THE REMEDIES OF NATURE. 3l5 



the Germans call the eleven-o'clock refreshment, used at least to con- 

 sist of cold meats ; but competing saloon-keepers have now intro- 

 duced hot lunches, and in our larger cities there is no escape for dys- 

 peptics ; " the smoke of their torment ariseth for ever and ever." 



The gastric irritability which forms a lingering after-effect of 

 chronic dyspepsia can be better allayed by a vegetable diet than by 

 the nutritive extracts which are supposed to aid the work of diges- 

 tion. The bulk of innutritive admixtures somehow excites and main- 

 tains the vigor of the digestive organs ; and the human organism can 

 not thrive on concentrated nourishment, as for similar reasons the 

 lungs can not be fed on pure oxygen. Water, either pure or in organic 

 compounds, is likewise an effective sedative and depuratory ; it aids 

 the process of eliminating the indigestible or noxious elements of 

 various articles of food, whose ingestion therefore excites thirst. But, 

 without waiting for that urgent appeal, we should remember that the 

 diet of our instinct-guided relatives contains about ninety per cent of 

 water, and that a dearth of fruit should be compensated by artificial 

 compounds, supplying the requisite amount of fluids in a palatable 

 form. The remedial influence of many famous spas is due to the 

 water as much as to its mineral admixtures. About fifty years ago, 

 the Brooklyn hotels were crowded with visitors, attracted by the fame 

 of a doctor who cured all manner of diseases with pure rain-water. 

 The mystic motto of Thales, " Ariston men liydor " (" The best of all 

 things is water "), might perhaps be explained from such facts. Our 

 diet, in fact, is much too dry, and could be improved without resort- 

 ing to lager-beer, which redeems its deleterious influence to some de- 

 gree by helping the Germans to digest their pungent comestibles. 

 Water, in some of its combinations, is also an effective aperient ; in 

 watermelons and whey, for instance ; but still more in conjunction 

 with a dish of legumina peas, lentils, and beans. No constipation 

 can long withstand the suasion of a daily dose of pea-soup, or baked 

 beans, flavored with a modicum of brown butter, and glorified with a 

 cup of cold spring-water ; and, moreover, the aperient effect is not 

 followed by an astringent reaction the cure, once effected, is perma- 

 nent. Plethoric dyspepsia is almost invariably accompanied by close 

 stools, and the drugs that have been swallowed to ease Nature for a 

 day would poison half the living creatures of the American Con- 

 tinent. 



But rather forego the beans than eat them with pork. The inter- 

 dict of the Hebrew lawgiver, I suspect, has something to do with the 

 climate-proof health of his countrymen, for in warm weather fat pork 

 is about as digestible as yellow soap. The Hungarian peasants are 

 ravenously fond of it, and neither out-door life nor the vigor of their 

 Turanian stomachs can save them from the consequences. Every sum- 

 mer, and sometimes three and four times a year, the digestive system 

 of the rustic Magyar relieves itself by an expurgative process known 



