214 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



LETTER VIII. 



224 Slackfriars Road, 



15th Oct. 1836. 

 MY DEAR JOHN, 



IN my last Letter, I stated to you, that I believe 

 sanguineous congestion, in the ultimate tissue of 

 our organs, constitutes that morbid and multi- 

 form disease usually denominated " indigestion," or 

 " dyspepsia." 



The immediate cause of this congestion I believe 

 to be a sleepy, feeble, and inefficient circulation, 

 occasioned by the peculiar habits of artificial society, 

 and the indolent and mole-like life we lead. 



Indeed, when one considers the amazing exer- 

 tions which the human body is manifestly con- 

 structed for the purpose of undergoing when one 

 sees, every day, the extraordinary powers and won- 

 derful activity which it is capable of exerting and 

 then, when one reflects upon the comparative sloth 

 in which the lives of those are passed who are the 



