362 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



rivers of France or Germany, will often do more towards restoring a dyspeptic to 

 health than a twelvemonth's regimen and physicking at home. 



There is one apparently trivial, but in reality extremely important, point 

 to which we wish especially to call attention. See that your teeth are in good 

 working order, and if they are not, go to a dentist and get them supplemented 

 or replaced by new ones. If mastication is imperfectly performed, all treatment 

 directed to the stomach will be in vain. In a letter which recently appeared 

 in the Lancet, a source of dyspepsia was pointed out, which we believe has been 

 very generally overlooked. The writer says : 



" When I was travelling on the Continent last September I lost two of my front 

 teeth, and afterwards another ; besides this, one of my back teeth was so tender that 

 I could not masticate with that side of my mouth. This tooth, on my return to 

 London, my dentist, whom I have employed for twenty years, told me would be of 

 no further use to me, and it was extracted. 



" I now determined to go to any expense, that for the remainder of my days my 

 mouth and teeth might be in proper order (the upper jaw only being affected). For 

 a month I gave the gums time to harden, then a cast of the upper part of the mouth 

 was taken, and four days before Christmas, everything being in readiness, the new 

 arrangement, was placed in situ, a perfect fit, quite comfortable. I felt proud of my 

 appearance, and could bite the hardest substance with every tooth in my head ; but 

 to effect this there was a gold plate covering the whole of the roof of the mouth. I 

 remonstrated against this, and was told that it was of no consequence, that the 

 tongue was the organ of taste, and that it would not interfere with the process of 

 digestion. Now what happened 1 I masticated perfectly, the saliva mixed with the 

 food, and then went down my throat as though it had passed through a tin funnel. 

 For a few days I felt no evil consequences ; but in about a week or ten days I began 

 to get out of order griping, &c. First the gastric juice went wrong ; then there 

 was one day too great a supply of bile, another day too little, and at last none at all 

 in fact, congestion of the liver. Knowing that nothing will attack this except 

 blue-pill, although I never take medicine, I went home one Sunday evening at 

 seven with a pure blue-pill, and slept soundly for sixteen hours, and after this a mild 

 aperient. The action of the liver and the bile was restored ; but still I had no 

 appetite. I tried to tempt it with a good dinner, but turned away from everything, 

 and I have gone four days and a half without food or drink, except perhaps water. 



" Having thirty years ago attended lectures in Edinburgh on Physiology, in- 

 cluding the subject of digestion and dietetics, it now suddenly occurred to me that 

 in covering up what my dentist called the roof of my mouth he had, in fact, covered 

 up my palate, and I went to him one day at eleven, and then and there insisted that 

 a large piece should be cut out of the plate, leaving what remained in the form of a 

 horseshoe, with quite as firm a bearing as before, and freedom of contact between 

 the tongue and the palate. Two hours afterwards I enjoyed my lunch, as I have 

 every meal since ; and although after such disorganisation time and attention are 

 necessary, yet every meal I now take is adding to the tone of the stomach and 

 system." 



The medicinal treatment of dyspepsia is by no means an easy problem. When 



