This arrangement of Providence, designed for our happiness, has become, either through ignorance or want of self-control, the chief cause of the many diseases and sufferings which afflict those classes who have the means of seeking a variety to gratify the palate. If mankind had only one article of food, and only water to drink, though they would have less enjoyment in eating, they would never be tempted to put any more into the stomach than the calls of hunger require. But the customs of society, which present an incessant change, and a great variety of food, with those various condiments which stimulate appetite, lead almost every person very frequently to eat merely to gratify the palate, after the stomach has been abundantly supplied, so that hunger has ceased. When too great a supply of food is put into the stomach, the gastric juice dissolves only that portion which the wants of the system demand. Most of the remainder is ejected in an unprepared state; the absorbents take portions of it into the system; and all the various functions of the body, which depend on the ministries of the blood, are thus gradually and imperceptibly injured. Very often, intemperance in eating produces immediate results, such as colic, headaches, pains of indigestion, and vertigo. But the more general result is a gradual undermining of all parts of the human frame; thus imperceptibly shortening life, by so weakening the constitution that it is ready to yield, at every point, to any uncommon risk or exposure. Thousands and thousands are passing out of the world, from diseases occasioned by exposures which a healthy constitution could meet without any danger. It is owing to these considerations that it becomes the duty of every woman who has the responsibility of providing food for a family to avoid a variety of tempting dishes. It is a much safer guide to have only one kind of healthy food for each meal, rather than the too abundant variety which is often met at the tables of almost all classes in this country. When there is to be any variety of dishes, they ought not to be successive, but so arranged as to give the opportunity of selection. How often is it the case that persons, by the appearance of a favorite article, are tempted to eat merely to gratify the palate, when the stomach is already adequately supplied. All such intemperance wears on the constitution, and shortens life. It not unfrequently happens that excess in eating produces a morbid appetite, which must constantly be denied. But the organization of the digestive organs demands not only that food should be taken in proper quantities, but that it be taken at proper times. [Illustration: Fig. 54.] Fig. 54 shows one important feature of the digestive organs relating to this point. The part marked LM shows the muscles of the inner coat of the stomach, which run in one direction, and CM shows the muscles of the outer coat, running in another direction.