s who antedated Tycho Brahe,
Pythagoras, and Copernicus, to the celestial charts of the nineteenth
century. One would note especially the prominence given to certain
organs. The stomach is almost, if not entirely, ignored. It is a
matter for speculation why this valuable factor of the human system
should be regarded with some disfavor by the ignorant. They joyfully
admit the existence of the heart, brain and kidneys, and even the
liver, and discourse with zestful unction on their own peculiar and
special diseases of these organs; but suggest not to them that the
stomach is out of sorts. This is not, in their estimation, a romantic
Complaint. Their specialty is Nerves. To hear the frequency with which
they attribute to these all uncomfortable sensations, one would
imagine that the victims were made by a special pattern, like the
tongue, of ends of nerves, all super-sensitive. The Nerves are a
mysterious portion of their being, to whose account everything is
laid, from extreme irritability and vexation, to nausea and
rheumatism. "My nerves are _that_ sensitive!" is a universal
complaint.

It is difficult for the average mind to grasp the reason why the
stomach, man's best friend and worst enemy, should be made of no
account, and repudiated with such indignant resentment. Surely the
giddiness occasioned by a tendency of blood to the head is no more
romantic than the dizziness induced by gaseous fermentation of matter
in the stomach. The digestive organs should and do receive vast
consideration from the medical profession. How often do we hear it
said of some man lying at the point of death that as long as his
digestive functions are duly performed there is hope; and how often,
after the crisis is past, do we learn from the jubilant doctor that
the patient's stomach was his salvation! "If _that_ had failed,
nothing could have saved him."

Let me recommend, as the pre-eminent duty of the sensible reader, care
of the stomach and the alimentary apparatus. By care I do not mean
dosing. With too many people the science of hygiene is confined in
their imagination and practice to remedial measures. Of the weightier
matters of precaution they reck nothing. Once in so often they "take a
course of physic." This is done not so much because it is needed, as
on principle, and because they have somewhere heard that it is a good
thing to do. So, although all the digestive functions may be
performing their part in a perfectly proper and