HISTORY OF THE STOMACH.

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break into wild rebellion that overthrows both the physical and the mental framework of the individual.

Such is the figurative allusion to the history of a stomach, which I shall proceed to reduce to the realities of existence that are seen daily around us. Alas! were it but known how much of the misery we behold in the world-how much of the " envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness," that pervade society-how much of the vice and crimes that horrify the philanthropist—how much of the tyranny, lust of conquest and bloodshed, that man's history presents, is traceable to the irritated stomach originating the irritated brain, surely it would be the pleasure, as it is the duty, of each individual to reduce the amount of these horrors by his example and teaching to others of a better usage of this primarily important organ of his constitution!

And let no sneer from the ignorant or thoughtless greet this assertion. Is not the overwhelming power of prejudice, based on the examples of individuals, flagrant throughout the history of our race? Is there any enormity of diet or regimen which the fashion set by some individual or coterie has not sanctified and caused to be acted upon? Ere now, has not the hard drinking of an illus

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FORCE OF EXAMPLE.

trious person, or the gourmandize of a noble person, made a nation of drunkards, and a society of gluttons? A century has rolled by since the death of Peter the Great, yet to this day the brandy-drinking propensities of that talented barbarian taint the social atmosphere of Russia, where, morning, noon, and night, the scalding green tea, made hotter still with cognac, greets the visitor and warms the social intercourse! Not a quarter of a century ago, in this land of intelligence and industry, we beheld gentlemen-ay, and it was one of the attributes of a gentleman too!!-locking the door of the room in which their guests were, in order that none should escape until a quantum of fiery fluid was imbibed which rendered an open or closed door alike to them, for they had lost the use of their nether limbs, or were wallowing "under the table." So also in eating, we behold the jaded, filthy appetite of the dissolute Louis XV. racking the wits of his cooks and courtiers to the invention of hitherto unheard of compounds and disguises of wholesome fish, flesh, fowl, and vegetable, until the taste descending from prince to peer, and from peer to peasant, the "Grande Nation," have since stood forward-noble distinction!-as the best cooks and the greatest gormandizers of civilized Europe.

MIND AND MATTER.

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A similar process is going on in small circles of men, and in each one there are one or more whose example is looked up to by the aggregate of the circle. If the truths which I shall announce in these pages reach the eyes and impress the understanding of such, the appeal to individuals will not be so wild as on the surface may appear. All good, as all evil, flows from individual example; and should my words be for good to one, let him announce them to many; it will be well worth his while and theirs and if they act upon them, they will find their reward in calmer sensations within themselves and kindlier feelings to each other.

On one point I must not be misunderstood. Already I have alluded, and shall have constant occasion to allude, to the effects of the stomach's condition on that of the brain, and the production thereby of certain mental actions. As, in stating this fact, I shall use the term "brain," and the term “mind,” indiscriminately, and as standing one for the other, I would have it clearly understood that I do so simply for the sake of verbal convenience, to prevent repetition, and as indicative that the brain is the recognized physical agent of the immaterial mind. What the physician sees

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ANSWER TO CAVILLERS.

is, that a certain state of brain is accompanied with a certain state of temper, affections, and so forth and he therefore comes to speak of the influence and the agent, the mind and the brain, synonymously, without having the most distant idea of trenching on the question of the mind's material or spiritual constitution. It is necessary to say thus much, because the world is so peopled with disordered stomachs, and therefore with ill-natured minds, that it behoves a writer to be pre-armed against its cavils. And now to the details of our subject.

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THE CAUSES OF STOMACH DISORDER.

First I shall state, briefly but significantly, that these are to be found throughout life in

1. FOOD.

2. PHYSIC.

3. FRETTING.

The last, however, is as often an effect as a cause, in which capacity, notwithstanding, it is necessary to mention it, since, when once established in the mind by the stomach, it returns the compliment; a sort of game in which the life of the individual is the shuttlecock, and the brain and stomach the battledores, that keep it in an uneasy, tost-about state for a certain time, and then let it drop very unceremoniously. But of this more hereafter.

With regard to food and physic, it might perhaps be more strictly correct to place physic in