the case, that shoemakers and other artizans whose calling compels them to a constancy of this posture, become, from this source alone, often obnoxious to protracted and sometimes very serious disease of the digestive organs. One writer on the stomach, devotes a section of his book to the consideration of ailments proceeding from the circumstance now referred to.

Exercise, like temperature, may be the cause of indigestion, as it is, when duly and timely employed, an aid of the digestive process. Habit possesses a considerable power in regulating this particular; but there are scarcely any círcumstances or situations in life which exempt individuals from the probability of being injured by making violent exertions either of body or mind, immediately upon indulging in a very ample meal.

Hard study is highly unfriendly to the digestive functions: many are the instances of ardour in pursuit of academical honours causing extensive and, occasionally, permanent derangement in the chylopoietic functions. Indeed, deep thought and facile digestion require for their coincidence, that the individual should possess a hardiness of constitution, which we do not often meet with in those whose feelings incline them to intellectual occupation.

The continued use of spirituous liquors is, of all sources of stomach ailment, the most formidable and frequent; and their mischievous effects, acting both immediately upon the organs of digestion, and more indirectly upon the sentient system, are such as to lead soon from mere functional into structural derangement; to break down the texture of the secreting membranes that are connected with the assimilating process, and to produce, at the same time, that general paralysis of sentient and muscular power which occasions the topical injury to be more destructive; and which thus complicates indigestion in the worst possible way.

Narcotics employed too freely, have, for the most part, a baneful influence over the digestive organization; and these substances seem especially to affect the stomach's energies by engendering torpor in the nervous system. The opium-eater is usually a dyspeptic as well as a hypochondriac; and the employment of the herb tobacco in any way, if it be carried to excess, must be viewed, we conceive, as unfriendly to the digestive powers.

Provocatives of the stomach are promoters of indigestion. The axiom, expellas furcâ, &c. ought ever to be recollected by those persons who are in the practice of spurring on the jaded energies of the assimilating organs by spices, or even by bitters; which last, in their reiterated and undue employment, have got the discredit of fostering a tendency in the habit towards apo

plectic and paralytic affection. And they may possibly have this tendency; but we should rather suppose that paralytic disorders, if they do occur as a consequence of a protracted course of bitters, take place in a more indirect manner; and, that the undue excitation which these medicinals give to the stomach, thus causing it to receive more than it can with facility digest, is the principle upon which their deleterious agencies are mainly displayed.

In a word, every thing that is out of nature, (nature, we mean, modified by the circumstances of society,) is out of safety; and all excitation, physical, mental, or moral, ought to be carefully kept in due bounds, as we value our stomach's regularity of function, and our consequent freedom from the numerous evils with which indigestion is pregnant.

We are now, then, brought to the last division of our inquiry, viz. What is the best mode of prevention and cure?—The first clause of the inquiry would seem, indeed, to meet with a prompt reply, by an appeal to the contraria in contrariis principle. If we know the causes of the evil, we also know that, by avoiding these causes, we may prevent the evil's occurrence, But a little of detail will, perhaps, be demanded from us, and to this we therefore now proceed. And here, in the first instance, we may reiterate the important rules of Drs. Philip and Johnson, in the words which these writers employ.

To eat moderately and slowly,' says Dr. P., is often found of greater consequence than any other rule of diet. The dyspeptic in eating should carefully attend to the first feeling of satiety. There is a moment when the relish given by the appetite ceases: a single mouthful taken after this, oppresses a weak stomach. If he eats slowly, and attends carefully to this feeling, he will never overload the stomach.'

And says Dr. Johnson in a very emphatic and impressive

manner.

• As, of all the physical causes of indigestion, our diet is the chief, so, over this cause, we fortunately have the greatest control. But sensuality and conviviality are perpetually seducing us from the paths of temperance, and seldom permit us to think of preserving health till we have lost it. It is quite needless to describe the kinds and the quantities of food and drink, that are injurious. The moment we call forth conscious sensation in the stomach, whether that be of a pleasurable or a painful kind, we offer a violence to that organ, however slight may be the degree. Whenever the conscious sensibility of the stomach (or, indeed, of any other internal organ) is excited by any thing we introduce into it-by any thing generated in it-or by influence exercised on it through the medium of any other organ, we rouse one of nature's sentinels, who gives us warning that her

any

salutary laws are violated, or on the point of being violated. Let us view the matter closer. We take an abstemious meal of plain food, without any stimulating drink. Is there any conscious sensation pro duced thereby in the stomach?-I say no. We feel a slight degree of pleasant sensation throughout the whole frame, especially if we have fasted for some time previously, but no distinct sensation in the stomach. There is not'-(we have before quoted this important sentence) there ought not to be, any conscious sensibility excited in this organ by the presence of food or drink in a state of health; so true is the observation, that to feel that we have a stomach at all, is no good sign.'

With these remarks then, in conjunction with the intimations in respect of the quantity of food which were given in in the second of this series of papers, we might at once conclude the topic; but we think it right, before finally dismis ing it, to state, that somewhat of caution is necessary in respect to the management of an infant's stomach, inasmuch as the point of satiety with the child is not so easily detected. In many, many instances is the nurse guilty of giving more and more food, in order to quell and quiet those irritations and uneasy feelings which are indices, not of more food being required, but of too much having already been administered. Happily, this practice of repleting the infant's stomach till there is scarcely a possibility of pouring down more, is much upon the decline; and of all the improvements which have recently taken place in the management of childhood, these two, perhaps, are the most valuable; that food is more moderately given, and fresh air more liberally supplied.

That pure air is necessary for the dyspeptic, both young and old, every thing loudly proclaims. There are, however, those who question the salubrity of any change, as far as the mere change of air is concerned; and they ground this scepticism on the fact, that eudiometrical investigation proves the atmosphere to be compounded of the same ingredients, with the most trifling variations, from whatever part of the globe the experimenter takes it. It is, however, questionable, whether chemical observation is equal to the detection of physical, or rather medical agency, in reference to the purity of the air. Certain we feel, that a something of effect is, in many cases, connected with change in the atmosphere, which is by no means made sensible by any eudiometrical test. Mere change, indeed, sometimes operates wonders, even when the transition shall have been from a more to a less healthy part; although some of the influence, we are aware, must often be deducted from this account, and placed to the score of mental and moral circumstance. But, that country air, which, although it may be VOL. XXVII. N.S. 2 M

chemically the same as that of a large manufacturing and populous town, is actually different, inasmuch as it is not loaded with foreign vapours, must, we imagine, be conceded by all. Dryness is a quality of air, moreover, which the dyspeptic should sedulously seek after. No one but he who may have actually observed it in others, or experienced it in his own person, would believe the vast difference on stomach energies that will be operated by the atmosphere, as it may be laden with aqueous vapour or free from humidity;-and the slightest change in locality will frequently prove, in this respect, of serious consequence. Many are the individuals who constantly find themselves aguish, and vapourish, and dyspeptic, and debilitated, while residing in Westminster; and comparatively, indeed conspicuously, free from these drawbacks on comfort and enjoyment, when they shall have removed to the north or north-west parts of the town. This is so decidedly the case, that we have often been surprised at the selection of Milbank as the spot on which to erect the Penitentiary; and we feel certain that a great deal of the sickness which some time since was so prevalent in that institution as to excite public attention and parliamentary inquiry, was referrible to the malaria of the place not duly counteracted by physical and moral excitants.

Exercise, as well as fresh air, is a cardinal circumstance for the dyspeptic invalid. The best time for taking exercise is between breakfast and dinner. Dr. Paris cautions his valetudinarian readers against taking their principal meal in a state of fatigue. The invalid merchant,' he says, the banker, the attorney, the government clerk, are all impressed with the belief, that, after the sedentary occupation of the day, to walk 'several miles to their villas, or to fatigue themselves with exercise before their dinner, or rather early supper, will sharpen their tardy stomach, and invigorate their feeble organs of digestion. The consequence,' he adds, is obvious: instead of curing, such a practice is calculated to perpetuate, and even aggravate the malady under which they may suffer, by calling upon the powers of digestion at a period when the body is in a state of exhaustion from fatigue.' And exercise soon after the meal, Dr. Wilson Philip objects to, on the principle, that an agitation of the stomach at this time mixes the new with the old food, and is the occasion, moreover, of preseuting some portion of the digested aliment again to the surface of the stomach, and consequently preventing a corresponding portion of undigested food from approaching it in due time.'

Whatever be the explanation of the matter, certain it is, that

much exercise immediately after a large meal, is unfavourable to the digestive process; and although, as we have above intimated, and as, indeed, is commonly known, habit takes the place of nature, where the energies of the frame are unimpaired; we do not believe that the infirm and dyspeptic could ever be brought with impunity to exercise either mind or body immediately upon having filled the stomach. Proverbial axioms in these matters are usually founded in truth; and the direction of sitting awhile after dinner, and walking a mile after supper, only requires the qualification, that the night air is not so salubrious in which to take the exercise as before the setting of the sun. It may be observed,' says Dr. Philip, that the ' effects experienced from the night air by dyspeptics, are similar to those produced on them by a damp air from other 'causes.'

But how, will the dyspeptic say, am I to manage myself in reference to morning rides or walks? Am I to comply with the orders of Mr. Abernethy, who directs me to rise when my powers have been refreshed by sleep, and actively exercise myself in the open air till I feel a slight degree of fatigue?' Or am I to be guided by Dr. Paris, who forbids walking before breakfast, as a debilitating, rather than an invigorating process? Neither in this, we would reply, nor in any other part of dietetic regimen, can any laws be laid down of a universal nature; but we are disposed generally to think, that the before breakfast exercise should be deferred till the stomach energies and bodily strength are somewhat recovered from their impaired state. The practice of pushing exertion at this time under the promise of its eventually proving salutary, is occa sionally (and of this we have reason to be convinced) attended with mischievous consequences.

We are not, indeed, by any means satisfied as to the beneficial effect of an unqualified use of the gymnastics which are now becoming fashionable. We say, an unqualified use, since it is right that these, as well as all other exercises, be kept under that degree which would call forth unequal exertions of parts of the body beyond the general power of the individual, and thus lay the foundation for functional, if not structural affections of important organs, which shall continue to inconvenience and harass the subject of them during the whole of life. We were struck, some little time since, with the statement of an eminent physician in a public lecture, who told his hearers, that he had seen a fine youth, who was educated in Germany, and who, eager to excel his companions in athletic exercises, had brought on a palpitation of the heart of