A WORD OR TWO TOUCHING EVERY MAN^S MASTER. 277 



ciples which may command general assent, man, or animals of a 

 lower order, should be restricted to a fixed diet for a certain time, 

 rioting the several changes or effects which may from time to time 

 occur, and supposing all the organs in a state of health, and digestion 

 undisturbed, the effect in this case may be taken as a standard of its 

 effects in similar cases ; but the difficulty of carrying such a plan 

 into effect, not only in private but in public establishments, where all 

 things are under medical authority, must for ever prevent our arriv- 

 ing at a satisfactory conclusion on this point. From the homogenious 

 nature of the blood, resulting from the digestion, either of animal, 

 vegetable, or mixed diet, it may appear a matter of small moment to 

 which we give the preference ; and probably where the exhaustion 

 of physical power is not great, it does not matter much, but expe- 

 rience proves that a diet composed of animal and vegetable matter 

 supports the physical energies better than one purely vegetable. To 

 the philosopher busied in the investigation of causes, this may afford 

 matter of speculation to the unmedical man, none. The digestive 

 organs of man being composed of similar textures, tissues, and fibres, 

 the result of their operation, where nature is not disturbed in her 

 functions by disease or habit, may be taken as the standard of healthy 

 organic action, always making due allowance for the differences of 

 physical conformation. The necessity of dietetics implies a state of 

 disease for which other remedies than mere diet are required, and 

 without which it can rarely be removed. Their great utility consist 

 in this, that they support the organic action of parts, whilst under 

 the influence of more powerful medicinal agents. To those who have 

 paid every attention to the subject of dietetics, experience is sufficient 

 to prove the utter impossibility of establishing, on abstract principles, 

 the nutritive qualities of any matter, either vegetable or animal ; and 

 if we consider the mystery in which digestion is still involved, 

 notwithstanding the great advances that have been made in the study 

 of animal and vegetable chemistry, we shall be disposed to pay more 

 attention to nature, and less to books. , 



Were we to estimate the digestive powers of the healthy stomach, 

 by its power in some birds which are able to digest iron, we should 

 suppose that there was no animal or vegetable substance which it 

 could not digest. But the human stomach is rarely found in such a 

 state of health ; the simplicity of nature is so much altered, and the 

 tendency to acquired and congenital disease so much increased, that 

 the plainest diet can rarely be digested without the aid of condiments 

 of some kind. These condiments are all stimulants, and if disease 

 exist, as it generally does, they ultimately aggravate the disease, 

 though productive of temporary relief. There is one disease for 

 which dietetics have been generally prescribed, a disease to be met 

 with in every walk, whether we turn to the cottage of the peasant or 

 the palace of the peer dyspepsia, but arising from different causes. 

 The gay votary of fashion, whose life is but one scene of uninter- 

 rupted dissipation, finding the animal passions of the man, and the 

 physical energies of his frame sinking pari passu, with his indul- 

 gence, endeavours to recruit his strength by increasing appeals to 

 the digestive powers of his stomach, and the most nutritious articles 



