, 1888-09-18
HI FAMILY DOCTOR
Gives the Hasty Eater q scolding and a
Bit of Good Advice.

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Bit of Good Advice.
If there is any truth In the adage that
the ''way to a mans heart is through his
stomach" in min cases out of ten it
would be a hard road to travel. When
you consider the enormous and varied
amount of material that strews its path,
you at once encounter many unpleasant
obstacles. The man who gets outside of
hot soup, boiled ham, fried CLANS, pota-
toes, picked cabbage, pastry, ice cream,
and tea in fifteen minutes, n then
wonders why he feels SO badly, is either
al ass or an idiot-very likely a melange.
He cannot understand it, when he is
so constantly taking those celebrated
LATTER dinner pills., " a title that is simply
a cover for wrong doing. True, he paid
extra to have his pills gelatine coated to
retain their virtues the longer; but he
evidently did not know that the tannin
in the tea would convert that coating
into Il mass which the juices of the
stomach are powerless to affect, and so
no benefit is derived from the pills. He
goes on, however, stuffing himself with
food-and the delusion hat the more one
eats the stouter he grows. 1t is not the
quantity we eat, but what is assimilated
that is, what the system is capable of
burning up as fuel to increase III vital
energies. If you smother your fire with
too much coal, out it goes. Now the
dyspeptic, the sufferer of that most COM
mon trouble, indigestion, may feel its
presence by a thousand different signs.
So numerous are they, that the mention
of only a few must suffice here.
For instance, he wakes with a stuffy
headache, a bad taste in his mouth, bolts
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His food repeats" as our English
friends say, his taste becomes sour and
hot, and SO does his temper, and he is not
altogether the most amiable of mortals.
AS the day grows apace he has i'll defined
aches, and fancies his eye sight is failing,
and his irritability increases. His clerks
live on pins and needles, and his friends
say, ''what a bore he is getting to be, SO
full of ills"
Thus it goes on from bad to worse.
Think of hat man as a judge, and o
he might ''make wretches hang that
jurymen may dine" No doubt many a
verdict of today is largely influenced by
poisonous butyric acid in the circulation
of one who has too hastily consumed his
fodder. Ultimately. if he does not switch
off, he falls a victim 10 nervous prostra-
ton and melanchct,u. a fit tenant for any
asylum, which he zen cheates by draw
ing a razor across his throat. All from
dyspepsia. There is no hyperbole in this
picture; you will see many like it every
day, if you but keep your eyes open.
The remedy2 Certainly not indiscrim-
mate dragging, a proceeding as foolish
as to load your dog with an elephants
burden and expect him to carry it. If
the stomach cannot take care of its ma
tural guests it will resent the intrusion of
foreigners.
The panacea is rest for h stomach by
the use of light foods, and rest for the
mind by anything which will draw at
tention from the suffering organ. Few
things accomplish this latter better than
the diversion of hearing good music.
You may think it strange, but there is an
eminent physician abroad who writes
out a prescription for music much as we
would for calomel. 1t possesses a Won
derful sway over the lower orders of life,
and you have often noticed the spirited
action of a horse, the arched neck and
proud canter, when hearing the strains
of martial music.
Music cheers the soldier on the long
march and renews his tagging energies.
So will it aid the dyspeptic. The instru-
ment is a matter of choice, the violin
hardly to be recommended unless handled
by a master, for no instrument is SO
capable of distracting wailings, when in
the hands of a novice. The voice is, par
excellence, the best of musical remedies,
and four part songs are potent for good.
Idare say, you who nave been victims
of atrociously bad performances will not
agree with me. But give the best a trial
Just go to some of the near by resorts
that offer SO many harmonious attrac-
ions and try the curative effect of a
concord of sweet sounds. Richard
Guernsey, M. D., in Once a Week.