Wichita eagle., 1888-07-03
4 TERRIBLE ACCOUNT.
SINS WHICH ARE COMMITTED BY THE
DYSpEPTIc.

None Of Us Entirely Guiltless-Eating in
. Hurry-Ar Eminent Physicians Ad-
vice-Give the Stomach q Chance-An
Excellent Plan.
There are two mental sins against the
stomach, which bring about terrible run
ming account, the full payment Of which
often completely ruins US These are haste
and worry. None Of US are entirely guilt
less in these respects. We tell children that
it is ''bad manners to eat fast; we Gken
them to pigs when they do it; but / have
often questioned whether they were half as
much to be blamed IS either the mother, who
could not find time to eat her own meal be-
cause she was full Of care for others, or the
father, whose one thought Is to swallow his
boiling coffee and get through his steak or
chop in time to catch the train.
How many homes there are in which
breakfast is in reality, scramble, hurriedIy
prepared, hurriedly eaten and hurriedly d.
gested; while dinner in the middle Of the
day, in house where there are many chill
dren, is scarcely less SO as far as the mother is
concerned, and the evening meal finds every
body too tired to care to linger over 1t, or
there are constant calls upon the mother for
her attention. This is bad in itself. but it il
ten times worse when worry, anxiety, or ex
element adds its quota to the disturbance
DUE TO THEIR OWN FAULT.
American women suffer from nervous dys
pepsia to q distressing extent; and they
very seldom stop to consider how largely it is
due to their own fault or indiscretion. Just
to the extent to which they hurry and worry
they are distinctly blamable; and where is
the woman who does neitheri Certainly she
is rarely found In the working or profession
al classes The homes in which peace and
quiet reign at meal times, In which food is
slowly eaten, and the practice Of cheerful
conversation persisted in, are few indeed;
and still less frequently met with are those in
which rest for all who are actively employed
precedes or follows the midday meal
One Of our most eminent physicians, whose
speciality is disorders of the digestion, told
me that he found the most efectual method
Of relief from dyspepsia was an hours rest
before the heavy meal Of the day, and forty
minutes rest after it. There are, Of course,
but few of our active population who can
easily secure SO much leisure as this implies,
but every one can, in some degree, attain to
calnness and quiet before dinner-every one
except the cook, or possibly the mistress; and
every housekeeper, no matter what her cares,
ought to secure quiet half hour after din
ner. Nature is very patient, but there comes
q time when she no longer tolerates our ig-
norance if we persist in disregarding her
gentle admonitions She Furnishes Us heavily
at last. Thousands Of intelligent people con-
slider it no fault Of their own if, after gulp-
ing down hasty and often III prepared
meal, they have recourse to potash or soda for
relief from fatulency, or uniergo tortures
from heartburn. 1t is quite fashionable to
be dyspeptic
QUIET, LEISURE AND CALM
Let US remember that quiet, leisure and
calm are essential to digestion. The scholar
who sits at his writing table all the morning,
and leaves a treatise to come to dinner,
hastily devouring his food while his brain
is hard at work over some some knotty
problem, and returning at once to bis theme,
Is as guilty in this regard as the business
man who rushes from counting house or
bank, with thousand cares upon his mind,
or the mother who cannot find time to sit
down for five minutes before she has to at
tend to the hungry demands Of her family.
Each has, in his or her way, sinned against
nature, and must pay the penalty. sooner or
later, in impaired digestion, nervous irrita-
bility and exhaustion. Give the stomach a
chance. 1t is all matter more or less of
habit Even the overworked employe has
ais hour for dinner, and the least the mother
or housekeeper should exact is the same
privilege.
1t is an excellent plan in family life to keep
some light but interesting book for meal
times. In one or two families Of my &C
quaintance the practice of reading a short
psalm or chapter at the breakfast table has
an excellent effect, and equally good results
follow frcm paragraph from Emerson or a
good selection from some poet as an inter
lude during dinner. Two good ends are
gained by this First, the minds of the COM
pany are raised above petty details and In
tereSts, and, beyond this, the fact of listening
to something that calls for no effort, and yet
is pleasing, is in itself calming. Worry is
for the moment, at least, set on one side;
anxiety sleeps; and if the dinner can be fol-
lowed by short rest half the evils Of dys-
peptic conditions will vanish Worry is q
prolific cause of suffering, If we come TO think
of it, and probably the most useless and
foolish Of all the causes that. exist for dys-
Eepsia.-Demorest's Monthly.