IN HYGIENIC PHYSIOLOGY. 179 



19. What makes a man "bilious"? 



(See HALL'S Health by Good Living, p. Ill, et seq.) 



The liver strains the bile out of the blood. This waste mat- 

 ter is not withdrawn when the liver is inactive, and hence the 

 face and eyes become yellow the color of bile, and the func- 

 tions all become torpid. 



said dinner is soup, fish, flesh, fowl, ham, rice, potatoes, table-beer, sherry, 

 tart, pudding, cheese, bread, all mixed up together. I am accustomed to 

 the thing, so don't feel much shocked ; but my master himself would faint 

 at the sight. The slave of dxity in all circumstances, I call in. my friend 

 Q-astric Juice, and we set to work with as much good-will as if we had the 

 most agreeable task in the world before us. But, unluckily, my master has 

 an impression very firmly fixed upon him that our business is apt to be 

 vastly promoted by an hour or two's drinking; so he continues at table 

 among his friends, and pours down some bottle and a half of wine, per- 

 haps of various sorts, that bothers Gastric Juice and me to a degree which 

 no one can have any idea of. In fact, this wine undoes our work almost 

 as fast as we do it, besides blinding and poisoning us poor servants into 

 the bargain. On many occasions I am obliged to give up my task for the 

 time altogether ; for while this vinous shower is going on I would defy the 

 most vigorous stomach in the world to make any advance in its business 

 worth speaking of. Sometimes things go to a much greater length than at 

 others : and my master will paralyze us in this manner for hours, not 

 always, indeed, with wine, but occasionally with punch, one ingredient of 

 which the lemon is particularly odious to us. All this time I can hear 

 him jollifying away at a great rate, drinking health to his neighbors, and 

 ruining his own. 



I am a lover of early hours, as are my brethren generally. To this 

 we are very much disposed by the extremely hard work which we usually 

 undergo during the day. About ten o'clock, having, perhaps, at that time 

 got all our labors past, and feeling fatigued and exhausted, we like to sink 

 into repose, not to be again disturbed till next morning at breakfast-time. 

 Well, how it may be with others T can't tell ; but so it is, that my master 

 never scruples to rouse me up from my first sleep, and give me charge of 

 an entirely new meal, after I thought I was to be my own master for the 

 night. This is a hardship of the most grievous kind. Only imagine me, 

 after having gathered in my coal, drawn on my night-cap, and gone to 

 bed, called up and made to take charge of a quantity of stuff which I 

 know I shall not be able to get off my hands all night ! Such, O mankind, 

 are the woes which befall our tribe in consequence of your occasionally 

 yielding to the temptations of " a little supper." I see turkey and tongue 

 in grief and terror. Macaroni fills me with frantic alarm. I behold jelly 

 and trifle follow in mute despair. O that I had the power of standing be- 

 side my master, and holding his unreflecting hand, as he thus prepares for 



