258 On Chronic Debility 



eructations, vertigo, wandering pains, palpitations of tlie 

 heart, yawnings, sighings, irregular sleep, drowsiness, 

 strange and frequent dreams, whims, low spirits, and many 

 indescribable sensations, as some persons term them. It 

 also aggravates most of the other symptoms of the prima- 

 ry disease. That these are the genuine effects of wind in 

 the alimentary canal, is evident from the fact, that when it 

 is expelled by carminatives, they frequently cease. They 

 come on as the wind is produced, and disappear as that 

 disappears. Women are much more afflicted v/ith this 

 evil than men. The causes of this fact are, a too Seden- 

 tary life ; thin dress in cold weather, in consequence of 

 which the body becomes chilled ; thin shoes, by which 

 the feet often become very cold and wet ; and lastly, eat- 

 ing too freely many improper sorts of food. 



III. Rancidity IN THE Stomach. This complaint 

 is occasioned by a too h^ee use of oily food, such as gravy, 

 melted butter, fat meats, particularly such as are smoak- 

 ed, rich pastry, and by old and dried beans and peas. — 

 That the oily food which I have specified is prone to be- 

 come rancid in the debilitated stomach is evident from 

 the following considerations. Butter imperfectly freed 

 from the buttermilk becomes, in warm weather, from no 

 other causes than exposure to heat and the surrounding 

 air, speedily rancid. How much more ought it to be ex- 

 pected, that such an admixture of oils with fermented and 

 unfermented acids, with pastry imperfectly baked, with 

 hot drinks, distilled spirits, and all that mass of vegetable 

 and animal matter, which make up the diet of many per- 

 sons, should, when aided by the heat of the stomach, and 

 the fermentation going on there, produce this effect ! An- 

 imal oils are probably used to a greater extent, as food, 

 in this country, than in most others. In travelling sev- 

 eral thousand miles, in the states of New-England, New- 

 York,^ Nevv^-Jersey, and Pennsylvania, I have every where 

 met with great excesses of this sort. As the people of 

 the United States are, to a great extent, from the manner 

 in which it has been settled, and from their enterprizing 

 character, accustomed to travel, it may be fairly conclu- 

 ded, that such food is served up at the inns, as is gene- 

 rally agreeable. Here we often find fiit meats, brought 



