p. 157 | A POPULAR DELUSION

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 10, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 10.

A POPULAR DELUSION.

It is a popular delusion that dyspepsia is caused by eating indigestible food only. If this were so, and all the articles of diet enumerated as indigestible were placed on the index expurgatorius, I tremble to think what the poor dyspeptic would have left to live on. The first essential toward regaining health to be noted by a dyspeptic is to live regularly and abstain from all those foods that experience shows are injurious. Many persons who are supposed to have heart disease, an enlarged liver, or softening of the brain, are really hypochondriac dyspeptics. Oftentimes such persons have their worst fears realized by consulting some medical encyclopedia. I know of no more pitiable object than the young man or woman who "reads up" for the purpose of finding out from what complaint he or she is suffering.

When you are ill go at once to a physician instead of a book, and when he tells you you are suffering from an attack of dyspepsia, aid him in his work of repair by following his directions to the letter and remember his advice as to what you shall eat and drink. By doing this you will have little need to consult numerous books and make a note of the delightfully conflicting paragraphs in the household column of the daily papers in order to avoid a recurrence of the same complaint. Moderation is a good thing to observe, not only in what you eat, but as to when you eat. . . . The age, condition, and business of a man must also be considered.—New York Mail and Express.