366 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



tenderness, and fulness of the stomach after meals, heartburn, sour acid rising, 

 flatulence, frequent vomiting of food and bile, a sour or bitter taste in the mouth, 

 and morning headache accompanied by a feeling of disinclination for exertion. It 

 is also useful in the case of people of a sallow, yellowish complexion, who, in addition 

 to the above symptoms, suffer from irregular action of the bowels with ineffectual 

 urging. This, it will be seen, is just the dyspepsia of men of business and intel- 

 lectual workers, who perform their tasks with hurry and worry, and give neither 

 brain nor stomach fair play. Nux vomica is said to be especially indicated in 

 persons of a dark bilious complexion, who in addition to employing their brains too 

 much, take but little out-door exercise, eat largely, and drink freely of alcoholic 

 liquors. The mix vomica mixture (Pr. 44) may be advantageously employed. 



Pulsatilla (Pr. 43) is the remedy for indigestion arising from fatty food or pastry, 

 and accompanied by heartburn and frequent loose evacuations. It is indicated in 

 the case of females suffering from deranged periods, particularly when the tongue is 

 coated with a white rough fur, and when there is nausea with little vomiting and 

 absence of much pain. 



The Turkish bath is the best remedy for people who, after dining out, suffer the 

 next day from malaise and slight indigestion. In the case of gouty subjects, it is 

 advantageous to combine colchicum with any anti-dyspeptic remedy. 



So much then for the medicinal treatment of dyspepsia. We have an almost 

 unlimited faith in the curative action of medicines, but on the principle of audi 

 alteram partem, we give the advice of a physician, evidently 110 believer in drugs, 

 to a long-suffering dyspeptic. It is as follows : " 1. Take a good stock of the 

 usual medicines for stomach disorders, and go down to Southampton. 2. Go on 

 board the first Peninsular and Oriental steamer for Gibraltar, with return ticket, 

 3. Throw all the medicines overboard. 4. Live like other people as soon as you 

 have got your sea-legs, and smoke when you can." He adds that in an ordinary 

 case he would almost guarantee a cure, and that " No. 3 is to be especially attended 

 to." 



Many of the mere prominent symptoms of dyspepsia, such as vomiting, pyrosis, 

 and flatulence, are of such importance that their treatment necessitates a separate 

 and detailed account. 



INFLUENZA. 



Influenza is an epidemic disorder attended with great depression, chilliness, 

 running from the eyes and nose, headache, cough, restlessness, and fever. It was 

 called influenza by the Italians, because it was attributed to the "influence" of the 

 stars. In France it is known as the "grippe." It has received various other names, 

 for it has been known and noticed from the remotest antiquity. Thus we learn that 

 in 827 A.D., an attack of cough spread like a plague over the whole of Europe, and 

 some forty or fifty years later, the army of Charlemagne, returning from Italy, 

 suffered most severely from the same complaint. During the present century some 

 ten or a dozen epidemics have been recorded, the most noteworthy being those of 

 1803, 1831, 1833, 1837, and 1847. It was formerly supposed that an outbreak 

 occurred regularly once in a hundred years, but during the seventeenth century there 



