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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



as the tzomor, or pork-surfeit, a three clays' purgatory of heart-burns, 

 nausea, and violent retching, accompanied by a burning thirst and an 

 unspeakable loathing of all solid food. He who weathers the storm, 

 says the traveler Kohl, feels like a new-made man, and reappears at 

 the family table ; but so does the pork-pot, and a few months after 

 the respited sinner has another seizure, and groans, " O Jesus, Maria, 

 meg tzomoretem it's got me again ! " 



After the re-establishment of intestinal digestion, flatulence, ver- 

 tigo, and that terror of constipated tea-drinkers, dull headache, be- 

 come less and less frequent ; the spell of the deliquium is broken, and 

 the redevelopment of the wasted muscles proves that the system is no 

 longer obliged to feed upon its own tissue. But these first symptoms 

 of improvement should not encourage the patient to relax the rigor of 

 the regimen before he is sure that the gastric inflammation has wholly 

 subsided. As long as spasms and acrid eructations (water-brash) in- 

 dicate the danger of a relapse, give the stomach all the rest you can. 

 Never miss an opportunity that will make it easy to forego a meal or 

 two. There are ways to make a fast-day a very trifling inconven- 

 ience, and its remedial value exceeds that of a round-trip to all the 

 spas of the Eastern Continent. In my experiments on the operation of 

 the fasting-cure, I have noticed the curious fact that for the first day 

 or two the clamors of the stomach are restricted to certain hours, and 

 can be induced to waive a disregarded claim. Convalescents who 

 have already reduced the morning lunch to the standard of a Spartan 

 breakfast, a " heathen fig and a thrice-accursed biscuit," can beguile 

 the dinner-honr by diverting pastimes a boat-trip, a fishing-excur- 

 sion, a visit to the Zoo and upon their return home will find that the 

 craving for food has yielded to sleepiness, and the sweetness of the 

 night's rest will be worth seven meals. It is during such periods of 

 undisturbed rest that the work of repair makes its surest progress, 

 and for the first three or four months it would be a good plan to imi- 

 tate the example of the Ebonite heretics, who observed a weekly fast- 

 day in the Ugolino sense of the word. Water, of course, should never 

 be stinted, and, after a long fast, will have an especially good chance 

 to depurate the vacated passages of the abdominal labyrinth. 



An advanced stage of alcoholism (which will be treated in a sepa- 

 rate chapter) often results in that malignant form of chronic indiges- 

 tion known as hepatic or bilious dyspepsia, a complete derangement of 

 the digestive process, accompanied by headaches, which for months 

 defy the influence of an hygienic regimen, and yield only to the heroic 

 remedies of the pedestrian-cure. But, with that exception, ten weeks 

 of strict temperance, fresh air, and moderate exercise, will generally 

 suffice to appease the resentment of the outraged stomach. During 

 the next twelve months the reconciled digestive apparatus helps to 

 redress the impairments of other organs. For it is a generic pecul- 

 iarity of dyspeptic affections that the symptomatic outlast the idio- 



