180 ANSWERS TO PRACTICAL QUESTIONS 



20. WJiat is the best remedy ? 



Diet to give the organs rest, and active exercise to arouse 

 the secretions and the circulation. 



21. What is the practical use of hunger ? 



To prompt us to furnish the body with sufficient food. 



22. How can jugglers drink when standing on their 

 heads ? 



Because water does not fall into the stomach by its own 

 weight, but is conveyed thither from the mouth by the con- 

 traction of the muscular bands of the oesophagus. 



23. ^Vhy do tve relish btitter on bread ? 



Butter supplies the carbonaceous element in which bread is 

 lacking. 



my torment and his own 1 Here, too, the old mistaken notion about the 

 need of something stimulating besets him, and down comes a deluge of 

 hot spirits and water, that causes me to writhe in agony, and almost sends 

 G-astric Juice off in the sulks to bed. Nor does the infatuated man rest 

 here. If the company be agreeable, one glass follows another, while I am 

 kept standing, as it were, with my sleeves tucked up, ready to begin, but 

 unable to perform a single stroke of work. 



I feel that the strength which I ought to have at my present time of 

 life has passed from me. I am getting weak, and peevish, and evil-disposed. 

 A comparatively small trouble sits long and sore upon me. Bile, from being 

 my servant, is becoming my master ; and a bad one he makes, as all good 

 servants ever do. I see nothing before me but a premature old age of 

 pains and groans, and gripes and grumblings, which will, of course, not 

 last over long; and thus I shall be cut short in my career, when I should 

 have been enjoying life's tranquil evening, without a single vexation of 

 any kind to trouble me. Were I of a revengeful temper, it might be a 

 consolation to think that my master the cause of all my woes must suffer 

 ftnd sink with me ; but I don't see how this can mend my own case ; and, 

 from old acquaintance, I am rather disposed to feel sorry for him, as one 

 who has been more ignorant and imprudent than ill-meaning. In the same 

 spirit let me hope that this true and unaffected account of my case may 

 prove a warning to other persons how they use their stomachs ; for, they 

 may depend upon it, whatever injustice they do to us, in their days of 

 health and pride, will be repaid to themselves in the long-run our friend 

 Madame ISTature being a remarkably accurate accountant, who makes no 

 allowance for ignorance or mistakes. CHAMBEKS' Memoir of a /Stomach, 



