Substance of a letter by the Author addressed to employers of labour, and printed for private circulation, 1852.

That animal life cannot go on in even passable health and comfort without sufficient food and effectual digestion, is a fact perfectly familiar to all; yet, unhappily among those who live an in-door life, effectual digestion is scarcely known. They constitute the bulk of that enormous number of persons who suffer from what is popularly known as "indigestion."

Now, there can be no question that they are pre disposed to this class of diseases by many circumstances, quite inseparable from their occupations. But that makes it the more desirable to avoid all those causes of disease which are not necessary to their pursuits.

I am not speaking of any particular form of indigestion, but in a general and broad sense, of all those various maladies classed under the popular term.

The choice of the hours at which clerks, shopmen, mechanics, labourers, and other business-servants of both sexes take their meals, depends almost entirely upon the decision of their superiors.

If these hours are not well chosen, indigestion in some form is the certain consequence sooner or later. And it will be seen from the few plain facts which I shall detail, that the notions which have long prevailed as to the proper hours for taking food, and consequently the regulations of nearly all business establishments in this respect, are inconsistent with the conditions which physiology teaches us to be essential to healthy digestion, with the requirements of the various occupations by which persons gain their livelihood, and with the conventional arrangements of society in the present day.

I shall hope, by avoiding all technicalities and minute physiological details, and by employing the plainest popular terms, to make my meaning perfectly intelligible to the unprofessional, to whom, in this instance, it is necessary to address my remarks; and I now ask particular attention to the following statement of the conditions necessary to healthy digestion.

1. Food of appropriate quality and bulk.

2. In the case of a full meal, - rest of body and tran quillity of mind for a short time previous to taking food and for at least an hour afterwards. In the case of a light meal, - gentle exercise and moderate mental activity may be allowed with impunity.

3. Effectual mastication, by which the alimentary matter is completely disintegrated and saturated with saliva, and the meal taken slowly.

4. A sufficient interval between any two meals, to allow the first to have been digested and removed from the stomach long enough for the digestive functions to have regained their full vigour, before the second is introduced. The period which should intervene will depend upon the nature and amount of food taken, the rapidity of digestion, which may vary according to the quantity eaten, the state of the health, the nature and amount of the previous exercise, the condition of the mind, and many other circumstances.

5. Caution that the stomach is not empty long enough for the system to become exhausted, and the digestive powers thereby weakened.

6. Strict adherence to the same hours for taking food, that the stomach may acquire a habit of preparing for its reception.

7. An interval between the last meal and bedtime, sufficient to allow the work of digestion to be concluded before lying down to sleep.

Many other conditions might be mentioned, but as the few main points already stated are enough for our present purpose, I shall confine myself to them.

The circumstances under which the majority of those persons are placed whose health we are principally considering must now be reviewed, in order to compare them with the conditions essential to healthy digestion, and to draw the necessary conclusions as to the proper hours for meals.

From the factory artisan up to the banker's or merchant's clerk, several important circumstances are common to all.

1. The day is devoted to labour either of the body or of the mind, or of both.

2. Business must be continued unremittingly up to the moment of leaving for meals, and resumed immediately on returning from them.

3. The time which can be spared for meals during business hours must necessarily be very limited.

4. Some portion of this short time must be occupied in repairing to and returning from the refreshment place.

In many instances, especially in retail trades, the nature of the business renders it impossible to keep to fixed times for those meals taken during working hours.

The fact of taking time for meals out of the middle of the day necessarily makes it later in the evening before the business can be finished; and this not only to the extent of the time during which work is actually stopped; for we all know how much the progress of business is interrupted by the simple acts of discontinuing and recommencing it, more especially when books and calculations are concerned. The effects of these combined circumstances may be viewed daily by visiting the public dining-rooms attended by clerks, the lodgings of labourers at their dinner hour, and the offices and factories before and after meal-time - dinner-time more particularly, and dinner being the principal meal in the day - the full meal - it is of it. that I shall chiefly speak.

Twelve, one, and two o'clock seem to be the national dining hours for the working classes, and sixty minutes the maximum time allowed from business for this chief meal. The hour having arrived, books or tools are hastily laid aside, and the dining-place is reached by a sharp walk, which adds to the bodily fatigue of the labourer, and is not long enough or sufficiently leisurely to rest the brain of the accountant. The dinner must be despatched hurriedly, or there will not be time for the artizan to smoke his pipe, or for the clerk to glance at The Times; or perhaps the reading and eating are carried on at once. Mastication is carelessly performed, the mind is kept occupied, and the stomach rapidly loaded with food before it has had time to make ready for it; and in some cases a larger quantity is taken than the stomach has power to dispose of, simply because it is introduced too expeditiously for the system to become acquainted, as it were, with the fact that the supply of its wants is being effected. The meal finished, and the paper glanced at, or the pipe smoked, the sharp walk must be repeated - now with a full stomach - and business resumed before digestion has had time even to commence; and at this period, when the organic energies ought to be all concentrated about the stomach, they are at once summoned to the brain or to the muscular system. Consequently, the meal remains imperfectly digested, or not digested at all, lingers in the stomach beyond its proper time, and is finally expelled in an unnatural condition, unfitted to undergo the important changes necessary before it can be appropriated for healthy nutrition. In all probability the next meal is introduced before the former one has entirely left the stomach, and thus the mischief is increased. Comparing the circumstances, here briefly enumerated, with those essential to healthy digestion, laid down before, the antagonism, so evident between them, plainly shows that "Dyspepsia," or difficult digestion, is only the natural consequence of so persistent a disregard of the laws of health.