Nuts are generally supposed to have constituted the earliest food of mankind; and they still furnish, in some countries, a considerable source of food. In this country they are principally known as an article of the dessert, although on some occasions they are eaten with our food; they constitute a favourite accompaniment with turkey; and I allude to this circumstance in order to guard dyspeptics against their use. I was lately desired to see a person who, after such a repast, was seized with violent pain in the region of the duodenum, accompanied with distressing retching; I instantly suspected the cause, and the appearance of the stools which were produced confirmed my supposition. The chestnuts had swelled in the intestines, and produced an obstruction, probably at that part of the duodenum where it makes its exit through the ring of the mesentery; or they might have lodged in the stomach, and produced an irritation upon the pylorus. With regard to composition, the chestnut may perhaps be considered as more nearly allied to the pulse than to the nut tribe, since it affords no oil by expression, and from its farinaceous qualities it may even be made into bread, although it is heavy and indigestible.

Its nutritive power must be considerable, since it forms the chief food of the lower orders in the plains of Lombardy; and it has been conjectured, that it was the acorn so frequently mentioned in ancient history and tradition. When eaten after dinner, an indulgence which can only be conceded to the most robust, it ought to be previously roasted; its digestibility is also increased by being kept for some time after it has been gathered. It is at the same time thus rendered more palatable, by the greater evolution of its saccharine principle.

223. The evils which may arise from the use of the chestnut are still more likely to occur after the ingestion of nuts, for they are more oily, as well as more viscid and glutinous: when eaten, they should always be accompanied with salt; but it would be wise to banish them entirely from our tables. It is much easier, as Dr. Johnson has said, to be abstinent than temperate; an aphorism which applies with peculiar force on this occasion: for there is a fascination in nuts which will lead most persons, who once begin to eat them, to take a quantity which the best-disposed stomach cannot bear with impunity. Hoffman observes, that dysenteric complaints are always more common in those years in which the harvest of nuts is plentiful; and there is not a physician in any practice who will be inclined to doubt his statement.