By this, or by porridge made from wheaten meal, you may secure good digestion when the gastric juice is scanty and poor; but we should not like to be restricted to that. We want a stomach that will not fight shy of any wholesome thing. We must treat it so that when suitable food is offered it may be comfortably digested.
Now, there is an exceedingly simple means for putting the glands in order when they are not so. About half-an-hour before taking any food, take half a teacupful of water as hot as you can sip it comfortably. This has a truly wonderful effect. Before food is taken, the mucous membrane is pale and nearly dry, on account of the contracted state of the arteries. In many cases the glands that secrete the gastric juice are feeble; in others they seem cramped, and far from ready to act when food is presented. The hot water has the same effect on them as it has everywhere else on the body—that of stimulating the circulation and bringing about natural action. It looks a very frail remedy; but when we can, as it were, see these glands opening and filling with arterial blood the instant they are bathed in this same water, and see how ready they become to supply gastric juice for digestion, the remedy does not look so insignificant.
We have, in scores of cases, seen its effects in the most delightful way. Persons who have to our knowledge been ill and miserable with their stomachs for years have become perfectly well from doing nothing but taking half a teacupful of hot water regularly before taking any food. It is true that great good is effected in cases of this kind by giving the weakened organ light work to do for a time. Wonders are done by feeding with wheaten-meal biscuits and water for some time, beginning with a very small allowance, and seeing that every mouthful is thoroughly chewed. Great things, too, are accomplished with such wheaten-meal porridge as we have already mentioned. But we feel disposed to regard the half-teacupful of hot water regularly before eating as the chief means of cure. It is wonderfully cheap: it goes hard with the druggist if his customers need nothing but a little hot water. Still, from what we have seen, and from what some of the very highest authorities have told us, we come more and more to look to this simple remedy as about all that is required inwardly to cure the worst cases of indigestion.
A little pepsin added to the hot water may be of use; also in cases of acidity a few drops of white vinegar mixed with the water will be found beneficial.
Soda, iron, lime, charcoal, even tar pills are used as remedies for indigestion; but none of them do much good, and some are highly injurious. If used at all, their use should be temporary, and under good medical advice.
If pain is felt, the stomach may be greatly soothed by soft fine lather (see Lather and Soap). It acts in such cases like a charm. Spread it gently over the stomach, and wipe it off with a soft cloth. Cover again with fresh lather. Do this five or six times, and cover up the last coat with a soft cloth.
All indulgences which tend to weaken the stomach are to be avoided. Alcohol and tobacco must be given up. Over-excitement must be avoided, and abundance of fresh air breathed, if a cure is to be expected.
Where sudden and violent pain comes on after meals, a poultice or hot fomentation applied directly over the stomach is the best remedy at the time. See Flatulence.
Infant Nursing.—A mother who has had strength to bear a child is, as a rule, quite strong enough to nurse it. Suckling is natural, and usually most beneficial to health. Many women have better health and appetite at such a time than at any other. Every mother ought, therefore, unless her health forbids it, to nurse her own child; no other food is so good for it as that which nature provides. We cannot too strongly condemn the mother who from indolence or love of pleasure shirks this sacred duty. By so doing she violates the laws of nature, which can never be done with impunity. Many troubles follow, and her constitution is seriously injured. Alas that we should ever have to say, with Jeremiah: "Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones; the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness."
If a wet-nurse must be employed, great care should be exercised in choosing a healthy person with a child as near as possible to the age of the infant.