A healthy man never knows he has a stomach; a dyspeptic never knows he has anything else, because he will not eat his food, but throws it into his stomach as the average bachelor throws his belongings into a trunk.

A varied, tasty diet, thoroughly chewed and salivated, with rest before and after meals, is the only means of curing dyspepsia, for no medicine can supply and properly distribute nerve-energy.

Digestive pills are all purgatives, with a bitter to increase appetite, and occasionally a stomachic, bound together with syrup or soap.  Practically all contain aloes, and very rarely a minute quantity of a digestive ferment like pepsin.  Taken occasionally as purges, most digestive pills would be useful, but none are suited to continuous use, and the price is, as a rule, out of all proportion to the primary cost, while one or two are, frankly, barefaced swindles.

The analyses of the British Medical Association give the following as the probable formulae for some well-known preparations: 

Beecham’s Pills.............................Aloes; ginger. 
Holloway’s Pills............................Aloes; ginger. 
Page Woodcock’s ............................Aloes; ginger; capsicum;
cinnamon and oil of
peppermint. 
Carter’s Little Liver.......................Aloes; podophyllin;
Pills                                       liquorice. 
Burgess’ Lion Pills.........................Aloes; ipecacuanha; rhubarb;
jalap; peppermint. 
Cockle’s Pills..............................Aloes; colocynth; jalap. 
Barclay’s Pills.............................Aloes; colocynth; jalap. 
Whelpton’s Pills............................Ginger; colocynth; gentian. 
Bile Beans..................................Cascara; rhubarb; liquorice;
peppermint. 
Cicfa.......................................Cascara; capsicum; pepsin;
diastase; maltose.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XIII

DIETING

“Simple diet is best; many dishes bring many diseases,”
—­Pliny.

“Alas! what things I dearly love—­
puddings and preserves—­
Are sure to rouse the vengeance of
All pneumogastric nerves!”
—­Field.

The man who pores over a book to discover the exact number of calories (heat units) of carbohydrates, proteins and fats his body needs, means well, but is wasting time.

In theory it is excellent, for it should ensure maximum work-energy with minimum use of digestive-energy, but in practice it breaks down badly, a weakness to which theories are prone.  One man divided four raw eggs, an ounce of olive oil, and a pound of rice into three meals a day.  Theoretically, such a diet is ideal, and for a short time the experimenter gained weight, but malnutrition and dyspepsia set in, and he had to give up.  The best diet-calculator is a normal appetite, and fancy aids digestion more than a pair of scales.