230 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



it is meal-time; and, having eaten to satiety, 

 uses stimulating drinks, in order to enable him to 

 eat more ; and then, feeling himself uncomfortably 

 distended, drinks again, with a view to relieve the 

 sense of oppression under which he finds himself 

 labouring. Man, I believe, is the only animal who 

 eats in order to induce himself to drink ; and drinks 

 in order to induce himself to eat. No other ani- 

 mal than himself requires any relish, saving only 

 that of hunger and thirst 



I believe I have now enumerated what I consider 

 the principal causes of that disordered condition of 

 the health, called "indigestion": and you will ob- 

 serve, that they all arise from the artificial condition 

 of society in which we live. In my next Letter, I 

 shall point out what I believe to be the only means 

 of avoiding and remedying it. 



I am, my dear John, 



Yours truly, 



E. JOHNSON. 



