DIETETICS. 



them as wrong, and will scarcely believe 

 that much benefit is to be derived from a 

 good light meal,^r from taking at inter- 

 vals any small quantity of exhilarating 

 nourishment. 



Most of the symptoms already enume- 

 rated under acidity of the stomach make 

 their appearance in the present disease, 

 though varied in every diversity of combi- 

 nation : in addition to which there is ge- 

 nerally costiveness, and a peculiar affec- 

 tion of the head, a dead heavy pain, some- 

 times exacerbated to acute distress, and 

 always accompanied with that idiopathic 

 nausea of the stomach, which is well 

 characterised by the name of sick-head- 

 ache. 



The affection of the mind in hypochon- 

 driasis is curable, or may be very much 

 palliated, by due care and attention to 

 the digestive process ; persons thus af- 

 fected are always disposed to view only 

 the gloomy side of objects : according 

 to the different circumstances and situa- 

 tions in life of each individual, he be- 

 comes oppressed with the fear of dis- 

 ease, of poverty, of death, of fatuity, of 

 loss of memory, or has other ground- 

 less fears of misery awaiting him ; such 

 paroxysms will sometimes occur seve- 

 ral times every day, and are often found 

 to depend on indigestion and flatulency, 

 which being removed by the means to 

 be pointed out in the plan of treatment, 

 these ideas of apprehended evils will 

 gradually subside, or, at least, be very 

 considerably diminished. 



In all cases of this kind, whether of 

 original affection of the primae vise, or 

 symptomatic of chlorosis, or any other af- 

 fection, little good can be done, without 

 unremitting attention to the regularity 

 of evacuation from the bowels, which 

 is essentially necessary to the subduing 

 of acid, when habitually formed in the 

 stomach, and towards gaining any ground 

 in the removal of pain, flatulency, and 

 every other dyspeptic symptom ; and the 

 means of attempting to effect this re- 

 gularity in different persons, and in the 

 same person at different times, must be 

 exceedingly varied ; now and then a case 

 occurs with an habitually lax state of the 

 bowels, and only rhubarb is requisite as 

 a purgative, joined with light aromatics, 

 but commonly we have to^contend with 

 constipation, and rhubarb by itself does 

 mischief. When the stomach and bow- 

 els are loaded and foul, powerful doses 

 of mercurial purgatives are occasionally 

 necessary, particularly in those whose 

 blood-vessels are full, and whose ener- 



gies are considerable. When this state 

 of the system is indicated by labouring 

 action of the heart, which is perceived 

 by the patient, or by vertigo, depending 

 upon repletion of the blood-vessels, it is 

 to be relieved by cupping : and if the 

 secretion of the bile be deficient or irre- 

 gular, the repetition of a grain of calo- 

 mel daily, or every other day, for a week 

 or two, persisted in, will be frequently 

 found of great utility. 



Yet it often happens that the bile, 

 though duly secreted, is an insufficient 

 stimulus to the intestines, either from its 

 being neutralized by the acid which pass- 

 es from the stomach to the duodenum, or 

 from the bowels being in a state too per- 

 manently torpid to be excited by it. In 

 such cases the repeated use of calomel, 

 as a stimulus to the liver, cannot fail to be 

 injurious: the intestinal canal itself 

 should be chiefly attended to, and pur- 

 gatives of a liquid kind, or those easily 

 rendered liquid, should be employed in 

 its stead. About a tea-spoonful of the 

 tincture of senna, rendered more grateful 

 to the stomach by the admixture of a lit- 

 tle tinct. ot lavend. or of ginger, and ta- 

 ken at bed-time, without any admixture 

 of water, will often cause a more easy 

 night's rest, and operate mildly in the 

 morning ; this is very useful in prevent- 

 ing the necessity of the too frequent re- 

 petition of more bulky or violent cathar- 

 tics. On the same principle, electuary 

 of senna and the various domestic prepa- 

 rations of that drug and of other mi$ lax- 

 atives have their uses ; for it '}& always to 

 be remembered, that violenty-j^i^ing is 

 not the intention to be accomplished, but 

 only permanent regulariiy or evacuation. 

 The aid of clysters should sometimes be 

 obtained, particularly when there ap- 

 pears to be a large collection of indurat- 

 ed faeces in the colon : this is sometimes 

 evident from a hardness in the track of 

 this intestine, which may be felt in the 

 umbilical and left iliac regions ; and this 

 congestion alone has not (infrequently 

 produced strong hypochondriac symp- 

 toms. 



Yet injections, too long and habitually 

 indulged in, are, of themselves, apt to 

 produce costiveness ; and are one grand 

 cause of that constitutional constipation, 

 to which a great part of the French na- 

 tion are so subject. 



Aloes would be a convenient medicine, 

 but that the diseased now under conside- 

 ration, from a general torpidity of alvine 

 action, are peculiarly disposed to hae- 

 morrhoids ; a malady which is almost al- 

 ways increased, instead of being melto- 



