on, and sufficiently
expressive of a condition in which the aliments supplied to the stomach
are not met by a vigorous and sufficient action for the purposes of
health; but this definition, however just, is not comprehensive enough
for the genius of mankind. That genius, which, in former times, has
sanctioned the appellations of nervous disorders, and bilious
complaints, as comprising nearly all others, has now selected the term
of dyspepsia, as the covering for a multitude of real and imaginary
woes; so that when an invalid approaches with a variety of symptoms, and
a host of pains or whimsies, he is at once pronounced to be a Dyspeptic.

The book before us, commences with a short account of the organs engaged
in the process of digestion, copied from a periodical work of the day,
very good as far as it goes, and leaving nothing to be desired on the
score of brevity: our author then pursues his task, by a detail of the
symptoms of what he calls dyspepsia; from what work he procured these,
or from what unhappy wretch he could gain such a list of grievances, as
he describes arising from indigestion, does not appear; if they be in
existence now, the sooner the one is burnt and the other buried, the
better. It is evident that Mr. Halsted is unaware that dyspepsia occurs,
in one of two ways; either as a primary affection, or as a symptom of
other diseases; that he is unacquainted with the share the liver, with
its biliary apparatus, the pancreas, the spleen, the mesentery, the
omentum, &c. take in digestion, and of the symptoms occasioned by an
affection of these organs; it may therefore be adviseable to devote a
few lines to the consideration of these points, as well for the
satisfaction of the public, as for his instruction and the improvement
of his second edition. Dyspepsia, or indigestion in its simple form,
occurs either as a disease of debility, or as a consequence of excess:
the first arises from numerous causes, and seldom exists alone: the
secretion of the gastric juice is not only impaired, for the office of
no organ continues in a state of activity, all alike feeling the result
of that general depression affecting the system at large: the second may
be referred to the stomach itself, as a natural effect from
over-feeding, or indulgence in spirituous liquors. Dyspepsia, occurring
as a symptom in other diseases, appears under numerous characters,
either from the effects of sympathy, or from an extension of the malad