The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-07-12
Discipline for Dyspeptics.

DIR. Felix Oswald, whose admirable
treatise on the remedies of nature as
a cure for consumption was given to
the readers of the Record in con-
densed form, contributes compan-
ion article to the Popular Science
Monthly for July. setting forth the
advantages of the remedies of nature
as a cure for dyspepsia. Daily alcohol
feYers, he says, combined with pepper
and mustard inhammations, would
ruin the stomach of an ostrich; but,
in favor of the unfeathered biped,
nature accepts such vicarious atone
ments as govt and dropsy. Thousands
of crapulous Bavarian beer Swillers,
who are hardly able to walk, are still
able to digest their food. Indoor life
and want of exercise then added their
quota of provOcatives; but, where
the lungs would have reDelled AFTER
seven protests, the stomach forgaVe
seventy-seven times. Medieval pre-
Iates. s1uires and aldermen tried in
vain to exhaust the patience of the
long-suffering organ. But their de-
scendants finally solved that problem
by adding tea, coffee, abSinthe, chic
raj, opium and pungent spices to the
stimulants used by the ancients. We
do not take time to masticate the
ever-increasing list of unwholesome
dishes; we bolt our food, and
grumble if we cannot bolt it
smoking hot. We eat at hours
when the demands of business
afford no leisure for digestion, and
when the opportunity for leisure ar
rives we counteract the efforts of the
stomach to do it's work by hot stove
fires and sitting bed rooms. But,
even after such proVocatiOnS, says the
doctor, the stomach does not go on a
strike without repeated warnings.
These come in various easily Tecog-
niZable forms, and nine out of ten of
the victims resort to tonics and quack
medicines The drug but complexities
the disease. Cold fresh air is an in
valuable aid to the assimilation of
fatty food, and DIR. Oswald asserts
that people who have got rid of the
night air superstition can almost defy
dyspepsia by sleeping in cross
draught, or, in winter, near half
open window. "Aid nature" says he,
by all legitimate means. Masticate
thoroughly every mouthful OF solid
food. Eschew spices, avoid pickles,
cheese, salt meat, sour krout and
hot drinks. Take "a light breakfast, a
lighter lunch, postpone the principal
meal till the days work is done, and
make the after-dinner hour as pleas
ant as possible. Court fresh air at
all times of the day and the night,
and in the course of two or three
weeks the capacity for active eXer-
else will return. That point gained,
the problem of recovery is Seduced to
a question of perseverance,.
Two hours each day of active out
door exercise, Of such a nature as tG
give the system thorough shaking
up, is recommended, as are cold baths
before dinner in the summer season
and open bedroom windows the year
round. Dietetic reforms should begin
with q strictly non-Stimulating diet.
Even salt is not quite above suspi
cion, and the doctor advises dySpep-
tics to stick to comestibles that can
be eaten without it. To limit the
number of meals he considers impor-
tant. In proof that one meal in TWEEN
ty-four hours is quite sufficient to
maintain strength, he CT eS the fact
that for more than a thousand years
the one-meal system was the rule in
two countries that could raise armies
~of men, every one OF whom would
have made his fortune as a modern
athlete-men who marched for days
under a load of iron besides clothes
and provisions) that would stagger a
modern porter The best time for
that one meal, says our authority, is
at the end of the working day. For
all conditions of working people he
recommends that hour for the princi-
pal meal. Mind and body being at
rest favors digestion. The danger of
sleeping on a full stomach is delu-
sion of man. Animals, which follow
the dictates of nature, always sleep or
rest utter heavy meal; only man
disregardS the promptingS of his in
stinct and relies on a dyspeptic pill.
Open-air exercise and dietetic re-
forms TIE dyspeptic is warned to sup
x,ement with liberal allowance of
Sleep. But these remedies, says the
doctor, cannot save dyspeptics who
insist on swallowing their food Smok-
ing hot. 1.-The walls of the
stomach are lined with a
nerve-interwoven delicate mem
hrane, which suffers from scald
ing Euids as much us any other tegu
mental tissues of the body, and by
daily torrefactions becomes either
.callous or chemically infiamed, and
in either case less fit for the perform
,ance of its important functions"
OF certain form of dyspepsia
which is the result of an advanced
stage of alcoholism, DR.. Oswald pro-
poses to treat in separate paper.
With this exception. which often yields
only TO the heroic remedies of the pc
.destrian cure, he thinks ten weeks of
strict temperance, fresh air and mod
crate exercise will generally suffice to
;appease the resentment of the out
ragged stomach. Mountain eXcur-
.sions marvelously further the good
work, and, concludes the doctor,
Gymnastics, combined with the other
remedies of nature, will speed the adj
vent Of the time when the after-din-
ner hour shall cease TO be the 'saddest
of the sad twenty-four-nay when
digestion, like all normal functions of
the animal organism, shall be once
more not only a painless but a pleas
urable process"