Remarks on dyspepsia. Read to the Lexington Medical Society, Dec. 12, 1834.

  • Yandell, Lunsford P. (Lunsford Pitts), 1805-1878.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on dyspepsia. Read to the Lexington Medical Society, Dec. 12, 1834. 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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    •»'- Yandei,!, en I i/tprpsia. turb each oilier, till aJl the horrors of nervous di3ea«e make their unwelcome appearnr.ee, and render life miserable. Literary men and hard students know this fact from sad ex- perience; but as they arc not aware of the incompatibility of the two processes of active thinking and active digestion going on at the same time, it is extremely difficult to give them a sense of their danger, and to convince them that an hour, or an hour and a half, after a meal, is more profitably spent in easy relaxation than in the labour of composition. As regards the lower animal?, indeed, we are careful enough to observe this organic law; for we do not allow our horses or dogs to be actively exercised till digestion i9 in some de- gree completed. It should be remarked, that when the mind is goaded to unwonted exertions by artificial stimuli; or when the study is kept up at unseasonable hours, the mischief resulting from it is much increased. The life of Sir Humphrey Davy furn- ishes a melancholy example in point. His intellectual ex- ertions, remarks his biographer, were of the most injurious kind, and yet, unlike the philosophers of old, he sought not to fortify himself by habits of temperance. Such was his great celebrity that persons of the highest rank contended for the honor of his company at dinner, and he did not pos- sess sufficient resolution to resist the gratification thus afford- ed, although it generally happened that his pursuits in the laboratory were not suspended until the appointed dinner hour had passed. On his return in the evening, he resumed his chemical labors, and commonly continued them till three or four o'clock in the morning, and yet the servants of the establishment found that he had risen before them.* We have here the combined influence of intense study, undue excitement, and excessive repletion, heightened by the want of the necessary amount of sleep. The result may be anticipated. His health failed him prematurely, and he died in the prime of life, of a lingering disease. Dr. Frank- lin recommended the hours of evening to be given to recre- ■ Paris'sLife of Sir H. Davy. + Combe on the Preservation of Health, p. 137