DIETETICS. 



from unremitting- application to any fa- 

 vourite top;c, and gently to remind him 

 of the harm he is about to do himself, 

 when he seerns ready to give way to any 

 excess of paiibion. His resort to public 

 places will be beneficial, when he can be 

 brought to attend to what is going for- 

 ward there, and by such attentions his 

 pursuit of health will daily become less 

 irKsome and laborious ; and by the same 

 means he must be brought to unbend 

 his mind in the society of his equals, and 

 to attend to the proper times of exercise, 

 food, and rest. 



HEPATIC AFFECTION, catenating -with af- 

 fecuon of the stomach, and produced by 

 hot climates or hard drinking. 



We have already sufficiently comment- 

 ed upon the general nature of the bile, 

 and the importance ot its due and healthy 

 flou towards the proper action of the 

 stomach, and the whole of the intestinal 

 canal. Now it is clear, that if the organ 

 which secretes this important fluid be 

 perpetually irritated by a stimulus of 

 any kind whatever, it w.il first become 

 inflamed, and suppurate, if the inflamma- 

 tion be very great and progressive ; and 

 secondly, it will become wholly exhaust- 

 ed and torpid, if the stimulus oe not suf- 

 ficient to produce inflammation. 



The stimuli of hot climates andofhard 

 drinking, especially when the beverage 

 consists largely of alcohol, have both a 

 tendency to produce each of these ef- 

 fects, though not in an equal degree ; 

 and consequently not merely to injure 

 the liver itself, but to derange the entire 

 process and economy of digestion. 



In general, those who are affected by a 

 diseased state of the liver in warm cli- 

 mates return to their native homes before 

 inflammation sufficient to excite suppu- 

 ration has taken place ; and hence in our 

 own country we seldom meet with cases 

 of this kind ; but if the same persons do 

 not return home in xime, or if they be 

 actually prevented from returning at all, 

 suppuration will be a frequent conse- 

 quence of the disease they are labouring 

 under, and it is therefore a result which 

 is by no means ucommon in the East and 

 West Indies. 



Commonly, as the case appears to us, 

 on the arrival of the patient in Europe, 

 the morbid excitement of the liver has 

 only produced an enlargement of its pa- 

 renchyma by the effusion of coaguiable 

 lymph; wnich is often re-absorbed by a 

 recovery of healthy action in the lympha- 

 tics of the affected viscus, and especially 



by gently stimulating them through 

 medium of mercury. In the meanwhil 

 however, the stomach and the whole 

 the digestive economy suffers severel 

 and much attention is necessary to tl 

 nature and regulation of the diet 



The excitement produced by hi 

 drinking has a worse tendency, and is 

 often succeeded by a worse result to the 

 stomach, liver, and indeed all the chyly- 

 poietic viscera, than that produced by 

 hot climates. For, though in the former 

 case we have seldom morbid action 

 enough to produce suppuration, we have 

 enough to excite scirrhus, in conjunction 

 with torpidity, and consequently to ren- 

 der the organs almost incapable of recal 

 to a healthy and harmonious state by any 

 kind of regimen, or plan of medicine , 

 whatever. While, at the same time, the 

 villous membrane of the stomach, from 

 perpetual exposure to the acrimony of 

 alcohol, becomes abraded of the mouths 

 of its secerning vessels, and rendered 

 often polished and glabrous throughout 

 its whole surface, like a sheet of glass ; 

 whence the stomach is just as incapable 

 of secreting gastric juice, as the liver is of 

 secreting bile. 



The symptoms chiefly indicatory of an 

 affection of the liver, from a long resi- 

 dence in hot climates, are costiveness, 

 often alternating with diarrhoea, or dy- 

 sentery ; strong spasmodic pains about 

 the epigastrum, and hypochondria ; fla- 

 tulence, and at times cardialgia. There 

 is also a general languor and depression, 

 altogether intolerable and insuperable to 

 the patient. If he indulge in activity, he 

 sinks into a state of increasing debility, 

 and if he attempt any moderate exertion 

 he is overcome by fatig-ue,or suffers from 

 cold or from some ne vv symptoms, the 

 consequences of accidentally increased 

 action; and unless some effectual, but 

 moderate and permanent, means of re- 

 lief be afforded, he dies of some symp- 

 tomatic disease which ensues, or sinks 

 exhausted by the primary affection of the 

 stomach and other viscera concerned in 

 digestion. Such are the most striking 

 features of disease originating from this 

 state of the abdominal viscera, when it 

 is severe and permanent. In the more 

 common attacks, a great number of symp- 

 toms are very troublesome : nausea, car- 

 dialgia, eructation, faintness, sense of 

 weight, and oppression in the epigas- 

 tric region, which is tender to the touch, 

 and pain between the shoulders. In al- 

 most every case, the appetite is exceed- 

 ingly fastidious ; if food be not taken, 



