DIET IN RELATION TO AGE AND ACTIVITY. 517 



in regard of this function of digestion. There is a compensation for 

 him which he has not considered, or perhaps even heard of, although 

 he is so moderately endowed with peptic force. A delicate stomach 

 which can just do needful work for the system and no more, by neces- 

 sity performs the function of a careful door porter at the entrance 

 of the system, and like a jealous guardian inspects with discernment 

 all who aspire to enter the interior, rejecting the unfit and the un- 

 bidden, and all the common herd. 



On the other hand, a stomach with superfluous power, of whom its 

 master boastfully declaims that it can " digest tenpenny nails," and 

 that he is unaccustomed to consult its likes and its dislikes if it have 

 any, is like a careless hall porter who admits all comers, every pre- 

 tender, and among the motley visitors many whose presence is damag- 

 ing to the interior. These powerful feeders after a time suffer from 

 the unexpended surplus, and pay for their hardy temerity in becoming 

 amenable to penalty, often suddenly declared by the onset of some 

 serious attack, demanding complete change in regimen, a condition 

 more or less grave. On the other hand, the owner of the delicate 

 stomach, a man perhaps with a habit of frequently complaining of 

 slight troubles, and always careful, will probably in the race of life, 

 as regards the preceding pilgrim, take the place of the tortoise as 

 against the hare. It is an old proverb that " the creaking wheel lasts 

 longest," and one that is certainly true as regards a not powerful but 

 nevertheless healthy stomach which is carefully treated by its owner ; 

 to whom this fact may be acceptable as a small consolation for the 

 possession of a delicate organ. 



For it is a kind of stomach which not seldom accompanies a fine 

 organization. The difference is central, not local a difference in the 

 nervous system chiefly ; the impressionable mental structure, the in- 

 strument of strong emotions, must necessarily be allied with a stomach 

 to which the supply of nerve-power for digestion is sometimes tempo- 

 rarily deficient and always perhaps capricious. There are more sources 

 than one of compensation to the owner of an active, impressionable 

 brain, with a susceptible stomach possessing only moderate digestive 

 capabilities sources altogether beyond the imagination of many a 

 coarse feeder and capable digester. 



But it is not correct, and it is on all grounds undesirable, to regard 

 the less powerful man as a sufferer from indigestion, that is, as liable to 

 any complaint to be so termed. True indigestion, as a manifestation 

 of a diseased stomach, is comparatively quite rare, and I have not one 

 word to say of it here, which would not be the fitting place if I had. 

 Not one person in a hundred who complains of indigestion has any 

 morbid affection of the organs engaged in assimilating his food. As 

 commonly employed, the word " indigestion " denotes, not a disease, 

 but an admonition. It means that the individual so complaining has 

 not yet found his appropriate diet ; that he takes food unsuited for 



