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378 ESOTERIC ANTHROPOLOGY.
weight of the stomach,' nausea, vomiting, emaciation,
flatulence, colics, constipation, diarrhoea, general debil
ity, languor, great depression of spirits, or blues, vertigo,
headache, dim and depraved vision, sleeplessness, noc
turnal restlessness, hypo, palpitation of the heart, slow
or intermittent pulse, foul, white, furred, or red and
deeply-furrowed tongue, bad teeth, foetid breath, pim
ples, a greasy, dull complexion, pallor, sallowness, dull
ness of all the senses, loss of all faculties, insanity, suicide,
etc., etc. This list might be prolonged
extent.
to an indefinite
The seat of the disease is in the central ganglia of
the organic system of nerves, which over preside the
secretion of the gastric juice, and over generally the di
gestive and assimilative processes. Every other organ
of the body is affected either nervous by relation and
sympathy, or by the morbid condition of the blood. The
causes, effects, and relations of dyspepsia cover almost
the whole ground of pathology, Abernethy, when
called to an ulcer, or a sore toe, always went to work
at the stomach as the center of disease, though not in
the most judicious way, according to my " humble
opinion."
As a knowledge of the causes of dyspepsia is impor
tant in itself, and as an indication of the means of both
prevention and cure, I respectfully beg the reader's in
dulgence while I state them somewhat particularly and
at length.
Dyspepsia, I have already said, is hereditary. It may
come from either parent. We have no occasion to
doubt this ; for children " take after" their parents in
much less important particulars.