In enterprising commercial communities--in London and Liverpool for example--it is a common practice to hasten away to the counting-room immediately after an early breakfast; to remain there in active employment from nine or ten o’clock in the morning till six o’clock in the evening, and then to hurry home to a late dinner at six or seven o’clock; by which time the vital functions have become so far exhausted, as to create a strong desire for indulgence in something stimulating both in food and drink. If this desire be gratified, immediate relief is obtained, and a temporary feeling of comfort pervades the frame; but nothing can be more erroneous than to regard this as a proof of the indulgence being beneficial. The organization soon gets accustomed to the stimulus; its susceptibility becomes impaired by the frequency with which the latter is administered; and in a short time indigestion is the inevitable consequence. The evils attendant on this course of life are not unfrequently aggravated by the preposterous means resorted to for their prevention. Having some vague notion that _exercise_ improves digestion, and not being at all aware that there is an improper as well as a proper time for taking it, many persons, after being exhausted by seven or eight hours’ confinement to the counting-house, proceed to take a walk of four or five miles before going home to dinner, and thus utterly throw away the little strength that was left to them, and are filled with disappointment on finding their appetite and digestion worse than before.[38] Dr Paris mentions the case of a clerk in a public office who brought upon himself all the horrors of dyspepsia and melancholy by following this plan. He breakfasted at nine, went to his office at ten, continued there till five, walked till seven, and then dined. He was cured in six weeks, by adopting a more rational regimen and dining at three o’clock. Many females and delicate persons injure their powers of digestion by delaying their exercise till the system is too much exhausted to profit by it. In boarding-schools the same error is often committed from the desire which is felt to have all the lessons over before allowing any play.