THE CAUSES OF DYSPEPSIA. 



77 



of meals is pernicious, for the human stomach was unquestionably in- 

 tended to have intervals of rest. The organ should be allowed to act 

 on its contents en masse ; to eat constantly like a ruminant animal is 

 altogether unnatural. The health of any individual would speedily 

 break down, were even the proper amount of food taken in equally 

 divided portions at very short intervals. 



Continual alteration of the time of meals is anothei great mistake. 

 Every hour of the day for dinner, from one to eight, will sometimes 

 be ranged through in the course of a single week. Such irregularities 

 may long be endured by the robust stomach, but are very injurious to 

 the weakened organ. In relation to time, all our functions are singu- 

 larly influenced by habit. Digestion, therefore, will be best performed 

 at the period when the stomach, from habit, expects employment. 

 The kind and quality of food are essential considerations ; and these 

 subjects will be considered elsewhere. Adulteration of food is with 

 out doubt a cause of dyspepsia. Inferior articles of diet, such as tough 

 meat or coarse fish, may, in those unaccustomed to them, produce 

 serious inconvenience; and the impurities of water are well known 

 to disorder digestion. 



Man inhabits every part of the globe where external influences can 

 be successfully resisted, and, in effecting this, food is an important 

 element. The colder the climate the more animal food and oily sub- 

 stances are requisite ; the warmer, the more vegetable diet is suitable. 

 Whale-blubber to the warmly-clothed Esquimaux, and rice to the naked 

 Negro, are not more necessities of locality than they would be matters 

 of choice. The same indications exist even within European limits. 

 Thus, diet in England and in Italy is essentially different. 



The effects of universal communication are nowhere more obvious 

 than on the luxurious table. To furnish the refined cuisine, all climates, 

 both sea and land, are laid under contribution ; and the stomach is 

 expected to digest every thing that is put into it. Huddling together 

 such various products, and neglect of the relation between climate and 

 food, are active causes of dyspepsia. The substantial dishes of this 

 country accord badly with the thermometer at ninety degrees ; thus, 

 among the English in India, inflexibility in regulating the kind and 

 quantity of food taken is the cause of much ill health. 



Under the head of the relation of food to the organs may be placed 

 the effects of insufficient mastication. It is a fruitful source of dys- 

 pepsia, and is more frequently caused by haste or carelessness, than 

 inevitable from the want of teeth. The great prevalence of dyspepsia 

 in the United States has been attributed to the rapid and character- 

 istic manner in which meals are there dispatched. In some employ- 

 ments the insufficient time allowed for meals is, for the same reason, 

 a cause of disturbed digestion, and too often gives rise to permanent 

 disease. Besides actual loss, soreness of the teeth or of the gums, 

 eometimes attended by fetid secretions, greatly interferes with mastica- 



