264 MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



pent up, and the bile obstructed in its natural course through 

 the ducts, heating and ultimately inflaming various organs, 

 the sound state of which is essential to any thing like health 

 or comfort in the Eastern world. 



We have said that, generally speaking, the climate of our 

 Asiatic dominions is far from hostile to the dyspeptic. It 

 is still less so if they are at the same time cautious with 

 regard to diet. Even the most robust frequently find their 

 stomachs weakened by want of due attention to their mode 

 of living ; what then must the delicate hazard by the same 

 inadvertency ! It must be confessed, also, that at the tables 

 of the affluent and luxurious there are many temptations 

 to excess, especially for new comers. Certain mixtures of 

 food cannot be made without danger of bringing on indi- 

 gestion ;* hence follows a baJlj'-prepared chyle, which will 

 not only prove detrimental by insufficiently nourishing the 

 body, but sow the seeds of different chronic disorders. 

 Thus it is that we see at our various watering-places in 

 Britain hundreds of martyrs to gout, gravel, and rheuma- 

 tism, many of them reaping the fruits of years of irregularity, 

 — men, too, not unusually at a time of life when, with ordi- 

 nary prudence, they might have ensured the enjoyment of 

 perfect health. " How does it happen," said an inteUigent 

 Frenchman once to the writer of this article, " that such 

 numbers of you English become infirm so early in life ?" 

 A full reply was not called for, as the foreigner, being a 

 person of great penetration, probably guessed the real cause 

 with sufficient accuracy, and only put the question by way 

 of insinuating in the most delicate way the greater tem- 

 perance of his own countrymen. Soldiers in India have it 

 not much in their power to err either with regard to quantity 

 or quality of food, as, happily for them, their mess regula- 

 tions fix all those matters. The consequence is, that among 

 them dyspepsia is not of frequent occurrence, their mala- 

 dies arising chiefly from exposure to ardent heat, the abuse 

 of spirituous liquors, and debauchery of other kinds. 



This is no place to treat medically of indigestion ; yet it 

 may not be amiss to warn all young Eastern adventurers 

 who wish to avoid it, that they will do wisely to live on the 



* For example, the writer has known many persons who could not take 

 a single glass of Madeira wine, at the same meal with cnrry or m416gi- 

 tfinie without bringing on heartburn in the course of four hours. 



