INDIGESTION, OR DYSPEPSIA. 3-39 



Unpleasant feelings of the body produce correspondent sensations in the mind, 

 and a great sense of wretchedness is sketched out by a morsel of indigestible and 

 misguided food." 



Now, as to the treatment of dyspepsia. If you really want to get rid of your 

 indigestion, and we suppose you do, it is not such a very difficult matter. In the 

 first place you will have to regulate your diet, for without this allyour efforts will 

 be futile. The great secret is to take the most easily assimilable food, and at the 

 same time to avoid overloading your stomach. Your food should be varied, but 

 selected for its digestibility. Three moderate meals a day are usually sufficient 

 unless you are a very hard worker, but sometimes four are necessary. Meat should 

 be eaten at least twice a day. Beef and mutton, and game with the exception of 

 hares and rabbits, are excellent; but pork and veal are very indigestible, and should 

 be avoided. If you like chicken, or sweetbread, or tripe, take them by all means. 

 You must avoid all meats that have been hardened by culinary art or by condiments, 

 and all cured meats such as ham, tongue, sausages, and so forth. Eggs, if they agree 

 with you, are to be recommended. Fish is not so good, but may be eaten in modera- 

 tion. Oysters often agree well, but differences in this respect are observed in different 

 individuals, and some people cannot take them. 



Vegetables should be by no means excluded from your diet, but a certain amount 

 of caution is requisite in their use. If they cause much flatulence, their place may 

 be supplied by rice or macaroni, or by some kind of fruit, such as grapes or straw- 

 berries, or, better still, stewed prunes. Your potatoes should always be well boiled, 

 unless you like them fried or mashed, and they should not be new. Other kinds of 

 vegetables should also be fresh and carefully cooked. Turnips, parsnips, carrots, 

 and Jerusalem artichokes may, perhaps, not agree with you ; but you may take 

 spinach, vegetable marrow, beet-root, and young peas and French beans with per- 

 fect safety. All raw vegetables, such as salads, cucumbers, and pickles, must be 

 eschewed. 



Bread should not be eaten new. If you cannot get on with the ordinary house- 

 hold bread, try the aerated bread. It is very nice for a change, although few people 

 like it for a permanency. If this does not do for you, you will have to fall back on 

 biscuits or toast. Fresh butter you may eat in moderation. 



Pastry is to be eschewed, but light farinaceous puddings rice, sago, and arrow- 

 root are digestible enough. Fried dishes are forbidden, and in the same category 

 must be placed shell-fish, nuts, pickles, and cheese. Sugar may be used in modera- 

 tion, but jams, marmalade, and other condiments are seldom admissible, except 

 perhaps in the case of elderly people and those habituated to their use. " Tilings 

 sweet to taste prove in digestion sour ; " moreover, they possess very little power of 

 increasing the flow of gastric juice, and are apt to set up irritation. 



What ought you to drink ? May you take wine or beer, or brandy and water 1 

 You would be much better without anything at all, especially if you have been in 

 the habit of taking a good deal. Not good to give it up all at once 1 Not at all, 

 there is not the slightest danger. Do you not know that the health of even the most 

 inveterate spirit-drinker improves instead of suffers upon the sudden and total 

 abstinence from spirits ] But you are not an inveterate spirit-drinker ? Quite so ; 



