The infirm stomachs of Invalids, require a little indulgence[92]--like other bad instruments, they often want oiling, and screwing, and winding up and adjusting with the utmost care, to keep them in tolerable order;--and will receive the most salutary Stimulus, from now and then making a full meal of a favourite dish. This is not a singular notion of my own, though it may not exactly agree with the fastidious fancy of _Dr. Sangrado's_ disciples,--that Starvation and Phlebotomy, are Sovereign Remedies for all Disorders. Those philanthropic Physicians, Dr. Diet,--Dr. Quiet,--and Dr. Merryman,--hold the same doctrine as the _Magnus Coquus_--_i. e._ the Author of "the Cook's Oracle," to whose culinary skill we have been so repeatedly indebted in the composition of this work. As excessive Eating and Drinking is certainly the most frequent cause of the disorders of the Rich,--so privation is the common source of complaints among the Poor;--the cause of the one, is the cure of the other--but where one of the latter dies of Want, how many thousands of the former are destroyed by Indigestion! If strong Spices and savoury Herbs excite appetite--they (in an increased ratio,) accelerate the action of the Bowels--and hurry the food through the alimentary canal, too rapidly to allow the Absorbents to do their work properly. _Salt_ is the most salubrious and easily obtainable relish which Nature has given us to give sapidity to other substances; and has this advantage over all other Sauces, that if taken to excess--it carries its remedy with it in its Aperient quality. We suspect that most mischief is done by the immoderate and constant use of the _Common Condiments_.--We have seen some puritanical folks, who are for ever boasting that _They never touch_ MADE DISHES, &c. (one would suppose they had the _Tongue of Pityllus_[93],) so be-devil every morsel they put into their Mouth--with PEPPER, and MUSTARD, &c. that they made their common food ten times more _piquante_--than the burn-gullet _Bonne Bouche_ of an eastern Nabob, or _a Broiled Devil_, enveloped in "veritable Sauce d'Enfer."--See (No. 355 and 538). We do not condemn the moderate use of Spices, but the constant and excessive abuse of them,--by which the papillary nerves of the tongue become so blunted, that in a little time they lose all relish for useful nourishing food, and the Epicure is punished with all the sufferings of incessant and incurable Indigestion,--perturbed Sleep--and the horrors of the Night-Mare, &c. &c.--However, enough has been written by a thousand cautionists, to convince any rational creature of the advantage resulting to both the Body and the Mind from a simple and frugal fare:--the great secret of Health and Longevity is to keep up the sensibility of the Stomach. No Regimen[94] can be contrived that will suit every body. "Try all the bounties of this fertile Globe, There is not such a salutary Food As suits with every Stomach."