspeptic sufferer, may, in pity to her own offspring, feel thankful and happy in having the opportunity afforded of informing herself on the general subject, and having some hints of a practical character for guidance. Some of these have been already given, and for their confirmation, as well as for the opportunity it affords of introducing addi- tional information, it was thought desirable to give word for word an article written by Eustace Smith* M.D., of London, physician to the King of the Bel- gians, and to several hospitals in the British Me- tropolis, taken from a second number of the Sani- tary Record, and copied by The Sanitarian, the most ably conducted periodical in America, edited by A. N. Bell, M.D., who, as a sanitarian, has no superior in this country.* The article is on the * The Sanitarian, published monthly at 79 Nassau-street, New York. HAND-FEEDING OF INFANTS. 151 HAND-FEEDING OF INFANTS. And when it is remembered that during a part of the summer of 1875 in New York city a hundred young children died every day, and mostly from looseness of the bowels, the explanation of the cause and mode of eating and remedy brought out in the following extract is of very great impor- tance : " There are few subjects of greater interest, or of which it is more important, in a sanitary sense, to possess an accurate knowledge than that which re- lates to the feeding and nurture of infants. Many mothers are unable to nurse their babies, and there is an increasing dislike to transfer maternal duties to a hireling; consequently the question how best to provide a fitting diet for a being whose digestive powers are feeble and immature, but whose growth and healthy devlopement are dependent upon a suitable supply of nourishment, is one to which it is of the utmost importance to furnish a correct answer. " The mortality among children under the age of twelve months is enormous, and of these deaths a large proportion might be prevented by a wider 152 DYSPEPSIA. diffusion of knowledge of one of the least difficult of subjects. The rules for the efficient nourishment of infants are plain and simple, and the applicction of them, although requiring tact and judgment, is yet not a matter which ought to occasion any extra- ordinary embarrassment. " The great principle at the bottom of all success- ful feeding—viz., that an infant is nourished in pro- portion to his power of digesting the food with which he is supplied, and not in proportion to the quantity of nutritive material which he may be in- duced to swallow—is so obviously true that an apology might almost seem to be required for stating so self-evident a proposition; but experi- ence shows that this simple truth is one which in practice is constantly lost sight of. That that child thrives best who is most largely fed, and that th- more solid the food the greater its nutritive power- are two articles of faith so firmly settled in the minds of many persons, that it is very difficult in, deed to persuade them to the contrary. To them wasting in an infant merely suggests a larger supply of more solid food; every cry means hunger, and must be quieted by an additional meal. To take a common case : A child, weakly perhaps to begin with, is filled with a quantity of solid food which he HAND-FEEDING OF INFANTS. 153 has no power of digesting. His stomach and bowels revolt against the burden imposed upon them, and endeavor to get rid of the offending matter by vomiting and diarrhoea ; a gastro-intestinal catarrh is set up, which still further reduces the strength ; every meal causes a return of the sickness; the bowels are filled with fermenting matter, which ex- cites violent griping pains, so that the child rests neither night nor day; after a longer or shorter time he sinks worn out by pain and exhaustion, and is then said to have died from ' consumption of the bowels.' " Cases such as the above are but too common, and must be painfully familiar to every physician who has much experience of the diseases of children. When seen sufficiently early, the treatment of the derangement is simple and the improvement imme- diate, but it unfortunately often happens, especially among the poorer classes, that application for advice is delayed until the child's strength has been reduced to the lowest point, and all our efforts to remedy the mischief may in such cases prove unavailing. " The disastrous results of ignorant attempts to supply a substitute for human milk have brought the whole practice of hand-feeding into disrepute; but if a food be judiciously selected, with a correct 10 154 DYSPEPSIA. appreciation of infant wants, and an accurate esti- mate of infant powers of digestion, there is no reason why a child fed artificially, with judgment, should not thrive as well as one suckled naturally at his mother's breast. The food we select for the diet of an infant should be nutritious in itself, but it should also be given in a form in which the child is capable of digesting it, otherwise we may fill him with food without in any way contributing to his nutrition, and actually starve the body while we load the stomach to repletion. No food can be considered suitable to the requirements of the in- fant unless it not only possess heat-giving and fat- producing properties, but also contains material to supply the waste of the nitrogeneous tissues; there- fore a merely starchy substance, such as arrowroot, which enters so largely into the diet of children, especially among the poor, is a very undesirable food for infants, unless given in very small quanti- ties and mixed largely with milk. " The most perfect food for childreu, the only one, indeed, which can be trusted to supply in itself all the necessary elements of nutrition, in the most digestible form, is milk. In it are contained nitro- geneous matter in the curd, fat in the cream, be- sides sugar, and the salts which are so essential to HAND-FEEDING OF INFANTS. 155 perfect nutrition. The milk of different animals varies to a certain extent in the proportion of the several constituents, some containing more curd, others more cream and sugar; but the milk of the cow, which is always readily obtainable, is the one to which recourse is usually had, and when proper- ly prepared ttiis is perfectly efficient for the pur- pose required. Cow's milk contains a larger pro- portion of curd and cream, but less sugar, than is found in human milk, and these differences can be immediately remedied by dilution with water and the addition of cane or milk sugar in sufficient quantity to supply the necessary sweetness. But there is another and more important difference be- tween the two fluids which must not be lost sight of. If we take two children, the one fed on cow's milk and water, the other nursed at his mother's breast, and produce vomiting after a meal by fric- tion over the abdomen, we notice a remarkable dif- ference in the matters ejected. In the first case we see the curd of the milk coagulated into a firm, dense lump, while in the second the curd appears in the form of minute flocculent loosely connected granules. The demand made upon the digestive powers in these two cases is very different, and the experiment explains the difficulty often experienced 156 DYSPEPSIA. by infants in digesting cow's milk, however diluted it may be, for the addition of water alone will not hinder the firm clotting of the curd. In order to make such milk perfectly satisfactory as a food for new-born infants, further preparation is required, and there are two ways in which the difficulty may be overcome. The first method consists in adding an alkali, as lime-water, to the milk. To be of any service, however, the quantity added must be consider- able, and one or two teaspoonfull—the adddition usually made to a bottleful of milk and water—is quite insufficient to effect the object desired. Lime- water contains only half a grain of lime to the fluid ounce ; of this solution so small a quantity as two teaspoonsfull would be scarcely sufficient even to neutralize the natural acidity of the milk. But it is necessary to do much more than this. Lime water, no doubt, acts by partially neutralizing the gastric juice—the rennet naturally existing in the child's stomach—so that clotting of the curd is in great part prevented, and the milk passes little changed out of the stomach to be fully digested by the intestinal secretion in the bowels. To attain this object at least a third part of the mixture should consist of lime-water. For a new-born in- HAND-FEEDING OF INFANTS. 157 fant two tablespoonsfull of milk may be diluted with an equal quantity of plain filtered water, and then be alkalinized by two tablespoonsfull of lime- water. This mixture, of which only a third part is milk, can be sweetened by the addition of a tea- spoonful of milk-sugar. If thought desirable a tea- spoonful of cream may be added. The whole is then put into a perfectly clean feeding-bottle, and is heated to a temperature of about 95° Fahr. by steeping the bottle in hot water ; when warmed it is ready for use. The proportion of milk can be gradually increased as the child gets older. " There is another plan by which the caseine of cow's milk may be rendered digestible; it is by adding to the milk a small quantity of some thick- ening substance, such as barley-water, isinglass, or even one of the ordinary farinaceous foods. The action of all of these is the same, and is an entirely mechanical one. The thickening substance sepa- rates the particles of curd, so that they cannot run together into a solid lump, but coagulate separ- ately into a multitude of small masses. By this means the curd is made artificially to resemble the naturally light clot of human milk, and is almost as readily digested by the infant. 158 DYSPEPSIA. " Although any thickening matter will have the mechanical effect desired of separating the particles of curd, yet it is not immaterial what substance is chosen. The question of the farinaceous feeding of infants is a very important one, for it is to an ex- cess of this diet that so many of their derangements may often be attributed. Owing to a mistaken notion that such foods are peculiarly light and digestible—a notion so widely prevalent that the phrase " food for infants" has become almost sy- nonymous with farinaceous matter—young babies are often fed as soon as they are born with large quantities of corn-flour or arrow-root, mixed some- times with milk, but often with water alone. Now, starch, of which all the farinse so largely consist, is digested principally by the saliva, aided by the se- cretion from the pancreas, which convert the starch into dextrine and grape-sugar previous to absorp- tion. But the amount of saliva formed in the new- born infant is excessively scanty, and it is not until the fourth month that the secretion becomes fully established. Again, according to the experi- ments of Korowin of St. Petersburg, the pancreatic juice is almost absent in a child of a month old ; even in the second month its secretion is very limit- ed, and has little action upon starch. It is only at HAND-FEEDING OF INFANTS. 159 the end of the third month that its action upon starch becomes sufficiently powerful to furnish material for a quantitative estimation of the sugar formed. Therefore, before the age of three months a farinaceous diet is not to be recommended—is even to be strongly deprecated, unless the starchy substance be given with great caution and in very small quantities. If administered recklessly, as it too often is, the food lies undigested in the bowels, ferments, and sets up a state of acid indigestion, which in so young and feeble a being may lead to the most disastrous consequences. In fact, the deaths of many children under two or three months old can often be attributed to no other cause than a purely functional abdominal derangement, excited and maintained by too liberal feeding with farinaceous foods. There is, however, one form of food, which although farinaceous is yet well digested even by young infants, if given in moderate quantities. This is barley water. The starch it contains is small in amount and is held in a state of very fine division. When barley-water is mixed with milk in equal proportions it ensures a fine separation of the curd, and is at the same time a harmless addition to the diet. Isinglass or gelatine, in the proportion of a teaspoonful to the bottleful of milk 160 DYSPEPSIA. and water, may also be made use of, and will be found to answer the purpose well. " Farinaceous foods, in general, are, as has been said, injurious to young babies, on account of the deficiency during the first months of life of the secretions necessary for the conversion of the starch into the dextrine and grape-sugar—a preliminary process which is indispensable to absorption. If, however, we can make such an addition to the food as will insure the necessary chemical change, fari- naceous matter ceases to be injurious. It has been found that by adding to it malt in certain propor- tions the same change is excited in the starch arti- ficially as is produced naturally by the salivary and pancreatic secretions during the process of digestion. The employment of malt for this pur- pose was first suggested by Mialhe in a paper read before the French Academy in 1845, and the suggestion was put into practice by Liebig fifteen years later. "' Liebig's Food for Infants' contains wheat flour, malt, and a little carbonate of potash, and has gained a well-deserved celebrity as a food for babies during the first few months of life. The best form witn which I am acquainted is that made by Mr. Mellin under the name of 'Mellin's Extract for pre- HAND-FEEDING OF INFANTS. 161 paring Liebig's Food for Infants.' In this prepara- tion, owing to the careful way in which it is manu- factured, the whole of the starch is converted into dextrine and grape-sugar, so that the greater part of the work of digestion is performed before the food reaches the stomach of the child. Mixed with equal parts of milk and water, this food is as perfect a sub- stitute for mother's milk as can be produced, and is readily digested by the youngest infants. It very rarely, indeed, happens that it is found to disagree. "In all cases, then, where a child is brought up by hand, milk should enter largely into his diet, and during the first few months of life he should be fed upon it almost entirely. If he can digest plain milk and water, there is no reason for making any other addition than that of a little milk, sugar, and cream; but in cases where, as often happens, the heavy curd taxes the gastric powers too severely, the milk may be thickened by an equal proportion of thin barley-water, or by adding to each bottleful of milk and water a teaspoonful of isinglass or of ' Mellin's Extract.' FIRST MONTH. "Having fixed upon the kind of food which is suit- able to the child, we must next be careful that it is 162 DYSPEPSIA. not given in too large quantities, or that the meals are not repeated too frequently. If the stomach be kept constantly overloaded, even with a digestible diet, the effect is almost as injurious as if the child were fed upon a less digestible food in more reason- able quantities. A healthy infant passes the greater part of his time asleep, waking at intervals to take nourishment. These intervals must not be allowed to be too short, and it is a great mistake to accustom the child to take food whenever he cries* From three to four ounces of liquid will be a suffi- cient quantity during the first six weeks of life; and of this only a half or even a third part should con- sist of milk, according to the child's powers of di- gestion. After such a meal the infant should sleep quietly for at least two hours. Fretfulness and irritability in a very young baby almost always indicate indigestion and flatulence; and if a child cries and whines uneasily, twisting about his body and jerking his limbs, a fresh meal given instantly, although it may quiet him for the moment, will after a short time, only increase his discomfort. TWO MONTHS. " During the first six weeks or two months, two hours will be a sufficient interval between the meals; HAND-FEEDING OF INFANTS. 163 afterwards this interval can be lengthened, and at the same time a larger quantity may be given at each time of feeding. No more food should be prepared at once than is required for the par- ticular meal. The position of the child as he takes food should be half reclining, as when he is applied to his mother's breast, and the food should be given from a feeding-bottle. When the contents of the bottle are exhausted, the child should not be allowed to continue sucking at an empty vessel, as by this means air is swallowed, which might after- wards be a source of great discomfort. The feed- ing apparatus must be kept perfectly clean. The bottle should be washed out after each meal in water containing a little soda in solution, and must then lie in cold water until again wanted. It is desirable to have two bottles, which can be used alternately. srx MONTHS. " At the age of six months farinaceous food may be given in small quantities with safety, if it be de- sired to do so ; and in some cases the addition of a moderate proportion of wheaten flour to the diet is found to be attended with advantage. The best form in which this can be given is the preparation of wheat known as ' Chapman's entire wheaten 164 DYSPEPSIA. flour.' This is superior for the purpose to the ordinary flour, as it contains the inner husk of the wheat finely ground, and is therefore rich in phos- phates and in a peculiar body called cerealin, which has the diastatic property of changing starchy mat- ters into dextrine. This flower should be slowly baked in an oven until it crnmbles into a light greyish powder. At first no more than one tea- spoonful should be given once or twice a day, rubbed up (not boiled) with milk. If there be much constipation fine oatmeal may be used instead of the baked flour. EIGHT MONTHS. "After the eighth month a little thin mutton or chicken broth or veal tea may be given, carefully freed from all grease. After TWELVE MONTHS the child may begin to take light puddings, well- mashed potatoes with gravy, or the lightly boiled yolk of an egg; but no meat should be allowed until the child be at least sixteen months old. Every new article of food should be given cautiously, and in small quantities at first, and any sign of indiges- tion should be noted, and a return be made at once to a simpler method of feeding. HAND FEEDING OF INFANTS 165 " During all this time the child should be kept scrupulously clean, and his nursery should be well ventilated and not be kept too hot. He should be washed twice a day from head to foot, once with soap. The air of his bedroom should be kept sweet and pure during the day, and at night, if the weather do not allow of an open window, a lamp placed in the fender will insure of a sufficient ex- change of air. The child should pass as much of his time as possible out of doors, and while every care is taken to guard his sensitive body against sudden changes of temperature, he must not be covered up with too heavy clothing and shut off from every breath of air for fear of his catching cold. A child ought to lie cool at night, and the furniture of his cot, although sufficiently thick to insure necessary warmth, should not be cumber- some, so as to be a burden. If the above directions are carefully carried out—and the mother should herself see that they are attended to—few cases will be found to present any difficulty in their management." 166 DYSPEPSIA. No III.—NUTRITIVE EQUIVALENTS. [To read this table aright, it is only necessary to say that, if, in a certain amount of food, there are, in rice, for example, eighty-one equivalents of nutriment, there are in an equal weight of potatoes eighty-four, and so on.] IN DRIED ANIMAL NAMB. VEGETABLES. FOOD. Rice, . . .... 81 Potatoes, . . . 84 — Maize, or Indian-corn, . # . 100 — Rye, . 106 — Radish, . , 106 — Wheat, # 119 _ Barley, , . 125 — Oats, . . 138 — Bread, white . 142 — Bread, black . 166 _ Peas, , 239 — Lentils, ; 276 — Haricots, . 283 — Beans, . . 320 — Milk, human . , — 100 Milk, cow's . , _ 237 Eggs, yolk of — 305 Oysters, . . — 305 Cheese, . . — 331 Veal, . . . _ 434 Muscle, . . — 528 Liver, beef . • — 570 Pigeon, . — 756 Mutton, . . . - I 773 In a weak state of the stomach, it cannot have concentrated food, for the more nourishment there is in a given quantity, the more digestive power the stomach must have, and it is the want of this power which constitutes the very essence of dys- peptic diseases; hence, on general principles, the more water any article of food has, the more easily ELEMEN16 OF FOOD. 167 is it digested. It would not answer for a dyspep Lc to eat boiled or baked beans, as any one ma know; they have eighty-seven parts of nutriment and only fourteen of water. Professor B. W. Dudley, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in Transylvania University, at a time when it was the second medical school in the United States, was very fond of recommending to all who were debilitated and required good food to use boiled turnips, only four per cent, of which is nutriment, and ninety-six waste and water. In this connec- tion the following will be examined with consider- able interest by the intelligent and investigating. 168 DYSPEPSIA. No. IV—SOLIDITY AND MATTER OF FOOD. IN 100 PARTS OF, THERE IS PERCENTAGE OF SOLID MATTER. 88 12 28 80 25 75 82 18 100 _ 83 17 68 32 87 14 20 80 25 75 2 98 8 92 12 88 25 75 3 97 90 10 20 80 46 64 20 80 84 16 18 81 100 _ 92 7 84 16 — 40 100 _ 13 87 8 92 13 86 100 _ 79 21 83 7 13 87 84 16 24 76 20 80 16 84 23 77 £3 17 84 16 £6 14 Arabic, gum . Artichokes, Apricots, Arrowroot, Almond oil, Butter, Bread, Beans, Blood, Beef, fresh . Beef tea, Cabbage, . . Carrots, . Cherries, Cucumbers, Candy, Egg, white of . Egg, yolk . Fish, average, Figs, Gooseberries, . Hogs' lard, Isinglass, Leguminous seeds, Lentils, . Manna, Mutton suet, . Milk of cow, Milk of ass, Milk of goat, . Olive oil, Oats, . . . Oatmeal, . Oysters, . . Pease, . . Potatoes, Peaches, . Pears, . . Poultry, Rye, . Sugar, average, Starch, average, . Wheat, . MODE OF PREPARING FOOD. 1G9 The two following tables, stating the mode of preparation of various articles of food, and the time required for digestion and passing out of the Btomach, are precisely alike, only that one is in alphabetical order for convenience of reference and saving time ; the other gives the same information in the order of the easiness of digestion, taking it for granted that the facility of change was in pro- portion to the shortness of time required. They may be relied upon as being the accurate results of active visual observation. As Dr. Beaumont could see into the stomach, and notice what was going on there, he must have done it with a deli- cious interest. Such opportunity had never before occurred, and been improved, in the whole history of the world, and he must have been conscious of the delight which it would give the scientific mind of all nations to read the result; and there can be no doubt that this consideration, as well as his love for scientific research, and the important bear- ing it would have on physiological investigation and observation, sustained him in his tedious labor, extending over months and years; and made more difficult, as he informed the writer by letter, on account of the peculiar disposition of the patient, a certain degree of stubbornness, and 11 170 DYSPEPSIA. occasional addiction to excessive indulgence in strong drink. The same considerations, added to a consciousness on the bearing it would have on human well-being, were well calculated to impress his mind with the importance of the strictest accuracy in his observations and in noting them down. OBJECT OF EATING. Children have to eat for four reasons, warmth, growth, strength, and repair; but when they have completed their growth, one of the necessities no longer exists. The young are always ready to eat; can eat all the time, apparently, and with such a delight that it is almost a young heaven to them; and your memories of it often travel backwards over the weary road of sixty and seventy years, and in a measure live it over again with mellow- ing sadness. How the eyes danced with delighted expectancy, in looking at the apples hanging from the trees in the orchard, the cutting of the luscious watermelon, and the sap of the " skillet" of sixty years agone ; the homely ginger cake and dump- ling, not forgetting the bread and butter, with sugar on it, provided by the indulgent grand- mother. This ever ready appetite of the young is the result of that ceaseless activity observed in OBJECT OF EATING. 171 childhood, and which often prompts the impatient exclamation, " THEY ARE NEVER STILL." But this constant wanting to do something is an instinctive necessity of childhood, implanted by infinite wisdom as a means of creating an appe- tite for that large amount of food which is essential to growth, and this same activity is just as im- portant in carrying on the digestion of what has been eaten. Hence compelling children to be still for a moment, against their will, is but a fighting against their natural instincts, which never can be done with impunity. No doubt it would please the weary mother, longing for quiet and repose, to have her half dozen little ones sit around her in still- ness and silence, but it would kill them; they would eat, but their food would not be digested, and they would soon fall into wasting diarrhoeas and an early grave. It is a thousand times better to have romping, noisy, hilarious, "mischievous" children, than have them pale and silent and sickly; a million times better is it to a loving mother's ear to listen to the ringing laugh than to hear the moan of some painful, eating disease, working its resistjess way into the very vitals. Do 172 DYSPEPSIA. not use an iron despotism over your children to school them into the habit of stillness and quiet; if you do, there will, but too soon, be enough of it in the early grave, and then you would be willing and eager to give everything you had in the world to have those noises back again This apparent digression has been made in part to impress on the reader's mind some of the important elements in the cure of dyspepsia. In proportion as the joyousness of childhood can be brought about, their activities, their perfect de- light to be in the open air, in such proportion will the cure of dyspepsia be facilitated; then these things should be aimed at all the time, and ways and means should be constantly devised for bring- ing them about, and fortunate is he who has deter- mination, ambition, and force of will enough to accomplish the object. DIGESTIBILITY OF FOOD, 173 Ho. V.—DIGESTIBILITY OF FOOD IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER. Aponeurosis, . Apples, mellow . Apples, sour, hard Apples, sweet and mellow Barley, . Bass, striped Beans, pod Beans, with green corn, Beef, Beefsteak, Beef, old, salted. Beets, . Brains, animal Bread, corn Bread, wheat Butter, Cabbage, Cabbage and vinegar, Cabbage, Carrot, Cartilage (gristle), Catfish, Cheese, old Chicken, . • Codfish, dry . Corn cake, Corn, green, and b Custard, Duck, tame Duck, wild Dumpling, apple Eggs, hard . Eggs, soft Eggs, E