and the higher ranks of life--rarely among the poor. It is sometimes hereditary, but it is more often the result of defect of bodily exercise and mental indolence; of effeminate enervating habits, such as soft, hot beds, ill-ventilated, crowded rooms, and over indulgence, and luxury of every kind. On the other hand, it is the disease of the studious, when the midnight oil is consumed in long and intense mental application, and it follows the literary man as closely as his shadow. But no class of life is altogether secure from its attacks. The coarse and scanty fare of the meagre pauper, and the depletion of the wealthy citizen: the damp apartment of the solitary weaver; the counting-house and the college; the drawing-room crowded with fashionable idlers; the over-heated laundry; and the oppressive atmosphere of the brilliant ballroom; the never-empty workroom of the pallid semstress, whose ceaseless toils are taxed to adorn fastidious beauty; and the court itself, equally contribute to the production of this variety of indigestion. I have seen a fit of it brought on by eating a single ice, when the collapse of fatigue had succeeded the excitement of an evening party. It is the frequent consequence of over-indulgence in the use of tea; and both in England and in Germany, of the constant use of malt liquor. I have seen it brought on by the rat-tat of a postman; by a cold expression from a beloved object; the presentation of a tradesman's bill; and by any cause of vexation. The stomach is then brought into a state of atony, thence deficient nutrition, and consequent general enervation.

But although air and exercise are powerful aids to other curative agents in this form of dyspepsia, although a change from town to country, from the interior to the sea-coast, a diversity in our habits, and a change even in our occupations, prove salutary; yet, in the management of atonic dyspepsia, travelling is an essential remedy.

In painful indigestion, the appetite does not so decidedly fail as in the atonic form of the disease, the irritable condition of the stomach is rendered immediately obvious after a meal, by the pain and uneasiness which follow; and it is only when the stomach is empty that the invalid, in this variety of dyspepsia, is comparatively easy. This state of comfort, however, is solely confined to the digestive organs; for, during its absence, a dull, indistinct pain is frequently felt between the shoulders, and a sensation of heat and constriction at the chest, accompanied with a fidgety, restless feeling, which is almost unbearable; headach, or rather an acute pungent pain settles over the eyebrows, or at the back part of the head, whilst flushing of the face, and sometimes palpitations of the heart, which excite great alarm and mental uneasiness, succeed; causing a fit of extreme depression, great impatience, or irritability of temper, and the most distressing anxiety, so visibly depicted on the countenance, as to impress a spectator with an idea that the sufferer is in a state of the utmost wretchedness. In some protracted instances, in which the mind has long dwelt upon the bodily sensations, the consciousness of discomfort or uneasiness at the stomach is never altogether absent, it mingles with all his pursuits, paralyzes his activity, settles upon him like an incubus, throws the shade of gloom and discontent over all his thoughts, clothes the future in mystery and doubt, and gradually ingrafts hypochondriasis upon his physical malady. This prostrate state of the mental energies augments the torpidity of the body, and exalts to the utmost the sensibility of the stomach; indeed, Feb.-VOL. LVIII. NO. CCXXX.

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every sensation is so completely referred to it, that the unhappy dyspeptic may truly say, in the language of a French lady describing her complaints to her physician, "Je pense par la ventre." The mind soon becomes so impaired, that the smallest mental uneasiness, however trifling its cause, is instantly followed by, tremour, quick pulse, palpitation; and a timidity, at complete variance with the insignificance of the occasion. The sleep, under such circumstances, is either preternaturally heavy, or it is so difficult to be enjoyed, that the smallest degree of excitement, or any unusual occupation, or even conversation upon any interesting subject near bedtime, will cause a completely wakeful night.

*

It is unnecessary in this essay to inquire into the action of the physical causes of this variety of dyspepsia, namely, crude undigestible food, the defect or excess of it, in respect to quantity, and the abuse of stimulants, and of narcotics, especially opium and spirits. The sudden disuse of accustomed excitants; over care, or restriction in the selection of food; long fasting; the frequent employment of calomel and blue pill, and the habitual use of irritating purgatives, are equally injurious. It is those cases which originate in moral causes, operating on an irritable state of the nervous system, either hereditary and congenital, or acquired; for example, from education, improperly directed and tending to foster, rather than to correct, a natural excitability of mind; or circumstances of life which create anxiety, vexation, envy, jealousy, domestic misery, or, indeed, any cause, which can keep the nerves in a state of continual uneasiness, so as to make the stomach the seat of conscious sensation, upon which the attention is concentrated: it is such cases that chiefly, at the present moment, demand our attention. It is that species of indigestion which may be named mental, that is likely to be materially benefited by travelling.

After what has been said, it is scarcely necessary again to remark, that travelling operates, by abstracting the attention from the diseased sensations of the body, and by leaving the powers of the economy to correct, uninterruptedly, the morbid condition of the stomach and the nervous system, so as to change diseased into healthy action. The mind is, as it were, seduced into another channel, carried out of the body, and the body left to the influence of its own salutary resources. The more novelty the dyspeptic traveller encounters, the greater benefit is likely to follow; the more opposite the customs of the countries which he visits, to those which he has left, the better; indeed, the dispersion of the moral influences which have caused the disease, is the chief source of the advantages to be anticipated from travelling as a remedy.

In the Oxford Tracts for the Times, is an essay, by the Rev. Mr. Pusey, on fasting, in which the necessity of it is endeavoured to be enforced as a religious duty. I am not disposed to enter into a controversy upon the necessity of any observance of the church; but regarding the subject in a merely medical point of view, I consider frequent and long fasting as likely to be productive of dyspepsia. It is a commou cause of it in literary men; and Pinel numbers among the causes of this disease, the abstinence of the Brahmins, the Fakirs, and the ancient anchorets of the Thebaid. The following are a few of the effects of long fasting: Feelings of general debility, followed by fever; delirium, violent passion, alternating with the deepest despondency; the temperature lowered; the breath fetid; and the emaciation of the body

extreme.

The two following cases are intended to demonstrate its salutary influence, in the opposite sexes, and in very opposite circumstances of constitution and disposition:

A few years since, a physician left the Thames in the Tourist steamboat, for Antwerp, with the intention of travelling through Switzerland and Germany, to regain his health, which had been injured by overexertion. The passengers in the Tourist, with two exceptions, were all Englishmen, and like our countrymen, whether travelling in stagecoaches, or on railroads, or in steamers, each appeared extremely shy of entering into conversation with any one not of his immediate party. Amongst the motley group which surrounded the doctor, was a tall, thin, gentlemanly-looking person, compared with whose sallow and melancholy face, his own dyspeptic countenance was beaming with health. This man of parchment was accompanied by a lady nearly as sallow and as melancholy as himself. The unhappy couple kept aloof from the rest of the passengers, but, nevertheless, they held no conversation with one another.

The vessel had scarcely left the river, ere a stiff breeze sprung up; and, as she rolled abominably, the deck was soon abandoned to a retired captain, who prognosticated a rough night; a rubicund, jolly, goodlooking German; the mummy-looking melancholy pair, and the doctor. As the English coast became lower on the sight, the sallow gentleman rose from his seat, paced the deck for some time, then stopped-cast a kind of longing look upon the receding strand, then sat down and fixed his eyes upon his hollow trousers, which hung like bags upon his shrunk limbs. His companion spoke to him in an under tone:-he shook his head, but made no reply. She again whispered to him, and laid her hand upon his arm, with a look of earnest persuasion-he remained immovable; a slight hectic flush of vexation kindled upon her pallid cheek; and, after a few minutes, she rose, and retired to the cabin. There is an instinctive sympathy for those whom we think are suffering like ourselves; the doctor pitied the poor gentleman, and, leaving the seaofficer and the German, with whom he was pacing the deck, he ventured to address him.

"You are, I presume, sir," said he, "like myself, travelling for health?"

After

The poor man raised his head, and fixed his sunk eyes upon the face of the speaker for a few seconds. "Do you really think, sir, that I look so ill?" was his reply; and without stopping for an explanation, he rose and walked away in an opposite direction. He continued walking backwards and forwards on the deck, for nearly an hour. which, observing the doctor sitting alone, he came up to him; and, apologizing for having replied so abruptly to his question, said, he understood he was a physician, and he would be glad to have his opinion on some symptoms of a disease which had long distressed him, and which no treatment had been able to abate. The doctor replied that he was a physician; and, like himself, he was travelling in search of health; that he suspected he was labouring under a disease very similar, although less severe, to that under which the inquirer was suffering; and he would be glad to give him his advice, if it could prove useful. The invalid sat down near him, and began the following narrative.

"Doctor," said he, "you observe what a sallow, emaciated being I am yet I was once stout, healthy, and florid; fond of, and constantly engaged in field-sports. The breeze then blew fresh and kindly in my face; the note of the fox-hound was the most cheering music to my ear; the hospitality of my hall, an old English pile, which has been centuries in our family, was my delight and boast; and all around me were objects of interest, and contributing to my happiness. Now, interest in every thing has ceased; both pleasure and hope have vanished; the present appears to me only full of misery and suffering, and a dark and gloomy cloud seems settled upon the future. Such is the condition of my mental feelings: my bodily sufferings are as insupportable. I feel almost constant giddiness, confusion of ideas, and pain in my head, palpitation of my heart, and an uneasy wearing dull soreness under the left breast; a transitory, but severe pain between my shoulders, oppression of the breathing, with a constant inclination to sigh, distressing flatulence after every meal, general languor, with the greatest aversion from rising in the morning, and a most disagreeable taste, and foul tongue on first awaking. So acute are my sensations, that I am often tempted to wish that I were dead; yet, although so weary of life, I cling to it pertinaciously, and dread death.

"I have been told," continued the unhappy invalid, "that all these symptoms depend on the state of my stomach, and that my complaint is indigestion; but I cannot understand how my bodily pains should be caused by mere grief, although that was the apparent origin of all that I have suffered, and that I am suffering. I am naturally a person of keen sensibility, and being an only son, and early coming into the possession of a large estate, my mind had been too little disciplined to bear calmly any rude shock, such as that which it sustained. But I need not trouble you with the details of it, as they cannot elucidate the subject. I concealed my feelings; which made them work upon my nerves like slow poison; and, at length, they produced those symptoms which have puzzled all the doctors to whom I have applied for their removal. The worst of the evil is, that my irritability, peevishness, and constant complainings, have brought my sister, the lady you saw with me, nearly into the same state."

As the poor gentleman concluded, his countenance expressed the severest anguish. It seemed to supplicate at least an explanation of his sufferings, if the listener could not suggest a remedy. Like all mental dyspeptics, however, to have a patient listener to his tale of misery was evidently to him a consolation of great moment. The doctor endeavoured to comply with the request of the poor invalid, by detailing to him, in as intelligible language as possible, the powerful influence of mind upon body; and that when disease is set up in the nervous system by mental causes, it will continue to derange the whole frame, in spite of all medical means, for many years. He explained to him that deep anxiety, or a fit of severe grief, will suspend altogether the powers of the stomach, and excite irritation of the nerves of the organ, which will continue, sometimes, long after the mental cause has ceased to operate. Such a state was very likely to occur in him from the sensitive temperament inherent in his constitution. He endeavoured, however, to console him with the fact, that the just view which he had taken of the source of his malady, together with his re

solution to withdraw from the scene of his anxieties, and completely to break the chain of diseased associations by travelling, were the best means of regaining the health which he had lost; and that such a step, combined with a strong determination to shake off the languor and the desire for inactivity, two of the striking characteristics of his complaint, were as essential for his cure as refraining from improprieties in diet, and adhering to the strictest rules of temperance.

The poor gentleman listened to his remarks with the greatest attention; and to prove that he had profited by them, the doctor found him on deck next morning at six o'clock, gazing upon the town of Flushing, as the steamer entered the Scheldt. As the vessel ascended the river, although his aches and pains ever and anon formed much of his discourse, yet he was evidently amused by the novelty of the scenery, which the banks of the river, and the windmills, and the village spires, peering out from behind the banks, presented. This arrestment of his attention was particularly obvious when the tower of the splendid cathedral of Antwerp first caught his eye, about an hour before the vessel reached the quay, and its living freight encountered the clamorous importunities of the agents of the hotels who awaited its arrival.

The poor invalid and his sister, as well as the doctor and his party, being settled in comfortable apartments in le Grand Laboreur, the physician next day persuaded him to accompany him to the cathedral. As the invalid was a man of good taste, he was much struck, as every one must be, with the incomparable picture of Rubens, the Descent from the Cross; and he descanted ably for a few minutes on the richness of the colouring, the exquisite grouping, and the wonderful expression of each of the figures in the most perfect accordance with its occupation. But even in the midst of the criticism, whilst remarking on the destitution of every vestige of muscular energy, and the wonderful appearance of real death which the body of our Savionr displays in the picture, he suddenly discovered that the large vault of the building felt damp, and struck a hazardous chill over him. The doctor, nevertheless, prevailed on him to ascend the tower with him. He had scarcely, however, cast his eyes upon the extensive inundations which are seen from its gallery, than the dread of malaria seized him, and he hurried back to the hotel.

The two following days found a considerable amendment in the poor gentleman. He visited the ancient Bourse, the church of Saint Jacque, which contains the tomb of Rubens; also St. Pauls, with its singular and vile representation of Calvary, purgatory, and the tomb of Christ; and the museum in which is the best portrait in the world, that of the burgomaster Rockax, by Rubens. The head speaks, and the whole figure is expressive of vitality and intellect. The interest which he took in all these things was obviously most beneficial; nothing could be more demonstrative of the power of abstracting the attention from self, for allaying the morbid irritability of the nervous system; the greatest in the train of evils which follow the steps of the dyspeptic. As he was proceeding to Ghent, and the doctor to Brussels, they parted; but, before the latter bade adieu to the poor invalid, he tendered to him his opinion of the manner in which he should conduct himself, both with regard to diet and regimen, as well as amusement. He endeavoured to

convince him that, as the operations of the imagination are most extensive, affording materials both for pleasure and for pain; directing