BILE, Bil′iousness

Under these terms are popularly included all those slight affections of the stomach usually accompanied with derangement of the head and bowels, apparently arising from exce of bile. Persons subject to attacks of this description should be particularly careful to avoid exce in both eating and drinking, and should more especially shun those articles of food and those liquors which, from experience, they find are apt to disagree with them. A mutton chop, slightly under-dre ed, is an excellent article for the breakfast, or the lunch, of bilious patients; and good beef or mutton, either broiled or roasted, so that the gravy be retained, is better for dinner than many dishes apparently more delicate. These, with fresh game and venison, form a good variety from which to choose a bill of fare. New beer and porter should be particularly avoided, as well as boiled meat, stews, soups, greasy or rich puddings, much butter or fat, and most articles of pastry, as they are very indigestible, and, by overtasking the powers of the stomach, very apt to derange it. Strong cheese, [175] salads (particularly cucumbers), over-ripe or unripe fruit, new bread and rolls, cabbages and green vegetables, and especially peas, beans, nuts, almonds, and the like, are also objectionable for parties with delicate stomachs or a bilious tendency. The bread eaten by such persons should be perfectly free from alum, and preferably prepared with meal retaining the whole of the bran in it; and should be two days, or at the least one day old. The quantity of animal food per day, except for the laborious, should be limited to from 6 or 8 to 12 oz. ; and warm slops of all kinds, except moderately strong tea and coffee, should be taken as seldom as po ible, and, in general, avoided altogether. Even cocoa and chocolate prove injurious to the delicate and bilious. Out-door exercise and plenty of fresh air are e ential to the health of such persons. Those who indulge in them freely are never attacked with affections of this kind, unle it be after gluttonising or heavy drinking. Above all things heavy and late suppers should be abandoned; indeed, the better plan is to take nothing more than a hard biscuit, or dry crust, after tea. [175] Rotten cheese is absolute poison to the bilious. In general, attacks of bile may be prevented by the exercise of moderate judgment and temperance in living; and in those hitherto subject to them by the occasional use of an aloetic, mercurial, or saline aperient; and they may be generally rapidly removed by an emetic, followed by a dose of castor oil, Epsom salts, or Seidlitz powder. A tumbler of pure cold water taken on retiring to rest, and another (or even two) on rising in the morning, will often remove both the tendency and the fit, when all the usual remedies have failed. See Abernethy Medicines , Antibilious , Dyspepsia , Stomach Affections , .