Pharmacologia. 369 
haps, with some saline stimulus in the form of an anchovy or 
caviar; the whole is crowned with a variety of flatulent fruits, 
and indigestible knick-knacks, included under the term dessert. 
Wine we have purposely omitted. Thus, then, it is that the 
stomach is made (with many of us daily during the season) to 
receive not one full meal, but is actually distended with a suc- 
cession of meals rapidly following each other, and vying in 
their miscellaneous and pernicious nature, with the ingredients of 
Macbeth’s caldron. The epicure talks of the easy digestion 
and light nature of turtle and wénison, and of the quantity which 
can be eaten of either of those dishes; but the fact is, that at 
such a feast little else is generally superadded, and the diges- 
tion of a full feed of any single material is easy work for the 
stomach, compared with the miscellaneous drudgery which it is 
usually called upon to perform. 
We have digressed a little upon the subject of over-eating, 
because we are convinced that it is the bane of life, and that it 
requires, in both sexes, more of the physician’s attentive consi- 
deration than it generally receives. Itis an ungracious task to 
curb the appetite of the sensualist, and restrain the voracity of 
the glutton ; but it is one which the doctor, who does his duty, 
often ought to perform, instead of tampering with the epicurean 
propensities of his patient by the administration of rhubarb and - 
bitters. It is true that there are constitutions which endure 
over-eating with impunity, just as there are drunkards who 
have lived to eighty; and that those persons who, to strong 
digestive powers, add regular hours, and above all, exercise, 
may often continue to overload the stomach with little other dis= 
advantage than ordinary dyspeptic symptoms. But the studious 
and sedentary are the principal sufferers, and they seldom dis- 
cover their danger till it is past removal; they are assailed by 
head-aches and hypochondriasis—by plethora and palpitations— 
by vertigo, constipation, nausea, and want of sleep ; the physi- 
cian tells them that they are bilious, and, perhaps, quells the 
most pressing symptoms by antispasmodics and evacuants, or 
flatters them by the assurance that they are suffering under the 
disorders of genius, as Dr. Stuart has lately called these mala- 
dies ; whereas the cure is to be found in air, exercise, and a 
plain diet, physic being at the same time ‘“ thrown to the dogs.” 
Truly does the poet observe, 
The first physicians by debauch were made; 
Excess began and sloth sustains the trade. 
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought, 
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. 
The wise for cure on exercise depend, 
God never made his work for man to mend. 
Dr. Paris’s just observations on diet, induce us to regret that 
he has not taken a more gencral and extended view of its in« 
Vor. XIV. Dials 
