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MEDICAL INTELLIGENCER.

JOHN G. COFFIN, M. D., EDITOR.

THE BEST PART OF THE MEDICAL ART, IS THE ART OF AVOIDING PAIN.

VOL. IV.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1826.

TAKEN AT MEALS.

NO. 30.

ON THE QUANTITY OF FOOD TO BE than to establish a rule of weight and measure on such There is no circumstance occasions. Individuals differ connected with diet, which from each other so widely in popular writers have raised their capacities for food, that into greater importance; and to attempt the construction of some medical practitioners a universal standard, is little have even deemed it necessary less absurd than the practice to direct that the quantity of of the philosophical tailors of food, appropriated to each Laputa, who wrought by meal, should be accurately es- mathematical calculation, and timated by the balance. Mr. entertained a supreme conAbernethy says, that "it would tempt for those humble and be well if the public would fol- illiterate fashioners who went low the advice of Mr. Addison, to work by measuring the pergiven in the Spectator, of read- son of their customer; but Ġuling the writings of L. Cornaro; liver tells us, that the worst who, having naturally a weak clothes he ever wore were constitution, which he seemed constructed on abstract printo have ruined by intemper- ciples. How then, it may be ance, so that he was expected asked, shall we be able to dito die at the age of thirtyfive, rect the proportion of food did at this period adopt a strict which it may be proper for an regimen, allowing himself only invalid to take? I shall antwelve ounces of food daily." swer this question in the words When I see the habits of Cor- of Dr. Philip, whose opinion naro so incessantly introduced so exactly coincides with my as an example for imitation, and as the standard of dietetic perfection, I am really inclined to ask with Feyjoo did God create Lewis Cornaro to be a rule for all mankind, in what they were to eat and drink? Nothing can be more absurd

own experience, that it would be difficult to discover a more appropriate manner of expressing it. "The dyspeptic should carefully attend to the first feeling of satiety. There is a moment when the relish given by the appetite ceases; a sin

one mouthful taken after this nence will also tend to weaken

depresses a weak stomach. If and distress both mind and he eats slowly, and carefully body. Men who in the earlier attends to this feeling, he will ages, from a mistaken notion never overload the stomach." of religion, confined their diet But that such an indication to a few figs, or a crust of may not deceive him, let him bread and water, were so maremember to eat slowly. This ny visionary enthusiasts; and is an important condition; for the excessive abstinence to when we eat too fast, we in- which some religious orders troduce a greater quantity of are subjected, has proved one food into the stomach than of the great sources of modern the gastric juice can at once superstition. The effects of combine with; the consequence feeding below the healthy stanof which is, that hunger may dard, are also obvious in the continue for some time after poor and illfed classes in many the stomach has received more parts of England and Ireland; than would be sufficient, under and these are still more strikother circumstances, to induce ing in those districts where the satiety. The advantage of food is chiefly or entirely vegsuch a rule over every artifi- etable, and therefore less nucial method by weight and tritious. It is also well known, measure, must be obvious; for that the obstinate fasting of it will equally apply to every maniacs often occasions a disperson, under whatever condi- ease resembling sea scurvy. tion or circumstances he may be placed. If he be of sedentary habits, the feeling of satiety will be sooner induced: and if a concurrence of circumstances should have invigorated his digestive powers, he will find no difficulty in apportioning the increase of his food, so as to meet the exigencies of the occasion.

Though it must be admitted, that we all take more solid food in health than may be necessary for supporting the body in its healthy state, yet it is important to know, that too great a degree of absti

Those who are induced

preserve

from their situation in life con-
stantly to exceed the proper
standard of diet, will
their health by occasionally
abstaining from food, or rather,
by reducing the usual quantity,
and living low, or maigre, as
the French call it. A poached
egg, or a basin of broth, may
on such occasions be substitut-
ed for the grosser solids. The
advantage of such a practice
has not only been sanctioned
by experience, but demonstrat-
ed by experiment. The his-
tory of the art of" training”
will furnish us with some curi-

ous facts on this subject. It

becomes again unwell, and fe

is well known that racehorses ver or some other mischief assails him. To the medical practitioner the cause of the relapse is obvious: he has attempted to force his strength too suddenly and violently beyond that athletic standard which corresponds with the vital energy of his constitution.

precept is the more important, as persons who have too freely indulged, and begin to feel the bad effects of their excesses, are disposed to alter their habits without the preliminary preparations. They leap at once from the situation which gives them pain or fills them with alarm, instead of quietly descending by the steps which would secure the safety of their retreat.

and fightingcocks, as well as men, cannot be preserved at their athletic weight or at the "top of their condition," for any length of time; and that every attempt to force its continuance is followed by disease. A person, therefore, in robust health, should diminish the proportion of his food, in order Any sudden transition from that he may not attempt to established habits, both in reforce it beyond the athletic gard to the quantity and qualstandard. I am particularly ity of food, is injudicious. This anxious to impress this important precept on the mind of the junior practitioner, as I have, in the course of my professional experience, seen much mischief arise from a neglect of it. A person after an attack of acute disease, when his appetite returns, is in the condition of a pugilist who is about to enter on a system of training; with this difference, that he is more obnoxious to those evils that are likely to accrue from overfeeding. In a state of debility and emaciation, without any disease, with a voracious appetite, he is prompted to eat largely and frequently; and he is exhorted by those not initiated in the mysteries of the medical art, to neglect no opportunity to "get up his strength." The plan succeeds for a certain time, his strength increases daily, and all goes on well; but, suddenly, his appetite fails, he

After long fasting, we ought also to be careful how far we indulge; this is a caution given to us by Avicenna, and practical physicians must be well aware of the penalty which attends a disobedience of it. When a famine occurred in the city of Bocara, those who had lived on roots and herbs,, on their return to bread and flesh, filled themselves grecdily, and died. But we need not search the annals of former times for an illustration: per

sons who have been enclosed like, they are either returned, in coal mines for several days or they pass through the aliwithout food, in consequence mentary canal almost unchangof the accidental falling in of ed. On the other hand, the the surrounding strata, have gratification which attends a not unfrequently lost their lives favorite meal is, in itself, a from the too assiduous admin- specific stimulus to the organs istration of food after their of digestion, especially in weak extrication. During the pe- and debilitated habits. In the riod of my studentship at Cam- sixth edition of my Pharmacobridge, Elizabeth Woodcock logia, I published a case which was buried under the snow for was related to me by Dr. Merthe space of eight days: on riman, highly illustrative of her being found, she was visit- the powerful influence of the ed by those to whom so ex- mind on these organs. A lady traordinary an adventure pre- of rank, laboring under a sesented any interest; and I can vere menorrhagia, suffered state, from my personal know- with that irritable and unreledge of the fact, that she died lenting state of stomach which in consequence of the large so commonly attends uterine quantity of sustenance with affections, and to such a dewhich she was supplied. In gree, that every kind of alithe first volume of the Me- ment and medicine was alike moirs of the Philosophical So- rejected. After the total failciety of Manchester, the case ure of the usual expedients to of a miner is recorded, who procure relief, and the exhausafter remaining for eight days tion of the resources of the without food, was killed by regular practitioner, she apbeing placed in a warm bed, plied to the celebrated Miss and fed with chicken broth. Prescott, and was magnetized by the mysterious spells of this modern Circe. She immediately, to the astonishment of all her friends, ate a beefsteak, with a plentiful accompaniment of strong ale; and she continued to repeat the meal every day for six weeks, without the least inconvenience! But the disease itself, notwithstanding this treacherous amnesty of the stomach, continued with unabated violence, and

The advantages which are produced by rendering food grateful to invalids are so striking, that the most digestible aliment, if it excite aversion, is more injurious than that which,though in other respects objectionable, gratifies the palate. If feelings of disgust or aversion are excited, the stomach will never act with healthy energy on the ingesta; and in cases of extreme dis