

A WORD OR TWO TOUCHING EVERY MAN'S MASTER. 



No man is independent of his stomach : on its healthful action 

 depend health and life ; its regulation by diet must therefore be a 

 matter of paramount interest. The subject of dietetics has engaged 

 a fair share of medical attention, since the days of Hippocrates down 

 to our own times, but seems still involved in considerable obscurity. 

 The writings of Hippocrates, Aretaeus, Celsus, Crelius, Aurelianus, 

 Alexander of Tralles, &c. show the importance, that the first recor- 

 ders of medicine attached to them, perhaps the poverty of their Ma- 

 teria Medica, carried them too far ; be that as it may, the instability 

 of medicine as a science, and its ever varying doctrines, must impede 

 its advances to the nature of an exact science. The doctrines of some 

 modern writers, that man is omnivorous, would appear altogether to 

 supersede the necessity of dietetical rules. It is true, all articles, 

 animal as well as vegetable, have at times been converted into nutri- 

 tious chyme for the support of man, particularly in the savage state ; 

 where Nature, ever on her guard for the preservation of the species, 

 kindly consents to the performance of offices which, in a more civil- 

 ized state, she would refuse. But dietetical rules have reference to 

 civilized life, where not only the necessaries but many of the luxuries 

 of life abound. If we look at the ponderous volumes which have 

 been written on this subject, and consider the talents which have 

 from time to time been brought to bear it out, we must admit a seem- 

 ing if not a real concern for the public health. But a close exami- 

 nation of these volumes will show that they have few claims to what 

 their title pages profess, f( Rules for the Preservation of Health, Popu- 

 lar Medicine, Medical Dieteticks." The information which they con- 

 tain is so overlaid with professional verbiage, and discussions on sub- 

 jects unfitted for the general reader, that it is almost impossible to 

 unravel it ; and when disentangled of this useless lore, but ill relays 

 the labour of investigation. To enter on the anatomy and physiology 

 of the organs concerned in the digestion of food, from its first intro- 

 duction into the stomach, to the formation of blood, appears to us, in 

 works of this kind, an unnecessary demand upon the reader's patience. 

 Convinced by the strongest argument self-experience, that the food 

 which he takes into his stomach, is, by a process unknown to him, 

 converted into a fluid called blood, and which he believes supports 

 and stimulates the several organs of his body, his great object is, not 

 to learn the process of digestion, or the anatomical position of parts, 

 but the best means of maintaining the permanent healthy action of 

 his vital organs ; these books profess to teach that, but with what 

 success the world is already convinced. Medical dietetics, we 

 should suppose, may be fairly treated in a small pamphlet, but modern 

 authors^swell their pages into thick octavos, confirming the popular 

 adage MEFA B?uo>. Nothing so much tends to increase the scepti- 

 cism of the public with regard to the powers of physic, either medi- 

 cinal or dietetic, as the contradictory opinions advanced by its mem- 

 bers some advocating a return to the plain simple regimen of our 



M. M. No. 93. 2 N 



