The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-01-23
About Dyspepsia.

Didyou ever have the dyspepsia Did
you ever have-or imagine you had-a
complication of all known, and several
unknown, diseases? If yes, then you
| have had the dyspepsia, or it's full eQrliva-
lent. Chronic d dyspepsia may be defined
as an epitOme of every complaint where
with transgreSsing mortality is ScOurged
1t is as nice thing to have about you as
| Il trunkful of tarantulas, with the trunk
lid always up. An eminent English ply
sician has said, " A man with a bad dys-
pepsia is a william" He is, and worse.
He is by turns a tiend, a moral monster,
and physical cOWard-and he cannot
help it. He is his own bottomless pit,
ana his own demon at the bottom of it,
which tOrments him continually with
pangs indescribable.
When worm of the business dust of
this world has Writhed with the dyspepsia
until it has assumed a virulent chronic
form, who shall find colors and abilities
enough to paint his condition His blood
becomes first poverty stricken, then i'm
pure, and, as blood will tell,n every pa.t
OF his system is contaminated by the foul
stream. The brain complains bitterly on
its own account, and vehement COM
plants are being continually sent up to
it from the famishing liver, bowels,
spleen, heart, and lungs. Like "sweet
bells tangled out of time,n the entire or
ganization breathes diScOrds. Even the
remote toes telegraph up to the brain,
" We are starving down here; send down
more prOvender." The brain makes re-
quisitiOns Oh the stomach, which are fu-
tile. The stomach is powerless to pro-
vide, and the brain can not transmit. At
tunes all the starving organs conspire
together, suspend work, and undertake
to compass by riot what they fail to get
by, appeal. Then life tremblcs in the
BALANCE. Then the cOnsolation-O, the
consolation that is visited upon the
dyspeptic. Friends-when he is lifeless
from want of yitality-t5iends will ex-
asPeFfate a fai him !, With taunts of being "l9zy,"
ambitiOnm Nor can his friends be made
to appreciate that it is as prepOsterous
to expect one who is undergoing con-
stant torture and consequent exhaustion
to have ambition" as it would be to ex-
pect corpse to have an appetite. Rene
dy: every ybOdy's advice-that is, ride
eVerybOdy's hobby. Cure: death. Drugs
are but aggravatiOns, and "bitterS'' are
bitter, indeed! We have heard of
chronic dyspeptic who took his cure from
his chickens, and, by swallowing daily
moderate handful of gravelstones of the
size ola pea downward, finally succeeded
in Transforming cue7 into "cure.n He
claimed complete restoration. In the
face OF this evidence to the contrary, we
reassert that for chronic dyspepsia in it's
worst form there is but one certain cure
absolute rest. Preventive take as good
care of the coats of your stomach as you
do of the coats OF your back. Do you
wish for faith in God, in human love, in
earthly happiness, in the beneticence of
Nature, and in immortality? Keep your
digestion vigorous Oh that hang all OF
these. Would you prefer an abiding
faith in tortures unspeakable, in horrors
inexpressible Destroy your digestion.
Would you live in the body forever ?
Keep your digestion at full vigor; and,
although the end Of the world may come,
your end will not cOme-you will have to
go after it. Old age is but the failure of
nutrition. Nutrition is Life; non -nutri-
ton is Death.-[Overland Monthly.