'VV mi^W- f-. '].,) i-"i.-4 ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges of Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University Gift from the CLIVE M. McCAY LIBRARY OF Nutrition and Gerontology 'library ANNEX 2 The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003495078 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS DIO LEWIS, A.M., M.D., PBESIDENT OF THE " NOBMAL INSTITUTE FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION," AUTHOR OF ^'KEW GYMNASTICS FOB MEN, TVOMEN, AND CHILDREN," "WEAK LVNGS, ' AND UOW TO MAKE THEU STRONG," ETC. , Without health we can enjoy no/orttme, honors, or riches, and all other advantages are useless,'* — HrPPOCRATES. BOSTON: FffiLDS, OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 1870. 374316 Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1870, By Dio Lewis, in the OfQce of the Librarian of Congres^ at Washington, To M.Y Mother, 3E lltlJicats BDfjis fflSao-tft. SHE OATB MB A PEBDISPOSIXION TO DYSPEPSIA-, BUT WITH IT THE CONTKOL OE MT APPETITES ; SO THAT I THINK THE INHERITED WEAK- NESS HAS PROVED A MORAIi ADVANTAOE. NOT ONE OF MY READ- ERS WILL MORE FULLY APPEEOIATB EVERY THOUGHT, AND HOT ONE WILL VOUCHSAFE A MORE HEARTY BLESSING TO EVERY GOOD INTENTION. THE VISION OF HER BENIGNANT FACE AWAY THKRB IN THE OLD HOME, AND THE THOUGHT THAT SHE CON- STANTLY MUSES OF HER ABSENT SON, AWAKENS MY BEST IMPULSES. 5t0 merit anS enjog Ijzx kfainit approbal, IS my richest reward. The Author. CONTENTS, Faqe Introduction 9 Old Sister Smith 13 Health the Best Wealth 18 Mysterious Providence 20 An Illustrative Anecdote 23 A Bad Lot 25 The Animal and Vegetable Compared 28 Prevention of Disease 30 Hippocrates' Modes of Preventing Disease .". . . 32 Galen 35 The Digestive Organs 39 Sense of Taste 49 The Teeth 60 Why do Our Teeth Decay? 52 Mastication 59 Only One Stomach 60 How We Digest 61 Different Theories of Digestion 63 True Theory of Digestion 64 Our Ignorance of me Vital Force 64 Another Famous Doctor 67 Local Diseases 70 Sympathy between the Stomach and Other Parts of the System 72 Influence of Dyspepsia on the Mind 73 The Consumptive Patient 74 A Sick Brain the Cause of Dyspepsia 76 Dr. Abernethy. . , : 79 Abernethy's " Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Lo- cal Diseases " ' 80 Dr. Abernethy at St. Bartholomew's 81 VI CONTENTS. Page Cases from Abernethy's Practice 86 Injuries of tlie Head Aggravated by Bad Digestion 88 Indurations, Abscesses and Sores 90 Wounds in tlie Crimean War 92 Food — Wlieat, Superfine Flour, Recipe for Good Bread, Rye, Indian Corn, Barley, Oats, Rice, Beans and Peas, Potatoes, Turnips, Carrots, Squaslies, Parsnips, etc. Animal Food 96-103 Phosphorus a Source of Life 104: Phosphorus in the Human Brain 106 Foods Rich in Phosphorus 106 The Food of the Ancients 107 Management of our Diet during Warm Weather 110 Strange Variety of Food Ill Economy in Food 112 A Little Story about Table Economy 120 Story of Another Kind 124 The Stoi-y of Young Samuel 126 One Meal a Day 130 The Law of Digestion 132 Adulterations of Food — Tea, Coffee, Cocoa and Choco- late, Butter, Lard, Honey, Sugar, Pepper, Mustard and Cayenne, Horse-radish, Confectionery, Vinegar, Pickles, Preserved Fruits, Meats and Fish, Pickled Cabbage, Wines and Liquors, Milk 184^146 Condiments 147 Tomatoes 147 Acids in Digestion 152 Pastry 154 Water 156 Lead Pipes 160 Drinks 102 Intoxicating Drinks 163 Cold Drinks During Meals 164 Minerfil Waters 166 What Shall We Drink? 168 Human Starvation 174 Starvation as a Cure for Dyspepsia 178 Cookery 180 Biddy O'Flannigan as a Cook 184 Corsets and Digestion 189 Weight in the Stomach , 192 Excesses in Eating 194 How Much Shall I Eat ? 200 Lai-ge Eaters 205 CONTENTS. VU Pagb The Squire's Indigestion 208 Abernethy's Recipe for Indigestion 209 Complaints of the Stomach 211 Hard Struggle 213 Sunshine and Health 216 Light and Digestion 226 Regularity in Eating 229 Reci-eation and Digestion 237 Sleep and Digestion ' 239 What Causes the Peeling of Hunger 241 Morning and Evening Water-Drinking 244 Heart-Burn ". 245 Treatment of Heart-Burn i». . 246 Colds . . .' 248 Old Age and Good Health 251 Division of Time, Sleep, etc 252 The School at Lexington 253 Health Rules in the Lexington School 266 Important to Pale Yankee Girls 256 Noises in the Bowels 258 Constipation 261 Biliousness ^ 262 Cornaro's Testimony 265 Weakness of the Stomach a Protection against other Mal- adies 270 Chinese Doctors 271 The Science of Life 273 Earnestness of Reformers 274 The Health Movement 276 Importance of Study in Health Matters 276 A " Short Life and a Merry One " 277 A Long Life and a Merry One 279 Curious Treatment of Dyspepsia 281 Exercise before Breakfast 284 How to Manage Fat People 288 How to Manage Thin People 293 Tobacco and me Stomach ; 296 Excuses for Using Tobacco 297 How Tobacco Hurts Man 302 Suggestion to Dyspeptics 316 Spirometer 317 Pangymnastikon 318 Normal Institute for Physical Training 319 Other Works by Dio Lewis' • 320 INTEODUCTION. Sitting one evening, near a reservoir, on the brow of a hill, overlooking a European city, my companion, stn eminent physician, told me this story : — "About twenty years ago I was called early one morning, to visit, in great haste, a family, at whose house I had spent the previous evening. The mes- senger exclaimed, ' Oh ! Doctor, come as quick as possible ; they are all vomiting themselves to death.' "I jumped into my clothes, seized my stomach pump and ran. The doctors were flying in all di- rections. We cried out to each other, 'poison ! jpoison,!' and rushed on. I assure you, sir, the town was given up to the wildest excitement I IXTKODUCTION. have ever v^ritnessed. All suffered with the same symptoms, — vomiting, retching, thirst, and burning pain. "At ten o'clock the Mayor called a few^ of us together for a moment's consultation. " I ha^ the honor to suggest that the poison must be in the water. " We ran up here, and right there in the corner, just under that tree, we caught a glimpse of. a large paper package, and rushing into the water, we hauled out more than ten pounds of the dead- ly poison, still undissolved." The Stomach is the reservoir from which every part of the body receives its stipplies, and most of its diseases. » Let us look out at this window. Do you see that man with a red nose? That is produced by a poison which comes from his res- ervoir. Notice, that lady with the ugly eruption. The poison which produces that comes from her stom- ach, or reservoir. There, that fine looking gentleman with a bad INTRODUCTION. limp, has a big toe, which is too big. I know him well. He insists that the moon is responsible for his gout, as his bad attacks come on at the full of the moon. Well, I tell him, that the reservoir from* which the poison, in his toe, comes, is some- what like the moon in -shape, and so he may not be so wide of the truth after all. But look at that fellow ! Did you ever see such a doleful face ? That man has the blues fearfully ; he wishes himself dead a hundred times a day. You see, his brain must receive its supplies from his stomach. But his stomach or reservoir furnishes, not sweet, healthy chyme, but acids and poisonous gases. . Of course his brain gets poison instead of food. His face, tells the whole story. If we were to stand here and see a hundred people pass, we should be able to determine the condition of their reservoirs. Ah ! there's a good one ! What a fine skin ! What a bright eye ! What an elastic step ! That young woman's reservoir is sending to her system nourishment, and not poison. It is the aim of this work to show the simple INTRODUCTION. and natural means by which the stomach, or reser- voir, may be kept in a sweet and healthy condi- tion. It is well known, that I have been busy with phys- iological and hygienic themes, for many years, and yet I do not think that the well-read student will find, in this work, much that is original. I have tried, rather, to present familiar thoughts, in a simple and attractive dress. An author's ambition may have played a part in my earlier writings, but I believe I can now say, with sincerity, that in this little work, and in three others, which will quickly follow it, I simply try to make myself useful. Conscious of possessing important facts and ideas, which may serve my countrymen, I send out these books at the mere cost of their production, and with the hope that they may meet the welcome, which so many have given to my previous works OLD SISTER SMITH I remember just how old sister Smith looked when she made that famous appeal. It was at the Friday- evening prayer-meeting. She said : — " Brethren, I can't keep silent no longer. I would speak if I knew 'twould kill me. I am a poor widow without a cent. I haint got long to stay in this world, and I don't care how soon my time comes ; but I will speak about these awful drinking habits, even if you all despise me. I know you will all think me heart- less to talk about John's drinking before he is cold in his grave ; but oh, my dear brethren, if you could suffer for an hour what I have suffered for nigh on to thirty years, I know you wouldn't blame me. John didn't want to be a drunkard, but he couldn't go no- where, but it was, 'John, take a drop.'- 'John, won't you have a glass ? ' ' Johnny, come take something with us.' Then when he got to going, he couldn't stop. Brethren, can't something be done? Half the 14 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. men in town are going the same way. If our dear pastor, the deacons in our church, and all the brethren of influence would set their faces agin this awful habit, if they would stop drinking themselves, and not keep it in their houses to offer to others, oh how many poor women and children would rise up and call them blessed Brethren, I hope you will forgive me for speaking so plain, but I couldn't help it." When sister Smith sat down, half the women in the church were sobbing. After a few moments' pause, our venerable pastor rose, and in his most solemn manner, said : — " Our dear sister may rest assured that I feel deeply for her, but it is my duty, as her pastor, to say to her, that because she has been called to walk through the valley of sorrows, because her patth in life has meand- ered on the banks of the cold streams of Babylon, she must not, on that account, fly in the face of Provi- dence. Sperits is one of the good creatures of God, which we are commanded to use as not abusing them. Christ's first miracle was turning water into wine, and Paul exhorted Timothy to ' take a little wine for thy stomach's sake.' " After further remarks, Elder Swan took his seat, the brethren all uttering " Amen " to his closing words, "May the Lord comfort and bless sister Smith." TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 15 Deacon Stone, at whose distillery John got his last drinks, which led to his being killed, rose and said : — " ' He doeth all things well.' " Then Deacon Stone sat down. For twenty years temperance lecturers were less respectable than libertines. Twenty years more, and we have made drinking disgraceful. "Within the next twenty years drunkenness will disappear in the north- ern states, from all classes above the lowest. Let no one lose heart. If he has a good cause, and his field is in the United States, he will win. Gluttony counts a hundred victims where drunken- ness counts one. The movement is inaugurated, and I expect to live long enough to hear no more of " Whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no ques- tions for conscience' sake." I expect to see, within a score of years, as much interest among men in regard to the healthfulness of the food upon which their children live, as they now feel about the diet of their calves and pigs. As soon as they believe that the food which their children consume determines the character of their digestion and their blood, we shall have a. basis for operations. But they don't believe it yet, and so you see little folks munching cake and candy. Public sentiment uttered this edict: Let no man IG TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. speak Ugainst King Alcohol! Forty years pass, and we kick him into the street. The world learns but slowly, even from experience; so now when we de- clare that the present system of food is one full of harm and danger, we are confronted by the old, blind, stupid prejudice. They say " none of your bran-bread and moonshine for me," and sometimes they go so far as to call us ^^ reformers" a word hot with contempt. Here are thousands of pale, listless, indolent, un- happy girls, who might be changed, in a few months, into active, muscular, happy girls, by changing their dietary. Propose it, and you hear, not " take a little wine for' thy stomach's sake," but, "whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no questions for conscience' sake." The reverence for authority among these people is really very touching. They quote the Scriptures with all that religious awe formerly shown in quoting, " Servants obey your masters." We are now ready for this great subject of food. We have long studied it in connection with the breed- ing and training of our domestic animals. Now we are ready for the food of man. Science has taught nothing more distinctly than, that certain foods feed, the fat, and leave the muscles and brain to starve. Thai certain other foods feed the muscles too exclusively, and cerUiin others the brain. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 17 Our present familiarity with the composition of hu- man foods, and their adaptation to our bodies, enables us to supply any deficiencies in our physiological life, with the same certainty which marks the treatment of defective soils, by the agriculturist. This food question is ten-fold more vital than the whiskey question. It begins with the first day of our life, and links itself with the welfare of every human being every day of life. I am not dreaming when I say that the wise solution of the food question will contribute immensely to that elevation of man, which burdens every saintly prayer. I earned a reputation as a successful doctor. A very considerable part of that success came of what may be called the "Nutritive Cure." Thousands of people starve to death. .For example, a large part of food among Americans is composed of white flour, sugar and butter. People who try to live upon such stuff gradually starve to death. These things furnish food for fat and fuel for the lungs, but they fail to feed the brain, nerves, bones and muscles, and so these important parts starve. Not only does the brain become uncertain in its action, but headache and neu- ralgia are common, the muscles become thin and weak, and back of all this, the blood itself becomes so im- perfect and poor that scrofula and other taints are de- veloped. 18 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Health the Best \t^ealth. Nothing discourages the health reformer like the quiet satisfaction with which people live without health. If a woman can eat and sleep, and is able to attend to the ordinary duties of life without pain, she is not only satisfied, but grateful for such a merciful dispen- sation. Let people be satisfied with such poverty in other departments of life ; let a man be satisfied with just enough to buy the food for the hour ; we cry out, " Shiftless, good— for— nothing," and ^et how contemp- tible is money by the side of health ! A man who lives in the midst of the plenty of the new continent is rich, if he possesses health. No matter what may be his surroundings, though he be a millionaire or wear a crown, he is poor indeed, if he be sick. I want to see a noble ambition to grow rich in this true wealth. I want to see men and women very mi- sers of- physical vigor. Look at those two men. They are the ordinary pale, round-shpuldered Americans. To-day they have nothing but their naked hands, and brave hearts. They engage in the struggle for success. One gives up body and soul to making money, the other, a gen- erous part of his life, to laying up this inestimable TALKS ABOUT tEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 19 wealth of health. Ten years elapse ; now we look at them again. The greedy merchant counts his gold by the mil- lion ; but he is twenty years older than when we saw him first. He is thinner ahd paler ; he, is dyspeptic, nervous, anxious, old, thoroughly unhappy. That man has made a wretched failure in life. Every large heart sincerely pities him. Now we look at the other. Erect, broad-chested, muscular, vigorous, healthy, happy, buoyant, victori- ous. We will not trouble ourselves to ask how much money he has collected. We cannot look upon him without feeling that he has achieved u grand triumph. I wish I felt at liberty to mention a few Boston names. It would strikingly illustrate the point under discussion. I could mention the name of a gentleman who resides on the hill near my own home, who has amassed an inimense fortune. His carriage is the finest in the neighborhood, and I notice in many un- usual ways the most lavish waste of money. But I never see that gentleman without pitying him from the bottom of my heart. His face is a picture of despair. Nervous and dyspeptic, life is all a torture to him. I should not be surprised to hear of his committing sui- cide. Half the rich men and women in town belong O to the category of the miserable. They can't digest their dinners. 20 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE S STOMACHS. mysterious Providence. My friend Mr. P., an insurance agent, dropped in an hour ago and urged me to add $20,000 to my life policies. In the course of our conversation he told me, as usual, of the man who had made up his mind to go in for $10,000, but put it off for a week till he should come in town again. In the mean time, of course, the poor man died. " And yet he was the healthiest look- ing man I ever saw," said P., and then he added, "but that, you know, makes no difference ; the health- iest men are just as likely to die as the sickly ones." The common notion that our health and life depend upon a mysterious Providence, is not only mischievous and demoralizing, but it is downright infidelity. That man who stands by, while ignorance and stupidity rule the hour, exclaiming, "What a mysierions Providence/" over a death by croup or fever, or any other maliidy or accident, I pronounce an infidel, and a most mis- chievous one. When a party of thieving, reckless railroad direct- ors devote themselves to watering stock, and hood- winking stockholders, until a weak, worn-out rail gives way, and a train is hurled down a precipice, is . there anything mysterious about it ? TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 21 If a child goes out of a heated drawing-room, with naked arms and legs, in pursuit of its daily supplies of poisoned candies, and then sickens of croup, when that child dies is it a mysterious Providence ? If a man indulge himself until he 'develops gout, and the disease attacks his heart and kills him, is his death a mystery ? If he drink brandy till he dies in delirium tremens, is his death a mystery? I shall never forget a case, which, during my boy- hood, excited wide discussion among our people, and was more than once mentioned in our churches, as an illustration of Providential interference. Two thieves broke into our neighbor's stable and stole two beautiful, -high-bred mares. They rode these splendid creatures more than twenty miles the first hour. At this point they stopped to cut some whips, but on resuming their flight, one of the mares, not relishing the whip, contrived to throw her rider and break his neck. The changes -were rung on all the possible views of Providential interference. Now the fact in the case was this : the young man with the dislocated neck was not half so much of a rascal as his older companion, who got away "just as slick as a button"; but the difficulty with the young man was, he could not stick on. He was a poor rider and he couldn't stick. 22 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. The older companion (a great villain ~i, was a good rider and he could stick. I remember another case which produced an impres- sion. A young scape-grace snatched a piece of mut- ton from a neighbor's table, and tried to swallow it with- out chewing. He was choked to death. The ignorant cried out that he was killed by a mysterious Provi- dence ; but the doctors found upon examination that it was not a mysterious Providence that killed him, but a chunk of mutton. The mutton was bigger than the boy's swallow, and so it choked him. The lesson of the event was, not that " God moves in a mysterious way," etc., but that people must not swallow big chunks of mutton. Perhaps no other error has done so much to destroy respect for God's law, and thus to destroy all true re- ligious sentiment among men, as this blind supersti- tion ! How shall we show respect, reverence and love for God, but by a reverential study of, and obedi- ence to, his laws? But to return to my friend, the insurance agent. He said, as you remember, " but that makes no dif- ference, you know, for the healthiest men are just as likely to die as the sickly ones." For my part, I know nothing of the kind, and should be paralyzed if I be- lieved It, Not another hour would I give to the TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 23 " Health oe Our Bodies," if I believed that life and health depend upon some mysterious Providence. No, indeed, and in fact no one believes this doctrine, when it is sifted to the bottom. In our principal street there are 4000 building^. Some are well built, others are shams, hardly strong enough to stand ; in fact, frequently, they do fall. Now what would you think of a man who should go about saying, "But then, you know, that makes no difference, the strongest buildings are just as likely to fall down as the weakest.' But I will not insult your common sense by arguing this point further. Our health and life are, practically speaking, placed by the Good Father in our hands. A healthy man, with good habits, has a good lease for a long life. Let me select one hundred men, forty years of age, and let me control their habits and occupations, and I will insure their lives thirty years, for a percentage, which would sound ridiculous, in comparison with the present rates. An Illustrative Anecdote. The nature of the common belief, or superstition, and Providential interference, is very aptly illustra- ted in an anecdote, which I saw many years ago. My 24 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. readers have probably seen It, but will not weary with its repetition. It seems that a hard-shell Baptist minister, living somewhere on the frontier of Missouri, was in the habit of saying to his family and to his church, " Friends, you need not take any unusual care about your lives, the moment of your death was "writ' be- fore the foundation of the world, and you cannot alter it. His wife observed, when he left on Saturday, to meet one of his frontier missionary engagements, that he dressed the flint of his rifle with unusual care, put in dry powder, fresh tow, and took every pains to make suro, that the gun would go, in case he should come upon an Indian. It struck her one. day as she saw him in the saddle, with his rifle on his shoulder, that his conduct contra- dicted his teachings, and she said to him — : "My dear, why do you take this rifle with you? If it was ' writ ' before the foundation of the world, .that you were to be killed during this trip by an Indi- an, that rifle won't prevent it ; and if you are not to be killed, of course the rifle is unnecessary ; so why take it with you at all ? " "Yes," he replied, "to be sure, my dear, of course you are all very right, and that is a proper view ; but TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 25 see hqj'e, my dear,. — now, — really, — but then, — you see, my dear, — to be sure, — but then, — suppose I should meet an Indian while I am gone, and his time had come, and I hadn't my rifle with me, what would he do ? Yes, my dear, we must all contribute our part towards the fulfilment M the decrees of Providence." A boy takes to whiskey, tobacco and profanity. No one is silly enough to speak of mysterious Provi- dences., The vilest have too much respect for our Father to connect his revered name with such filth and vice. These are the vices of the boy ; and seeing this, we go to hint, we exhort him to reform, and become a decent, manly man. But if he resist all appeals, and at length his nervous system gives way, and he falls down dead in apoplexy, or paralysis, you will some- times hear people talk of a mysterious Providence, trying to cover up the mean, cowardly vices, which led to the degradation and premature death. In the name of truth, and for the sake of the living, let us cease this hypocrisy and blasphemy over the coffins filled with the victims of vice. Let not the name of the All-Good and All-Pure be associated with such shame. A Bad liOt. A large whiskey distiller in central New York had 26 Tjvlks about people's stomachs. three sons, who assisted their father in his nefarious business. None but God will ever know the misery of which that distillery was the source. The distiller and his sons were among the victims, i The father threw himself into a well in a 'fit of deliri- um tremens. The oldest so^ during an attack, imag- ined his tongue a snake, drew it out, bit it oiF, and bled to death. The next son, while suffering the same horrible phrensy, threw himself into^he well which received his father. The last one of the four, while driving a wagon load of whiskey to his place in the country, pitched off his seat, was run over by the wagon, and killed. I attended the funeral of this one, and while thousands of the poor women and children of the county were thanking God that the last of these wretches was gone, the minister, in a whining, sancti- monious voice, spoke of that strange and mysterious dispensation of Providence, by which the head of this household had been removed from the midst of his labors and loves. Most devoutly do I believe in Christianity. I be- lieve there is nothing else in this world, worth living for ; but I should infinitely prefer to hear at a funeral the bald negations of a soulless Atheism, rather than the hypocritical, cowardly cant and falsehood which I heard at that funeral. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 27 If the surviving friends, in such a case, do not wish the shameless life of the deceased to render Its first genuine service, by being shown up as a warning, then pray let them look to some one beside a minister of Christ, to play a lying farce for them. What is needed, is, that every one should feel his own, individual, personal responsibility to God for his physical, intellectual, social, moral and religious con- duet. ' If a man believes that everything, comes of accident, or out of mystery, — that, for example, sickness and premature death come of a mysterious Providence, his manhopd is emasculated, and he becomes the crea- ture of a weak superstition. Let us never give up the blessed faith that we have a Father in heaven, who" loves us, and is ever ready to listen to our gratitude and petitions. Without this precious faith the world is a dark wUdernsss, with no ray of light, with no friend, with no hope. But let us realize if we thrust our hands in the fire. It will burn, or if we transgress any other law, physical or moral, we must suiFer the penalty. Let us never Im- pute to the Great All-Wise a foolish inconsistency with Himself. 28 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. The Animal and Tegretable Compared. If we compare an animal with a vegetable, one of the first diiferences which will strike us is that the vegetable stays in one place, while the animal moves about ; the vegetable is always at home, while the ani- mal has just stepped out and won't be home until near dark. This distinction is not universal, but it is a common distinction, and one of the most salient points of difference. The tree in your door-yard has stood exactly in that place ever since you can remember ; it has never released its firm hold upon the earth at that particular spot, while the cow goes every morning to the pasture, wanders about all day, and returns in the evening. As the mouths of the vegetable are always in con- tact with its food, it needs no stomach to hold a quan- tity of nutriment ; but the animal, which must be sep- arated, for considerable periods, from its supplies, has a sack to carry along"a quantity. A man does not go to mill after flour for each meal, but he brings home a large sack, upon his back, which may last him a month. So we all carry a sack, not upon our backs, but within the body, in which we bear about a quantity of food ; and in this way we get time for something besides eating. What helpless TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 29 creatures we should be if we were compelled to lie dotvn in one place, and keep our mouths in our food, sucking away constantly, like a vegetable ! In some animals that have but very indifferent means of defence, an enormous stomach is provided, which theynfill with rapidity, swallowing the food without chewing, and then, seeking a safe retreat, they delib- erately raise the food from the stomach, in small masses, and chew it thoroughly. This is a most interesting illustration of our Fath- er's Ipving protection. How could the gentle sheep exist, in a state of nature, surrounded by carnivorous animals, but for this wonderful provision. Where food is in abundance, it can fill its great stomach in a few minutes, and then hurrying away to. some seclud- ed spot, it conceals itself, and quietly raising the food wmch it swallowed without mastication, one small mass after another, it proceeds to grind it withorut fear, and with great enjoyment. He who can study the digestive apparatus of a sheep and conclude that its wond«rful provisions came of chance, is a/ool. The digestive mechanism of a chicken is another wonderful instance of Divine wisdom and benevolence. The study of such manifestations of God's care of his creatures awakens the dearest and truest religious passion. 30 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Prevention of Disease. Probably the prevention of maladies was scarcely thought of until about the time of Hippocrates, though the Egyptians attempted it by emetics, cathar- > tics, and frequent fasting. We are told that the*"ea- son for all this, was : " The greatest part of the ali- ment we take in, is superfluous, which superfluity is the cause of all our distempers." It would seem that the first attempts made to pre- vent any untoward results in regard to health ■ and longevity, is that in which we are told, that King Da- vid's servants, when he was old and stricken in years, placed a healthy young i-irgin to lie in his bosom. It is perhaps impossible now, to determine who first recommended temperance and exercise as preventives of sickness, and sources of health. After Pythago- rus, Iccus, a physician of Tarentum, urged tempe- rance and exercise. His own sobriety was so remark- able, that " The repast of Iccus " was, for, a long time, a proverbial phrase. * Herodicus has been generally regarded as the in- ventor of this means of preserving health. It is a curious fact that Plato censures him for thus keeping people of crazy constitutions ^ive to old age. Whereas Plato thought, that if a sick person did not TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE S STOMACHS. 31 soon recover strength, he had better die, a:^ be out of the way. Plato believed that an infirm constitution was an obstacle to virtue, " because such persons think of nothing but their own wretched carcasses," for which reason he contended that 2Esculaplus should not undertake . to patch up persons habitually com- plaining, lest they should beget children as useless as themselves, being persuaded that it was an injury both to the community and to the infirm person himself, that he should continue in the world, even though he were richer than Midas. So Herodotus relates that when any man fell sick among ce»tain tribes, his next neighbor killed him directly, lest he should lose his flesh, and thus his body become unfit for food. So when any one of these people found himself indisposed, he withdrew privately into some distant place, with no one to take care of him. Ah, these were the golden days of which the poets dream ! , Hippocrates. Hippocrates made more important contributions to the advancement of medical science than any other man in the history of our race. This remarkable man was born in Cos, an island in the Archipelago, about 858, B. C. He was a nobleman and a man of strict virtue and piety. His instructions seem to us now simple enough, but for the perio(^ in which he lived, they were little short of miracles. 32 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Hippocrates' Modes of Preventing; Disease. The following constitutes the more salient features of his instructions upon the prevention of disease. I can only quote occasional paragraphs, but wish thaJt I might add many pages. He says : " In the winter, to resist the cold, let your food be dry and warming. In the spring, when the weather grows milder, the diet should be accom- modated to the season, and should be somewhat cooler and lighter. In summer, when the season becomes hot and dry, the food should be cool and the drink diluting. But after the autumnal equinox, your ali- ment should again be of a warming nature, and your clpthes thicker by degrees as you approach the winter. " It is of great moment to a man's health whether his common bread be white or brown, well or ill baked. " It is very injurious to health to take in more food than the, constitution wUl bear, when, at the sanje time, one uses no exercise to carry off this excess. "A variety of foods, discordant in their nature, should not be indulged at one meal, because they make a disturbance and create wind in the'bowels. " If they who have been accustomed to one meal a day should .chance to eat two, they soon grow dull, heavy and thirsty. taIjKS about people s stomachs. 33 " Excess In drinking is not quite so bad, as excess in .eating. "When the body is impure or loafled with bad humors, the more you nourish it, the more you hurt it. " Mutton is good food for the delicate, and for the robust. " Milk IS hurtful to those whose bowels are subject to flatulency, or grumbling, and to those who complain of thirst, but good for the consumptive and emaciated, if they are free from fever and the above-named de- rangement of the digestive apparatus. " The healthy and strong may drink such water as comes in their way indiscriminately, but they who drink water for the recovery of health, must be care- ful in the choice they. make. The lightest, purest and softest waters are most fit for those who are apt to be costive, whereas the hardest waters do most service to those whose bowels are moist and phlegmatic. Hot temperaments receive benefit from drinking water. Water drinkers generally have keen appetites." After Hippocrates no other great light arose in medicine for several hundred years, though Polybus, a son-in-law of Hippocrates, Dioclese Carysteus, who lived near the coast of Greece, and Celsus, who lived in Tiberius' time, made some important contributions to the preservation of health. Plutarch, though not 34 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. a physician, composed an elegant dialogue on the pres- ervation of health. Agathinus, who was a contempo- rary with Plutarch, practised physic at Rome, and is mentioned in several places by Galen. I think it will excite surprise that Agathinus wrote the following words : — " Those who desire to pass through this, transitory life with healtlJJ should bathe themselves frequently in cold water. I can scarce find words to express the benefit which people receive from this practice, and even in extreme old age, cold bathing to such as have been habituated to it, will render the body firm and the countenance lively, will strengthen the appetite, and assist concoctions." Galen, the most voluminous of medical authors, wrote much upon the subject of preventing disease by temperance, but, as may be supposed, when it is stated that he wrote between seven and eight hundred works, great and small, his writings were very diffuse. Hufeland and other German writers,, Broussais and other French authors, but more than any of them, the great' Abernethy of England, have, among modern physicians, contributed to the dissemination of temper- ance in all things as a soTU-ce of health and long life. England has given us a thousand volumes upon temperance as a condition of health and longevity. TAIiKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 35 Cralen. Galen was born in lesser Asia, about the year A. D. 131. He lived, by the practice of great temperance, until he was one hundred and forty years old, and was one of the most voluminous authors the world has ever seen. He says : — " I was born with an infirm constitution, and was afflicted in my youth with many and severe illnesses ; but since I arrived at the twenty-eighth year of my age and knew that there were sure rules for preserv- ing the health, I have observed theift so carefully, that I have labored under no distemper since that time, except nOw and then a fever for one day, which my fatigue in attending the sick brought upon me. A man, whose body is clear from every noxious humor that can hurt it, is in no danger of contracting any ill- ness, except from external violence or infection ; and why may not proper care be taken to keep the body clear from all such noxious humors ? " Galen discussed what he called four articles, with regard to the preservation of health : — 1st. Infancy. 2nd. • Old age. 3rd. DiiFerence of temperament, and 4th. The care necessary to be taken by those per- sons whose time Is not in their own power. 36 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOilACHS. 1st. Infancy. Naw born children should be fed with their mothers' milk only. Nurses should give them exercise in the cradle and in their rooms, and should be very watchful about the causes of their crying. They should be fed with milk until their front teeth are cut, then add bread and other forms of aliment. The mother should take great care about her diet, ex- ercise and sleep, so that her milk may be good. 2nd. Old age. Eubbing with the flesh brush is good for old people. It increases the motion of the blood, excites a gentle heat, and helps to distribute nourishment thrtsughout the body. They should walk and have much gentle exercise, particularly such ex- ercise as they have been accustomed to. Old people should avoid cheese, pork, eels, and everything hard to digest. An old man's own experience must deter- mine whether a milk diet be proper for him or not, since it is surprising to see what diflferent effects it has on diiferent constitutions. 3rd. Of Different Temperaments. Under this head Galen discusses nine temperaments, — the hot, the cold, the moist, the dry, the hot and. moist, the hot and dry, the cool and moist, the cool and dry, and then one which occupies a medium between all ex- tremes, and which he calls the good or healthy tem- perament. He makes many ingenious suggestious in TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 37 regard to the management of diet, exercise, etc., in connection with each of these various temperaments ; but these suggestions are more curious than useful. 4th. Of those whose time is not in their own power. Under this head Galen advises statesmen, students and • others, whose employments compel sedentary and other engrossing habits, to observe the following rules : — 1st. After any extraordinary mental exercise, they should live more abstemiously than usual. He says of himself, that when at any time he was fatigued and spejit with business, he chose the most simple food he could think of. 2nd. That the common diet of such people should be plain and simple, and such as they can easily di- gest. 3rd. He advises that they should set apart some portion of their time for exercise every day, whatever their engagements may be. We cannot give more space to the writings of this remarkable man, though I cannot forego the pleasure of quoting the following words : " I beseech all per- sons, who shall read this treatise, not to degrade them- selves to the level of the brutes or the rabble, by gratifying their sloth, or by eating and drinking pro- miscuously whatever pleases their palates, or by in- 38 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. dulging their appetites of every kind ; but, whether tliey understand physic or not, let them consult their reason and observe what agrees best with them." Is it not an interesting fact that, while the treatment of disease by medical or other artificial means has con- stantly changed, the means extolled to-day being con- demned and ridiculed to-morrow, that the thoughtful physicians of all time have agreed about the natural methods. The most eminent men of every age have agreed, often in minute detail, about the employment of temperance, sleep, cleanliness, sunshine, cheerful- ness, etc., etc., in the prevention and cure of disease. It is a noteworthy fact that the most distinguished men of every age and of every school have, in the riper years of life, declared for the natural methods, and against the artificial drug methods. Many of the most distinguished might be quoted as leaving to the world, at their death, the testimony that the world would be better off if there had never been a doctor, — that, on the whole, doctors had proved a curse. And yet there can be no doubt that, if doctors would practice the natural methods and teach the di- vine laws of health incidental to such methods, they would stand high above all other men in their benefi- cent services to their fellows. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 39 The Digestive Organs. These are the mouth, teeth, salivary glands, pharynx, cBsophagus, stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas, lacieals, and thoracic duct. The alimentary canal extends from the mouth to the anus, and is, in'an average man, about thirty feet long. If the mucous membrane that lines it were spread out, it would be fouiid to be nearly fifteen square feet. The Mouth is an irregular cavity that contains the organs of taste and mastication. o The Salivary Glands are six in number — three pairs, to v^it : the parotid (this is the gland which is swollen in mumps, and lies in front of and below the ear) the sub-maxillary and the sub -lingual, both under the tongue, — all discharge their fluids into the mouth. The Pharynx is that large back space into which we look when the mouth is opened 'wide. The jEsophagus, or meat-pipe, about nine inches in length, is the tube which passes the food down from the pharynx to the stomach. The Stomach is our reservoir for food and drink. Its office is to convert the food into chyme. For ex- ample, a mass of bread comes down into the stomach. Let us watch it. It begins to move about in the stomachy This is accomplished, as described in an- 40 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Other place, by a peculiar motion of the stomach. As this mass of bread is pushed about from one part of ,the stomach to another, we notice that it soon be- gins to undergo a change, and, if we keep our eyes upon it a couple of hours, we shall see it change into a fluid resembling buttermilk. That is chyme. This change constitutes the principal of&ce of the stomach. The Small Intestine. The small intestine is about twenty feet long. It begins at the right' hand end of the stomach, just under the liver, and ends down near the right groin. It is divided'into three parts, — the duodenum,, the jejunum, and the ileum. The Duodenum, the first part, that which is joined to the stomach, is about eight or ten inches long. The Jejunum (from a word which means empty, because it is generally found empty), comes 'next, and is about eight feet long. The Ileum (from a word wfiich signifies to twist) , and so called from its numerous coils, includes the re- maining ten or twelve feet of the small intestine. The Large Intestine. The large intestine extends from the end of the small intestine, near the right trroin, to the end of the bowel or the anus. It is about five feet in length, and has the following course ; First, it mounts directly upward from the place of be- o-inning to the under side of the liver, passes directly TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 41 across to the left side of the abdomen, and* then de- scends into the lower part of the abdominal cavitj', where it takes a sudden turn, known as the Sigmoid riexure, and there becomes the rectum, or straight in- testine, which is the last portion and ends in the anus. Mounting upward, «n the right side of the abdomen, passing across the upper part and then turning down on the left side, the large intestine folds itself around the small *!ntestines, as one's arms might be put around them. The large intestine, as mentioned above, is divided into three parts, — the caecum, the colon, and the rectum. The Ccecum, derived from a word which means blind, is the first part of the large intestine and ex- tends downwards from the point where the small intes- tine enters the large one. It is a large pouch, gen- erally about two and a half inches long and wide. The Colon is all that part of the large intestine which ascends from the cxcum to the upper part of the ab- dominal cavity, runs across the top of the abdomen, and descends on the left side to the pelvis, where it terminates in the rectum. These three divisions of the colon are known as the ascending colon, the trans- verse colon, and the descending colon. The Rectum, the last six or eight inches of the in- testine, is so called from a word which means straight. 42 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. because it Is less flexuous than any other part of the intestinal canal. The" Liver is the largest gland in the body, and is situated in the upper part of the abdominal cavity, im- mediately under the diaphragm, and mostly in the right side. This gland weighs fl^om three to four pounds, and averages from ten to twelve inches lonjj, from right to left, and six or seven inches from front to back, while it is about three inches thick in'its thick- est part, which is at the right end. The liver is held in its position by five strong ligaments, and is in many senses the most important organ of the whole body. It is not difilcult to findsmimals without eyes, without ears, without stomachs, without lungs, without hearts, but it is very difficult to find an animal without a liver. This o rga^_plays a very important part in the econo- my of all animal bodies. It secretes bile, which is important in the process of digestion. In addition to this, it performs a vital service, viz., it gives birth to the blood globules. These little blood disks, or red globules, perform a duty so closely connected with every other process or function in the body, that they may be spoken of as pivotal in the animal economy. These little blood disks are actually born in the liver. At first they are little pale things. The liver feeds and educates them until they are red, ripe, full grqwn TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 43 adults. They perform their important duty, and final- ly, when they reach the period of old age (how soon that is we cannot tell), the liver, which gave birth to them, nursed them and fitted them for duty, now per- forms the ofiice of breaking them down, destroying them and casting tlrem out. They are ejected through the bile, which is poured into the intestine. In the process of manufacturing these blood globules a cer- tain amount of sugar is necessary. This sugar is no^ ( ?) found in the blood, and so this remarkable organ is endowed with the marvelous power of creating su- gar within itself out of materials in the blood, and it then uses the sugar in the pi'ocess of creating blood globules. The Pancreas. The pancreas (sweetbread), from words which signify all flesh, is a little gland six or eight inches long, weighs a few ounces, and lies against the back wall in the upper part of the abdom- inal cavity, directly behind the stomach. The fluid which this gland furnishes looks very much like the saliva, and indeed possesses very much the salhe prop- erties. It is discharged into the first portion of the intestine, where the bile is poured in. The pflSce of this fluid is similar to that of the saliva. It completes ^hat change from starch to sugar which the saliva may have left incomplete, and" wjhiich the fluids of the stomach have no power to accomplish. 44 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. The Mouth The mouth was defined as an irregular cavity which contains the organs of taste and mastica- tion. While the food is in the mouth we have direct control over it ;* but as soon as the food leaves the mouth it passes beyond our« control. It is of no use to say to a man after dinner, digest your food well, for he has no direct control over anything in the ali- mentary canal belosv his throat. But, while the food is in his mouth, it is entirely under his control, and he may contribute more than most people imagme to the completeness of the great digestive function. Now, it happens that the human stomach cannot digest starch, and yet a^^erj large percentage of our food consists of starch. We all know how much starch there is in the potato, in bread, and so in va- rious other articles of food. If, for example, a potato could be introduced into the stomach without passing through the mouth, the stomach would find it most unmanageable. But if it can only remain a few moments in the mouth, and with the^tesistance of the teeth be ground into a paste and thoroughly saturated with the saliva, the starch, of which ^it so largely consists, will vmdergo, through the agency of the saliva, a change which will make the subsequent steps in the digestive process easy.* That change, it will surprise some people who have TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 45 not studied it, to learn is one from starch to su- gar. The saliva contains a reijjarkable ingredient known as ptyaline. The ptyaline comprises about l-200th part of the saliva. This extraordinary agent has tlie magical power of »H8nging the starch of the food into sugar, and thus the potato is completely pre- pared for the subsequent steps in digestion. Whoever has taken a mass of wheat into the mouth has experienced a very pleasing illustration of this change of ftarch into sugar. When the'wheat is first crushed in the, mouth it is sticty and has the starch taste, but almost instantly it becomes sweet. In this brief moment the saliva has ^hanged the starch into sugar. Need anything more be said of the importance of a thorough use of the teeth upon the food ? I used to know a delicate lady, long since dead, whose general health was never the best, and whose stomach was singularly sensitive. She was a thought- ful woman, and accomplished during her brief life a great amount of intellectual labor. If she ate an or- dinary dinqer, say a piece of beef and a slice of bread and a potato, her^tomach within a few minutes would turn sour. She would have constant acid eructations, pain and burning in the stomach, and sometimes sought relief from her suiFerings by putting her finger 4G TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. in her throat to provoke vomiting. But when slie ate the same dinner in a pecuhar way she was never troubled. This way was to .spend three quarters of an hour, or an hour, upon a common dinner. If she ground every particle %f, food, mixing it thoroughly with saliva, she could digest a large dinner without stomach symptoms. What was true, to this unusual extent with Mrs. M., is true in some degree with every one. The fact is, our whole duty, after the selection of the right kind and quantity of food, is to paform the mouth service well. That being done, we may trust the digestive apparatus to attend to every other duty without our supervision. Curious it is that people will bolt their food. Why, a piece of bread half as large as one's hand, ground and thoroughly insalivated, will give more palate pleas- ure than a dinner of the richest fcJod, if it be simply divided by the teeth into masses that will go down, and then helped into the stomach with some drink. Eating without Drinks. I was once stopping in a German city, and one day, when dining at a restaurant, I heard my own language spoken by some one in a neighboring stall. I immediately rose, stepped to the stall and said in English, "Did I not hear some one speaking in the English language ? " " Oh, yes," replied a middle-aged gentleman, " I can speak English." TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 47 Having myself spoken German until I could hardly swallow, it /was a great joy to converse during the din- ner in my own dear mother tongue. At the end of our dinner we made an engagement to meet later in the evening*at a place of apiusement, and before we rose, he said to me in a queer sort of way : — " Have you a thin skin ? " " I don't know as I understand you." " Have you a thin skin ? I mean to say, are you sensitive to criticisms of your country or your coun- trymen ? " " I don't think I am particularly sensitive, if the truth be told." " Well, then, let me tell you, that during my six years' residence in America, I saw nothing which sur- prised me so much as the way in which the Yankees eat and drink. "Why, I really think it is worth an admission fee to stand at the end of a dining room and see a hundred Yankees at the dinner table. Each one has something to eat in one hand and something to drink in the other. When the food hand goes up, the drink hand is down, and when the food hand goes down, the drink hand goes up. It always reminded me of one of those walking beams on a steamboat, — when one end is up the other end is down. Now, sir, I think that is the reason that the American peo- 48 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. pie are such dyspeptics. Why, sir, I believe that In a world's exhibition of dyspeptics your country could show more in number, and stronger in quality, than all the rest of the world." There can be no doubt, as argued in another place, that the design of the Creator is that we should pre- pare our food for the stomach by mastication, grinding it down to a paste and thoroughly saturating it with the juices of the mouth ; and, as digestion is one of the great functions of the animal economy, and as the contribution we make to it in the mouth is the only di- rect voluntary contribution we are permitted to make, nothing would seem to be more important than the proper performance of that duty. As a very large part of our nutriment is starch ; as the human stomach has no power to digest starch, and as the salivary apparatus furnishes a fluid which, in an almost miraculous manner, transforms that starch into sugar, it would seem to be almost unnecessary, to even the most ordinary capacity, to demonstrate the importance of a thorough mastication of the food, and a disuse of all outside liquids during meal time. , TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 49 Sense of Taste. There has been a great deal of very interesting dis- cussion about the precise seat of the sense of taste. Elxperimenters have reached widely diiferent conclu- sions. Some think that the sense of taste is confined to the very back part of the mouth and tongue , and to the overhanging palate ; in other words, to those parts which are seen upon widely opening the mouth, in the very back part. Magendie is of the opinion that the pharynx and even the gums and teeth are endowed with the sense of taste. Valentin' and Wagner believe that the top of the tongue, especially about the middle part and toward the tip, has no sense of taste whatever. . There can be no doubt that the back part of the tongue, where the large papilla are seen, and the parts' immediately surrounding, both at the sides and above, are most highly endowed with the sense of taste, while my own experiments lead me to the conclusion that the edges of the tongue and the tip are susceptible to sour, sweet and bitter substances in a 'moderate and varying degree. Ingenious experimenters have thought that certain portions of the mouth are devoted to bitter, sour, and sweet tastes, respectively. 50 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. The Teeth. At birth, the germs of both sets of teeth, — the tem- porary and the permanent, — are already in the jaw. The permanent teeth lie in a line under the temporary- ones, and, when the permanent ones begin to move forward to make their appearance, they push the milk teeth out. This is the natural order. To secure a good start for the permanent teeth, the fijgt or temporary ones must receive good care, and be kept in their places until the permanent ones push them out. Man has thirty-two teeth. They are of three sorts, — the incisors, canine and molars. The incisors are the front or cutting teeth, four in .each jaw. The canine or eye teeth are two in each jaw. The molar or grinding teeth are ten in each jaw. The back teeth in both jaws are known as loisdom teeth. They are called vnsdom teeth because they ap- pear at a period when man is possessed of the largest and ripest wisdom — or when he thinks so. Good teeth constitute the finest ornament of the face ; they are necessary to good articulation ; they are indispensable to good digestion and sweet breath. On the whole, their importance justifies the adver- TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 5 J tisement of the South Carolina gentleman, who ap- peared in the New York Herald, as follows : — " Wanted, by a planter in South Carolina, a wife. She must be under thirty years of age, must have a good disposition and good teeth." I really don't blame the girls for talking in the streets with their mouths wide open, for, although sometimes they may not speak quite so plain, they do show their teeth to good advantage ; and especially when they give one of those little, short, open-mouth laughs now so common among girls, In which they open the mouth so wide that you can see the entire thirty-two teeth,— I do not blame them, for a mouth- ful of pearls is so very beautiful. I don't care what the nose or eyes may be, If the mouth shows complete rows of the brilliant' gems, that face is a fine one, — ■ a sweet, wholesome one. While no matter how fine the eyes and nose, if the mouth shows decayed and blackened teeth, or artificial ones, that face can't be a fine one, — it is not sweet and wholesome. The better classes of Americans are now exhibiting perfect teeth. Fashion demands it. They keep them clean, which never fails to preserve them. 52 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. "Why do our Teeth Decay ? Now listen to the answers which are given. 1st. " Because we eat sweet things. Do you not remember how the affected teeth ache when sugar comes in contact with them ? " 2nd. " Because we eat sour things, — acids. We use lemon juice, vinegar, and other acids, and they destroy the enamel of the teeth, and then the work of destruction goes on." 3rd. " Because we use very hot and very cold food and drinks. We take into our mouths hot coffee, then ice water, now a scalding pudding, then ice cream. These extremes crack the enamel, and thus begin the work of destruction." 4th. " Because we use saleratus in our food. AVhen saleratus was first introduced into New England, we had perhaps one dentist ; now we have thousands. Don't you see it is the saleratus ? " I have no doubt that each and all of these thino-s is bad for the teeth, but you may indulge in every one of them, and not lose your teeth, if you will keep THEM CLEAN ! Clean teeth don't decay. Look at that man's front teeth ; see how white and clean they are. How long do you think it would take that front flat, white surface to decay if kept as clean as it is TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 53 now? Never, you say. You are right. Now let me ask you another question. How long would it take the surface between the teeth to decay if kept equally clean? I answer for you, it would not decay in a hundred years. I will show you as many white black- birds as you will show me clean white teeth beginning to decay. It is, I think, a physiological impossibility. All there is of this business is simply this : keep your teeth clean and they^ won't decay^ ! How shall they be kept clean? Of course with* a tooth-brush, says sotoe one. Yes, a tooth-brush is a good thing, but one good tooth-pick is worth an arm- full of tooth-brushes. The tooth-brush does well in keeping the flat sides of the teeth clean. But on those flat siirfaces the food does not stick, and so there is but little tendency tto decay. The mouth is a warm place, — nearly a hundred de- grees by the thermometer. It is never so warm in the shade in this climate. And yet in our warmest sum- mer weather a piece of meat begins to decay in twen- ty-four hours. If we eat meat to-day for dinner, the little pieces which find their way between our teeth will, exposed to the heat of the mouth, begin *to de- compose before to-morrow noon. If these particles of food are left between our teeth, and allowed to de- compose, ought we to be surprised that the teeth and 54 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE.? STOMACHS. gums should suffer ? I am rather astonished that they do not take on disease even earlier. Now a tooth-brush will not go between the teeth, (especially the double teeth, where the decay begins the earliest,) and remove those bits of food. Tim tooth-pick is the great preserver of our teeth. The brush helps the teeth to. look white, but the means of preser- vation must be something which goes between the teeth, and removes the particles of food which find thtir way there when we eat. Details. — 1st. On rising from the table use a goose-quill tooth-pick thoroughly, and, if practicable, rinse the mouth, so as to remove such particles as the tooth-pick may have left behind. 2nd. On lying down at night use a tooth-brush, broad and soft, with pulverized, soap and prepared chalk. Do the same thing on rising in the morning. 3rd. As often as you discover any tartar about the necks of your teeth go to a dentist, have the 'tartar carefully and thoroughly removed, and then scour away with your brush and the above dentrifice, which, by the way, the nearest druggist will prepare for you. ParAts see that your children attend to their teeth. How they will mourn over their loss. Ah, what would I not give to restore some wMch I lost before I knew what I am telling you ! TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 55 So complete is the protection afforded by cleanli- ness that a cavity in a tooth if excavated and kept clean will not decay any further. I once knew a yojing' lady whose front teeth were badly decayed. Two or three of them were mere shells. Coming into possession of a fortune, her friends urged attention to teeth as befitting her new surroundings. She had a particular dislike of small points and masses of gold shining out when she spoke or laijtghed. She came to consult me, and I advised the thorough removal of the decayed matter by a dentist, and the use of a syringe with warm water after each meal to keep the cavities clean. It Was more than twenty years ago that this young woman's teeth were excavated by the dentist. She has kept those cavities clean. I cannot gee that in these years the teeth are changed. I never saw gold plugging preserve the teeth so perfectly. I firm- ly believe if the teeth were skinned — deprived of their enamel, and were kept perfectly clean, even the naked bone would not decay. The dentist is a most useful member of society, and should be visited frequently with reference to the pos- sibility of any new points of decay. The Xeefh. Thirty years ago, when I first began to study medi- 56 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. cine, I thought, after three days' study, it was high time I should begin to practice. A girl living in my mother's family was attacked with a severe toothache, and, of course, applied to the new doctor. The doc- tor examined the case very critically, and decided, after the gravest thought, that it was a case of pain in a tooth, and at length came to the conclusion that said tooth must be extracted. In no other way, with all his experience, could he promise to relieve the patient. The maternal head of the household was called in con- sultation, and was rather disposed to favor pulling the tooth instead of extracting it. But the doctor was firm in his conviction, basing his opinion on the results of the thousands of similar oases .which had fallen un- der his observation. The doctor had not at that time ever seen a tooth extracted, and so practiced, on the way from the office, on the end of his thumb with thp hook of the turnkey, so as to learn just how to seize upon the tooth, and thus fully, to prepare himself to meet, with unfaltering courage and coolness, this try- ing emergency in his professional experience. The offending tooth was the one immediately be- hind the eye-tooth. In my trepidation I allowed the hook to touch the eye-tooth as well, and drew them both out, the eye-tooth. being entirely sound. Imme- diately, and without any definite notion of what I was TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 57 doing, I replaced the eye-tooth in its socket. Having recovered from the hand-trembling and excitement in- cident to my acute sympathy with the deceased, or rath* with my suffering patient, I at once saw that it was very important that she should keep her tongue away from this eye-tooth, so I suggested the chances of a gold tooth in the emptied socket, and urged the importance of keeping everything away from that part of her mouth. The eye-tooth stuck in its place and remained, serving faithfully many years. There is a gentleman now living in New York City, who has three beautiful front teeth, which he pur- chased from the mouth of an Irishman. His own de- cayed teeth were removed, and instantly Patrick's were transferred. In the case of two of these teeth the success was complete, and even the third one the gentleman retains, though it is loose and seems to have no vital connection with his jaw. Not unfrequently the teeth of young animals have been quickly transferred from their sockets to the pared comb of a cock, and a nutritive circulation es- tablished. I used to know a young lady who had a decayed front tooth. It was so exceedingly se.nsitive that she thought it impossible to have those sharp-pointed' den- tal instruments thrust into the cavity, and , indeed. 58 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE S STOMACHS. almost went into hysterics upon attempting an excava- tion. At length, she was advised, as the process of destruction was going forward, and she must soon lose the tooth, to be etherized and have the tooth extracted, and instantly returned to its place. Of course we all know now that there was a much simpler plan for des- troying the nervous sensibility, but in this case the ex- traction was accomplished, and the tooth immediately replaced. The circulation was re-established, and in a few weeks the tooth was so firmly fastened in its socket, that it bore the necessary force in plugging, and has remained, a good tooth, for many years. If it were practicable to determine the exact form of the portion ■ enclosed in the socket, by an exam- ination of the protruding part of a tooth, I have little doubt that it might become very common to transfer teeth from one mouth to another. Pre- cious as our teeth are, many persons could be found who, for a consideration, would part with the most beautiful ones. The introduction of rubber instead of gold for plates, for artificial teeth, is a great improvement. A "-ood honest dentist, and I think there are a great many such', will furnish very good substitutes for the natural teeth, if you will give him a commission to spend as much time as he finds necessary in making them. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 59 Mastication. The masticating apparatus occupies a great variety of position in different animals. In some fishes it is in the mouth, in some it is in the pharynx, in others in the oesophagus, and again, in others, in the stom- ach. Birds have no teeth, their gizzards do the grinding. This gizzard has thick, strong walls lined with a very hard membrane. It has the power of crushing the densest substances. In addition, some birds are in the habit of swallowing gravel stones, which assist in gnnding the food. The ostrich swallows pieces of iron, glass, etc., without any subsequent suffering. Needles, lances and other very sharp steel instruments have been introduced into the gizzards of birds, and upon subsequent examination, their sharp edges have been found removed. Cud-chewing animals have broad, flat teeth, which they keep going constantly, to prepare their coarse food for that wonderful change into beef and mutton. See that ox chewing his cud. How comically wide" the grinding movement. It looks as though the jaw were dislocated every time. Now see a dog eating a piece of an ox ! What a funny chopping-knife motion, — no grinding at all. 60 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Only One Stomach. One reason for the marked constitutional disturbance which cornea of stomach-trouble is, that we have only one stomach, and when that fails the whole body must fail. Now one lung may fail and the other go on well. I have known many such cases. A former patient of mine, now residing in Washington, has not taken a breath into his right lung in many years, and yet in an important public position he works better than the av- erage. Of course his body is not vigorous, for his breathing is insufficient, still he is a comfortable, healthy man and is doing good service. The brain is in two halves ; one may retire from ac- tive service and the other go on. We have two legs, two arms, two eyes. We may lose one and not get off the track. But we have only "one stomach, and if that gets off the -track the whole man is knocked into a heap. My old school-fellow, Charlie Brigham, lost his right arm in a woolen mill. The suffering was great, the consciousness that he could no longer follow his trade must have pressed him hard, but he was cheerful and-brave until, lying in bed, he had an attack of in- digestion, and then he became almost wild with grief and despair over the loss of his arm. TAIiKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Gl How 'We Digest. To make the process of digestion simple, let me say that it begins in the mouth and ends in the lungs. A man swallows a mouthful of bread. We follow it from his mouth, down through the oesophagus to his stomach. It now, by a peculiar motion of the mus- cles of the stomach, is moved about in the stomach, and, as it touches here and there, gastric juice starts out, like sweat upon the forehead, and wets the bread. After a couple' of hours of revolving about within ^e stomach, the bread is changed into something which looks like buttermilk. This is chyme. Now, the gate at the right end of the stomach opens and lets this ^chyme pass through into the first part of the intestine. There, two new liquids are poured in, one from the liver, — the bile, — the other from the pancreas, — the pancreatic juice. These induce certain changes in the liquid bread which make it resemble milk. Now it is known as chyle. Innumerable little mouths, which open within the intestine, suck up this milk or chyle, carry it to a small Canal — the thoracic duct — which lies upon the backbone, and through this canal it runs up to the upper part of the chest and, is poured into a large vein just under the left collar" bone. Through this vein it reaches the right side of the heartj- 62 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. and is then forced into the lungs, where it comes in contact with the air. Now a wonderful change comes over it. This is produced by the addition of oxygen to the milk-like fluid. For a given quantity of this chyle a still larger quantity of oxygen is added, and the compound which comes of this union between the bread and the oxygen is the nutriment which supplies the wants of the system. What takes place in the lungs is more important than anything that precedes it, in the process of digestion. For example, a man may live upon fried salt pork, < hot saleratus biscuit and strong green tea (I don't know of a worse dose) , if he live on the western plains and breathe pure air, he will have a purer blood, a finer, healthier skin, and will be freer from humors than another man who lives upon the choicest grains and fruits, but who constantly breathes the air of a close, furnace-heated house. In other words, we may truly say, that, in considering the great function of digestion, the lungs really play a more important part than the stomach itself. It is really vital that the -first and the last step in digestion should be well done. First, chew well, and last, breat/w well. If these two duties are well per- formed,' a substantial contribution will be made to our welfare. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 63 DIFFERENT THEORIES OF DI^^ESTION. Hippocrates thought digestion was a process of stewing, and, for a long time after him, it was regarded as a cooking, effected by the heat of the stomach. Again, among the old physiologists digestion was considered a fermentation. They referred to the gas frequently escaping from the stomach as proof. Next, digestion was believed to be a, putrg/action. Another set of physiologists imagined that trituration accounted for everything. They pointed to the giz- zMl of the fowl. There, said they, you see the pro- cess of digestion in its most perfect form, and in the human stortiach, we find various sets of muscles to churn or triturate the food. The next theory of digestion was the chemical.- This school of physiologists maintained that the juices of the stomach dissolved the food chemically, and that if the stomach juices be pumped out, and mixed with food, precisely the same changes will take place with- out, as within, the stomach. "While this statement is not correct, there is much truth in the chemical theory of digestion. It was the longest stride, yet made, toward the light, In the pursuit of this important phy- siological problem. 64 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. It is perhaps not altogether modest, that we, al- though occupying a higher point in the progress of this investigation, should declare that we know all, but there cannot be a shadow of doubt that the present theory of digestion, is the true aud final one. True Theory of Digestion. Digestion is a vital process,' to which chemical and me- chanical forces contribute. While the motion of the walls. of the stomach, is necessary, to mingle its contents, and while the chem- ical solvency of the gastric juice is indispensable,'' both of these combined, cannot produce the tiiue chyme. That chyme, into which every kind of food is transformed, can be produced nowhere outside of the stomach. In this respect chyme is like other products of the body. We may learn all the constituents of the saliva, or the bile, we can produce neither of them outside of the body. That mysterious force which we call vital, is the force, which determines all.. Chemis- try and mechanics play their part, but the all-deter- mining, guiding and controlling power is the life prin- ciple. Our Ignorance of the Vital Force. Let me illustrate. A few years ago, while deliver- ing a lecture in a neighboring city, and while denoun- TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. iS5 cing that hydra-headed monster, known as patent medi- cines, a manufacturer of a famous blood purifier, inter- rupted me' with several hard questions, spoken in a very loud aiid passionate manner. Famous Doctor. " Do you know what you are talking about, sir?" Lecturee. "Well I confess there are some things about it, which I never could understand." Famous Doctor. "Well, Sir,. I have given forty years to the study, the profoundest study of the human system, and I should like to put a few questions to • .... you, sir, if you have no objection, sir." "CiECTUREE. " Speak on." Famous Doctor . "Willyoutellme what a, fever is ? " Lecturer. "I don't know." Famous Doctor. " Will you tell me what an in- flammation is?" Lecturer. " I don't know." Famous Doctor. "Well, can't you explain the nature of salt rheum? Lecturer. " I cannot." Famous Doctor. " One more question. Will you be kind enough to inform us, whether you can ex- plain the philosophy of any kind of disease, whatevir, — the simplest thing you can think of — say a slight headache ? " 66 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Lecturer. "I have to confess, that I cannot?" Famous Doctor. " Well, that's all I want to know ; and now I will take my family and go home ; and I advise my friends and neighbors to go home too, and read the story of the babes in the woods ; they will find that a good deal more scientific and instructive than this lecture." That world-renowned manufacturer of a medicine, "which by cleansing the blood of all impurities, eradi- cates every vestige of disease from the entire organ- ism," grandly rose and bolted. I went on to make a clean breast of it, to such as chose to remain, for a very considerable number bolted with the manufacturer. Lecturer. "Friends, the doctor did not half sound the depths of my ignorance. I not only, do not understand the nature or philosophy of any disease whatever, but I really know nothing of the nature of the vital principle, in its simple or natural manifesta- tions, saying nothing of it, when it is complicated by disease. But worse than this, I know nothing of the philosophy of health or disease in -a Hade of grass, even, nor in one little cell in that little blade of grass. In truth, I must confess, for myself, that I have al- ways been sitting before the curtain. Never have I been permitted a single peep behind it into that secret TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 67 green-room where nature manipulates the ropes, wires, and springs which she employs in producing the great drama of life. I think this strange, arrogant determination to know all, in physiology, has proved a fatal obstacle to pro- gress in thase studies. He who will humbly sit at the feet of nature, may learn all that is important he should know. The Good leather has hidden nothing beyond our finding, which is essential to our welfare and happiness. But life, which is probably identical with God, Him- self, is not for our mortal ken. "We return to the subject under discussion. "While no mortal will ever comprehend the vilal force, while the philosophy of digestion must, in its essence, remain among the hidden things, all that need be known about the conditions on which this great, pivotal func- tion of our earthly life may be maintained at its highest, is quite within reach of the earnest inquirer. Another Famous Doctor. This great " blood pwifier " reminds me of a famoiis Thompsonian doctor, from whom I heard a lecture in this city, nearly thirty years ago. A number of us — - students in the medical department of Harvard — hear- ing that the Thompsonian system was to be elucidated 68 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. by a very distinguished representative of the school, attended, and we heard, among many wonderful things, something like the following : — "And, now, do you know how marcury produces rheumatiz ? I will tell you exactly, how marcury pro- duces rheumatiz. You see, marcury has a,great many sharp pints, and them sharp pints git stuck in the flesh, and when the muscles rub over them sharp pints, it scratches, and that is the rheumatiz ! " And when he came to lobelia he astonished us with bursts of eloquence. Among many tremendous hits, X remember this one : — " Ladies and gentlemen, I have studied lobely ! I have spent years in studyin' how it operates on the sys- tem ; I have sot up all night more than a thousand times, reflectin' on it. And now I will tell you how it is lobely works on the system. The' first dose stirs up the morbid anatomy, the second dose scrapes up the morbid anatomy, and the third dose heaves out the morbid anatomy. Ladies and gentlemen, that's the way that lobely does it. Ladies and gentlemen, I stand here to declare let no man undertake to treat disease, till he has made the whole system, in all its secret recesses, the subject of day and night study for a life-time, and that's just what I have done. When I meet a case, I just set right down and take the case right into my TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 69 mind, and there I hold it, till I see all through it, ef it takes me a month ; I have frequently had a hard case, on my mind more'n six months, before I could see through it in all its pints." These are. the 'doctors that see through the whole thing in all "its pints." Let us stop putting on airs and frankly acknowledge that not only are we utterly ignorant of the life principle, but that the essence of every farce, is absolutely hidden from us. Look at this simple pebble. What holds it togeth- er ? Why does it not fall to pieces ? Why, you say, that is attraction of cohesion, to be sure ! Yes, but what is attraction of cohesion ? Not only is life in the vegetable or animal, whether in health or disease, an inscrutable mystery to us, but the laws which preside over inorganic matter, are like- wise entirely out of our reach. Let us modestly study such facts, and make such deductions as come within the- range of our capacity, and leave it to such distinguished and magnificent greatness as the above to dive into the profoundest depths of the mysteries of the Creator, to fully com- prehend the most " secret pints." 70 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Liocal Diseases. The following two pages are from ray work " Weak Lungs and How to Make Them Strong." A salt rheum appears on the hand. . An ignorant doctor says, "It is a disease of the skin." An oint- ment is applied. The eruption disappears. An ulcer appears on the ankle. The doctor says, " Is is a disease of the ankle." He applies a salve. The sore disappears. The ear discharges. " The membranes of the ear passage are diseased," says the physician, and he pre- scribes an injection. The discharge is arrested. A case of nasal catarrh is presented. The medical man says, "this nose is sick." A snuff is prescribed. The discharge ceases. In each of these cases the doctor has entirely mis- apprehended the seat of the malady. Of course his prescription is a blunder^ Salt rheum is not a disease of the skin. It is a dis- ease of the system, showing itself in the skin. The ulcer is not a disease of the ankle. It is a disease of the system, showing itself at the ankle. A ship's crew is seized with some fearful malady. They hang out a flag of distress. Another ship passes near the infected vessel. Its captain discovers the flag TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 71 of distress. A boat's crew is sent to cut it down. The captain turns to his passengers with the trium- phant exclamation, " We have saved them ! All signs of distress have disappeared ! " A human body is diseased i& every part. A flag of distress is hung out in the form of an ulQer at the iinkle. Some ignorant physician sees it. He covers it with a salve, which compels it to close. Then* he cries, " See, it is all gone ! " The ulcer upon the ankle is driven from that place by an ointment. Soon it appears m the lungs. The doctor cannot get at it there, with his ointment, and- resorts to inhalation. He is still determined to apply the drug to the local manifestation. Pulmonary consumption is not a disease of the lungs. It first pervades every part of every tissue of the entire organism.. At length it assumes local ex- pression in the lungs. How utterly blind to apply a drug to the ulcer, either when it is on the ankle, or in the lungs ; to dry it up, or drive it away, whjle the real disease is left in the system. How infinitely nfore sensible, with sunshine, fresh air, bathing, nutritious food, cheerful society, and wisely-directed exercise, to remove the systemic mor- bid conditions. r2 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. SYMPATHY BETWEEN THE STOMACH AND OTHEK PARTS OF THE SYSTEM. There is a wonderful sympathy between the stom- ach and all other parts of the body. But that be- tween the stomach and brain is so active and perfect, tha't the acutest physician is often greatly puzzled, in trying to decide, when one is sick, whether il, or the other, is really to blame. Nothing is more common, for example, than to meet a longrstanding case, of • dyspepsia, in which the prominent and almost the only symptom is a dull and fretting headache. While, as shown in another place, persons have suffered many years from what they believed to be a grave organic disease of the stomach, pointing to their stomachs on their death-beds and saying, ' ' you will find my stom- ach one mass of cancer " ; but when the curious medi- cal man makes an examination, he finds a healthy stomaph, better than the average, because of an ab- steminous diet ; but in the brain he may come upon evidence of long-standing and serious disease. The sympathy between the brain and stomach is so. complete that an experienced physician never examines a case of disease, of one of these organs, without mak- ing the other one, likewise, the subject of study. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 73 Influence of Dyspepsia on tlic Mind. In connection with the above, I recal many curious conversations with dyspeptics. No matter how recent the attack, tltey generally fancy themselves very, very ill. The following is a sample office scene : — Dyspeptic. " Doctor, I want to consult you about my health." .(A very solemn face and a whin- i«g voice*) " I am really alarmed, for I have just found out that I have the heart disease." Doctoe. " How long have you had this heart disease ? " Dyspeptic. " It has been gradually coming on; but I have not felt it seriously till about a week ago. Doctor, do you really think there is danger of my fall- ing down dead? I was afraid, in coming up stairs just now, that I might fall down a dead man. Oh, dear me, what will my poor wife do. My dear Doc- tor, I ought to have $10,000 more in some good com- pany. But then, it is too late now, they wouldn't take me, unless 'twas in some of those humbug' com- panies. Why can't men attend to such things in sea- son?" Doctor. "Please take off your coat and \'est, and let me examine your heart." (Doctor listens for some time.) " Now tell me just how it feels." Dyspeptic. "Why, sir, there is a pain, and a 74 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. sinking, and then I feel as if my heart would jump out of my mouth. I* can't tell you what an awful sensation it is, really." Doctor. " There is nothing whatever the matter with your heart, beyond a little sympathy with a de- ranged stomach. If you will omit your coffee, and go without your supper, in a week you will get over this dreadful, fatal disease of the heart, aftd then* it won't come on again, if you will only eat and drink as you should." Dyspeptic. " Do you mean to say that with all these terrible symptoms of the heart, there is nothing the matter with it? Doctor, you must excuse me, but I can't believe it." DoGTOE. " I will give you my head for a foot- ball if all these terrible symptoms do not disappear entirely within five days, with the slight change in your table habits which I have suggested. There, now, behave yourself, and your fatal disease will leave you at once." The Consumptive Patient. In this connection, it will prove interesting to listen for a moment to the consumptive. While the dyspeptic fancies he is fearfully sick, and is determined to die, the consumptive, who may be TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 75 really and seriously ill, who may have extensive des- truction of the lung, which will end in the grave, is almost sure to be cheerful and hopeful. The follow- ing is common : — CoNSXJMPTiVE. " Perhaps, Doctor, you had better listen at my chest a little. The fact is I was never better in my life, but my wife is always in a worry about something, you know, and fehe has got into her silly head that I have some little trouble here ; so I reckon you had better make a little examination, just enough to satisfy her, you know." DoCTOK. " Well, you must strip your chest so as to give me a good chance." After listening, the doc- tor says, " You have incurable consumption. I find a mass of tubercle there, and here, and can only say that by no treatment can you be restored. Let me count your pulse. * * * Yes, that tells the same story." Consumptive. " But, Doctor, now, really, you don't mean to say that I have consumption ? " Doctor. " Yes, my dear fellow, there is not a shadow of dOubt about it." Consumptive. " Upon my word, I shouldn't have dreamed of it ; and you mustn't be offended, but I really can't believe it." Despair is a common symptom of dyspepsia, and hope of pulmonary consumption. 76 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. A Sick Brain the Cause of Dyspepsia. Plutarch says in one of his essays, " Should the body sue the mind before a court of judicature for damages, it would be found that the mind would prove to have been a ruinous tenant to its landlord." Abernethy, in discussing the causes of indigestion, says : ' ' The state of their minds is another grand cause, — the fidsjetitig and discontenting themselves about what can't be helped, passions of all kinds, — malignant passions pressing upon the mind, disturb the cerebral action, and do much harm." Dr. Parry says, "Dyspepsia may be produced by mental affections." Abernethy says, " There is no hurt of the head that does not affect the digestion." Dr. Abercrombie, in discussing organic diseases of the brain, says that " Symptoms which really depend upon diseases of the brain, are very apt to be referred to the stomach." Again he says : " Many other cases of organic disease of the brain are on record in which the only morbid appearances were in the head, though some of the most prominent symptoms were felt in the stomach. Some of these resembled what has ■been called sick headache. Others were chiefly distin- guished by remarkable disturbances of the digestive functions." TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 77 Then Dr. Abercrombie adds this caution : " In cases of this class we must beware 5f being misled in regard to the nature of the complaint, by observing that the symptoms in the stomach are alleviated by attention to regimen, or by treatment directed to the stomach. If digestion be impeded, from whatever cause, these un- easy symptoms in the stomach may be alleviated by great attention to diet ; but no inference can be drawn from this source in regard to the cause of the derange- ment." Dr. Hastings, in the Midland Medical and Surgical Register of 1813, says that not unfrequently cases occur which exhibit symptoms of disordered stomach, accompanied by increased determination of the blood to the head, alternate flushing and coldness, irregular spirits, etc. ; and he states that in all cases which ter- minated fatally under his care he found thickening of the membranes of the brain, and marks of chronic in- flammation in the head. Dr. Hastings believes that many of the nervous symptoms of which dyspeptic persons complain,' are produced by some alteration of the membranes of the brain, in consequence of chronic inflammation. Dr. Paris relates a case of a lady who had- been un- well for saveral years. She referred all her sufferings to the stomach, and often said that when she was dead, 78 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. that would be found the seat of her disorder. She died rather suddenly with fever and delirium, after exposure in a very hot day ; and on examining the body, no trace of disease appeared in the stomach and bowels, but the brain exhibited marks of long standing disease. Dr. Brigham, to whose admirable work I am greatly indebted, but who I think pushes his views as to the part played by the brain in the production of dyspepsia much too far, uses the following language, which, in part at least, every observing physician will endorse : — " The fact that dyspepsia is frequently cured by per- • mitting the over-tasked and tired brain to rest, or by chancing the mental labor or excitement, is . evidenoe that it is primarily a disease of the head, and not of the stomach. How often do physicians fail to afford any relief by medicines in what are called stomach- affections, but which stre readily cured by travelling, or relaxation in accustomed studies, and freedom from care and anxiety ; how often a change of the men- tal excitement affords relief. It seems as if certain portions of the brain having become unduly excited became diseased, and are benefitted by strong excite- ment of- other portions of the same organ. Plow often are stomach affections cured by inert •medicines, aided by the imagination, confidence, hope, etc." TALICS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 79 DR. ABERNETHY. I desire, in this place, to say a word of John Abeenethy, the great English physician and surgeon. After having long and carefully studied his writings, and some contemporaneous testimony, it is my convic- tion that John Abernethy was the greatest man our profession has produced in modern times. And the one great use of his life was the calling attention to the important relations existing, in our bodies, between the digestive apparatus and all other parts. Let me give a few illustrative anecdotes. A wealthy gentleman, living some distance from London, thought, on the occasion of a visit to the city, after attending to his business, and being ready to de- part, that he would call upon Dr. Abernethy. Not that he needed any medical advice, but that he might have the honor to say, when he returned home, that he had met the great Abernethy. The gentleman was a high liver, carried a red face and a somewhat gouty toe. He described his case, interrupted and cut short by a question or two, when, after a single minute's examination , Abernethy's prescriptioft was this : ' ' Live on sixpence a day, and earn it."" A famous Duke called upon him with reference to 80 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. an inflamed eye. My Lord, after waiting an hour for Abernethy to get through with a number of char- ity patients, whom he never left to attend upon the highest noblemen, began the conversation by saying : — "Doctor, I wish you would examine this eye; I fear some serious mischief is at work here." ' ' If you will sit there in my patient's chair, and let me do the talking, I will soon find out what's the mat- ter with you " A few sharp questions, and the Doctor concluded the interview with the following words : — " Your difficulty is not where you think it is, in your eye, but," pointing his finger at tire Duke's enor- " mous stomach, "it is there, in your kitchen. Of course, when the kitchen is out of order, the garret and all the other rOoms in the house are likely to be more or less aflfected. Now, all you need to do, is to clear the kitchen, and the garret will require no special purification. Your lordship must do as the famous Duke of Wellington did on a well-known occasion, — cut off the supplies and the enemy will leave the cita- del." Abemetlsy's " Constitutional Origin and Treat- ment of liocal Diseases." I may somewhat startle my sober medical friends, by saying, that I believe Abernethy's work, "The TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'^S STOMACHS. 81 Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Local Dis- eases," to be on the whole, the most remarkable work which the profession has produced in this century ; and I will add, that this little work, with Florence Night- ingale's book on nursing, would be almost a complete library for a physician, though both of them may be read in a very brief time, I cannot let this^ -great man go, without bearing testimony to his singular goodness. I do not recall any other great maii, in the history of the medical profession, who was so constantly and consistently sympathetic and benevolent. Dr. Abernethy at St. Bartbolomew's. The following case will serve to illustrate his rela- tions with hospital patients, which were always singu- larly respectful and kind ; while to the titled and wealthy, he was not unfrequently .very short and crusty. »• Mr. Stowe gives us the following illustration : — " It was on his first going through the wards, after a visit to Bath, that, passing up between the rows of beds, with an immense crowd of pupils after him, — myself among the rest, — the apparition of a poor Irishman, with the scantiest shirt I ever saw, jumping out of bed, and literally throwing liimself on his knees 82 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. at Abernethy's feet, presented itself. 'For some mo- ments everybody was bewildered ; but the poor fellow, with all his country's eloquence, poured out such a torrent of thanks, prayers and blessings, and made such pantomimic displays of his leg, that we were not long left in doubt. " ' That's the leg, yer honor ! Glory be to God ! Yer honor's the boy to do it ! May the heavens be your bed ! Long life to yer honor ! To the divil wid the spalpeens that said yer' honor would cut it off!' etc. " The man had come into the hospital about three months before with diseased ankle, and it had been condemned at once to amputation. Something, how- ever, induced Abernethy to try what rest and constitu- tional treatment would do for it, and with the happiest results. " With some difficulty the patient was got into bed, and Abernethy took the opportunity to give us a clini- cal lecture about diseases andjheir constitutional treat- ment. ' ' And now commenced the fun. Every sentence Abernethy uttered, Pat confirmed. ' Thrue, yer honor ; divil a lie in it. His honor's the great dochtor intire- ly !' While, at the slightest allusion to his case, off went the bed-clothes, and up went the leg, as if he were taking aim at the ceiling with it. ' That's it, by TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 83 gorra ! and a betther leg than»the villins' that wanted to cut it off!' "This was soon after I went to London, and I was much struck withAbernethy's manner. In the midst of the laughter, stooping down to the patient, he said, with much earnestness, ' I am glad your leg is doing well, but never kneel again, except to your Maker." " I take the liberty of giving the above illustration, because my heart yearns, to bear testimony to the beau- tiful character, of this wonderful man. "His sympathy, benevolence, and sense of justice joined to awaken his naturally keen observation, and philosophical reflection, in regard to the causes of hu- man suffering. From first to last he sat down by his patient's bedside, and in a quiet, friendly, earnest way, exhorted him to so manage his eating and drinking,' that the stomach should have a fair chance to furnish, healthy nutriment to the weak and suffering body." In the way of plain.talk tq persons who voluntarily came to him, even persons of wealth and rank, the following illustrations may prove interesting : — An old fox-hunter abused him roundly ; but all he could say against him was: "Why, sir, almost the moment I entered the room he said, ' I see you drink a good deal.' Now," added the patient, very naively, " suppose I did, what the devil was that to him?" 84 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. A gentleman of considerable literary reputation, who did not drink, but who had a very .red nose (which, I believe, almost never exists, except as a re- flection of an inflamed stomach) , was very angry with Abernethy, because, as soon as he entered his consulta- tion office, and said that his stomach was out of order, Abernethy replied, "Ah ! I see that by your nose." Again, a patient said, "I have something the mat- ter, sir, with this arm. There, oh ! (making a partic- ular motion with the limb,) that, sir, gives me great pain." " Well, what a fool you must be to do it, then," said Abernethy. Once, in a lecture, a student was inattentive, and engaged in conversation with another student. .Ad- dressing him in a tone of great severity, he said : "If the lecture, sir, is not interesting to you, I shall beg you to walk out." A Colonel in the army consulted him. Abeekethy. " Show me your tongue. Ah ! that is bad enough." Colonel. " You are quite right there." Abernethy. " Well, man, I don't require to be told that. Dr. Abernethy's great service to the profession, and to the human race, was in his concentrating his noble genius, his remarkable, overwhelming influence, upon TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 85 the intimate relations between tbe digestive organs and all other parts of the human body. Perhaps no pther man, in the history of the world, has contributed so much to table temperance as John Abernethy. " Hon- est John," as his contemporaries delighted to call him, will figure largely in medical history for many centu- turies. Abernethy taught us that the general or constitutional is everything, the loco],, nothing, with this well un, you will observe, than that of sev- eral men whom we have just passed, and some of them I know to be persons who work by the day. Now the same foolish emulation of- the rich, the same false ambition which inspires this waste of every- thing upon dress, this living from hand to mouth. TAI,KS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 119 without any reserve for a rainy day, is precisely the spirit in which people go to market and compete for those high-pTriced meats. Remember, only sixty pounds in a large ox sells for the high prices ; and, although they are very little better, cooked in any way, than the low-priced meats, although the flavor is noth- ing like so good as many of the ■ low-priced pieces, and although when cooked in the French style of con- dimented stews those high-priced pieces are inferior to the low-priced ones, still the ambition on the part of the poor, to walk side by side with the rich, is well- ni^ universal, and leads to all this mad folly. That foolish pride is the enemy which stands be- tween many a man and a bank account. My friend, Mr. Creighton, a wide and keen ob- server of men and things, said to me this morning in discussing this subject, "Why, I know several rich families on whose table a hasty-pudding is a frequent dish ; but I don't know one poor family in which it is used. They are afraid it may seem a poor man's dish." "Tell 'em," he said, "to mix oatmeal with the Indi- an, half and half, in making* the hasty-pudding." I will add that my friend, Stephen S. Foster, as- sures me that the biggest day's farm-work he has ever done, was accomplished upon hasty-pudding. 120 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. A I^ittle Story about X'alile Economy. It is now Saturday afternoon, and I will tell you in confidence, my dear reader, (of course with the un- derstjyiding that you won|t speak of* It,) a little of my personal, private experience during the past week. On Sunday morning last I thought I would try, for a week,' the experiment of living cheaply. Sunday breakfast, hulled southern corn, with a lit- tle milk. My breakfast cost three cents. I took ex- actly the same thing for dinner. Food for the day six cents. I never take any supper. Monday breakfast, two cents' worth of oatmeal, in the form of porridge, with one cent's worth of milk. For dinner, two cents' worth of whole wheat boiled, with one cent's worth of milk. Food for Monday six cents. Tuesday breakfast, two cents' worth of beans, with half a cent's worth of vinegar. For dinner, one quart of rich bean porridge, worth one cent, with four slices of coarse bread, worth two cents. Food for Tuesday five and a half cents. Wednesday breakfast, hominy made of southern corn (perhaps the best of all food for laboring men in hot weather) two cents' worth, with one cent's worth of syrup. For dinner a splendid beef stew, the meat 121 in which cost two cents. A little extravagant you see. But then, you know, " a short life and a merry one." Perhaps you don't believe that the meat was purchased for two cents? But it was, though. The fact is that from an ox weighing 800 pounds nett, you can purchase certain parts weighing about 100 pounds, even in this dearest of American markets, for three cents per pound. Two-thirds of a pound made more stew than I could eat. There was really enough for two of us. But then, you know how careless and and -reckless we Americans are in regard to our table expenses, always getting twice as' much as we need. I must not forget to say that these coarse, cheap portions of the animal are among the best for a stew. The very genius of waste seems to have taken posses- sion of me on that fatal day. I poured into my stew all at once, slap-dab, a quarter of a cent's worth' of Leicestershire sauce, and as if to show that it never rains but it pours, I closed that gluttonous scene by devouring a cent's worth of hominy pudding. Food for Wednesday eight and a quarter cents. The gross excesses of Wednesday led to a very moderate — Thursday breakfast, which consisted of oatmeal porridge and milk, costing about two and a half cents. For dinner, cracked wheat and baked beans, two cents' 122 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. worth of each, milk one cent's worth. Food for Thursday cost seven and a half cents. Friday breakfast, southern hulled corn and milk, costing three cents. For dinner, another of those gormandic surfeits which so disgraced the history of Wednesday. Expense for the day, eight and a quar- ter cents. This morning when I went to the table I said to my- self, " What's the use of this economy ? " and I made up my mind that for this day, at least, I would sink all moral restraints, and give up the reins to appetite. I have no apology or defense for what followed. Saturday breakfast, I began with one cent's worth of oatmeal porridge, with a teaspoonful of sugar worth a quarter of a cent. Then followed a cent's worth of cracked wheat, with half a cent's worth of milk. Then the breakfast closed with two cents' worth of milk and one cent's worth of rye and Indian bread. For dinner I ate half a small lobster, which cost three cents, with one cent's worth of coarse bread, and one cent's worth of hominy salad, and closed with two cents' worth of cracked wheat and milk. Cost of the day's food twelve and three-quarter cents. In all of these statements only the cost of material is given. The cost of cooking is not given. Cost for the week fifty-four and a quarter cents. TALKS ABOUT PMOrLE'S STOMACHS. 123 Of course I don't pretend that everybody can live in this luxurious way. It isn't everybody that can afford it. I could have lived just as well, so far as health and strength are concerned, on half the money. Besides, on three days I ate too much altogether, and suffered from thirst and dullness. But then I may plead that my habits are ver^ active. Not only have I writteli forty odd pages of this book during the week, but I have done a large amount of hard muscu- lar labor. By the way, I weighed myself at the beginning of the week, and found it was just 212 pounds. Since dinner to-day I weighed again, and found that I bal- anced 212 1-2 pounds, although it has been a week of intensely warm weather, and I* have had unusual de- mands for exertion of various kinds. But let me feed a family of ten instead of one per- son, and I will give them the highest health and strength upon a diet which will cost here in Boston not more than two dollars for the ten persons for a week. Let me transfer my experiment to Iowa, where wheat, corn, oats and beef are so cheap, and the cost of feeding nay family of ten would be so^ ridiculous that I dare not mention it lest you laugh at me. And so far from my family group being one of ghosts or skeletons, I will engage that thgy gball b§ 124 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. plumper and stronger, healthier and happier, with clearer skins, brighter eyes, sweeter breaths, whiter teeth, and, in addition, that they shall live longer than your Delmonico diners, each of whoto spends enough at a single dinner to feed my family of ten for a week. And last, but not least, they shall enjoy their meals vastly more than your Delmonico diners. Story of Another Kind. About two weeks ago, -a friend of mine from the South, was in town, and invited me to dine with him at a fashionable restaurant. We began with a little green turtle soup, which was fifty cents ; then we took a bit of spring lamb, with mint sauce, which was seventy-five cents ; then a little sweet-bread, with Madeira sauce, at seventy-five cents ; then a bit of spring chicken, with truffles, at one dol- lar and forty cents. I said : — " Hold on, Bob, hold on ! " " No sir, you must go one or two more." So he called for plover ; this was one dollar and fif- ty cents. While this last was preparing, we indulged in salmon £alad, which was sixty cents. We closed this little dinner with strawberries and cream, thirty-five cents. My friend having no fear of the temperance society before his eyes, indulged in a TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 125 bottle of Madame Cliquot, which was three dollars. Now supposing I had drunk the same thing, our din- ner would have cost seventeen dollars and seventy cents. As it was the cost was fourteen dollars and seventy cents. This is not very high. At Delmonir co's 1 have known two gentlemen to pay for dinner and Champagne thirty dollars. And even where a dinner table is spread for a large company, it is not uncommon to charge fifteen dollars a plate. I have heard of very miich higher figures. So you see Bob and I were, after all, rather mean in our dinner. Bob said several times : — "Why, what's the matter with you? you don't seem to have any appetite ! " " Well, not much ; the fact is the weather is so warm, one don't feel like eating ; besides, you know, temperate eating is a sort of hobby with me." But mederate as our dinner was, I could take the money which was paid for it, and feed thirty men for a week. And more than that, instead of their feeling stupid and thirsty, as those who dine fashionably do, my boarders should have the finest, brightest health,, while not one of them should suffer gout or its cousin rheumatispi. 126 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. The Story, of Young Samuel. When I was a boy my sympathies were awakened by what I thought the cruel starving of the calves. They were fed only twice a day, morning and evening. Eating all day myself, I thought it very cruel to tie up these poor little helpless things, and give them no food or drink from morning till night. Each of my broth- ers had a calf, my sister had a calf, and I had a calf. The others were satisfied with John's assurance that twice a day was enough, but I knew better ; and made such a fuss about their starving my poor little Sam, that the " powers that be " ordained that the feeding in the case of young Samuel should be as his owner di- rected. Upon the proclamation of this ukase, I de- termined to show 'em what's what, and to make sure, I fed Samuel myself. I gavahim all he wanted, about once in two hours. • But at the end of six weeks, how the rest of 'em did crow over me. It was true, as they said, that at the beginning of my " sausage-stuffing system " as they called it, Samuel was the biggest calf in the lot, but at the end of the six weeks, Oh ! what a fall was there my countrymen ! Even my smallest brother's little Fan could give Samuel odds. To cap the cli- max, when we untied and turned them all out together, TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S 'STOMACHS. 127 little spotted Fan went at my Sam, upon whom my hopes had centered as the bully J6f the yard, and wol- loped him in just no time. For a long time they wouldn't stop plaguing me about that good-for-nothing calf. My little sister, who could hardly speak plain, asked me one morning at the table, " How's 'e pophet Sam'el 'is mornin'?" From that day to this 1 have never advocated the frequent feeding of calves. They do best on two ♦ meals a day ; and now I have no doubt that some . other calves I wot of would do vastly better bn two meals a day. Speaking of Samuel, I am reminded of his final taking off, which was ignominiously tragical* While he was illustrating the high-pressure nlilk principle, his hair turned in the wrong direction.. At first I rather prided myself on the nice curls, and pointed them ou* as proofs of his superior beauty ; while curly hair, they all admitted, was a sign of tough constitu- tion. Very soon, however, the tendencies' were so distinctly pronounced there could be no doubt ; Sam- uel's hair was all pointing toward his nose. ■ Somehow, after this, he did not seem, to be a pros- perous calf, and when he was about six months old, it was discovered that, in addition to his other graces, he was sorely afflicted with lice. John said : " AH right, 128 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. I'll fix 'em." So he steeped up a piece of plug tobac- co about as large as tjro average " chaws," and pour- ing the infusion On Sam's baclj, he rubbed it backward and forward with the stable sponge. Sam ran away when he was released, and John remarked, " all right, that tobacker jooce will fix them lice, right smart." Samuel was not at that time my calf; I had ex- changed with my youngest brother for spotted Fan, giving a maltese kitten and my ball to boot. His present Owner followed after Sam when Doctor John discharged him as cured, but soon returned with the news that Sam was drunk. Great as was Our respect for Sam's capacity for blunders and vices, we hardly believed this, and ran out to see. Sure enough he was staggering, and soon down he went. Sapa looked very sick, and made the most unmusical sounds I ever heard ; but after a few convulsions he was dead. The boys sat upon the case and brought in a verdict of death frotn poisoning by tobacco juice ; but John stuck to it,— " 'Twant tobacco, nor nothin' of the kind ; but 'twas jest the way with that pesky, contrary calf, he never would do nothin' like other calves." I know a great many calves that are gradually but surely poisoning themselves with tobacco juice. If TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 129 they would have it rubbed" all over their backs, it would kill them in an hour or less ; bttt because they keep it in contact with only the limited surface of their mouths, it will not kill immediately, but will be sure to poison and undermine the constitution in the end. Ho ! all ye calves who smoke and chew, a solemn warning I give to you ; if you follow in the footsteps of my red calf, you won't live out your days by half. Some will say, " Of course this has reference to ni- cotine. or empyrumatic oil, or some other extract of to- bacco ; of course it can't mean tobacco juice of the common sort ; that wouldn't produce any such symp- toms. My dear fellow, if you are not in the habit of using tobacco, just take the wrapper off a cigar, wet it and put it into your arm-pit, and then sit down and make yourself comfortable. But you won't stay com- fortable. Very soon you will be sick, then you will vomit, then you will look very pale, a cold sweat will stand out all over you, you will tremble and gasp fear- fully, and suffer enough in ten minutes to satisfy you that tobacco is quite a respectable poison. But putlthis leaf in .your arm-pit every day, and Boofi nature will accommodate herself to the new ene- my. And, although a slow cumulative poisoning will go on, no such violent flurry will again occur. 130 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. One Meal a Day. The Greek and Roman armies ate but once a day, and so important was the habit regarded in the Roman army, that they made it the subject of special thanks- giving. One of their most frequently repeated prayers closed with these words : — "And we thank the gods that our soldiers eat but once a day." So general was the habit in the days of Hippocra- tes, that the "Father of Medicine" says in one place : — " When a man so far forgets himself as to eat more than one meal a day, he soon becomes thirsty and stupid." A Roman traveller tells us of certain "beastly tribes who were not satisfied with one meal a day." Catlin assures us that the Indians, when on the hunt or war path, never eat but once a day. The big teamsters in Pennsylvania, from time im- memorial, have fed their horses but once a day. The best and the hardest worked horse I ever owned was driven two years in the practice of my profession in the country. It was more than a quarter of a cen- tury ago, and before, I had ever heard much about one meal a day. I fed Robin only once a day because it TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 131 was iftconvenient to feed him oftener. He seemed to do well, so I continued. On putting him up at night, I poured twenty quarts of oats into his trough, and put a lock of hay into the rack. A box of salt was left near him, to which he might resort at pleasure. In the morning a good grooming, and he was ready for another day. He did wonderfully well, and ac- complished more miles than any other horse I have ever driven. Lysander Spooner, referred to in another place, 'is now sixty-two years of age. Up to fifty he ate three meals* a day, then for nine years two meals, and now for three years one meal a- day. Mr. Spooner has suffered a good deal from stomach troubles during his life, and, indeed, until the adoption of the one meal system. Now he is bright and cheerful as a boy, and has a skin like a baby's. I do not know another man of his age so youthful in spirit. I scarcely know a better thinker than Mr. Spooner, while his honesty has passed into a proverb. After his complete experiment, he is warm and explicit in his testimony. He is confident that if workers of all classes would rise early from an eight hours' sleep and digestion, they would be ready for a day's work with- out further eating. As evening came on he would have them rest for an hour, perhaps dyink a glass of 132 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. water, and then quietly and slowly fill the stomach with plain, substantial nourishment. Then sleeping and digesting, they again prepare themselves for a day's work, without any division of force between the brain and muscle and the stomach. During the day" the stomach asks for nothing, the brain and muscle have it all their own way. I have myself begun an experiment with this one meal system, and after a year or two will report pro- gress, and either ask to be excused from further ser- vice on the committee, or, on the other hand, I shall ask leave to introduce a resolution, that we all live in this way. ♦ ° The Liaw of digestion. There is no doubt about the physiological law. It is this : While the food is in the stomach it contributes nothing to the activity of brain or muscle, but takes from that activity. Indeed, we have all noticed that a full stomach requires so much nerve force that the brain becomes dull. It is only after the food has passed out of the stomach and is in the blood and tis- sues that it helps the brain and muscle. Now the practical question is this : Can we take food enough in the evening at a single meal to last twenty-four hours. I rather think that with us it TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 133 can't be done. It certainly would be a capital arrange- ment if practicable. Il* would , give the brain and muscle great freedom and advantage during the day. It is idle, it is silly to decide such a question in any cfther way than by a fair trial. , To simply say, " It's no use talkin', a feller must have his three meals reg- 'lar," is to speak like a fool. If it can be done, it will nearly double the working time and power of our brains and muscles. After *a couple of years' trial I wiU report. They used to say, "But a man can't live without tis grog ; " and the Englishman has declared that " A man can't live without his five meals a day." I have no doubt that a man may live a long and healthy life and drink three glasses of grog every day, and that if the quantity of food be moderate, a man may eat five meals a day, and live a long life and en- • joy fair health ;«but it is not difficult to show that if a man avoids grog, and eats Jess frequently, he will live longer, and enjoy higher health. A man may eat every two hours, smoke ten cigars a day,. chew between the smokes, use snuff, take opium morning and even- ing, sit up till midnight, and do a dozen other outra- geous things, and still wear a good round face ; but to avoid them all, and live an abstemious life, adds many ■ years, and multiplies indefinitely the happiness of life. 134 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. ADUIiTERATIOJVS OF FOOD. Most of the articles which appear on our tables are more or less adulterated. All wines and liquors ai* adulterated, while oils, pickles, vinegar, preserved fruits and meats, confectionery, sugar, milk, spices, coffee, cocoa, tea, butter and bread, are more or "less adulterated. Adulterating Su1>staiices. The articles used in adulterating these foods are various sorts of copper and arsenic, various compounds of lead and of mercury, Prussian blue, chromate of potash, Brunswick green, gamboge, indigo, catechu, alum, Venetian red, sulphate of soda, yellow ochre, and besides these deadly poisons, chalk, plaster of Paris, chicory, starch, beans, burned peas, rye, pota- toes, lard, water, turmeric, etc., are elnployed. Adulterations of Bread. Sprouted or grown wheat makes a common flour sold at a low rate, and generally purchased by the bakers. Sprouting in the grain changes the character of the gluten, so that it is difficult to make with it light and spongy bread ; but this lost quality can be re- stored by the use of blue vitriol, lime-water or alum. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 135 Alum is the article usually employed. From eight to sixteen ounces of alum are added to eaeh barrel of flour.* My friend, Dr. Hoskins, analyzed a large number of "specimens of bread purchased in different parts of the city, and found alum in every sample, and the pro- portion was, as stated above, from eight to sixteen ounces of alum to a barrel of flour. The white and light condition of baker's bread is due, generally, to alum. This bread is apt to produce heart" burn. Is it not strange that the inexperience and ignorance of the average Yankee house-keepers can produce a better bread, more palatable to everybody, than all the skill and other advantages enjoyed by the baker? His bread should be greatly superior to hers, but is not so, because he purchases an*inferior grade of flour, and doctors it. The introduction of com meal, rye, flour and pota- toes into bread is exceedingly common ; but as neither of them is poisonous, we shall pass them. Alnm is Poisonous. Dr. "Wood, in his work " Therapeutics and Phar- macology," says of alum, ' ' when swallowed in a quantity of a dram or more, it not unfrequently 136 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. causes nausea and vomiting, and sometimes produces griping paina and purging." Devergie found about six drams of dried alum "given to a dog to produce death, when the oesophagus was tied, so as to prevent vomiting. " When used for a , considerable time in doses insufficient to nauseate, alum not unfrequently produces a sense of stricture in the epigastrium (pit of the stomach) , prsecordial oppres- sion (oppression about the heart) , and other dyspeptic feelings, probably by interfering with the secretion of the gastric juice, and thus impairing digestion." Adulterations in Tea. Tea is now probably consumed by five hundred millions, or nearly one half of the human race. Its active principle, of which it contains about two per cent., is theine, and is,. so far as chemistry has been able to analyze, identical with the active principle of coifee, of cocoa .and of mate, or the Paraguay tea. In England, spurious tea is made from the leaves of the sloe, elder, hawthorne and other plants. Be- sides these, the exhausted leaves collected from the hotels and restaurants are dried, colored and mixed with genuine teas. The Chinese adulterate teas extensively by mixing the leaves of other plants, as those of the ash, plum. TALKS ABOTJT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 137 camellia ; secondly, they manufacture a spurious ar- ticle denominated " lie-tea" ; and, thirdly, they glaze and* paint the leaves with variows coloring matters. Mr. Fortune says, after describing the process of man- ufacturing tea out of the leaves of other trees : — " Here, then, were very fair looking green teas made from the leaves of a large tree, as unlike the tea shrub as could well be ; and an article as closely resembling black tea could have been just siS easily made out of these leaves." A superior looking black tea is frequently made by coloring the inferior kinds of tea leaves with black lead, or what we should call stove-polish. There is no such thing in nature as green tea. The whole of this so-called green tea is a yellowish green leaf colored with Prussian blue, indigo, turmeric and gypsum. * • " Young hyson," says Mr. Davis, " is often made up by cutting and sifting through sieves of a certain size, other green teas." Mr. Davis says there was, when he was in China, an extensive manufactory of green teas from damaged black leaves, at the village or suburb called Honairf His friend, a Hong mer- chant, conducted him to the place where the opera- tions were carried on. He there saw the damaged black^aves, after being dried, transferred to a cast- 138 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. iron pan and stirred rapidly with the hand, a small quantity of turmeric in powder having been previously introduced. This g.ave a yellowish color, and they had still to be made green. To this end some lumps of fine blue were produced, together with another substance in powder, which, from the names given to them by the workmen, as well as their appearance, were recognized at once as Prussian blue and gypsum. These yfere stirred into the tea, in the pan over the fire, until it had taken the fine bloom color of hjson.. To avoid the possibility of error, Mr. Davis took samples of the substances employed. Mr. Bruce states that in the "last operation of coloring the green teas, a mixture of sulphate of limfe and indigo, very finely pulverized and sifted through fine muslin, in the proportion of three of the former to one of the latter, is added. Into a pan containing seven pounds of tea, about half a teaspoonful of this mixture is put. Indigo gives it the color, and sul- phate of lime fixes it. Mr. Fortune, during each of his journeys, sa-vy the process of coloring teas. He states that, at one of its stages, the hands of the workmen are quite blue. ' ' • " I could not help thinking," he remarks, " if any green tea drinkers had been present during the opera- tion, their tastes would have been corrected and im- TALKS ABOUT SEOPLe'S STOMACHS; 139 proved." Again, he says, "I have stated that the plants grown in the district of Che-Kiang produce green teas ; but it must not be Mpposed these' are the green teas exported to England. The leaf has a much more natural color, and has little or none of v?hat we call- the beautiful bloom upon it, which is so much admired in Europe and America. There is no doubt that all these blooming green teas, which are manufactured at Canton, are dyed with Prussian blue and gypsum to suite the taste of the foreign barbarians." He adds : "In every hundred, pounds of colored green tea, the consumer actually drinks more than half a pound of Prussian blue and gypsum." The Chinese never drink colored teas themselves, and only color them because they are in demand and fetch a higher price. Adulterations of Coffee. ^ is rare to purchase ground coffee 'which is pure. It is adulferated with chicory, dandelion root, and very extensively, with the ground powder of many grains. Just now dried carrot roots are extensively used. Peas and beans are likewise much employed. ' & Cocoa and Chocolate. These are so generally adul- terated that one may go through the fihops of a town without finding one pure sample. 140 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Butter. The statements of the wise ones about the adulterations of butter are almost incredible. The quantity of wi^r and salt that butter should contain, is about two and one-half per cent, of salt, and ten per cent, of water. As much as fourteen per cent, of salt has been found, and a much too large percentage of water. As*iiigh as thirty per cent., of lard is frequently added to the cheaper grades of but- ter. In rare cases flour has been used. The detection of the presence of water in butter is easy. Melt it, pour it into a bottle, and keep it near the fire for some time, and the two substances will sep- arate. The water will be seen at the bottom, milky from the presence of whey, and the butter at the top. The proportion of each may be easily estimated. Lard q£ the cheaper qualities is often greatly adul- terated. Twenty-five and even thirty per cent, of water is added, and often salt. The presence of water may be detected as in butter. There is n« excuse for the use of salt ; its presence in the smallest quantity is an adulteration. Flour is sometimes added to lard, but as it sticks and burns upon a hot vessel it is easily detected. Adulterations of Honey. Honey is so commonly adulterated that it is diflScult to find, even among the best dealers, pure strained TAI.KS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 141 honey. The only protection against adulterations in this article is to buy it in the comb. The newspapers contain adrertisements of recipes for artificial honey, I have examined a, number of these and find that they are mostly made of sugar, water, cream of tartar and essence of peppermint. Sugar is not often adulterated, though the very finely ground sugars sometimes suffer in this way by the addition of flour. Pepper, mustard and Cayenne. These are mostly sold in powder, and are very rarely sold pure. The adulterating substances consist, in considerable part, of damaged goods of the same class, such as have been injured by insects or in damp places, or such as have suffered by injury from water. These are groun^up and are not easy to detect. Allspice is frequently adulterated with flour. Cloves are often adulterated with various kinds of bark ; and often those which appear to be genuine are deficient in strength, having had a portion of the strength extracted. Dr. Hoskins, of this city, says in his" work, "What we Eat": "I have purchased several samples labelled cinnamon, none of which con- tained a particle of that spice ; they were all the much inferior article cassia, in many cases damaged, and in 142 TALKS ABOUT- PEOPLE S STOMACHS. all either mixed with corn or rice flour. Two samples were colored with ochre, and many were almost taste- less. Cayenne Is adulterated with corn meal and salt ; and this is so common that it is difficult, even if you pro- cure it of a first-class druggist, to obtain cayenne pure. Mustard is rarely pure. The adulterating substances are flour and turmeric. Sometimes . fifty per cent, is added to the weight in flour, and then the turmeric is introduced to restore the color. Horse-radish is so generally adulterated, that instead of a mass of the size of a kernel of coi-n starting the tears, one may take a teaspoonful without any disposi- tion to cry. m Confectionery, Vinegar, Pickles, Preserved Fruits, Meats and Fish. I find it very hard to write about the adulterations in confectionery in an amiable temper. It is abomin- able, — this poisoning children with various prepara- tions of lead and other deadly poisons. The colors are principally reds, blues and greens. Dr. Hoskins, in the work before quoted, declares that he has verified the presence of all the following TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 143 poisons in the coloring matter of candies : Chromate of lead, gamboge, coehineal, Vandyke brown, amber, sienna, Antwerp blue, Prussian blue. Brunswick green, verdigris, emerald green and false verditer. With one exception, these are all deadly poisons, and they are introduced in sufficient quantities, not only to produce derangement, but in thousands of cases, to poison children, and, I have no doubt, in a great number of cases, actually kill them. The subject of deadly poisons in the coloring matter of candies has excited very grave interest among some of the most scientific and philanthropic of the men of science. Dr. Hoskins says, in regard to the quantity of poi- sons used in coloring confectionrery : "They say the quantities of coloring matter used are infinitesimal. Perhaps so, but I have myself scraped enough Scheele's green from one small sugar toy to kill a rabbit in a few minutes." The only way to avoid positive poisoning is to shun confectionery m toio, and, although sugar may be. taken in moderate quantities by children without serious in- jury, no medical man will tell you that a child will suflfer by avoiding it altogether. Tickles. That bright green color seen in the pickles 144 TALKS ABOU:^. PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. sold in bottles and otherwise, is produced, in every case, by some compound of copper, a deadly poison. For my part, I never touch them ; and I may add that I have seen many persons poisoned by them. I have never seen a case of death produced by these beautiful, bright green pickles, but I have seen num- berless cases in which such poisoning has produced- thirst and a deranged stomach. Vinegar. Vinegar is so generally adulterated that there is no absolute safety except in making it in your own house. It may be made from cider or sweetened water, by a process generally known. Pickled Cabhage. One other curious fact in this matter of adulterations is found in the article known as pickled red cabbage,- which very frequently is common cabbage colored with some vegetable dye. Wines and Liquors. Wines and liquors are adulter- ated (as the public has long since learned,) to an enormous extent ; but as I feel no interest in that, and would, if 1 could have my own way, multiply the adulterations by a hundred, I will say nothing of it. Milk. Milk reflects the condition of the animal secreting it. Dr. Van Ammon, physician to the King of Saxony, gives an interesting illustration : "A car- TALKS ABOUT PEOPLB'S STOMACHS. 145 penter quarrelled with a soldier billetted in his house, and was set upon by the latter with his drawn sword. The wife of the carpenter at first trembled from fear and terror, and then suddenly threw herself furiously between the combatants, wrested the sword from the soldier's hand, broke it in pieces and threw it away. During the tumult some of the neighbors came in and separated the men. While in this state of strong ex- citement, the mother took her child from the cradle where it lay smiling and in most perfect health, never having had a moment's illness ; she gave it the breast, and in so doing sealed its fate. In a few min- • utes the infant left off, became restless, panted and sunk dead on its mother's bosom. The physician who was instantly called in found the child lying in the cradle as if sleeping, and with its features undisturbed ; but all his resources were fruitless ; it was irrecover- ably gone. Cows fed upon distillery slops, and kept in close, heated, dark stables, give a milk unfit for human food, and especially mischievous- to infants. In the distillery stables of New York, cows are packed together as close- ly as they can stand in the midst' of indescribable filth, in dark, heated, un ventilated buildings, and are fed upon hot slops from the whiskey stills. When these dreadful places have been investigated, the poor crea- 146 TALKS ABOUJ people's STOMACHS. tures have been found in every stage of disease and rottenness, and, although the capital invested in this vile business has been able to suborn the testimony of false physicians to the healthfulness of these detestable slops, no thinking man can believe that the milk, every drop of which is taken from the blood which is con- stantly circulating through the filthy ulcers and rotten 'tissues of these toothless, feverish, half-blind and staggering creatures, can be sweet and healthful. Thousands of babies in a city like New York fall a sacrifice to the cupidity of these swill-mUk harpies. And even when the milk comes from the country, and makes its journey in the cars, it is then commonly adulterated with water, a little salt, and colored with burned sugar. The amount of water introduced de- pends upon the cupidity of the milk dealer. The amount of water added is, ordinarily, from twelve to fifty per cent., or, to use the language of the trade, " from 8-1 to splitting it right in two." It would be most wise, and w-ould soon correct this evil of adul- teration with water, if the little instrument known as a lactometer (which costs but little,) were kept in every bowse. If the instrument be a good one, it is an in- fallible detective. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLij,S STOMACHS. 147 COlVmiHEiyTS. I am rather disposed to think that my criticisms upon condiments, in " Weak Lungs and How to Make Them Strong," were a shade too severe. While 1 ain ready to -repeat here what I said there, that I believe all condiments except salt are unnecessary, I must say that I have observed, particularly in the large Institu- tion at Lexington, over which I had the honor to preside so many years, and . the dietary of which was under my control, certain facts which lead me to say that I believe the occasional and moderate use of pepper, spice, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mustard, oil, etc., may be productive of much good. I think they may all be used, as the palate suggests, in moderate quantities. Tomatoes. Some years ago tomatoes were called love-apples, and were thought to be very poisonous, I remember my mother charged me to avoid ha,ndling them. Some persons thought them deadly poisons. That opinion was incorrect. Now, you hear people say, " tomatoes are the healthiest of all vegetables, and you cannot eat too many of them." That opinion is 148 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. likewise incorrect. The tomato is not the healthiest of vegetables, and, if used at all, it should be eaten with great moderation and should never be eaten raw. I have known a great many persons to. suffer from tender and bleeding gums, from " teeth set on an edge," and a number from loose teeth, produced by eating tomatoes. I have known a number of cases of very painful piles caused by excessive use of toma- toes. I have several professional friends who have observed the same facts among their patients. At the close of a lecture, which I gave fifteen years ago in Cincinnati, on the subject of human food, I criti- cized tomatoes much as I am doing now, and among a dozen persons who came upon the platform, after the usual fashion, to be introduced to the lecturer, seven testified to having suffered from sore mouth, and one from having had a peculiar condition of the stomach, developed when the tomato season first began. In- deed, I beUeve the idea I am expressing is not a new one, even among the people. A great many persons have asked me, "Do tomatoes contain calomel?" They inferred, from the fact that tomatges produced a sort of salivation, that they contained mercury. Let me give you a case. Many years ago, while practising my profession in Central New York, I was passing, one evening, a lar^e woollen mill. The TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 149 proprietor hoisted the window of his office, and asked me to stop. I rode up to his window, and he said : — "Please step in a moment, there is a young lady up stairs who wishes to see you." Well, I was not surprised at the request, for I was then an unmarried man, so' I hitched my horse and went in. The young lady was sent for and soon ap- peared with : — " Oh, ah, yes, excuse me a moment, I will return immediately." She came back in a moment, and, holding out a paper containing about twenty teeth, said : — "Well, doctor, what do you think of that?" " Well," I said, " I should think there were about twenty teeth.'' " Yes," said she ; " but what should you say, if I should tell you that they all came out of my mouth ? " " Well, I should say that you had lost most of your teeth." "Oh, yes, but what I wish to know is, what do you think is the cause of the loss of my teeth ? " " Well," I said, " I cannot answer that question. What do you think was the cause of it ? "j Let me remark that, if to any feature of what may be called management, I attribute any share of my professional success, it is to the almost uniform prac- 150 TALKS ABOUT PEOPI-K'S STOMACHS. tice of asking my patients what they thought was the matter with them : what they thought was the cause of their malady, and even what they thought would cure them. The fact is, that sick people, thinking a great deal about their symptoms, and being more in- terested in the history and possible cure of their mala- dies than any doctor can be, often have clearer views of the origin, the nature, and the best treatment than the wisest physician can possibly obtain in a brief ex- amination. Well, this young lady said, "I will tell you what I think is the cause of the loss of ray teeth. Last sum- mer I fell sick, and my doctor said I must leave the mill and go into the country to rest. I went over the river to visit my uncle, a farmer, and remained with him three months. ] Shortly after my arrival I learned to eat tomatoes, and, during my stay there, I ate them constantly. I was told that they were the healthiest thing I could eat, and that I could not eat too many of them. I soon learned to like them, ran and picked them off the vines in the garden, and, slicing off bits •with my knife, ate them without cooking or condi- ments. Almost immediately my mouth became sore, and my gums bled freely upon the use of the tooth brush. But I was told this was the disease in my stomach working off through my mouth. No one sus- TAI-KS j^BOUT people's STOMACHS. 151 pected the tomatoes. When I came home, I brought with me a bushel and a half, and ate them as long as I could preserve them. In the meantime, my teeth had become loose. At length they became so very loose that I began to take them out with my. fingers, and I now have but one tooth left, and if you would like to have me take that out, I can do it with my fingers." I told her that I had often seen teeth extracted ; that it would be no special gratification to see the last one taken out. But I assured her, from many fac.ts that had already come under my observation, that I had no doubt of the general correctness of her opinions. Now, my practical suggestion is this. If people are fond of tomatoes, they may eat them in small quan- tities, say one or two teaspoonfuls of cooked toma- toes at a meal, as a sauce ; but I believe that, if a person is already in good health, tomatoes are not likely to improve his health ; on the contrary, that the tomato is medicinal, and should never be used in any considerable quantity by healthy people, I believe tlfat, finally, they will be put in the category with medicines, and prescribed, when necessary, by a medi- ical man. 152 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Necessity of Acids in Digrestiou. If men live too long without fresh meat and vege- tables, the malady known as scurvy appears. There is, in this case, a highly alkaline state of the system. Adds are demanded. Lemon juice, or vegetables containing certain acids, relieve the sufferers at once. In our artificial life considerable acids are frequently needed in digestion. This explains our use of vinegar upon so many articles of food. Observe how keen our instincts are ! It is with pork and beans, lettuce, cucumbers, salads, salmon, arid other articles of diffi- cult digestion, that we use vinegar. Even the Dutch- man's abominable sauer-kravi is easy of digestion with its abounding acid. A few years ago a medical brother brought to my notice a singular case of indigestion. The woman suffered from eructations to a most distressing degree. The eructations began a little after each meal, and continued often three hours. The bowels were dis- tressingly disturbed with incessant rumbling. The rapidity with which this gas was secreted surprised va&. She suffered likewise from a terrible despair. During the day she was almost wild with visions of the infer- nal regions. But late in the evening she became mor- bidly brilliant, happy, hopeful, and indulged much in visions of heaven. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 153 Upon a careful inquiry into her habits, I learned that she consumed daily large quantities of saccharine matter. She ate, sugar or syrup on, or in, every- thing. I directed that she should eat for breakfast and dinner all she might want of boiled beef or mut- ton, with unfermented bread, and no drink but cold water in very small quantity. No supper. At the close of breakfast and dinner she was to suck the juice of a lemon. The patient had been suffering for several years. In a few weeks she was well ; and, by avoiding sweets and using lemon juice daily, has continued "to enjoy good digestion. There is hardly a day passes that I have not the privilege of relieving some sufferer from dyspepsia by advising avoidance of sweets, and a mod- erate use of acids. During the last twenty years I have been in the habit of saying that no family of five persons should use more than a pound of sugar a week. The impor- tance of this rule is every year growing upon me. I have a clear conviction that much of our indigestion would disappear upon the banishment of sugar and molasses from our grocery bills. The longing for acids so common among our dyspeptics is the language of an organic want. 154 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Pastry. I have often said that if I were a minister of the Grospel I should constantly pray that the Lord would help us out of this cake and pie mania. It is bad from beginning to end, — bad altogether. I confess I cannot explain satisfactorily to my own mind even, the reason for the indigestibility of pie. For example, a mince pie is a compound of those very articles which abound in the most healthy food, — meat, apples, flour, and a few simple condiments. Now, all these articles may be eaten in other relations, without liarm. One may make a full meal of them. But put them into a mince pie, and make a meal of the pie ; your stomach is a remarkable one if the brain is not at least a little dull during the process of digestion ; while, if your stomach is weak, you will not be likely to repeat the experiment. What is true of mince pie is to some extent true of all j)ies. Nx)w, when we recal tha't these pies are usually eaten at the close of a hearty dinner, .when nine in ten persons ha,ve already eaten too much, their use is at once seen to be a serious evil. I have no hesitation in saying that pies must be abandoned, without reser- vation, by all who would live the highest physiolocri- cal life. Precisely the same remarks are applicable to cake. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. ' 155 TFater. Burial places have often polluted the water of wells. When society is more ftiUy civilized and christian- ized, in my opinion human bodies will not be buried in the ground, but they will be burned. For my own part, although I know that when I leave this body it will be no more to me than my cast-off clothing, still I have never been able to look without horror upon my body buried in the ground, with no companionship but the worms busy with my eye-balls and in my mouth ; but I can contemplate without emotion its burning. Besides, it seems to me, as the earth contains but a very small — an almost infinitesimal percentage of ma- terial which can be incorporated into a human body, that it is hardly honest when one dies to hurry down deep in the earth the hundred or more pounds of that precious and scarce material which nature has lent. And although this materM finally gets back into the great currents of nature, even if buried in a lead cof- fin, how much more prompt, and, therefore honest the payment of our debt, if by burning the body its pre- cious constituents are given back at once into the at- mosphere — that vast granary from which all living creatures are fed. 156 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Speaking of the final disposition of the body, I am reminded of the words of Demonan, who, when on his death-bed, and spoken to by his friends about his burial, uttered the following memorable words : " Take no care for my burial, for stench will bring a carcass." Hia friends replied, "Is it your mind then to be cast out to birds and dogs?"^ He said again, " Seeing that in my lifetime I have endeavored to my uttermost to benefit men, what hurt is it, if, when I am dead, I benefit beasts ? " I shall never forget the request of John Brown — that his body should be burned. The noble, honest soul yearned to pay every debt, and stand justified before God. But Virginia civilization was " shocked at the impious thought." But returning to the subject of water, I would" say that rain water which falls in remote country districts is the purest ; then comes river water ; next the water of lakes ; after this, common spring water, and then the water of mineral springs. The waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof, which are only brack- ish, follow next ; then those of the great ocean ; then those of the Mediterranean, and last of all come the waters of lakes which, like those of the Caspian Sea, the Dead Sea,- and the great Salt Lake, possess no known outlet. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 157 It is not necessarily the purest waters that are most favorable to health. Man is fitted by the Creator to the planet, and as the waters upon which we must chiefly depend, and which are principally those coming out of the earth itself, are charged with various foreign matters, we are so contrived that those waters are most favorable to our health. Many persons have used distilled rain-water under the impression that the purest waters were the healthiest. Numerous facts go to prove the contrary. Those river waters that flow from mountainous dis- tricts through a hard and rocky soil, are, on the whole, most favorable to human health. Next to these the waters of lakes, next to these the waters of springs and wells, though in regard to wells one must discriminate. In order that the water of a well should be favorable the well must not be in a populous or filthy district. I once knew a family every member of which was attacked with a peculiar kind of typhoid fever;- The fever was characterized by peculiar stomach symptoms, and an eruption, which suggested ^o my mind the pres- ence of some organic poison. I set about a careful examination of their food and drinks. Upon asking where they obtained water for the family consumption, I was taken to a well in the barn-yard. This well 158 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. was surrounded by several inches of liquid manure. Upon drawing up a bucket of the w,ater, not Only did I find that it tasted queer, but I could smell the pres- ence of the droppings of the barn-yard. The exclu- sive use of water from a spring in a side hill twenty rods away cured them all. Thousands of domestic animals have been killed or injured by the use of water from barn-yard wells. I knew a very interesting case of a poisoned well, which came very near proving the death of a large and fine family. First a diarrhoea attacked several of them. Then there appeared general languor, restless- ness and lack of appetite, with fever, very bad taste in the mouth, and headache. At length, a young woman, a daughter in the family, became so ill that I was asked to see her. The father, a clergyman, told me, as something very curious, that all the family were suiFering much as Katie was. An examination of her symptoms excited my suspicions, and I inquired about their table and other^ habits. I questioned them about the flour they were using, etc., etc. At length, I said, "Let me drink a glass of the water which you are using." Its taste- was not that of pure water. Mr. G. conducted me to the well. I drew up a buck- et of water, tasted it, smelled of it, and said, " I be- lieve the trouble in vour familv comes from this well." TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 159 But upon examining the surface of the earth for many rods around, there seemed to be no cause for the im- purity of the water. It was an old well, had been in use perhaps for a century, and never before been at fault. I asked about drains. There certainly was a drain from the cellar, but he did not know which way it ran ; but as the ground at the well was lower than the cellar, I thought it not unlikely that the impurities came from the cellar. We sent for the man who had cleaned the drain, and learned that it terminated with- in twenty feet of the well. The strange fault was corrected, and the family began slowly to recover, and after two or three months of convalescence, were en- tirely restored. While on this point I want to give another case. I once knew a family whose supplies of water' were ob- tained from a well in the cellar of their house, and was pumped up through a pipe into the kitchen. This fact I did not know for a year or two after they came under my professional care. From time to time I had urged such a course as to diet, bathing, exer- cise, sleep, etc., etc., as medical men are in the habit of urging upon their patrons. I had promised them that upon making certain changes they would be great- ly improved, but was mortified that the contrary was the result. This puzzled me, and I determined, at 160 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. length, to find the bottom of it. Upon the inquiry " Where do you obtain your drinking water ? " they replied, " In the cellar " ; and taking me down, they showed me a dark, damp cellar, with a very disagree- able smell ; and lifting up some boards from the floor, I found an abundant explanation of the general bad health of the family. The pipe which came down from the kitchen above and entered this well did not prevent the surface-water from flowing in. I may re- mark, that during the year previous to the occupatien of this house by my friend, a family occupying the premises had lost two children. Nothing could be done but to dig a well at some little distance from the house. Soon the health of the family so much improved that there was no longer any doubt about the cause of their ailments. liead Pipes. There can be no doubt that lead pipe in our water service is dangerous to health and life. It is . hardly necessary, after the volumes of evidence already be- fore the public, to illustrate and explain. It only re- mains to join in the wish that soon lead pipe may be exchanged for the galvanized iron pipe, which has already been accomplished in my own residence in Boston, with enfire satisfaction. • TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 161 People ask with a bewildered air, " What shall we do ? We know that lead pipes are dangerous, but we must have water by some means." In reply to this question, I advise galvanized iron, or, if you please, simple iron pipe without galvanizing. Either is good, but the galvanized is cheaper, because it will last very much longer. ■ Lead pipe with tin lining, copper pipe with tin lin- ing, and many other substitutes have been used. Paper pipe, which is now coming into use, promises well. It is made of strong paper, wound into pipes, and thoroughly soaked in tar. It becomes so hard and strong that it will bear a pressure almost equal to iron, and will not rust or decay. Besides, it gives no poison to the water. As this pipe is cheap and easily joined, end to end, I do not see why it may riot come into general use. Some years ago I laid down a thousand feet of two-inch paper pipe, to convey water from a spring to my house and barn in the country. It has never leaked ; it has never imparted any per- ceptible taste to the water ; in brief, it has always proved perfectly satisfactory. Glass pipe is, healthwise, perfect, and has been quite extensively used. On the whole, iron and paper pipes are best. 162 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Drinks. What shall I drink ? is a common question from those who are seriously discussing a higher life. My answer, in most cases, is this : Drink cold water on rising in the morning and on lying down at night ; and, unless you find that it disagrees with you, drink as much as you can swallow. If .you have good teeth, drink nothing with your meals ; but if your teeth are imperfect, and you must have some assistance in swallowing the food, drink hot 1 cater and milk, or weak coffee and weak tea. If you drink a single cup of the best coffee or tea, quite weak, it is, perhaps, all in all considered, the best drink. Of course, either of these, when there exists a de- cided tendency to cerebral congestion or nervousness, may be counter-indicated. They should not be drank hot ; a little over a hundred degrees is quite warm enough. Besides these drinks, I may mention cocoa and choco- late, both of which are healthful drinks when used in moderation. Sweet buttermilk is a particularly refreshing and healthful drink. Soda-water Is a fashionable drink, and, if not used within four hours after a meal and, say, one glass a day, may be a harmless one. Cer- TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 163 tain root beers (for example, Ottawa beer) are very palatable and not injurious. Intoxicating; Drinks^ I shall not in this place undertake to consider the subject of alcoholic stimulus. Its prescription, as a medicine, by an intelligent physician will ever be re- spected by the public ; but with me it is a settled con- viction that, every form of alcoholic stimulus, though it be that of the light French wines, is injurious. The liquors which have been employed on shipboard, in Arctic regions, or by armies in hot. climates, have been shown to be evil and only evil. The most overwhelming proofs have been produced before the Engffsh Parliament that the use of even moderate quantities of alcoholic stimulus helps to freeze men to death in the Arctic regions, and to produce various fatal diseases in the hot climates ; that, in a single word, they are, without qualification, had. AH those' who would investigate this subject further, I take the liberty to refer to Dr. Carpenter's remark- able essay, which received a handsome prize from the British Parliament. He leaves us not a peo- on which to hang an apology for rum. Pie overwhelms us with facts showing that alcoholic stimulus is an un- mitigated curse to British sailors and soldiers, in all climates and under all circumstances. 164 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Cold Drinks During^ Meals. Dr. Beaumont, to whom, in writing on the stomach, one finds himself obliged to refer so constantly, makes a very interesting statement illustrating the influence of cold drinks upon digestion. He placed his ther- mometer in St. Martin's stomach, and found the tem- perature 99". A gill of water, at the temperature of 55°, was introduced. As soon, says Dr. Beaumont, as it was diffused over the interior surface, the tem- perature was reduced to 70°, at which it stood for a few minutes, and then began very slowly to rise. It was not till thirty minutes had elapsed, and all the water had been for some time absorbed, that the mer- cury regained its former level of 99°. > When we reflect that, in this case, there was but a single gill of water, and the temperature was 55°, which hardly deserves the name of cold, we shall not hesitate in pronouncing upon the habit of drinking the usual quantities of ice water with our meals, or that of consuming at the end of a full meal a dish of ice cream. When we remember that a temperature of 99° is absolutely required to carry forward the process of digestion, can we doubt, if a gill of water at a tem- perature of 55° produced such a marked effect upon TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 165 the Stomach of St. Martin, a person of the rarest vigor and health, I say, can we doubt what must be the influence of a pint of ice water upon the stomach of a person of weak digestion ? It is not intended to say that cold water should never be drank during the meal time, because if at the moment the system is thirsty — ^really requires water, it is bettei* to drink even ice water than to undertake the mastication and insalivation of a meal with a lack of the required water in the blood. As stated in other places in this volume, a certain amount of water is required to carry on the functions of the animal economy, and one important function is to keep the body cool, during the heated season, by a rapid evaporation from the skin. This, during the warmest seasons, requires considerable quantities of water. So far as possible, this should be taken into" the system upon rising in the morning and upon lying down at night. If, during the warm season, a quart of water be Introduced at these two periods, it would greatly lessen the nec.essity of drinking at meal times. But there is no doubt it is a less evil to chill the stom- ach, to reduce its temperature thirty degrees, and to hold it below the point of digestion even a half hour or more, than to allow the system to go without the requisite supplies of water. 166 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. mineral "Waters. It's a singular fancy that a water the taste and smell of which are disgusting, is "drefFul healthy." At the mineral springs I have seen people guzzling liquids which were sickening. It is very funny — the martyr spirit in which they choke it down. The notion that these stinking waters are healthy, must come from the old idea that all good medicines are bad to take. Most folks will never believe that a sugar-coated pill can be as efficacious as one that goes down with a shuddering gasp. I remember that a sort of Scotch-Yankee, — a tall, gaunt, uncouth customer, — came into my office some years ago, kept his overcoat closely buttoned, and asked in a whisper, " Can I see you privately about something very im- portant ? " " Oh," I said, " speak out, my clerk never leaks." "Oh, I wouldn't for the world. I tell you it is something very important, its a big thing ! " I sent out the clerk, and then said to my mysterious visitor, "Now, sir, speak on, I have but a moment to spare." He then slowly unbuttoned his overcoat,, looked TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 167 from side to side, and drawing out of a deep pocket in his undercoat, a black bottle, he pulled out the cork, and again looking to make sure that no outsider should overhear, he stuck it up to my nose, with : " Smell of that, I'ye got a spring on my farm that sends out a stream as big as your arm, all just lUie that." "I hope it aint very near your house, for I never smelt such a stink in my life." "Why," said he, "that smells exactly like some of them Saratoga waters. Don't you think it must be awful healthy?" I ■ fear his visions of a second Saratoga gathered about that spring were somewhat disturbed, but still before he left he charged me to keep dark, for said he, " I teU you it's a big thing, and there is enough for us all." Another phase of this ridiculous mama is often met in the profound opinions of people who aiFect sci- ence. One of this class showed me the analysis of the waters of a certain spring, just now much lauded, and said, " tliere is Chloride of Magnesium and Bro- mide of Potassium and Sesquioxide of Manganese ; those must be good. I think they are just what I need." I congratulated him upon his intimate knowledge of 168 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. his physiological wants, and assured him that with thirty years of physiological study, I had only learned that a sick man needs fresh air, sunshine, temperance in food and work, a clean skin and plenty of sleep ; but as for these high sounding ingredients of mineral waters, I had not yet learned what seemed so easy and clear to him. I have no doubt that if a man eats enormously of stimulating, indigestible food, drinks wine, tea and coiFee, sits up till midnight, neglects his skin and so on — the modern fast life, and thus induces a feverish condition of all his tissues, he may, by swallowing quantities of cathartic waters, superinduce a new con- dition of his system, and as in the case of mercury, or other drugs, will, for a time, feel better ; but a man of good habits needs none of these things and will only be harmed by them. What Shall We Drink! You know that a great many people are constantly on the qui vive about new drinks. Most sick folks seem to think that if salvation ever comes to them, it wiU come from a bottle. Millions upon millions of bottles of various fluids are yearly drank in our coun- try, to relieve thirst, and for their medicinal virtues. I must tell you a little story. I have a friend here TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 169 in Boston, Colonel B. The Colonel has suffered, during fifteen years, from what he calls rheumatism, what I call gout. He often comes in to advise with me, and never fails to show his favorite toe. I never allow such an occasion to pass without repeating, in one form or another, my belief, that whenever he can come down to simple water, and a plain diet, he will get well. On the occasion of such a visit recently, I said to him : — " Colonel, I now wish to prescribe for you." "Well, is it your cold water and starvation prescrip- tion?" " Colonel, I think you will be interested in anew discovery which I have made, and which I am sure, if you take the remedy faithfully, will cure you." "Well, pray tell me what it is, for I would give a fortune to be able to run about as I did thirty years ago." " Colonel, the new remedy is known as ^protoxide of hydrogen.^" " Prot — prot — ox — ox — what did you say it was ? Speak that again." " It is protoxide of hydrogen. Colonel." " You will have to write that for me. I am sure I can't remember it. And you must tell me where I can get it." 170 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. " Well, I will write it, — there it is ; protoxide of hydrogen." "Now, where can I obtain it?" " Weil, at almost any of the drug stores." "Do they keep it in bottles, or on draught?" "You can obtain it in either form." The Colonel started with the remark, " I really be- lieve. Doctor, that at last you begin to understand my case. I have always told you that if I was ever cured, it would be with some new mineral water, or some such sort of stuiF; something that would drive out this miserable devil in my foot." As the Colonel was about to leave I said to him : — " Colonel, I don't know but I had better give you the common name for this new fluid, for the druggists may not know it by the scientific name." " Oh, well, if there is a common name, to be sure you had better give it." So I took the prescription and wrote the word "water." " But," said the Colonel, putting on his glasses and reading the new word, " is not that water ? " "Yes, Colonel, that is it. Protoxide of hydrogen is the scientific name for water, and I -never was more certain of anything than I am that if you will confine yourself to protoxide of hydrogen, leave your brandy TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S ST03IACHS. 171 and champagne, those inflamed joints will get well." " Oh, bah ! I don't believe in any such silly, sim- ple stufF.". The fact is that thousands have so long regarded medicines as the only source of relief, when sick, that if water could be put in bottles, slightly colored with some harmless substance, and a tumblerful given three times a. day, leaving off tea, coffee and spirits of every kind, thousands of people who are now inflaming their tissues with these various narcotic and stimulating drinks, would recover from their sufferings. I will confess to a little experiment which I made, many years ago, upon the imagination of a susceptible patient. The lady believed that her heart was falling down into her abdomen. She felt it just as plain as could be. At length it reached -the very lowest part. Then I could put her ofi^ no longer. Something must be done. I gave her a vial of water, slightly colored with a little inert vegetable dye, and directed her to take thirty-three drops once in thirty-three minutes, and charged her to be particular about the time, to a second. I promised to call again at five minutes before three o'clock, and,, comparing watches, I told her 'she might expect me exactly at the minute. I told her, . in the most solemn and earnest way, that she might 172 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOxMACHS. look for a peculiar crawling sensation in the' abdomen, which would rise gradually till it reached the former position of the heart, and it would then pass off by peculiar flashes. I called precisely at the appointed time, and learned that the crawling had begun. She told me, her eyes overflowing with gratitude, that she could feci the heart working up after every dose of the medicine. I promised to call again at exactly twenty minutes past eight, and if, in the meantime, her heart began to rise too fast, she must send for me immedl- ately. All went on well, till ifear eight, when a mes- senger came bawling into my office : — " Dochtor, oh ! dochtor dear, come as quick as iver you can fly ! it's risin' too fast intirely ! " I had increased the dose from thirty-three to forty- one drops at the three o'clock visit, and the effect had been marvellous. Indeed, it had been exactly what I had desired ; but the ascension was now too rapid, and I must resort to a desperate expedient. I must put sixty-five drops on the outside to counteract the too powerful influence of the forty-one drops inside. 1 remained two hours to see her through. All went on wonjlerfully, and by ten o'clock the heart was in the right place, and the doctor had performed a mira- cle. A month later, and she told me, when paying her bill, -that I might expect to be handsomely m*en- TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 173 tioned in her will. Indeed, this tinck, (I now think it was an unworthy trick,) secured me a gratitude, which no truthful, common-sense management of her case could have won. People like to be humbugged, Barnuni says, and though this may not be true, I think even intelligent people do like a little mystery in their medical treat- ment. It is, notwithstanding, the duty of the medical man tojsee, that so far as his individual influence may go,, the light of common-sense is kt in upon the wholej subject. The fact is, the history of dosing is so unreasonable, not to say silly, that wc have been obliged to hide be- hind Latin and professional ahems, else the people would have abandoned us. When two doctors with brains meet at the bedside of a patient, and proceed to count his pulse, look at his tongue, and do up the doses, they hardly dare look each other in the face, lest they burst out laughing. Ah, but when the practice of medicine shall consist in guiding the people aright in all 'their habits while they are well, and helping them when sick to»bathe in Nature's pool of Bethesda, then it will be a profes- sion of truest dignity, and of largest opportunity for the largest and noblest men. 174 TALKS ABOUT TEOrLE'S STOMACHS. HUMAW STARVATION. Dr. Jones, of Augusta, Georgia, made a report to the authorities at Richmond, of the condition of the Federal prisoners confined at Andersonville. The following extracts from Dr. Jones's report are introduced here to illustrate the phenomena of starva- tion. I have spent some days in looking through our Boston libraries to find descriptions of starvation #n tnan, and, at length, fell upon this graphic, terrible story of Andersonville. The history of the world contains nothing like it, and it is presumed, should the world continue for ar thousand ages, medical w^riters will ever recal the sickening tale of Ander- sonville, as_ the one unparalleled instance of star- vation : — "The field was of great extent and of extraordinary interest. * There were more than five thousand seri- ously sick in the hosjjital and stockade, and the deaths ranged from ninety to one hundred and thirty each day. Since the establishment of this prison, on the 24th of February, 1864, to the present time, over ten thousand Federal prisoners have died : that is, near one-third of the entire number have perished in less than seven months. I instituted careful investigations TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 175 into the condition of the sick and well", and performed numerous post-mortem examinations, and executed drawings of the diseased structures. The medical topography of Andersonville and the surrounding country was examined, and the waters of the streams, springs and wells around and within the stockatle and hospital carefully analyzed. "Diarrhoea, dysentery, scurvy, and hospital gan- grene were the "diseases which have been the main causes of the extraordinary mortality. The origin and causes of the hospital gangrene, which prevailed to so remarkable a degree, engaged my most serious and earnest consideration. More than thirty thousand men crowded upon twentyrscven acres of land, with little or no shelter from the intense heat of a southern sum- mer, or from the rain and dew ; with coarse corn bread from which the husks had not been removed ; with scant supplies of fresh meat and vegetables ; with little or no attention to hygiene ; with festering masses of filth at the very doors of their rude dens and huts ; with the greater portion of the banks of the streams flowing through the stockade a filthy quagmire of hu- man excrement alive with working maggots, generat- ing, by their own filthy exhalations and excretions, an atmosphere that so deteriorated and contaminated their solids and fluids, that the slightest scratch of the sur- 176 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. face, even the bites of small insects, were frequently followed by such rapid and extensive gangrene, as to destroy extremities, and even life itself. " A large number of operations have been performed in the hospital, on account of gangrene following slight injuries and mere abrasions of the surface. In almost every case of amputation for gangrene, the disease returned, and a large proportion of the cases have terminated fatally. I recorded careful observa- tions upon the origin and progress of these causes of gangrene, and examined the bodies after death, and noted the pathological changes of the organs and tissues. All these observations, together with the drawings, will be forwar'ded^ to the Surgeon- General at the earliest possible moment. ***** " In such cases an urgent feeling of hunger was not a prominent symptom ; and, even when it existed at first, it soon disappeared, and was succeeded by an actual loathing of food. In this state the muscular strength was rapidly diminished, the tissues wasted, and the thin,, skeleton-like forms moved about with the appearance of utter exhaustion and dejection. The mental condition, connected with long confine- ment, with the most miserable surroundings and with no hope for the future, also depressed all the nervous TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 177 and vital actions, and was specially active in destroy- ing the appetite. The eiFects of mental depression and of defective nutrition were manifested not only in the slow, feeble motions of the wasted, skeleton-like forms, but also in such lethargy, listlessness and tor- por of the mental faculties, as rendered these unfortu- nate men oblivious and indifferent to their afflicted condition. In many cases, even of the greatest ap- parent-suffering and distress, instead of showing any anxiety to communicate the causes of their distress, or to relate their privations and their longings for their homes and their friends and relations, they lay in a listless, • lethargic, uncomplaining state, taking no notice either of their own distressed condition or of the gigantic mass of human misery by which they were surrounded. " Nothing appalled and depressed me so much as this silent, uncomplaining misery." From all the military prisons in the South the same thrilling and awful illustrations of starvation may be gathered ; but Dr. Jones, who has lon^ been known to the medical profession as the author of valuable medical papers, has given us, in his reports from An- dersonville, a graphic statement of the symptoms of , starvation; His field of observation was immense and complete. 178 TALKS -UJOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Starvation as a Cure or Dyspepsia. Many dyspeptics have completed the ruin of their' stomachs by starvation. Observing that, for the time Ijeing, it affords relief, they conclude that in this they are to find a cure. But after awhile they learn, to their sorrow, that the stomach, with almost nothing to do, accommodates itself to this nothing, and loses the power of digestion. An intelligent lady said : — " About a year ago I began to suffer from heartburn and constipation. A friend advised me to go without supper, and take only a small quantity of brSad and baked apples for breakfast and dhmer. At first I was delighted with the change. All my nervousness and low spirits passed away, and I thought I had discov- ered an important secret. After a time, I found that even the small quantity I had been 'eating, was too much, and I reduced it still further. Within three or four months, my stomach, and my whole body, became so weak, that I found the least increase in the quantity of food, or any unusual exercise, produced great weak- ness, and suffering in my stomach. Within the year I have lost more than thirty pounds of flesh, and my stomach is now so weak that an extra swallow of water, an extra ounce of bread, or an extra baked apple, produces great suffering." TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 179 This woman being young, will recover, but it wilL be through much suflfering. I recommended the mod- erate use of meat, and a gradual increase in the quan- tity and strength of her nutriment. The tone of the stomach, like the tone of the mus- cles, may be lost by lack of exercise. While it is the common thing to find dyspepsia produced by excessive and injudicious eating, it certainly is not very uncom- mon to meet cases of dyspepsia produced by starva- tion. There is a curious fact about digestion which is not easily explained. It is that Strong, hard-working men can digest strong food with greater satisfaction than light digestible things. For example, I have known many such persons who could digest hard boiled eggs much easier than soft ones. They not only relished them better, but the hard ones seemed to agree better with their stomachs. An old woman , to whom I was mentioning this fact, said : — " Sartin, I allers knowed that, and I'll tell ye why. Now my old man couldn't never eat pap, it turned his stummick ; but laws a mercy how that critter would put down cheese. Ye see there was something in the cheese for his stummick to git hold on. John never could write with limber pens, but with a ra'al stiff one he could write fust rate, — something to git hold on. 180 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Cookery. In ancient Rome the cook was regarded with great honor. The Sicilian cooks won the highest honors. In the time of the first Roman emperors a sum as large as $4,000 a year was given to the best cooks. Mark Anthony gave his cook a whole corpo^ rate town, or municipum, because he dressed a pud- ding to the satisfaction of Cleopatra. Afterwards, Henry VIII, of England, presented one of the crown manors to a woman who compounded a pudding to his taste. In modern times, the French enjoy the reputation of succeeding best in the culinary art, and I think their reputation is well founded. They make more out of a little, — they extra^ a larger amount of nourishment and present it in a more palatable form, than other cooks. The best class of French cooks succeed in preparing a great number of very delicious dishes from cheap and unpromising, bits. I think the French have made, in this art, one of their most im- portant contributions to civilization. Monsieur Blot is engaged in a good work ia intro- ducing to the women of America- the art of French cookery. The very best meats, vegetables and flour may be TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 181 SO spoiled in the cooking, that they not only fail to gratify our palatesj but, in addition, they ruin our 'Stomachs. The magnitude of Monsieur Blot's contributions to our welfare it is somewhat difficult to appreciate. He begins by convincing his audiences that cooking is one of the finest of the fine arts. When that is estab- lished in the mind of an intelligent American woman, the task is half finished ; for, despairing of the success of an art which she has come to see requires intelli- gence a,nd delicate skill, — despairing of even tolera- ble results in the hands of Bridget OTlaherty, who last month arrived fresh from a mud hut and a diet of potatoes, somewhere, in Ireland, my lady is com- pelled to go into the kitchen and put into practice what she has learned in her course of lessons. This earnest interest which has been provoked in a thou- sand households by the labors of the Frenchman,' can- not fail to result in great good. While I do not believe that women were made solely to cook food and mend stockings, I do believe that, as our domestic life is organized, it is desirable that every wife s]y)uld understand the art of plain cooking. She should know how to make good bread, how: to cook plain meats, and how to prepare the or- dinary vegetables. These things are not achieved 182 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. without a certain acquired skill. An unpracticed hand cannot boil or bake a potato well. Give her the best material and she will ruin it. To Make Oatmeal Porridge. — Sift slowly good oatmeal into boiling water, add a little salt, and stir very thoroughly, and boil for fifteen minutes. A fari- na or double boiler, with water between the outside and inside one, possesses a marked advantage over a single boiler. Eat it with cream and sugar, only let the quantity of sugar be small. Eye Meal PaoDiNO. — Exactly as in the case of the oatmeal porridge, except the boiling must continue twenty minutes. Hasty Pudding (Inddin) . — Exactly as with the oatmeal porridge, except that the boiling must be con- tinued three-quarters of an hour. Hasty Pudding (Indian and Oats). — Mix In- dian meal and oatmeal, half and half. Manage exact- ly in this case as in the oatmeal porridge, but continue the boiling three-quarters of an hour. Farina Porridge or Pudding. — This is made like the oatmeal porridge, but boiled twenty minutes. Cracked Wheat. — First lookl over the cracked, wheat and remove all the little black seeds. In order to make it quite satisfactory, and with very little trou- ble, use either a farina boiler, or else make by steam. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLES STOMACHS. 183 To one cup of cracked wheat put in three cups of water. If you use a farina boiler, fill up the space between the outside and inside boiler, and then set it in a place where it will keep just boiling hot. Let it remain four to five hours, and just before taking it off" the stove, put in a little salt. Eat with milk and sugar (very little sugar) , or with syrup. Meat Stews. — If the meat has not been cooked before, boil' it until it is half done. Then put in pota- toes quartered, a carrot or two, a turnip, and boil until done. Add a little salt, and any other condi- ment that your palate may fancy. ■ Mrs. Postawka, who has charge of my owii kitchen, has given me th^above, and now advises me to recom- mend all earnest inquirers to obtain a full receipt-book. She thinks the best cook-book yet published in this country is by Mrs. E. Putnam, published by Sheldon & Co., 500 Broadway, New York, In this there are full details in regard to the making of plain bread and cake, soups, modes of cooking fish, meats, poultry, salads and dressings ; preparation of garnishing for dishes, sauces, cooking vegetables, making pastry, puddings, ice cream, cake, preserves, dishes for the sick, economical receipts (important department,) etc., etc. 184 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Biddy O'Flannigan as a Cook. Deacon W , residing six miles out of Boston, quarrelled and parted with his coachman and his cook on the fifth of July. They returned from Boston late on the evening of the fourth, a little too patriotic for practical purposes, and the result was that on the morning of the fifth they were sent off". Mrs. W being an invalid, was in great distress, as she expected company, while the Deacon was very, very sorry about his horses. But he hurried in after bi-eakfast, put arf advertisement in three papers, with directions to call at his office in Kilby street. The' next morning they began to come. The Deacon un- derstands the necessity of a good hostler, and asked certain questions of every man who applied for the po- sition of coachman. "How often do you think horses should be fed? What do you think is the best food ? Should it be giv- en whole or ground? When should hay be given? Should it be fed in a. rack or from a trough ? When should the horses be watered ? Should they be allowed to drink all they want?" etc., etc. The Deacon had determined he would not be humbugged. He knew that if his horses were to flourish the man having charge flf them must be intelligent and understand the busi- TALKS iUJOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 185 ness of feeding, driving and taking care of them. The Deacon asked many questions about the use of the cur- ry-conib, brush, blankets, etc. Nearly thirty men called before he found one that suited him. After receiving satisfactory answers to his many questions and examining the man's "character," he concluded, with some misgivings, to engage him. The wages were thirty-five dollars per month. He cared little what price he paid, so he got a man who could fill th^ bill. The Deacon engaged the second girl that applied for the position of cook. The first one was evidently in- temperate. The second one was quite young, but clean, and healthy. He asked her if she could do plain cooking. She replied, " Bedad, and it's meself that can do that same ! " The Deacon wished to see her "character", which, although written by an unknown party, stated that she was honest, a good plain cook, with but little experience. The Deacon said that would do, — it was simply a cook they wanted. So after agreeing upon $3 a week, he gave her a car ticket, and a card with the directions, and forwarded her to Madam, that the machinery of the country home might be set in motion. The Deacon has four children de- pendent, with himself and wife, upon the cook for health of brain and mind. This ignorant Irish girl^ 186 TALKS ABOUT PEOI'LE'S STOMACHS. without experleBce,.was given unrestrained, unlooked- after charge of the preparation of all the food for the family. The health, the happiness of the group, were made to hinge upon Biddy's skill in cooking. When the Deacon returned in the evening, he went directly to the barn, and for half a month looked after his horses more or less every day, lest Thomas's skill should not fully meet the necessities of the case. ' But no one seemed to doubt that Biddy would be - able to prepare the food all right for the family. There is no doubt, that the best cooking requires rare skill. One, woman takes from a certain barrel, flour ; from a certain other barrel, potatoes, and from the table, a piece of beef. Another woman takes the same things. Each proceeds to prepare a dinner for ten persons. In one case, the food is delicious, easily digested, and gives health and strength; in the other, the food is not palatable, it is very difficult to digest, and, instead of giving health and strength, produces an attack of dyspepsia. Among cooks, one in ten may be ranked as good ; the other nine are bad, or indifferent. If we had schools for instruction in cooking, and all aspirants to the profession were obliged to earn diplo- mas, nine in ten af the cooks would be good ones. The Irish brain is not particularly susceptible to the TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 187 training required in the best cooking. But while a man insists upon the best tailor in town, upon the best upholsterer, the best dressmaker, the finest church, . school, actor, and artist, and would laugh at the idea of a green Irishman in any of them, he. goes to an in- telligence office, picks up a fresh-caught Irish girl, and hires her to perform services more important than all of these put together, — I mean more important to the health and happiness of himself and his loved ones. For the present, the most feasible means, is to do what severat towns are already* doing, viz. : join in a co-operative kitchen, in which, by tbe best skill, food may be cooked for the whole town, and in those little tin boxes now so much used for transporting soups and hot meats, everything may be delivered at the fur- thest house in town as hot as in a room next to the kitchen. This, if we can make up our minds to it, is altogether the cheapest, most satisfactory S.nd health- ful. I should not so much object to employing Bridget to make a dress for my wife, to teach the piano, or to do any other similar service, if we were hard pushed ; but I protest that ignorance and stupidity shall not rule in the kitchen. The physical, intellectual and moral life of the household rests upon the kitchen, almost to the same extent that a building rests upon 188 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. its foundation. Jn the kitchen, if nowhere else, we must have judgment and skill. Two things must be done if we continue to live in this isolated way — each family running a kitchen for it- self, we must establish schools for training cooks, and we must make up our minds to pay eight or ten dol- lars a week for the services of a good cook. There is no such waste in any other department of our life. We provide the very best flour, meats, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruits, sauces and condiments which the capital, science and skill of the world can produce. In making these purchases we pour out our money like water. Delivered in our kitchens, Bridget O'Flaherty, surrounded by ranges, boilers, steamers, and a thousand and one conveniences, prepares and sends up to the dining-room, stuff, which does not gratify the palate, which damages the stomach, poisons the blood, and seriously deranges our entire life, phys- ical, intellectual, social, moral, religious. At no other point, I repeat, in our civilized life, is there such stupid, reckless waste. No sane man would permit such ignorant, stupid waste in the management of his horses or his hogs. Christianity can make but little progress under the present system of cookery. Dyspepsia is a cloud so dense, it shuts out the very light of Heaven. TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 189 Corsets and Digestion. One of the essential forces in digestion is a certain motion of the stomach and intestines, known as the vermicular or worm-like motion. The contents of the stomach during digestion must be constantly mixed and intermixed. The motion of the stomach accom- plishes this mixing and intermixing. " Please go with me to the ^^ House to dinner to-day. " Well, here we are. I want you to watch the la- dies as they come in. I can't bear to hear men criti- cise ladies, but we will venture a little observation and comment, in a low voice, and we won't let them see that we are looking at them. " Do you see that slight, pale lady with the little girl ? She is the wife of Mr. H. our wealthy broker. She is in wretched health. Look at her waist !. What do you think of the chances. of the vermicular motion in her stomach ? It wouldn't take very long hands to clasp round that waist. And within that space not only must the stomach work, but the liver, spleen, pancreas, transverse colon, several feet of the small intestines, and many large arteries, veins and other organs must all find room to work. Things get sadly mixed and distorted. 190 TALICS ABOUT I'EOPLE'S STOMACHS. " Look at that large red-faced woman leaning on the arm of that little man. - What immense shoulders and hips. But just notice her waist. Do you know that women have naturally larger waists in proportion to tlieir shoulders than men. Look on the first page of any anatomical work and you will see ! Look . at the Greek Slave by PoweFs. Compare that with any of the great master-pieces representing the male figure, and you will see that the female has a larger waist in proportion to the shoulders than the male. That lady weighs over two hundred pounds, while her waist is much smaller than her husband's, and he weighs not more than one hundred and twenty pounds. Her stomach after dinner is, or should be, pretty large, her liver is an immense organ, — then all the other organs which I have mentioned must find a place in there somewhere. And now, how do you suppose they manage it ? Well, they get doubled up and twisted about in a very remarkable way, and a very large part of the mass is jammed down into the lower part of the abdomen. When she rises, if you will look at her person, you will observe that the lower part of the abdomen is immensely protuberant. Half of all which belongs in that part of the uppgr abdomen where the corset has compelled that deep scoop-shovel hollow has been pressed down into the lower abdomen. T.VLKS ABOUT PEOPLE S STOMACHS. 191 "Let US watch this large woman a little, while she eats. Soup, salmon, beef, canvass-back and plum- pudding, with all the fixings, and two glasses of sherry ! What do you think of that for her doubled and twisted stomach? ."Now we will go. Have you seen one in this large company of ladies who givdS her stomach a fair chance for the vermicular motion ? "And they can't understand this miserable, drag- ging, faint feeling in the stomach, and that other dis- tressing sensation of pressing down in the lower part of the abdomen." You might just as well expect the arm or leg to work without room, as the stomach. If the stomach could speak for itself, I fancy it would say : — " What do you take me for ? Do you think 1 can digest soup, fish, meat, game, pudding, pie, ice cream, etc., and, at- the same time, be squeezed with those infernal whalebones laced down all around me with that strong cord? What do you think I am? Do you take me for a mule or jackass? My mistress, suppose your arms and legs were all tied with strong cords, and then the cruel torturer were to command you to rise and toil ! What would you think of it ? Well, that is just what I think of your tying me down, and then commanding; me to work. 11)2 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STO>L\CHS. "WeiK^lit" in the Stomach. I frequently meet a case of indigestion the most marked feature of which is what the patient calls weight in the stomach. Sometimes it is spoken of as pressure, and again as stricture, but the most common word is weight. Somelimes the patient will say, " It seems to me I have a stone, or a mass of iron," and one lady said the other day, " I have an iron wedge in my stomach." Generally these sufferers attribute the sensation to weight of the food. An intelligent clergyman said, " I suppose my stctaach has become exceedingly sensitive to pressure and the food pressing upon the surface which has become so tender produces this sensation of weight." This explanation is entirely nt fault. Instead of being produced by the presence of a heavy mass in the stomach, in its most intense and unbearable forms I have found that it does not appear in connection with a full meal, but is much more likely to come on after eating a few mouthfuls of cracker, or fine flour bread, or a single hot biscuit. The patient may have ground it between his teeth with the greatest care, but soon after swallowing, this sensation of weight appears. More frequently, how- ever, there seems to be no connection whatever with the presence of food in the stomach. The sensation TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 193 is not produced so much by what is in the stomach as by certain conditions of the walls of the stomach it- self ; in brief, it is produced by congestion of the walls of the organ. Accompanying this congestion there is generally an adhesive mucous poured out, which sticks to the surface of the inner coat. I may add, that this sensation of weight is nearly always a little to the right of the pit of the stomach, and that it is found that the congestion and adhesive mucous, which seem to stand in the relation of cause to this sensation, are found at the right or pyloric extremity of the stomach. This sensation of weight is not relieved by stimulus. If it were produced by a load of food pressing upon the weakened walls of the stomach, a glass of wliisfeey or wine, which would arouse the flagging contractility of the stomach, would afford, at least, a temporary relief. Whereas it is found that the employment of alcoholic drinks only increases the trouble. Indeed, drunkards suffer more intensely from this sensation of " weight in the stomach," than any otfier class of dys- peptics. The most striking relief, for the time being, is ob- tained fromjiot fomentations over the pit of the stom- ach. A mustard poultice applied over the stomach is v6ry effectual. 194 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. Excesses in Eating'. " Sir Francis Head, in his humorous book entitled Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau, by an Old Man, expresses his astonishment at the ' enormous quantity of provisions ' which the invalids and sojourners at these watering places " so placidly consume ; '. and, after noticing ' the heavy masses which constitute the foundation of the dinner-, and the successive layers of salmon — fowls — ^puddings — meat again — stewed fruit, and, lastly, majestic legs of mutton — which form the lighter superstructure,' he adds : ' Nothing which- this world affords could induce me to feed in this gross manner. The pig which lives "in his sty would have some excuse, but it is really quite shocking to see any other animal overpowering himself at mid-day witli such a mixture and superabundance of food (p. 71). In another page he returns to the subject, and quaintly enough remarks, ' that almost every malady to which the human frame is subject is, either by high-ways or by-ways, connected with the stomach ; and I must own, I never see a fashionable physician mysteriously count- ing the pulse of a plethoric patient, or, with a silver spoon on his tongue, Importantly looking down his red inflamed gullet (so properly termed by Johnson " the meat-pipe"), but I feel a desire to exclaim, "Why TALKS ^ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. 195 not tell the poor gentleman at once — Sir, you've eaten too much, you've drunk too much, and you've not taken exercise enough ! " That these are the main causes of almost every one's illness, there can be no greater proof than that those savage nations which live actively and temperately have only one great disorder — lan. 254 TALKS ABOUT PEOPLE'S STOMACHS. So I went up to Lexington, ten miles from Boston, and purchased the largest buildings in the neighbor- hood of the city. After a year's preparation, a school was opened. The character of the announcement, with what the public knew of my interest in physi