DIET FOR DYSPEPSIA. 327 



perhaps not in the shape of immediate pain or uneasiness in the 

 digestive organs themselves. Many of the complaints incident to 

 persons in comfortable circumstances, though affecting other organs 

 besides the stomach, such as gout, rheumatism, neuralgia, various 

 affections of the skin, etc., can be distinctly traced to imperfect 

 digestion or assimilation of food, though unattended with direct 

 symptoms of dyspepsia. 



2. Cooling the Stomach The natural temperature of 

 the stomach is 98. The maintenance of this temperature is essen- 

 tial to the discharge of its functions, and to those chemical changes 

 which attend digestion. Whatever lowers it interferes with the 

 secretion of gastric juice, and if the depression amount to 15 or 

 more, completely stops it. If the secretion be thus arrested, it is 

 not resumed until by the exertion of nervous energy (so much 

 waste) the temperature has again risen to 98; and it has been 

 found by experiment that after the stomach has been cooled, say 

 30, it requires -thirty minutes for the recovery of the temperature, 

 after all the water has been absorbed. The mischievous consequence 

 of drinking large quantities of cold water or cold beer during a 

 meal, to say nothing of the fashionable custom of eating ices at the 

 termination of dinner, is that digestion is thereby immediately 

 arrested and the food either remains an inert mass in the stomach, 

 or, in weakly individuals and those suffering from dyspepsia, begins 

 to ferment and disengage acids and gases. 



3. Stimulating the Stomach The use of strong stimu- 

 lants, especially alcoholic drinks, also arrests the secretion of gastric 

 juice and seems to produce inflammation of the mucous lining of 

 ihe organ. As a general rule, any quantity of stimulants, whether 

 in the shape of condiments, strong wine or spirits, delays and pro- 

 tracts the process of digestion, instead of assisting it, as is generally 

 supposed. These matters in some cases cause congestion of the 

 glands, which lessens or arrests their secreting power; in other cases 

 they interfere with the solvent chemical action of the gastric juice, 

 if they do not actually decompose it; and if they be taken in any 

 quantity they seem to act as a sort of pickle or preservative to the 

 food and prevent its solution. 



4. Eating Too Soon after a Previous Meal The 

 quantity of gastric juice secreted being only sufficient to digest the 

 first meal, none can be supplied for the second, which also begins 

 to pass out of the stomach undigested and mixed with the first, 

 necessarily occasioning more or less disturbance in the intestinal 

 part of the process. The stomach also, in common with other 

 organs of the body, needs an interval of repose for the recovery of 

 nervous energy. The error of eating too frequently is very com- 

 mon, especially among those who take lunch three or four hours 

 after breakfast and dine again after an equally short interval. 



5. Exertion after a Meal The well known experiment 

 of feeding two dogs and allowing the one to rest while the other 



