320. Indigestion arising from a prostration of the nervous system, should be treated with great care. The food should 149 be simple, nutritious, moderate in quantity, and taken at regular periods. Large quantities of stimulating food, frequently taken, serve to increase the nervous prostration. Those afflicted should exercise in the open air, and engage in social conversation, that the brain may be excited to a natural or healthy action, in order that it may impart to the digestive organs the necessary stimulation.
Of the Anglo-Saxon race? 318. How can the Spanish custom be improved? 319. How is the influence of the mind on the digestive process exhibited? What does it show the necessity of avoiding? 320. How should indigestion arising from nervous prostration be treated?
321. Persons should abstain from eating, at least three hours before retiring for sleep. It is no unusual occurrence, for those persons who have eaten heartily immediately before retiring to sleep, to have unpleasant dreams, or to be aroused from their unquiet slumber by colic pains. In such instances, the brain becomes partially dormant, and does not impart to the digestive organs the requisite amount of nervous influence. The nervous stimulus being deficient, the unchanged food remains in the stomach, causing irritation of this organ.
Illustration. A healthy farmer, who was in the habit of eating one fourth of a mince pie immediately before going to bed, became annoyed with unpleasant dreams, and, among the varied images of his fancy, he saw that of his deceased father. Becoming alarmed, he consulted a physician, who, after a patient hearing of the case, gravely advised him to eat half of a mince pie, assuring him that he would then see his grandfather.
322. When the general system and digestive organs are enfeebled, mild, unstimulating food, in small quantities, should be given. In the instance of a shipwrecked and famished mariner, or a patient recovering from disease, but a small quantity of nourishment should be given at a time. The reason for this, is, that when the stomach is weakened from want of nourishment, it is as unfitted for a long period of action in 150 digesting food, as the muscles are, under like circumstances, for walking. Consequently, knowledge and prudence should direct the administration of food under these circumstances. The popular adage, that “food never does harm when there is a desire for it,” is untrue, and, if practically adopted, may be injurious and destructive to life.
321. What is the effect of eating immediately before retiring for sleep? How is this illustrated in the case of a healthy farmer? 322. How should the food be given when both the digestive organs and general system are debilitated? Give the reason.
Observation. Liquids are rapidly removed from the stomach by absorption. Hence, in cases of great prostration, when it is desirable to introduce nutriment into the system, without delay, the animal and vegetable broths are a desirable and convenient form of supplying aliment.
323. The condition of the skin exercises an important influence on the digestive apparatus. Let free perspiration be checked, either from uncleanliness or from chills, and it will diminish the functional action of the stomach and its associated organs. This is one of the fruitful causes of the “liver and stomach complaints” among the half-clothed and filthy population of the crowded cities and villages of our country. Attention to clothing and bathing would likewise prevent many of the diseases of the alimentary canal, called “season complaints,” particularly among children.
324. Restricting the movements of the ribs and diaphragm impairs digestion. At each full inspiration, the ribs are elevated, and the central portion of the diaphragm is depressed, from one to two inches. This depression is accompanied by a relaxation of the anterior abdominal walls. At each act of expiration, the relaxed abdominal muscles contract, the ribs are depressed, the diaphragm relaxes, and its central parts ascend. These movements of the midriff cause the elevation and depression of the stomach, liver, and other abdominal organs, which is a natural stimulus of these parts.
In cases of great prostration, what is recommended? 323. How is the influence that the skin exercises on the digestive organs illustrated? 324. What effect on the digestive process has the restriction of the ribs and diaphragm?