Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 18.djvu/396

382 on about two hours after meals, is not uncommonly met with in persons belonging to the upper classes who are well fed and have little exercise. It is perhaps seen in its most marked form in young women or girls who have left school, and who, having no definite occupation in life, are indisposed to any exercise, either bodily or mental. I am led to look upon this condition as one of poisoning, both on account of the time of its occurrence, during the absorption of digestive products, and by reason of the peculiar symptoms—viz., a curious weight in the legs and arms, the patient describing them as feeling like lumps of lead. These symptoms so much resemble the effect which would be produced by a poison like curare, that one could hardly help attributing them to the action of a depressant or paralyzer of motor nerves or centers. The recent researches of Ludwig and Schmidt-Mühlheim render it exceedingly probable that peptones are the poisonous agents in these cases, and an observation which I have made seems to confirm this conclusion, for I found that the weakness and languor were apparently less after meals consisting of farinaceous food only. My observations, however, are not sufficiently extensive to absolutely convince me that they are entirely absent after meals of this sort, so that possibly the poisoning by peptones, although one cause of the languor, is not to be looked upon as the only cause. A glass of soda water, with or without the juice of a lemon squeezed into it, may be slowly sipped when the feeling of weakness comes on, and a biscuit may be eaten along with it if desired. This will sometimes relieve languor, but if it be found insufficient, a small cup of warm but weak tea or cocoa with a biscuit will act as an efficient stimulant, although they may be less unobjectionable than the soda-water. Heat is one of the most powerful of all cardiac stimulants, and any warm fluid in the stomach will increase its action; a cup of warm water alone will do this, but it is unpleasant to take, and so something must be added to flavor it: a little claret may be used if tea disagrees, or tincture of ginger and sugar, or even some Liebig's extract. It is the local action of the warmth that we want, and in order to obtain it we may sometimes have to put up with the inconvenience of giving substances which will be to some extent injurious after their absorption, such as beef-extract or even whisky. The advice that I have given here, in recommending a glass of cold soda-water or a cup of hot tea, may remind one of the countryman in one of Æsop's Fables who fell into disgrace because he blew upon the fire to heat it, and blew upon his porridge to cool it. And yet the countryman was right, for experience had taught him that the desired result would follow his actions, even though he might not be able to explain the reason why. So we find that a draught of cold water will revive a fainting person, and hot water will have a somewhat similar effect. Both of them give relief by stimulating the circulation, but their modus operandi is different. In the case of the hot water the circulation is stimulated