DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 397 



If half the population be subject to a disease which, more 

 than almost any other, interferes with bodily comfort and 

 equability of temperament which creates a restlessness, 

 and nervous irritability, that is scarcely to be laid asleep, 

 it must have a most powerful influence upon the habits 

 and general character of the whole people. It must be 

 mainly instrumental in producing the prevailing habits 

 and tendencies by which the population is characterised. 



The prevailing nervous temperament of the New 

 Englanders is ascribed by some of my friends, in the 

 country itself, to the peculiarly dry and searching qualities 

 of the climate. If this temperament lead to choice of 

 food and habits of eating which bring on indigestion, 

 this latter disease will again react upon the temperament, 

 and thus a confounding of cause and effect will take 

 place, which makes it very difficult to decide which is 

 the first or chief agent in producing the observed result. 



I am very much inclined, however, to the opinion, 

 that a great number of those who emigrate are already 

 more or less affected by the disease in question, before 

 they forsake their native homes. Privation, hard labour, 

 anxiety of mind, too close confinement during opening 

 manhood, and other causes, produce stomach diseases 

 and nervous restlessness, which makes men move to more 

 hopeful regions, or which, being transmitted to children, 

 impel them to new homes. The anxieties which attend 

 the change of life in the new country continue and pro 

 long the excitement ; so that, independent of all special 

 climatic action, some generations of tolerable comfort 

 must elapse before the family restlessness would be 

 soothed down. But if, besides, in the nature of the 

 climate and the general example of the people there 

 be causes of new excitement, we may expect the disease 

 to be indefinitely continued, and the temperament to 

 become characteristic of the people, and a national dis 

 tinction. 



