their owners, worse, as Sir F. Head observes, than any pack-horse; nevertheless we abuse them most emphatically when they sink to the earth overwhelmed by the weight imposed on them. They are, in short, the scape-goats which must bear all our physiological delinquencies, and save us the pain of blaming ourselves. If they feel uneasy after a heavy meal, it is not _we_ who are to blame for having eaten it. No! it is the _fish_ which lies heavy on the stomach, or the stomach which is unfortunately at war with soup, or potatoes, or some other well-relished article. _We_ have nothing to do with the mischief, except as meek and resigned sufferers. _We_ never eat more than enough. _We_ never devour lobsters, or oysters, or salmon, or cheese, or any thing which experience has told us our enfeebled stomachs cannot digest! We are too prudent and self-denying for that. And yet, somehow or another, our stomachs get hold of all these things in spite of us, and we must pay the same penalty as if we had eaten them deliberately, and with malice prepense! The case is hard, no doubt, that we cannot lead indolent and slothful lives, and yet enjoy the incompatible luxury of having the appetite of a rustic and the digestion of a tiger:--but since we are so unfortunately constituted that we must act like rational creatures or suffer the penalty, would it not be a wise proceeding to set a better watch on the stomach, and try to subject it to more effectual control? * * * * * In mature and middle age, after the effervescence and boisterous activity of youth are over, still greater caution than before becomes requisite. Growth no longer goes on, and nourishment is needed merely to supply waste; and, accordingly, the appetite becomes less keen, and the power of digestion less intense. If the individual continues from habit to eat as heartily as before, even after changing to a sedentary mode of life, the natural vigour of the digestive system may enable it to withstand the excess for a time, but ultimately dyspepsia, or some form of disease dependent on indigestion, will certainly ensue. The attempt to combine the appetite and digestive power of early youth with the altered circumstances and comparative inactivity of mature age, is the true source of the multitude of bilious complaints, sick-headachs, and other analogous ailments, now so common and so fashionable in civilized society; and they will never be got rid of so long as their exciting causes are allowed to operate with unrestricted freedom.