Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-07-13
ni.cInIIne for Dyspeptie..

III. + elk OsNalQs u huuLlhlN VI WnOnt
treatise on the remedies Of nature as q cure
for consumption we have already published,
contributes companion article to the Popu-
lar Science Monthly for July, setting forth the
advantages Of the remedies Of nature as a
cure for dyspepsia. Daily alcohol fevers, he
says, combined with pepper and mustard in
Examinations, would ruin the stomach Of an
ostrich but, in favor Of the unfeathered BIZ
ped, nature accepts such yicariOus atOnements
as gout and dropsy. Thousands Of crapulous
Bavarian beer swillers, who are hardly able to
walk, are still able to digest their food. In
door life and want Of exercise then added
their quota Of provocatives; but, where the
lungs would have rebeled after seven protests.
the stomach forgave seventy seven times.
Medieval prelates, squires and aldermen tried
In vain 10 exhaust the patience Of the long
suffering organ. But the defendants finally
solved that problem by adding tea, coffee, to-
bacco, absinthe, chloral, opium and pungent
spices to the stimulants used by the ancients.
We do not take time to masticate the ever in
creasing list Of unwholesome dishes we bolt
our food and grumble if we cannot bolt it
smoking hot. We eat at hours when the de
mands Of business afford no leisure for diges-
ton, and when the opportunity for lesure'ar-
rives we counteract the efforts Of the stomach
to do its work by hot stove fires and sitting
bedrooms. But, even after such provoca-
tions says the Doctor, the stomach does not
60 on a strike without repeated warnings.
These come in various easily recognizable
forms, and nine out Of ten of the victims re-
sort TO tonics and quack medicines. The
drug but complicates the disease. Cold fresh
air Is an invaluable aid to the assimilation Of
fatty food and Dr. Oswald asserts that peo-
pie who have got rid of the night superstition
can almost defy dyspepsia by sleeping in a
cross-draught, or, in winter, near half-opeu
window. Aid nature, says he, by all legiti-
mate means. 'Masticate thoroughly every
mouthful Of solid food. Eschew spices.
Avoid pickles, cheese, salt meat, sour krout
and hot drinks Take a light breakfast,
lighter lunch, postpone the principal meal till
the days work is done, and make the after
dinner hour as pleasant as possible. Court
fresh air at all times Of the day and night,
and in the course of two or three weeks the
capacity for active exercise will return. That
point gained the problem Of recovery is re-
duced to a question Of perseverance"
Two hours each day Of active outdoor e1-
ercise, of such nature as to give the system a
thorough shaking up, is recommended as are
cold baths before dinner in the summer sea-
son and open bedroom windows the year
round. Dietetc reforms should begin with a
strictly non-stimulating diet. Even salt Is
not quite above suspicion, and the Doctor ad-
vises dyspeptics to stick to comestibles that
can be eaten without it. To limit the num-
Der OF meals he considers important. In
proof that one meal in twenty-four hours is
quite sufficient to maintain strength be cites
the fact that for more than thousand years
the one-meAl system was the rule in two
countries that could raise armies of men ev-
cry one of whom would have made his for
tune as modern athletic-men who marched
for days under a load Of iron besides clothes
and provisions that would stagger modern
porter. The best time for that one meal
says our authority, is at the end OF the work
ing day. For all conditions Of working peo-
pie he recommends that hour for the princi-
pal meal. Mind and body being at rest ia
vors digestion. The danger Of sleeping on a
full stomach is a delusion of man. Animals,
which follow the dictates Of nature, always
sleep or rest after heavy meal only man
disregards the promptings Of his instinct and
relies on dyspepsia pill.
Open-air exercise and dietetic reforms the
dyspeptic is warned TO supplement with lib
eral allowance of sleep. But these remedies,
says the Doctor, cannot save dyspeptics who
insist on swallowing their food smoking hot.
The walls Of the stomach are lined with O
| nerve-interwoven delicate membrane, which
suffers from scalding fluids as much es any
other tegumental tissues Of the body, and by
daily torrefactons becomes either callous or
chronicsly iuhamed, and in either case less
fit for the performance of its important func-
tions."
OF certain form of dyspepsia which is
the result of an advanced stage of alcoholism
DR.. Oswald proposes to treat in separate
paper. With this exception, which often
yields only to the heroic remedies Of the pc
destriRn cure, he thinks ten weeks of strict
temperance fresh air and moderate exercise
will generally suffice to appease the resent
ment Of the outraged stomach. Mountain
excursions marvelously further the good work,
and, concludes the Doctor, gymnastics com
bined with the other remedies Of nature will
speed the advent Of the time when the after
dinner hour shall cease to be the 'ssddest of
the sad twenty y-four nay, when digestion,
like all normal functions of the animal organ
ism, shall be once more not only painless
but pleasurable process