Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-07-08
WHAT Is DYSPEPSIA.

AsS0sous ior DchevinS Ats Sc&t ~ DC IN Inc
Head and Not in the stomach.
From the National Popular Review.
What is this disagreeable and ill-behaved
condition that renders the lord Of creation so
miserable, robs him Of all spirit and makes him
feel like the wicked and repentant Nebuchad-
nezzsr as he crawled on all fours; an interloper
that lost Waterloo to Napoleon, and from
which even literary men have no sure escape,
as evinced by poor Carlyle, who when IN agony
exclaimed. "What a happy man was i until 1
found had stomach" Carlyle was undoubt-
eddy an inveterate and hopeless dyspeptic. but
1t is very doubtful il at any time his stomach
was either the PRIMARY or remote ezse Of the
phantom that haunted him for the last fifty
years Of his life, and to which we undoubtedly
owe much Of his brightest work.
No condition 10 less understood or further
reaching than this pest Of mankind; more likely
to inhabit royalty than tramp, or the man Of
genius rather than the simpieton, it has been
at the bottom Of any amount Of this worlds
mischief.
Like the origin OF wigs and breeches, religion
and general depravity. we must look back TO
antiquity IL We wish TO know whence and how
we have become dyspeptics. just when print
tive man became an anthropophagic connois-
seur we cannot well say, but here it is that we
begin to hear the first gastric murmurings Of
discomfort. Up to this innovation in our diet
perfect accord had existed between man and
his stomach; but here it ceased, and thence on
we have gone from bad to worse, becoming adj
dicted to Limburger cheese. sour beer, apple
dumplings and American cookery, and now we
wonder why we are dyspeptics.
The discovery OF the art Of cookery may
have given q larger list Of food whence man
might make up his bill Of fare, and many i'm
agine that the art has greatly contributed
toward health and the lengthening Of human
life There are many good reasons TO make us
doubt these conclusions. and in the face Of the
ordinary American boarding house cooking and
social ethics and its unfortunate. gaunt sunken-
chested, hollow-eyed, gyptian-mummy-com-
plexioned dyspeptic victim, we feel that we
must enter a general denial to the proposition
Primitive man living on grapes, berries nuts
and grasshoppers, with milk and honey for
relishes and wild onions for appetizers must
have been the very soul Of optimism and
health. Those evil genii, the distiller brewer,
cook and perverted Gospel-expounder had not
begun their interminable duel with the apothe-
cary and the doctor, with poor, miserable man
and his stomach for o battlefield, and primi-
tive man was consequently not dyspeptic,
equity nor uremic. Has the stomach Of man
changed since those happy days, and what has
the stomach really to do with dyspepsia?
1t has been asserted. and not without reason,
tuht Tue NduCdsidn more endurance tlan
any other race, and that In comparison with
contemporary animals he excels in capacity for
work and endurance. There il no doubt but
that his stomach has endurance and capabilities
that nearly equal those OF the ostrich rhinoceros
or camel
The Scotch Highlander swallows his under
done oatmeal porridge, feeling that its raw
ness will retard Its digestion and not compel
him to replenish his furnace for many hours
on the same principle the Irishran swallows
his national mess OF potatoes ''boiled with q
stone in the CENTER" that is, only the outer
layer of the potato being boiled at all-also ar
expedieut learned by experience that half
raw potato will last as long az three well-cooked
ones. The French peasant makes his meals o.
o bread made Of q mixture Of peas. rye, beans
or wheat -four ground up, husks and all, into
one mass; this. with the addition Of q little
cheese OF questionable age and some acrid wine
may serve for breakfast, dinner supper
Now what is Of particular interest to us is the
fact that none Of the examples given arr
troubled with dyspepsia. II is well known tha
Ireland and Scotland present the greatest NUM-
Der of past-centenarians, while for an all-rounc
long liver there is nation on earth that ex.
cells the French Undigestibie food underdops
porridge, raw potatoes. tallow candles and soul
bread washed down with sour wine cannot evil
IDENTIFY be classed among the causes Of dys.
pepsia-
The German can take down his regular gov.
eminent length or allowance Of pea meal
sausage, saurkraut, sour milk and home.
brewed beer, handle the nail all day and dance
in his hob-nailed shoes all night, filling in the
interval with lunches Of anything that comes
handy. Dyspepsia is as unknown to him ther
as in after life, when, with his long
pipe, he hugs the stove intent only on gettine
his four or five daily mails.
The African stomach seems more to assimi.
late to that Of the ostrich or the rhinoceros
The amount required to satisfy ,he ordinary
appetite of the son of Ham lie something incred.
ible. The more he eats the SIMMER has skin
glows. We never knew one to require any pep.
sin, even after a dinner of a three-pound fish,
pound Of roast, half q dozen eggs, olives
pickles, potatoes, beets. turnips and Other
things, with some dessert and coffee. Dyspep
sis does not affect these people, who can gor-
mandize on yellow-legged chicken and roas,
possum at a rate that would make Helioga
baius turn green with envy.
Evidently, dyspepsia cannot be said to de
pend on overflling the stomach with odds anC
ends as If it were a secondhand Junk shop OF
some back yard swill tub.
by discs riding the idea Of stomach complics
tion in any connection when treating dyspepsis
We will be more likely to reach the true origin
cause or seat OF the disease. Some cases have
Welded up to exercise systematically employed
while others recover under few days OF abso
lutte rest The numbers of so called dyspepsia
that are cured by the disappearance of bust.
ness, domestic or social ANNOYANCE are nearl,
unlimited. An overdue note in the possession
OF bottle-nosed and beetle-eyed creditor /,
more productive of dyspepsia than q meal Of
secondhand carpet tacks. In fact, il may be 6
safe thing to assume that In dyspepsia we had
better look In the garnet, closet or cellar Of the
dyspetic's house, or among his business or SO
cial relations rather than to his stomach for tn,
solution of the difficulty.
There is form Of dyspepsia which NAV be
termed the perveted gospel cschexia. 1t is
late production of Christianity, and has il
counterpart among the fakirs and bonds o.
Brahmanism and tho dervishes Of NOLAN
mechanism. To 60 about as if the stomach
were full Of copper filings and acrid bile and
the small intestlnes having a picnic on a com
bination OF green apples. decayed saurkrau
and cucumbers, with q countenance who's,
righteousness would sour sweet milk, is be
heved to be the manner Of serving God by the
victim OF the cachexia In such cases tn,
stomach is sound organicslly, the disease i
mental and only refectively stomacbic.
With Americans dyspepsia has several fac
| tors. First Of all We he I've the religious factor
already mentioned, then our peculiar politica
system. The silly habit OF treating or bein,
treated in the saloons il a fruitful source o
renal disease, toxpmia and dyspepsia. Their,
is no doubt that in our system Of education We
obtain prolific source of dyspepsia.
There Is one education that is sadly neglected
in America-that Of the palate or stomach. II
| the trying American climate man must eithei
not doing so. Incomplete nutrition and conse
quent enervation must be the inevitable result
| Of the meager diet to which too many Of oul
people accustom themselves.
| Another source OF our dyspepsia il our civil
| lied and enforced antipathy to all innocent an,