WHY GROW OLD? 



233 



and in undue quantity. As a rule, the victim of indigestion flies 

 to medicines for relief, or to one of the thousand-and-one quack 

 remedies that are advertised to cure everything. 



How much more rational would it not be to alter the diet, and 

 to give the stomach the food for which it is craving! If the 

 stomach could talk, I can imagine it, after pills, and gin and bit- 

 ters, and quack remedies of every description have been poured 

 into it, begging to be relieved of such horrors, and saying, " Give 

 me a little rest, and a cup of beef tea and a biscuit, and go and 

 take a little fresh air and exercise yourself." Instead of this, the 

 miserable organ has to be dosed with all sorts of horrible concoc- 

 tions in the way of drugs, brandies and sodas, and champagne, to 

 endeavor to stimulate it into action. There is no doubt that the 

 stomach that requires stimulants and potions to enable it to act 

 efficiently, can hardly be said to be in a healthy state, or can long 

 continue to do its work properly. 



The digestive organs, unfortunately, are the first to sympathize 

 with any mental worry. They are like a barometer, and indicate 

 the errors of malnutrition and their consequences. The healthy 

 action of every organ depends upon the proper assimilation of 

 the food taken. As soon as the digestive process fails, every- 

 thing fails, and ill-health results with all its disastrous con- 

 comitants. 



Indigestion is more particularly the ailment of those engaged 

 in sedentary pursuits, and if a person who is frequently the victim 

 of it would, instead of flying to drugs, try such a diet as the fol- 

 lowing for a few days, he would not regret doing so. At least, 

 this is my experience : 



He should begin the day at 7 A. M. with a tumbler of milk and 

 soda water, or a cup of Liebig's beef tea, or of bovril. At half 

 past seven he should take a tepid or cold sponge bath and rub the 

 skin thoroughly with a coarse towel or, better still, before the 

 bath, with a massage rubber. At half past eight for his break- 

 fast, one or two cups of weak tea, with a little milk and no sugar. 

 A little stale bread or dry toast. A grilled sole or whiting, or the 

 lean of an underdone mutton chop, or a newly laid egg lightly 

 boiled. For luncheon at one, a few oysters and a cut of a loin of 

 mutton, some chicken or game, or any other light digestible meat. 

 A little stale bread and a glass of dry sherry or moselle. Such a 

 one should avoid afternoon tea as he would poison, and at six or 

 seven have his dinner, which should consist of plainly cooked fish, 

 mutton, venison, chicken, grouse, partridge, hare, pheasant, tripe 

 boiled in milk, sweetbread, lamb, roast beef, and stale bread. 

 French beans, cauliflower, asparagus, vegetable marrow, or sea 

 kale, may be used as vegetable, and half a wineglassful of cognac 

 in water may be drunk. If he takes wine, one or two glasses of 



