DIET FOR DYSPEPSIA. 329 



want of occupation, eat a great deal on their journey. It is an 

 error to suppose that the system requires more support when on a 

 journey or a voyage. Food is then really less necessary than when 

 there is active exercise. Hence the extra quantity of food and 

 stimulant taken has the effect of increasing the disturbance and 

 irritation which naturally arise from fatigue and excitement. In 

 fact, the nervous energy is on these occasions diverted from the 

 stomach, rendering the digestion less perfect than usual. 



Those who suffer from weak digestion should accustom them- 

 selves to drink very little at their meals, especially of any cold fluid. 

 The time to drink is from two to three hours after a meal, when the 

 cold fluid restores the tone of the stomach and assists the digested 

 food in passing out of it to undergo the duodenal digestion. The 

 use of strong stimulants should also be abandoned. For young and 

 healthy persons condiments are unnecessary. Alcoholic stimulants 

 for children, young persons and those in perfect health, are as a rule 

 worse than useless. 



Healthy persons as well as dyspeptics should accustom them- 

 selves to do without stimulants, excepting in the rare cases when 

 they are thought to be necessary by their medical adviser; and then, 

 like other medicines, they should be the best and purest of their 

 kind. If persons have been long accustomed to alcoholic drinks, the 

 sudden and total discontinuance of their use may in some instances 

 prove prejudicial, but as a rule this is not the case. 



The nature of the food for dyspeptics is of less importance than 

 the quantity; still it is by no means unimportant. It should be as 

 simple as possible at each meal, and varied from day to day; and, 

 when variety in the kind of food cannot be secured, variety in the 

 method of cooking and serving it will attain the same object. All 

 articles must be avoided which possess any distinctly unfavorable 

 medicinal properties, or are known to disagree with the individual. 

 It must not be supposed that everything that has disagreed will 

 always disagree and must therefore be utterly and forever excluded 

 from the dietary. Some persons, acting on this erroneous supposi- 

 tion, have reduced their diet to a repulsive monotony and have no 

 relish for their food. Some make the great mistake of excluding 

 solids and take nothing but liquids. Solids are necessary to stimu- 

 late the action of the stomach, in which liquid will remain 

 undigested and the organ should be encouraged, by hopeful attempts 

 at variety, to appropriate articles in addition to those which have 

 hitherto "been taken. To many persons not a little comfort will be 

 gained by taking animal and vegetable food separately, as in France ; 

 ^. <3., taking meat at one meal, vegetables at another. Vegetables 

 are less likely to cause flatulence if taken alone than if combined 

 with flesh. But whatever the kind, it cannot be too simple nor too 

 plainly dressed. 



Of meats, mutton is usually found to be most suitable for those 

 whose digestion is weak, and will often be more easily assimilated 



