DYSPEPSIA, or DYSPEP'SY, in medicine, difficulty of digestion. Ilence those who are afflicted with indigestion are termed dyspeptic persons. The dis order of the digestive function is the most frequent and prevailing of the ailments that afflict man in the civilized state ; all classes and all ages suffer from its attacks. But in the higher ranks of society, and amongst the luxurious and opulent, it is a common consequence of over eating, or of indulgence in difficultly digestible or over-stimulating food, or of want of due exercise and general bodily and mental exertion. In others it results from men tal anxiety and labor associated with a sedentary life ; from the fatigues of busi ness or the influence of debilitating pas sions. In the lower orders it is the con stant result or indulgence in spirituous liquors, combined in many instances with want of proper food, the means which ought to be applied to procuring it being disposed of in the dram shop. 'rhe symp toms of dyspepsia vary, therefore, in the different grades of life. The epicure loses his relish for the most refined dishes, be comes bloated, plethoric, heavy, and per haps apoplectic ; the lady of fashion suf fers from headaches, flatulence, occasional giddiness, and dimness of sight: she be comes indolent, capricious, and full of fan cies, or, as the old physicians used to say, she has the rapers; the studious man feels the intensity of his mind blunted, loses his appetite, Or at least all enjoy ment of meals, sleeps ill, and dreams much, gets whimsical and discontented with himself and his friends, and becomes a hypochondriac ; the lower classes at first take their glass of gin or of runs be cause they find it it cheap stimulant, little thinking of the misery they are laying up for future years ; this stimulant soon be comes habitual, and they not only feel miserable and heartbroken without it, but the single glass soon loses its efficacy, and the dose must be gradually increased till they degenerate into regular tipplers, the aspect and characters of whom it were needless to describe. Complicated as are the symptoms of dyspepsia, and numerous as are the remedies and modes of treat ment proposed for its relief or cure, they really resolve themselves into a few shu pie rules. In the majority of eases, ab
stinence is the first and most essential step; the epicure must abstain from the luxuries of the table, eat and drink with moderation, rise betimes, and use due ex ercise ; the woman of fashion must revert to regular hours, that is the night and the day most be employed as intended by nature, and not iu inverted order ; the philosopher and the scholar must occa sionally, and often frequently and assidu ously, divest themselves of their mental labors, and resort to amusements and oc cupations of a more trivial character. Those among the lower orders who have once acquired the habit of dram drinking are incurable ; for such is the depression of mind and body, and such the gnawing restlessness that want of the accustomed stimulus occasions, that without it they become miserable and inconsolable, and usually fall a sacrifice to mental or bodily disease, or to both combined; here, there fore, prevention is the only cure.
E, the fifth letter in the alphabet, and the second vowel, has different pronuncia tions in most languages. The French have their e open, e masculine, and e or mute. In English, there are three kinds of e: open, as in wear, bear ; long, as in here, mere, me ; and short. as in wet, kept, ste. As a final letter it is generally quiescent ; but it serves to lengthen the sound of the preceding vow el, at in Inane, cane, thine, which, without the final e, would be pronounced man, can, thin. In many other words the final e is silent, as in examine, definite, &e. As a numeral E stands for 250. In sea charts, fl stands for East : F by N. and E by S, Bast by North, and East by South.—In music, the third note or de gree of the diatoMe scale, corresponding to the mi of the French and Italians. In the bass clef it is that on the third space of the staff, in tile tenor on the first space, in the counter tenor on the fourth line, and in the treble clef that on the first line.