Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X. A CHAT WITH CHARLES. On Dyspepsia, Horseback, and Philosophy. "I'm afraid that dinner was too much for me," Charles remarked, after lighting his cigar and mounting the hammock. l' I wish I could eat as other folks do, without suffering from it afterward." "Well, it is a trial to be a dyspeptic, --a constant trial. You are sick if you eat, and eat if you are sick, and for the life of you cannot tell under which formula you are best-conditioned. Let your diet be strictly after the Graham biscuit and mush order (stuff no more digestible than so much sand, I desire to observe), and your head, in company with your stomach, will ache like fury all next day. Partake of terrapin and champagne for supper to appease your famishing appetite, and quite as likely as not you will feel like a fighting-cock for a week to come, only to be thrown into a headache at the very next attempt of that sort. So you are perplexed and annoyed to determine when and what to eat. "When a fellow is quite as much sick when he 14 161 'takes care of himself (living upon starvation diet, partaking of oatmeal, beef tea, and similar slops) as when he goes in for a real hearty dinner of roast beef and accessories, what in the name of common sense is he to do? It is a trite saying, but somewhat applicable in this case, --'You might as well die for a sheep as a lamb, ' and surely why not? "The trials of the dyspeptic are sometimes funny as well as distressing. It is amusing to see him sit in his easy-chair after a moderate supper, feel his pulse, and every time his heart gives a skip, his eyes give a blink, his thoughts a summersault, and his tongue an expression which becomes intelligible in 'heart disease.' Every time that heart skips its owner does likewise, until he...