PATHOLOGY. 
142 
to each inhalation of atmofpheric air. A large net, for ex¬ 
ample, folded loofely round the face, will receive a por¬ 
tion of caloric, or heat, from the breath, at each expira¬ 
tion, which portion will be communicated to the current 
of air rufliing into the lungs at each infpiration; and 
thus the frigidity of the nofturnal atmofphere will be 
in fome degree obviated. 
4. As we proceed into the night-air while the body is 
warm, fo we lhould, by a brilk pace, endeavour to keep 
up that degree of animal heat with which we fet out, 
and that determination to the furface which is fo effec¬ 
tual in preventing affeftions of any internal organ. 
5. As the fudden tranfition from a heated apartment 
to a frigid atmofphere muff, in fome degree, produce a 
determination to the centre, and more or lefs check the 
perfpiratory procefs, fome warm and moderately-ftimu- 
lating liquid may be taken before going to bed, in order 
that the functions of the Ikin and the balance of the cir¬ 
culation may be reftored ; unlefs, as is often the cafe in 
nervous fubjefts, fpirituous potations caufe reftlelfnefs 
and want of fleep. 
It is of confequence, moreover, that the dyfpeptic pa¬ 
tient lhould avoid the thick fogs and damp air which fur- 
round all large towns or manufactories 5 and that he 
lhould therefore remove from fuch fituations into the 
open country. Or, in cafe his refidence in foreign 
regions, whether northern or tropical, is the probable 
caufe of his indifpofition, a return home is of courfe the 
obvious remedy. 
As a further method of obviating atmofpherical im- 
preffions, the nature of our clothing requires fome at¬ 
tention. Dyfpeptic patients lhould not only endeavour 
to wear a lighter and warmer clothing than is ufual, but 
adopt a more uniform fyftem of attire throughout the 
year ; in which cafe they will, in a great degree, obviate 
the keen fufceptibility to aerial impreflions for which they 
are fo remarkable. They lhould avoid likewife the 
falhionable habits which exift in regard to frequent 
changes of drefs. The fair fex in particular, and the lefs 
robuftof our own, are obferved to wear a warm drefs in 
the fore part of the day, a period when the fun is mod 
powerful, and when exercife is more ufed ; while the 
evening or dinner drefs confifts of garments of the thin- 
neft texture, when the frame is more exhaufted, and the 
air damp and cold. No words are required to point out 
the injury fuch a praftice muff inflift on the patients of 
indigeffion. 
We have before adverted to the effeft of ftudious 
habits on the procefs of digeftion. Perhaps a few 
words on the management of the mind will not be 
mifplaced. We do not wilh, far lefs hope, to check the 
patient and abftrafted exertions of genius; but, if it 
can be Ihown to the philofopher that knowledge will more 
kindly open her ftores to him who has not corporeal ail¬ 
ment to deftroy the balmy refrelhment of fleep, and whofe 
enthufiafm is not liable to be dulled by baneful hypo- 
chondriafm, he will perhaps be induced to fpend fome of 
his exiftence, we truff not unhappily, in the lighter difli- 
pations of converfation, and in the cheering influence of 
corporeal movements. It will not be loft time. Health 
has always been confidered the refult of a general and 
pervading harmony; that, while one part or ftrufture 
afts for the fupport of life, another refts. Even the heart, 
powerful as it is, refts and afts alternately. All other 
organs obey the fame law; they have longer intervals of 
exertion and relaxation, it is true; but ftill they have 
them. Shall the brain only receive none ? Without en- 
lifting ourfelves on the fide of the philofopher who faid 
the mind always thinks, we may fafely alfert, that, ex¬ 
cept during fleep, the brain is perpetually occupied in re¬ 
ceiving impreflions, or in performing its own internal 
operations. If fleep, then, be the only time it is exempt 
from this toil, how impaired mull the functions of that 
cerebral ftrufture be which experiences but imperfeftly 
and for Ihort periods the influence of “tired Nature’s 
fweet reftorer !” But it is not only by tending to deftroy 
fleep that too long application weakens the faculty of 
thought; the time borrowed from the due exertion of the 
mufcular fyftem is certainly ill applied. That abforption 
and circulation are facilitated by mufcular motion will 
be admitted on all hands : and whence does the brain de¬ 
rive its fuftenance, but from the circulating powers ? 
And further, who has not felt how at times his mental 
energy in a few hours of application rapidly overtakes, 
nay furprifingly outdoes, the laborious ftudy of days, 
when he toils “ invita Minerva !” The ftudent, therefore, 
fhould endeavour, above all others, to exercife in fome 
degree all his powers, his funftions, and his faculties. 
His employments naturally tend to make him abftinent; 
and we are well allured, that, if he does not difdain the 
ufeful lefl'ons of experience in regard to his bodily infir¬ 
mities, he will find no reafon to coincide in the melan¬ 
choly but frequent afl'ertion, that intellectual grandeur 
and corporeal energies are incompatible ; nor will Ovid’s 
defcription (pallor in ore fedet macies in corpore toto) 
be longer applicable to him. 
To apply the fubjeft of the management of the mind 
more clofely to indigeftion, our prefent fubjeft. The 
proper exertion of the mind is perhaps too little attended 
to by dyfpeptics ; yet it is of much importance ; for men¬ 
tal anxiety is no unfrequent fource of the complaint in 
queftion, and is always an aggravation of it. Fortunately 
many of the exercifes which are good for the body aft 
favourably on the mind alfo ; as for inftance, the lefs-la- 
borious employments of horticulture and hufbandry; the 
driving of a gig, riding on horfeback, See. Occafional 
occupations in certain games, in which fome degree of 
corporeal exercife is combined with the employment of 
the mental faculties, as billiards and the like, are fervice- 
able. We lhould principally feleft fuch amufements as 
at the fame time do not engage the feelings too deeply. 
The glow which poetry infufes over the foul may be fafely 
indulged in by the man of bufinefs, or by thofe who follow 
profeflions in which the reafoning faculties alone are called 
into play. But fuch indulgence is perhaps unfavourable 
to the poet himfelf. We may admit for the occafion the 
fable of old, (fee the article Music, vol. xvi.) and try 
the delicious influence of fw'eet founds over the morbid 
feelings of the patients in queftion. Some, on the other 
hand, require the avocations of bufinefs, which lhould 
be diverted however of the anxiety ufually attendant. 
The variety of men’s minds requires however the contem¬ 
plation of objefts of different kinds, though the grand 
rule is, in refpeft to the mind as in the body, to exercife 
without fatiguing it. But we may be fpared entering 
into any thing more than hints, as the fubjeft requires 
particular application rather than general rules. 
The fecond caufe of derangement of the gaftric func¬ 
tion, viz. by diftention of the mufcular fibre, is next to 
be confidered. We purpofely omit at prefent the diften¬ 
tion produced by chemical change arifing from a want of 
nervous power or of fecretion. It remains, therefore, 
to confider diftention only as far as regards the too-great 
quantity, or the gazeous or fwelling quality, of the ali¬ 
ment received. 
The mod common caufe of diftention of the ftomach is 
eating too fall; for, the appetite only fubfiding in pro¬ 
portion as the food combines with and neutralizes the 
gaftric fluid, this praftice inevitably tends to induce per- 
fons to eat more than is requifite or natural; and, as the 
gaftric fluid is but flowly'fecreted, the major part of the 
food remains in a place favourable, on account of its tem¬ 
perature, to chemical change without being fubmitted to 
the counterafting influence of the gaftric fluid : whereas, 
when we eat flowly, fo that a proper time is given for the 
combination to take place, the appetite abates before the 
ftomach is overcharged : for, while digeftion goes on, 
and the gaftric fluid is only fupplied in proportion as frelh 
food comes in contaft with the coats of the ftomach, it 
combines with the food as it is formed, and never excites 
the 
