DIETETICS, 
rectly purgative matter, which should be 
given to insure the passage of the calomel 
through the bowels, and to increase the 
purgative effect. Rhubarb will hereafter be 
of great advantage intermixed with some 
aromatic powder or pungent water, as mint 
or peppermint ; though the neutral salts 
will better agree with some constitutions. 
Absorbents we cannot recommend so 
largely as they have often been recom- 
mended, especially the calcareous earths, 
for it often happens that the insoluble com- 
pound formed by the union of chalk and the 
acid in the stomach increases the load and 
irritation in the bowels. In slight, or re- 
cent cases, they are chiefly useful, and tct 
be depended upon. 
The morbid matter being removed or de- 
stroyed, strict attention to diet is next of 
very considerable consequence. Whatever 
is light and easy of digestion, and es- 
pecially whatever at the same time con- 
tains in itself a considerable portion of 
the nutritive principle, and counteracts aces- 
cency, is the bill of fare to be rigidly 
adhered to. If there be thirst, barley water 
may be taken plentifully ; rice gruel is 
preferable to decoctions of oatmeal, as 
being less ready to, ferment, and containing 
more deraulient mucilage. As more solid 
food rice itselfmay be habitually resorted to 
with light animal food of any kind, and 
varied in whatever way the patient may 
prefer. Cardialgia, or heart-burn, flatu- 
lence, and hence tympanites, or enlarge- 
jnent of the belly, are often mere symp- 
toms dependent upon that debilitated state 
of the stomach, that predisposes it to a 
morbid secretion, or renders it ineffectual to 
digest the common aliments that are intro- 
duced to it, or even to resist the acetous 
fermentation to which they are too often 
inclined. Whatever, therefore, of medicine 
or regimen w'ill tend to remove this state of 
the stomachj will tend at the same time to 
destroy these distressing symptoms which 
are but its concomitants or dependants. 
Worms, again, may be regarded as another 
result of the same debilitated action ; for, 
whether in children or adults, they will 
never be found to exist either in the sto- 
mach or intestines, while these are in a 
state of perfect health, and thoroughly 
competent to a secretion of their appropri- 
ate fluids. These, however, hke the aci- 
dity of the stomach, must first be dis- 
charged from their station before we can 
expect any great degree of benefit from an 
habitual regimen. 
To the diet already recommended, we 
may then add gentle tonics and cordials, es- 
pecially wine and palatable spices. Soda 
water will also generally be a beverage of 
very essential advantage, both from the 
carbonic acid gass and from the alkali it 
contains, the one proving gently tonic to the 
stomach, and the other correcting the su- 
perabundant acid : and it is commonly ne- 
cessary to continue the use of rhubarb, or 
some other purgative with alkaline and 
slight bitter medicines for a length of time, 
where the complaint shews a disposition to 
return. 
IMPLETION OF THE STOMACH. 
This disease is of two kinds : the one 
from temporary satiety, which is easily re- 
moved by emetics and purgatives ; but 
which from not being removed in due time, 
not unfi'equently produces stupor and apo- 
plexy. The other, and which chiefly be- 
longs to our present consideration, from ha- 
bitual abstinence, from exercise, accompa- 
nied with an habitual proclination of the 
body, as occurs in the trade of shoe-makers, 
or of tailors, or the occupation of writing 
clerks, or accomptants, as well as of literary 
people in general. Some years ago, from 
the pressure of their stays, women were 
frequent sufferers in the same way : in the 
present fashion of their dress they are far 
less subject to it, though it occasionally 
happens to those who sit long stooping to 
needle-work. 
By this proclination of the body, the 
thoracic and abdominal viscera are unduly 
compressed together for many hours in 
every day : the margin of the ribs is forced 
upwards so as to drive the stomach against 
the diaphragm, and to impede the passage 
through the pylorus ; while all the adjoin- 
ing organs, the blood vessels and excreting 
ducts partake of the general injury from 
the compression, and hereby concur to ex- 
cite affections of the lungs, or permanent 
disease in the large vessels near the heart, 
-as well as more extensive and deeply seated 
mischief in the stomach. 
The symptoms indicating disease of the 
stomach from this cause, are nauseous taste 
in the mouth, with furred tongue, pain in 
the region of the pylorus, and sense of 
weight and the pain increased on pressure 
at the pit of the stomach : there is always 
costiveness j from the want of free passage 
through the pylorus tlie stomach becomes 
loaded with viscous matter : the counte- 
nance is pale, wan, and sallow, and very 
shortly blackness appears under the eye- 
