Baldwin's herbal guide to health : descriptive catalogue of herbal remedies : laboratory: 77, Walworth Road, London, S.E. / G. Baldwin.
- G. Baldwin (Firm)
- Date:
- [between 1890 and 1899?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Baldwin's herbal guide to health : descriptive catalogue of herbal remedies : laboratory: 77, Walworth Road, London, S.E. / G. Baldwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![BOTANIC MATEIilA MEBICA; AND « herbal guide to health. A.N is the only animal that can be taught to sleep quietly on an empty stomach. The brute creatior resents all efforts to coax them to such a violation of the laws of nature. Is not man an animal P Do not animals, without excep¬ tion, sleep immediately after eating ? The lion roars in the forest until he has found his prey, and when he has devoured it he sleeps until he needs another meal. The horse will paw at night in the stable, and the pig will squeal all night in the pen, refusing all rest or sleep until they are fed. Do we not feel like sleeping after each day’s last meal ? and is it not by an effort that we shake off sleep ? Evidently the body yearns for sleep. Exercise immediately after each meal is pernicious; rest is healthful. What rest can compare with sleep, which reposes the mind, the lungs, and even the heart P Man can train himself to the habit of sleeping without a preceding meal, but only after long years of practice. ^he sleep which comes to adults long hours after partaking of food, and when the stomach is nearly or quite emoty is not after the type of infantile repose. There is all the difference in the world between the sleep of refreshment and the sleep of exhaustion. To sleep well the blood that swells the veins in our head during our busy hours must flow back, leaving a greatly diminished volume behind the brow that lately throbbed with such vehemence. To digest well this blood is needed in the stomach and nearer the fountains of life. It is a fact established beyond the possibility ]£ contradiction that sleep aids digestion, and that the process of digestion is conducive to refreshing sleep. It needs no argument to convince us of this mental relaxation. The drowsiness which always follows the well- ordered meal is of itself a testimony of nature to this fact. See the peasants ; no persons enjoy better](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30478662_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
