Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/86

76 by condiments, and tempted to excess by culinary refinements. Dyspepsia is not the worst result of this. Gout, and still more serious maladies connected with an impure state of blood, closely follow.

Infringements of the laws of digestion are constantly and in many instances unconsciously committed. One man digests with ease an amount of food which would be fatal to the comfort of another. Animal food is easily digested by some persons twice, or even three times daily; while, if taken by others more than once, it is sure to induce suffering. Nevertheless, the diet of persons associated together is apt to be the same, and a sufficient individuality in matters of eating and drinking is seldom observed.

When the general health is impaired from any cause, digestion infallibly suffers. In many instances it is sought to prop up the one by overtaxing the powers of the other, and dyspepsia is often thus permanently added to the old disorder. The proverb, "Custom is second nature," applies to the human constitution. Health may be maintained, by gradual usage, under circumstances which would be disastrous to the novice. In this country, great faults are committed in the relative amount and distribution of meals. Breakfast frequently consists of tea or coffee, with a small proportion of plain bread or toast. This allays the appetite, but is insufficient for the supply of bodily waste during the long interval between breakfast and a late dinner; during which, in many instances, no luncheon is taken. It also often happens that no solid food is taken from dinner time until the following morning, which is an additional reason for a more substantial breakfast.

Experience shows that the delicate stomach suffers severely from these causes. In some instances, the long unemployed organ secretes an excess of mucus, which greatly interferes with digestion. A sufficient amount of food at breakfast has a direct influence on the digestion of dinner; in which process, large quantities of gastric juice—a fluid charged with nitrogenous and other materials—must be suddenly extracted from the blood. No argument is needed to prove that the blood will be better fitted for these demands upon it, if replenished by the absorption of a substantial breakfast. If gastric juice, insufficient in quantity or of bad quality, be supplied, the appetite for dinner exceeds the digestive power, and another material cause of dyspepsia arises. Long: abstinence thus causes the amount of food taken at dinner to be relatively, as well as absolutely, in excess. When a sufficient quantity of nutriment has been taken in the morning, less will be requisite at a later period, and less will be desired.

The distribution of meals in point of time is by many regarded as quite unimportant. Dinner, as has been said, comes late, quickly followed by tea, and sometimes by supper also. This approximation