228 MICROBES AND HEALTH. 



palliative; i. e., they quiet the symptoms without touch- 

 ing the cause ; and that if continued these remedies will 

 still further weaken the digestive organs. They do this 

 by doing their work for them. It is well known that 

 nature does not waste any of her forces, and that she 

 does not perform any work in vain, and if artificial 

 digestants are employed the natural digestive fluids and 

 ferments will cease to flow. The muscles of an arm 

 would atrophy if the arm should be carried in a 

 sling. A joint would refuse to act if it were kept 

 for a long time in one position. When the arm and 

 joint cease to act nature ceases to supply them. The 

 same is true of the digestive fluids. If they are sup- 

 plied artificially, the digestive organs will go out of 

 business atrophy like the muscles of the arm carried 

 in the sling, or refuse to act, like the joint that had 

 remained too long inactive. 



The symptoms of dyspepsia are, flatulency with 

 eructations, bad taste in the mouth, coated tongue, foul 

 breath, sense of fullness, soreness, pain, or a feeling of 

 weight in the stomach, a raw or burning feeling in the 

 stomach or behind the chest bone, low spirits, evil fore- 

 bodings, pressure over the stomach, drowsiness after 

 meals, headache, palpitation of the heart, with flutter- 

 ings, and at times a hesitancy in its action, nausea and 

 perhaps vomiting, at times the appetite poor and again 

 ferocious, after which undigested food may lie in the 

 stomach for hours or days. This may give the stomach 

 control over the mental faculties, and the sufferer 

 becomes irritable, may be unable to sleep, or may be 



