A full and accurate account of the new method of curing dyspepsia : discovered and practised by O. Halsted : with some observations on diseases of the digestive organs.

  • Halsted, O. (Oliver)
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A full and accurate account of the new method of curing dyspepsia : discovered and practised by O. Halsted : with some observations on diseases of the digestive organs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    several years afterwards that I discovered the clue, by following up which I have been completely rel stored to health and comfort. Another circumstance presented itself to ray mind, which, as I have remarked, was continually directed to every thing that could in any w ay thro\\ light upon the nature of my malady. Exercise, which had been recommended to me bypkysieiai s, and of which I had tried various kinds, particularly riding on horse-back, and the different exercises of the gymnasium, seemed to augment my sufferings by increasing the contraction of the muscles, and the screwing sensation about the abdomen. But whenever I rode for a succession of days and nights in the mail-stage, to which my business frequently compelled me, instead of feeling worse, as might have been expected, from the fatigue, I invariably experienced an alleviation of my symptom^ and found that during the journey, I could cat and drink with comparative impunity. A few days after the journey was ended, however, I would re- lapse again into my horrid dyspeptic state, so to call it, and experience a return of all the dreadful feelings, which seemed doubly distressing after the short respite I had enjoyed. I frequent] y mentioned to my family the circumstance of my always expe- riencing relief when riding in the mail-stage, but could not account for the fact, that this sort of ex- ercise should prove so serviceable, wliile the various kinds to which I had resorted at the instance of my physician, should only tend to make me worse. Indeed it was a long time before I could bring myself to the belief, that it was the riding in the stage which benefited me, but imagined that it might be owing to some other unknown cause. Thinking intently however, upon the subject.