Smyrna times., 1855-05-30

ana III the mowers that Wreathe the sparkling
bud,
Till adders hiss and poisonous serpents roll"
Many intelligent travellers have remarked,
that Americans are more frequently the victims
of impaired digestion than any other civilized,
people. Medical statistics assert the same
fact 1t is well worth our while, therefore, to.
inquire whether this state of things is uhavoid-
able-whether, in other words, it is the result
OF climate, or is caused by our own excesses
Look to the digestion. Could we retain the
digestion of childhood, we might also keen
much of chlldhoods joyousness. 1t is amazing
how much ignorance there is on this subject
The hllarlty OF early youth, when we feel AS if
we trod on air, comes from a perfect stomach
Hundreds who suppose their stomach to be in
perfect health, have the organ of digestion
slightly impaired and should attribute to this
cause their unaccOuntible heaviness after eat
ing, and their periods of profound detection.
More persons owe fits of mental depression
to weak digestion than to any other cause.-
Dyspeptc people are con.esscdly irritable A
sound digestion, moreover, is necessary to hap
piness.
That impaired digestive organs are enemies
to long LIE Iced hardly, we suppose, be repeat
ed. The stomach is the great alempis so to
speak, in which all animal vitality is distilled
Ii its powers are weakened, if it does it's work
inditferently, health is nearly impossible aud
protracted years utterly SO. All persons who
have attained unusual longevity, have notorl-
ously possessed good digestive organs Thomas
Parr, who died in the reign Of james the First
of England, at the extraordinary age of one
hundred and titty-two, was proverbial for his
sound stomach. So was Henry Jenkins, who
lived to the still greater age of one hundred
and slXty-nine; Etingham, who died at one
hundred aud fortyfour; Slender who died at
one hundred and three, and numerous others,
who died when over century DID, were pro-
verbal for their excellent appetltes and their
capital digestion.
But the advantages of a good stomach are
not confined merely to the possessor. 1t is now
well understood that tlfe qualities OF parents
are more or less tranmIssable to children Conse-
quently, the parent who has good digestive or
gans is more likely to have progeny similarly
favored, than one who is the victim of dyspep-
sia With the PARIS, for example, a good sto-
mach being hereditary, long life was common
thing for great grandson of the famous an
cestor, died at Cork, in Ireland, towards the
last century, at the age of one hundred and
three. .......s
Why can we not retain much of childhood
joyo 4sness !" To some extent we msy.r Ad.
yancing years necessarily wear out the frame,
and the stomach suffers with the rest of the
body; but the digestive powers are ottener I'm.
paired by excess, at least in Amercica, than BY
age. Intemperance is a fertile source of i'm
paired digestion. II is to his having nearly de-
stroyed the coats of his stomach that the drunk
ard partly owes his shattered nerves. Ever
many persons who cannOt be called inebriates
and who, perhaps, have never been intoK cate,
in their lives, injure their digestion by the daily
use of stimulating liquors. The dropping o
water will wear the hardest rock. Is it aston
ishlng, therefore. that the drinking of arden
spirits, habitually, even in comparatively mod
crate quantities, VIII weaken the stomach a
last Americans are notoriously the larges
consumers of brandy in the world. Other ma
tions, generally,when they resort to stimulants
use light wines or preparations of malt. Th
Englishman takes his ale, the German his beer
the Frenchman his claret, but Americans mus
have brandy, or at least, whiskey Even if tn
amount Of stimulant in the light vine, or in III
preparation of malt, is not sufficient 10 be iniu
rious, the distilled spirits which from the con
mon beverage of the American people are M
deniably SO. 1t is fact, which any man ma
verify, that habtual brandy drinkers, even
t they never become intoxicated, rarely attai
old age. ., -...
Anachrsis, the Seythian, in order to dcte
young men from that voluptuousness ever a
| tended with i'll effects, applied his discourse
, them in parable, telling them that the vine
! youthful qualification had three branches, pr,
ducing three clusters. (" On the first" say
he, tgrows pleasure; on the second, sottisf
ness on the third, Sadness .'.. .
u Were the pleasures OF the palate lasting
$ there would be some excuse for inebriety; b.
r is SO transtdry, that there is scarce any disti
e gushing between the, beginning and the EN-
!, ing whereas, the diseases it produces are vel
e durable ,r .,.,...}k -. ....-s ...,..,
ID Let those who have been enticed frequent
e to taste spirituous liquors, till at length tn,
n begin to have a fondness for them, reflect
!; moment on the danger of their situation, al
IS resolve to make speedy and honorable retrei
N Remember that custom soon changes into habi
Of that habit is second nature more stubborn tn
'h the first and, of all things most difficult to
le subdued. Remember, that il lis by little unsl
1t pectng beginnings that this unfortunate vice
IS, generally contracted and when once confir
3 ed, scarcely terminates but with life! Lea
'ar then, in time, to resist fhis bewitching spi
90 whenever it tempts you. Then will you fl
y