Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Surfeit, in Physiology

SURFEIT, in physiology, is an indisposition attended with nausea, and the sensation of a load at the stomach, which are generally occasioned by indolence, and excess in eating or drinking; though the disease sometimes arises from an error in the quality of the diet. During this affection, the insensible perspiration is impeded, and the skin is often covered with eruptions.

If a surfeit originate from the use of muscles, corrupted meat, or other unwholesome animal food, it will be advisable speedily to resort to an emetic; and, after its operation, to drink frequent and copious draughts of vegetable acids, diluted with water. But, in cases where excess in eating or drinking is the immediate cause of the complaint, the first passages ought to be evacuated by proper purgatives, and afterwards such medicines administered as tend to restore the obstructed perspiration, and at the same time promote the secretion of urine.