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Academy  of Natural Sciences
                OF
          PHILADELPHIA.
Library of James Aitken Meigs, M. D., be-
    queathed to the Academy by his
        father, John G. Meigs,
           May 10, 1895.

     NOT TO  BE LOANED. 
 
A
S\#
" Health and Long  Life within  the reach  of all."
THE
UNIVERSAL
GUIDE  TO  HEALTH,

        BY A RATIONAL COURSE OF

     FOOD  AND   DIET.
  BY ANDREW COMBE, M.D.,
AUTHOR OF " COMBE'S PHYSIOLOGY," ETC., ETO.
         SEVENTH EDITION.



          BUFFALO:
GEO. H. DERBY &  CO., PUBLISHERS.
1849. 
 
PREFACE.
   The present volume is essentially a continuation
of the work first published about two years ago, un-
der the title of " The Principles of Physiology ap-
plied to the Preservation of Health and to the Im-
provement of Physical and Mental Education ;" and
its object  is  the same—namely, to lay before the
public a plain and intelligible description of the struc-
ture and uses of some of the more important  organs
of the human body, and to show how information  of
this kind may be usefully applied in practical life.
   In " The Principles of Physiology," the structure
and functions of the skin, muscles, bones, lungs, and
nervous system, the  laws  or  conditions of their
healthy action, and the unsuspected  origin of many
of their diseases in infringements of these laws, were
explained  in succession and at considerable length ;
and the means by which their health and efficiency
might best be secured were pointed out.  It  was
stated that, in selecting these organs as subjects for
discussion, I had been guided by the desire to notice
in preference those  functions which  are most influ-
ential  in their operation on the general system, and
at the same time least familiarly known; and that,
if the attempt to convey the requisite information  in
a manner suited to the general reader should prove
                      A2
3€o£3l 
IV
PREFACE,
successful, I would afterward prepare a similar ac-
count of others, in the right understanding and man-
agement of which our interest is not less deeply in-
volved,  but in regard to which much ignorance con-
tinues nevertheless to prevail, even among the most
liberally educated classes of society.
   The  numerous proofs which I received of the util-
ity of my former  work, not  only from  professional
and literary journals, but  also from individuals pre-
viously  unknown to me,—many of them guardians
and instructers  of youth, speaking from personal ex-
perience,—together with the  rapid sale  of three edi-
tions  (the  last consisting of 3000  copies) in two
years, soon completely satisfied  me that I had nei-
ther been deceived as to the real  importance of phys-
iological knowledge to the general  public, nor been
altogether unsuccessful in the method of conveying
it.   Thus  encouraged, accordingly, I cheerfully re-
sumed my labours, and began the preparation of the
treatise now submitted to the  indulgent consideration
of the reader.
   The  matters discussed on the  present occasion
relate chiefly to  the function of digestion and  the
principles of dietetics ; and in selecting  them 1 have
been guided by the  same principle as before.   It
may, at first sight, be doubted whether I have  not
exceeded proper bounds  in thus dedicating a whole
volume  to the consideration of a single subject;  but
the more we consider the real complication of the
function of digestion,—the extensive influence which
it exercises at every period of life over the whole of
the bodily  organization,—the degree to  which its 
PREFACE.
V
morbid  derangements undermine health, happiness,
and social usefulness, and especially the share which
they have in the production of scrofulous and  con-
sumptive, as well as of nervous and mental affections,
—we shall become more and more convinced of the
deep  practical  interest which  attaches to a  minute
acquaintance with  the laws by which it is regulated.
In infancy, errors  in diet, and  derangement  of the
digestive organs, are admitted to be  the  principal
causes of the striking mortality which occurs in that
period of life.   In youth and maturity, the  same in-
fluence is recognised, not only in the numerous forms
of disease directly traceable to that  origin, but also
in the universal practice of referring every obscure
or anomalous disorder to derangement of the stom-
ach or bowels.   Hence, too, the  interest which has
always been felt by the public in the perusal of books
on dietetics  and indigestion ;  and hence the preva-
lent custom  of using purgatives as remedies  for ev-
ery disorder, very  often with good,  but not unfie-
quently  with most injurious effects.
  Numerous  and popular, however, as writings on
dietetics have been, and excellent  as are many of the
precepts which have been  handed  down  by them
from the earliest ages, sanctioned by the warm ap-
proval of every successive generation, it is singular
how very trifling their  influence has been,  and  con-
tinues to be, in altering the habits of those  to whom
they are addressed.   In a general  way, we  all ac-
knowledge that diet is a powerful  agent in modifying
the animal economy ; yet, from our conduct, it might
justly be inferred, that we either regarded it as totally 
VJ
PREFACE.
 devoid of  influence, or remained  in utter ignorance
 of its mode of operation, being left to the guidance
 of chance alone, or of notions picked up at random,
 often at variance with reason, and, it may be, in con-
 tradiction even with our own daily experience.
   The cause of this extraordinary anomaly—and it
 is of consequence  to remark it—seems to be,  not so
 much the absolute want of valuable information, as
 the faulty manner in which the  subject is usually
 considered.   In many of our best works, the rela-
 tion  subsisting between the human body on the one
 hand, and  the qualities of the alimentary substances
 on the other, as the  only solid principle on  which
 their proper adaptation  to each  other can be based,
 is altogether lost  sight of; so that, while the atten-
 tion  is carefully directed to the consideration of the
 abstract  qualities of the different kinds  of aliment,
 little or no regard is  paid to the relation  in  which
 they stand  to the individual  constitution, as modified
 by age,  sex, season,  and circumstances, or to the
 observance  of the fundamental laws of digestion.
 And  hence, although these conditions are not  unfre-
 quently of  much greater importance to the general
 health than even the right selection of food, yet, when
 indigestion arises  from neglecting them,  the food
alone is  blamed,  and  erroneous conclusions  are
 drawn, by relying  on which upon future occasions,
 we may  easily be  led  into  still more serious mis-
takes.
  It is, indeed, from being left in this way without
any guiding principle to direct their experience, and
test the accuracy of the precepts laid down to them 
PREFACE.
Vll
for the regulation of their conduct, that many persons
begin by being bewildered by the numerous discrep-
ances which they meet with between facts and  doc-
trine—between counsel and experience, and end by
becoming entirely skeptical on the subject of all  di-
etetic rules whatever, and regarding them as mere
theoretical  effusions, based on fancy, and  undeser-
ving of a moment's consideration.
   The true remedy for this state of things  is, not to
turn away in  disgust and despair, but to resort to a
more rational mode of inquiry—certain  that,  in pro-
portion as we advance, some useful result will re-
ward our labours.  Such, accordingly, has  been my
aim in the present publication ; and if I  shall  be
found to have  been even moderately successful  in
attaining it, I shall rejoice in the confident conviction
that others will  be led to still more positive and  ben-
eficial results.  Utility, and not novelty, has been my
great object throughout;  and therefore,  although  in
some instances I  have perhaps regarded  known facts
in a new point of view, and deduced from them prac-
tical inferences of considerable value, I lay  no claim
to any farther originality, except such as is  implied
in the adoption  of what I conceive to be an improved
mode of investigation ; and if I have anywhere used
expressions which may seem either to do injustice to
others, or to arrogate too much credit  to myself, it
has been entirely  without any such design, and, con-
sequently, I will be prompt to acknowledge my error
and rectify the  involuntary mistake.
   In  preparing the present volume for the press I
have derived the utmost advantage from  a very valu- 
Vill
PREFACE.
able work  by Dr. Beaumont, an American writer.
which, though scarcely at all known in this country,
contains an authentic record of some of the most cu-
rious  and instructive observations which have  ever
been made on the  process  of digestion.   That ex-
cellent and enlightened physiologist had the rare good
fortune to meet with a case where an artificial open-
ing into the stomach existed, through which he could
see every thing that took place during the progress
of healthy digestion ; and, with the most disinterest-
ed  zeal and admirable perseverance,  he proceeded
to avail himself of the opportunity thus afforded of
advancing human  knowledge, by engaging the pa-
tient, at a heavy expense, to live with  him for  sev-
eral years, and become the subject of numerous and
carefully conducted  experiments.   Of the results
thus obtained, I have not scrupled to make the freest
and most ample use ; both because they illustrate al-
most every point of importance connected with diges-
tion, and because,  from Dr. Beaumont's work being
still inaccessible to the British reader, it is a bare act
of justice towards him, and also the best way of ful-
filling the objects he had in view, to make its contents
known as widely as possible :  for wherever they are
known they will be acknowledged to redound to his
credit, not less as a man than as a philosopher.
   In the course of these pages the reader will ;>cca
sionally meet with repetitions, which he  may, perhaps
with justice, think  unnecessary.  The  only apology
I have to offer for  them i>,  that the intimate manner
in which  the  different functions  are connected  with
each other, sometimes made it impossible to explain 
                    PREFACE.                 ix

one without referring  to the rest; and also that, my
prime objects being to render the meaning unequiv-
ocally plain, and impress the subject deeply upon the
reader's mind, I thought it better to risk  occasional
repetition of an important  truth, than to leave it in
danger of being vaguely apprehended, or its enunci-
ation in any degree obscure.   For these reasons, it
is hoped that the fault—if such it is—will be lenient-
ly  overlooked.
   Those who wish to study more fully the subject
of dietetics, will find much useful  information in Dr.
Hodgkin's  " Lectures on the  Means of  Promoting
and Preserving Health ;'' Professor  Dunglison " On
the Influence of Atmosphere and Locality, Change
of Air and  Climate, Seasons, Food, Clothing, Bath-
ing, Exercise, Sleep, Corporeal and Intellectual Pur-
suits, &c. &c. &c. on Human Health ;" Dr. Paris
" On Diet;" and  Dr. Kilgour's " Lectures  on the
Ordinary Agents of Life, as applicable to  Therapeu-
tics and Hygiene."
Brussels, April, 1836. 
 
CONTENTS.
           PART  I.

PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION.
                    CHAPTER  I.

               INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Waste or loss of substance always attendant on action.—In the
  vegetable and animal kingdoms waste is greater than in the
  physical.—Living bodies are distinguished by possessing the
  power of repairing waste.—Vegetables,  being rooted in one
  place, are always in connexion with their  food.—Animals,
  being obliged to wander, receive their food at intervals into a
  stomach.—Nutrition most active when growth and waste are
  greatest.—In vegetables the same causes which increase these
  processes  also stimulate nutrition.—But animals require a
  monitor to warn them when food is needed.—The sense of Ap-
  petite answers this purpose.—The possession of a stomach
  implies  a  sense  of  Appetite to  regulate the  supplies  of
  food,...............Page 17-25

                    CHAPTER  II.

       THE APPETITES  OF  HUNGER AND THIRST.

Hunger and  Thirst, what they are.—Generally referred to the
  stomach and throat, but perceived by the brain.—Proofs and
  illustrations.—Exciting causes of  hunger.—Common theories
  unsatisfactory.—Hunger sympathetic of the state of the body
  as well as of the stomach.—Uses of appetite.—Relation be-
  tween waste and appetite.—Its practical importance.—Con-
  sequences of  overlooking it  illustrated by analogy of the
  whole animal kingdom.—Disease from  acting in opposition
  to this relation.—Effect of exercise on appetite explained.—
  Diseased appetite.—Thirst.—Seat of Thirst.—Circumstances
  in which it  is most felt.—Extraordinary effects of injection
  of water into the veins in cholera.—Uses of thirst, and rules
  for gratifying it..............26-48 
12
CONTENTS
                    CHAPTER III.

    MASTICATION, INSALIVATION, AND DEGLUTITION.

Mastication.—The teeth.—Teeth, being adapted to the kind of
  food, vary at different ages and in different animals.—Teeth
  classed and described.— Vitality of teeth and its advantages.—
  Causes of disease in teeth.—Means of protection.—Insaliva-
  tion  and its  uses.—Gratification of taste in mastication.—
  Deglutition.............Page 48-62

                    CHAPTER IV.

ORGANS  OF  DIGESTION--THE STOMACH--THE  GASTRIC
                          JUICE.

Surprising power of digestion.—Variety of sources of  food.—
  All structures, however different, formed from the same blood.
  —General view of digestion, chymification, chylification, san-
  guification, nutrition.—The stomach in polypes, in quadrupeds,
  and in man.—Its position, size, and complexity, in different ani-
  mals.—Its structure; its peritoneal, muscular, and  villous
  coats; and uses of each.—Its nerves and  bloodvessels,  their
  nature, origins, and uses.—The former  the medium of com-
  munication between the brain and stomach.—Their relation
  to undigested food.—Animals  not conscious of what goes on
  in the stomach.—Advantages of this  arrangement.—The gas-
  tric juice  the grand  agent in  digestion.—Its origin and na-
  ture.—Singular case of gunshot wound making a permanent
  opening into the stomach.—Instructive experiments made by
  Dr. Beaumont.—^Important results......63-106

                    CHAPTER  V.

            THEORY AND LAWS OF DIGESTION.

Different theories of Digestion.—Concoct    —Fermentation.—
  Putrefaction.—Trituration.—Chymical solution.—Conditions
  or laws of digestion.—Influence of gastric juice.—Experi-
  ments illustrative of its solvent power.—Its mode of action on
  different kinds of aliment—beef,  milk, eggs, soups, &c.—In-
  fluence of temperature.—Heat of about 100° essential to di-
  gestion.—Gentle and continued agitation necessary.— Action
  of stomach in admitting food.—Uses of its muscular motion
  —Gastric juice acts not only on the surface of the mass, but
  on every particle which it touches.—Digestibility of different
  binds of food.—Table of results.—Animal food most digesti
« 
CONTKNTS.
13
  ble.—Farinaceous next.—Vegetables and soups least digesti-
  ble,—Organs of digestion simple in proportion to concentra-
  tion of nutriment.—Digestibility depends on adaptation of
  food to gastric juice more than on analogy of composition.—
  Illustrations.—No increase of temperature during digestion —
  Dr. Beaumont's summary of inferences  .   .  Page 106-143

                   CHAPTER VI.

 CHYLIFICATION,  AND THE ORGANS  CONCERNED  IN IT.

Chylification — Not well  known.—Organs concerned  in it.—
  The  intestinal  canal.—Its  general  structure.—Peritoneal
  coat.—Mesentery.—Musculai  coat.—Uses of these.—Air m
  intestines.—Uses of—Mucous coat.—Analogous to skin.—
  The  seat of excretion  and absorption.—Mucous  glands-
  Absorbent vessels.—Course of chyle towards  the heart.—
  Nerves of mucous coat.—Action of bowels explained.—Indi-
  vidual structure of intestines.—The Duodenum—Jejunum—
  and  Ileum.—Liver  and  pancreas  concerned  in  chylifica-
  tion—Their situation and uses.—Bile, its origin and uses.—
  The pancreas.—Its juice.—The jejunum described.—The il-
  eum — Ccecum—Colon—and  Rectum. —Peristaltic  motion
  of bowels.—Aids to it.—Digestion of vegetables begins in
  stomach, but often finished in the bowels.—Illustration from
  the horse.—Confirmation  by Dupuytren  ....   144-172
                     PART II.

THE PRINCIPLES OF DIETETICS VIEWED IN RE-
      LATION TO THE  LAWS OF DIGESTION.

                    3HAPTER I.

                   TIMES OF  EATING.

The selection of food only one element in  sound digestion —
  Other  conditions essential.-Times of eating.-No stated
  hours for eating—Five or six hours of interval between meals
  generally  sufficient.-But must vary according to  circum-
  stances.-Habit has much influence-Proper time for break-
  fast depends on constitution, health, and mode of life.—Inter-
  val required between breakfast  and dinner—best time loi
  dinner—circumstances in which lunch is proper—late dm
                       B 
14
CONTENTS.
  ners considered—their propriety dependant on mode of life.—
  Tea and coffee as a third meal—useful in certain circumstan-
  ces.—Supper considered.—General rule as to meals.—Nature
  admits of variety,—illustrations—but requires the observance
  of principle in our rules........Page 173-197

                    CHAPTER  II.

          ON THE  PROPER  QUANTITY OF  FOOD.

Quantity to be proportioned to the wants of the system.—Appe-
  tite indicates these.—Cautions in trusting to appetite.—Gen-
  eral error in eating too much.—Illustrations from Beaumont,
  Caldwell, Head, and Abercrombie.—Mixtures of food hurtful
  chiefly as tempting to excess in quantity.—Examples of  dis-
  ease from excess in servant-girls from  the country, dressma-
  kers, &c.—Mischief from excessive feeding in infancy.—Rules
  for preventing this.—Remarks on the consequences of excess
  in grown persons.—Causes of confined bowels explained—
  And necessity of fulfilling the laws which God has appointed
  for the regulation of the animal economy inculcated  197-224

                    CHAPTER III.

                OF THE KINDS OF FOOD.

What is the proper food of man ?—Food to be adapted to consti-
  tution  and circumstances.—Diet must vary with time of  life.
  —Diet in infancy.—The  mother's milk the best.—Substi-
  tutes for it.—Over-feeding a prevalent error.—Causes which
  vitiate  the quality of the milk.—Regimen of nurses.—Wean-
  ing.—Diet after weaning.—Too early use of animal food hurt-
  ful.—Diet of children in the higher classes too exciting—and
  produces scrofula.—Mild  food  best for children.—Incessant
  eating very injurious.—Proper diet from childhood to puberty.
  —It ought to be full and nourishing, but not stimulating.—
  Often insufficient in boarding-schools.—Diet best adapted for
  different constitutions in mature age.—Regimen powerful in
  modifying the constitution, mental as well as physical.—Far-
  ther investigation required.........225-254

                    CHAPTER  IV

    CONDITIONS TO  BE OBSERVED  BEFORE  AND  AFTER
                        EATING.

General laws of organic activity apply to the stomach as well as u
  other parts.—Increased flow of blood towards the stomach  du 
'  UN TENTS.
15
  ring digestion.—Hence less circulating in other organs.—And
  consequently less aptitude for exertion in them.—Bodily rest
  and mental tranquillity essential to aound digestion.—Rest al-
  ways attended to before feeding horses.—Hence also a natural
  aversion to exertion immediately after eating.—Mischief done
  by hurrying  away to business after meals.—Severe thinking
  hurtful at that time.—Playful cheerfulness  after dinner con-
  ducive to digestion.—The mind often the cause of indigestion.
  —Its mode of operation explained.—Also influences nutrition.
  —Illustration from Shakspeare.—Importance of attending  to
  this condition of health enforced.....Page 255-268

                     CHAPTER V.

                        ON DRINKS.
Thirst the best guide  in  taking  simple drinks.—Thirst in-
  creased by diminution of the circulating fluids.—The desire
  for liquids generally an indication of their propriety.—Much
  fluid hurtful at meals.—Most useful three orfour hours later.—
  The temperature of drinks is of  consequence.—Curious fall
  of temperature in the stomach from cold water.—Ices hurt-
  ful after dinner.—Useful  in warm weather, when digestion is
  completed  and caution used.—Cold water  more dangerous
  than ice when the body  is overheated.—Tepid drinks safest
  and most refreshing after perspiration.—Kinds of drink.—Wa-
  ter  safe for  every  constitution.—Wine,  spirits, and  other
  fermented liquors, too stimulating for general use, but bene-
  ficial in certain circumstances.—Test of their utility 269-286

                    CHAPTER VI.

      ON THE  PROPER  REGULATION OF THE BOWELS.

Functions of the intestines.—The action of the bowels bears a
  natural relation to the kind of diet.—Illustrations.—And also
  to the other excretions.—Practical conclusions from this.—
  Different causes of inactivity  of bowels.—Natural aids  to in-
  testinal action.—General  neglect of them.—Great importance
  of regularity  of  bowels.—Bad health from  their neglect.—
  Especially at the age of puberty.—Natural means preferable
  to purgatives.—Concluding remarks.....287-300
Index
301 
WOOD-CUTS.
Unde'-jaw,................49
Thoracic and Abdominal Viscera,........    70
Stomach,   -...............71
Stomachs of a ruminating animal,.......    73
Villous Coat of the Stomach,.........78
Aperture in  the stomach of Alexis St. Martin,   -  -  -    90
Abdominal Viscera,.............147
Horizontal section of the Abdomen,.......149
Lacteals and Thoracic Duct,..........154
Thoracic Duct,..............   156
Contents of  the Abdomen after removal of the Intestines,  161
Mucous Coat of the Duodenum,    ........163 
PART  I.
PHYSIOLOGY  OF DIGESTION.
CHAPTER I.
             INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS.

Waste or loss of substance always attendant on action.—In the
  vegetable and animal kingdoms waste is greater than in the
  physical.—Living bodies are distinguished by possessing the
  power of repairing waste.—Vegetables, being rooted in one
  place, are always in  connexion with their food.—Animals,
  being obliged to wander, receive their food at intervals into a
  stomach.—Nutrition most active when growth and waste are
  greatest.—In vegetables the same causes which increase these
  processes also stimulate nutrition.—But animals require a
  monitor to warn them when food is needed.—The sense of Ap-
  petite answers this purpose.—The possession of a stomach
  implies a  sense of Appetite to regulate the supplies of food.

  Throughout every department of Nature waste
is the invariable result of action.   Even the minu-
test change in the relative position of inanimate ob-
jects cannot be effected without some  loss of sub-
stance.  So well is this understood, that it is an im-
portant aim in mechanics to discover the best means
of reducing to the lowest possible degree the waste
consequent upon motion.   Entirely to  prevent it is
admitted to be beyond the power of man; for, how-
ever  nicely parts may  be adjusted to  each other,
however hard and durable their materials, and how-
ever smoothly mot\§n may go on, still, in the course 
 18 WASTE ALWAYS ATTENDANT ON ACTION.

 of time, loss of substance becomes evident, and re-
 pair and renewal become indispensable to the con-
 tinuance of the action.
   It is thus a recognised fact, or general law of na-
 ture, that nothing can act or move without under-
 going  some change,  however  trifling in amount.
 Not even a breath of wind can pass along the sur-
 face of the earth without altering in some degree
 the proportions of the bodies with which it comes
 into contact;  and not a drop of rain can fall upon a
 stone without carrying away some portion  of its
 substance.  The smoothest  and  most accurately
 formed wheel, running along the most level and pol-
 ished railroad, parts with some portion of its sub-
 stance at every revolution, and  in process of time
 is worn out and requires to be replaced.  The same
 effect is forcibly, though rather ludicrously, exem-
 plified in the great toe of the bronze statue of St.
 Peter at Rome, which, in the course of centuries,
 has been worn down  to less than half its original
 size by the successive kisses of the faithful;  and I
 venture to mention it, because it affords one of the
 best specimens of the operation of a principle, the
 existence of which, from the imperceptibly  small
 effect of any  single act, might  otherwise be plau-
 sibly denied.
  As regards dead or inanimate matter, the destruct-
 ive influence of action is constantly forced upon our
 attention by every thing passing around us; and so
 much human ingenuity is  exercised  to counteract
 its effects, that no reflecting person will dispute the
 universality of its operation.  But when we observe
 shrubs and trees  waving in the wind, and animals
undergoing violent exertion, for year after year, and
yet both continuing to increase in size, we may be
inclined,  on a superficial view,  to  regard  living
bodies as constituting  exceptions  to the rule.  On
more careful examination, however, it will appear
that waste goes on in living bc4ies not only without 
     LIVING CODIES REPAIR THEIR WASTE.   19

any intermission, but with a rapidity immeasurably
beyond that which occurs in inanimate objects.  In
the vegetable world, for instance, every leaf of  a
tree is incessantly pouring out some portion of its
fluids, and every flower forming its  own fruit  and
seed, speedily to be separated from and lost to its
parent stem;  thus causing in a few months an ex-
tent of waste many hundred times greater than what
occurs in the  same lapse of time after the tree is
cut down, and all its living operations are at a close.
The same thing holds true in the animal kingdom.
So long as  life continues, a copious exhalation from
the skin, the lungs,  the bowels, and  the kidneys,
goes on without a moment's intermission; and not
a  movement  can be performed which does not at
least partially increase the velocity of the circula-
tion, and add something to the general waste.  In
this way, during violent exertion, several ounces of
the fluids of the body are sometimes thrown out by
perspiration in a very few minutes ;  whereas, after
life is extinguished, all the excretions cease, and
waste is limited to that which results from ordinary
chymical decomposition.
   So  far, then, the law that waste is  attendant on
action, applies to both dead and living bodies; but
beyond this point a remarkable difference between
them  presents itself.  In the physical  or inanimate
world, what is once lost or worn away is lost for
ever.   There is no power inherent in  the piston of
the steam-engine by which it can repair its own loss
of particles ; and consequently in the course of time
it must either be laid aside as useless,  or be remod-
elled by the hand of the workman.  But living bod-
ies, whether vegetable or animal, possess  the dis-
tinguishing characteristic of being  able to repair
their  own  waste and add to  their own substance.
The possession of such a power isjn  fact essential
to their very existence.  If the sunflower, which in
 fine weather exhales thirty ounces of fluid between 
 20 RELATIONS  OF VEGETABLES AND ANIMALS.

 sunrise and sunset, contained no provision within
 its own structure for replacing this enormous waste,
 it would necessarily shrivel  and die within a few
 hours, as it actually does when  plucked up by the
 roots; and, in like manner, if man, whose system
 throws out everyday five or six pounds of substance
 by the ordinary channels of excretion, possessed no
 means of repairing the loss, his organization would
 speedily decay and perish.  This very result is fre-
 quently witnessed in cases of shipwreck and other
 disasters, where, owing  to the impossibility of ob-
 taining food,  death ensues from the body "wasting
 away till it becomes incapable of carrying on the
 operations of life.  In some instances this waste
 has even proceeded so far that three fourths of the
 whole weight of the body have been lost before life
 became extinct.
  It is impossible to reflect on these  facts,  and
 others of a similar kind, without  having the convic-
 tion forced upon our minds, that in every depart-
 ment  of nature expenditure of material is insepara-
 ble from action; and  that, in living bodies, waste
 goes on so rapidly, and by so many different chan-
 nels, that life  could not be maintained for any length
 of time without  an  express provision being made
 for compensating its occurrence.
  In surveying the respective modes of existence
 of vegetables and  of animals,  with the  view of
 ascertaining by what means  this compensation is
 effected, the  first striking difference between them
 which we perceive,  is the fixity  of position of the
 one, and the  free locomotive power of the other.
 The vegetable grows, flourishes, and dies, fixed to
 the same spot of earth from which it sprang ; and,
however much external circumstances may change
 around it, it must remain and  submit to their influ-
 ence.   If it be deprived of moisture and solar heat
and light, it cannot go in search of them, but must
remain  to  droop and to perish.   If the earth  to 
        TO THEIR FOOD CONTRASTED.      21

which  its roots are  attached  be removed, and  a
richer soil be substituted than that which its nature
requires, it still has no option : it must grow up in
rank and unhealthy luxuriance, in obedience to an
impulse which  it cannot  resist.  At all hours  and
at all seasons it is at home, and in direct communi-
cation with the soil from  which its nourishment  is
extracted.  And being thus without ceasing in con-
tact  with its food,  it  requires  no storehouse  in
which to lay up provision, but receives immediately
from the earth, and  at every  moment,  all that  is
necessary for its sustenance.
  But  it is otherwise with animals.  These not
only enjoy the  privilege  of  locomotion, but are
compelled to use it, and often to go to a distance,  in
search of food and shelter.  Consequently, if their
vessels of nutrition were, like those of vegetables,
in direct communication with  external substances,
they would  be torn asunder  at every movement,
and  the animals themselves exposed either to die
from starvation, or  to forego  the exercise of the
higher functions for  which their nature is adapted.
But  the  necessity for  a  constant change of place
being imposed upon them, a different arrangement
became  indispensable  for their  nutrition; and the
method by which the Creator  has remedied the in-
convenience is not less admirable than simple.   To
enable the animal to move about and at the same
time to maintain a connexion with its food, He has
provided it with a receptacle or stomach, where it
is able to store up a supply of materials from which
sustenance may be  gradually elaborated during a
period  of several hours, whithersoever it happens
to go in the  meantime.  It thus carries along with
it nourishment adequate  to its  wants ;  and the small
nutritive vessels imbibe  their  food from the inter-
nal surface of the stomach and bowels, where the
nutriment is stored up, just as the roots or nutritive
vessels of vegetables do  from the soil in which they 
oo
RELATION BETWEEN WASTE
grow   The possession of a stomach or receptacle
for food is accordingly a characteristic of the animal
system as contrasted with that of vegetables;  it is
found even in the lowest orders of zoophites, which
in other respects are so nearly allied to plants.
  The sole object of nutrition being to repair waste
and  to admit of growth, Nature has  so arranged
that  within  certain limits it is always most vigor-
ous when growth or waste proceeds with the great-
est rapidity.  Even in vegetables  this  relation is
distinctly observable.  In spring and summer, when
vegetative life  is  most active, and when leaves,
flowers,  and fruit are to be formed, and growth
carried  on, nourishment is largely drawn from the
soil,   and the elaboration and circulation of  the
sap are proportionally vigorous; whereas in winter,
when the leaves and flowers have passed away,
and vegetable life is in repose, little nourishment is
needed, and the circulation of the sap is proportion-
ally  slow.   In  accordance with these facts, every
one  will recollect how freely a  shrub or  a  tree
bleeds, as it is called, when its bark is cut early in
the season, and how dry it becomes on the approach
of winter.   It is the activity of the circulation in
summer which renders its temporary suspension by
transplanting so  generally  fatal  at  that season;
whereas, owing to  the  comparative sluggishness
with which it is carried on in winter, its partial in-
terruption is then attended with much  less risk.
  In vegetables, the quantity of nourishment taken
entirely depends on, and is regulated by, the circum-
stances in which they are placed.  When they are
exposed, as in spring and summer, to the  stimulus
of heat and light, all their  functions  are  excited,
waste and growth are accelerated, and a more abun-
dant supply of nourishment  becomes indispensable
to their health and existence; and hence, in a dry
soil incapable of affording a copious supply of sap,
they speedily wither and die.  Exposed to cold, on 
AND NUTRITION.
23
the other hand, and shaded from the light, their vi-
tality is impaired, and the demand for nourishment
greatly diminished.  This is uniformly the case in
winter;  and many circumstances  show that  the
change is really owing to the causes  mentioned
above, and not to any thing inherent in the constitu-
tion of the vegetable itself.  In tropical climates, for
example, where heat, light, and moisture abound, ve-
getable life is ever active, and the foliage ever thick
and abundant; and even in our own northern region,
we are able by artificial heat so far to anticipate the
natural order of the seasons, as to obtain the ripen-
ed fruit of the vine in the very beginning of spring.
The whole system of forcing vegetables  and fruit,
now so generally resorted to for the early supply
of our markets, is, in truth, founded on the princi-
ple we are now discussing;  and by the regulated
application of heat, light, and moisture, we are able
to hasten or to retard, to a very considerable extent,
the ordinary stages of vegetable life.  But to ensure
success in our operations, we  must be careful to
proportion the supply of nourishment to the state
of the plant at the time.   If, by the application of
heat, we have stimulated it to premature growth and
foliage, we must at the same time provide for it an
adequate supply of food, otherwise its activity will
exhaust itself, and induce premature decay.  Hence
the regular watering which greenhouse plants re-
quire.  But  if we have retarded  its progress and
lowered its vitality by excluding heat and light, the
same  copious nourishment will not only be unne-
cessary, but will probably do harm  by inducing re-
pletion and disease.
  In vegetables, the absorption of food is thus regu-
lated entirely by the circumstances of heat, moist-
ure, and light, under which the plant is placed, and
by the consequent necessity which exists at  the
time for a larger or smaller supply of nourishment
to carry on the various processes of vegetable life. 
21  ANALOGY OF VEGETABLES  AND ANIMALS.

According to this arrangement, nutrition is always
most active when the greatest expenditure of mate-
rial is taking place.  When growth is going on rap-
idly, and the leaves  are unfolding themselves, sap
is sftcked up from the  earth in great quantity; but
when these processes are completed as summer ad-
vances, and  almost no fresh materials are required,
except for the consolidation of the new growth and
the supply of the loss by exhalation, a much small-
er amount of nourishment suffices, and the sap no
longer circulates in the same profusion.   In autumn,
again—when the fruit arrives at maturity,the leaves
begin to drop off, and the activity of vegetable life
suffers abatement,—nutrition is reduced to its low-
est ebb; and in this state it continues till the return
of spring stimulates every organ  to new action, and
once more excites a demand for an increased supply.
   Nor is the same great principle, of supply requi-
ring to be proportioned to demand, less strikingly
apparent in animals.  Wherever  growth is proceed-
ing rapidly, or the  animal is undergoing much exer-
tion and expenditure of material, an increased quan-
tity of food is invariably required ; and, on the other
hand,  where  no  new  substance is forming, and
where, from bodily inactivity, little loss is sustain-
ed, a comparatively small  supply will suffice.   But
as animals are subjected to much more rapid and vi-
olent transitions from activity to  inactivity than ve-
getables are—and thus require to pass more immedi-
ately from one kind and quantity of nourishment to
another, in  order  to adapt  their nutrition to the
ever-varying demands made upon the system—they
evidently stand in need of some provision to en-
force attention when nourishment is necessary, and
to enable them always  to  proportion the supply to
the real  wants of the body.   Not being, like  ve-
getables, in constant connexion with their aliment,
they might suffer from  neglect if they did not pos-
sess some contrivance to warn them in time when 
       APPETITE NECESSARY AS A GUIDE.     25

to seek and in what quantity to consume it.  But in
endowing animals with the sense of Appetite, or the
sensations of Hunger and  Thirst generally included
under it, the Creator has guarded effectually against
the inconvenience, and given to animals a guide in
every way sufficient for the purpose.
  The very possession of a stomach or receptacle,
into which food sufficient for  several hours can be
introduced at one time, and which we have already
remarked as characterizing  all animals from the
lowest to the  highest, almost necessarily implies
the coexistence of some watchful monitor, such as
appetite,  to enforce attention to the wants  of the
system, with  an earnestness which  it shall  not be
easy to resist.  If this were not the case in man,
for example—if he had no motive more imperative
than reason to oblige him to take food—he would be
constantly liable, from indolence and thoughtless-
ness, or the pressure of other occupations, to incur
the penalty of starvation, without being previously
aware of his danger.  But the Creator, with that
beneficence which distinguishes all his works, has
not only provided an effectual safeguard in the sen-
sations of hunger and thirst, but, moreover, attached
to their regulated indulgence a degree of pleasure
which  never  fails to ensure  attention  to their de-
mands, and which, in highly civilized communities,
is apt to iead to excessive gratification.  Such be-
ing the important charge committed to the appetites
of hunger and thirst, it will be proper to submit to
the reader, before entering upon the consideration
of the more complicated process of digestion, a few
remarks on their nature and use.
                    ' C 
26  THE APPETITES OF HUNGER AND THIRST.
CHAPTER  II.
      THE APPETITES  OF HUNGER AND THIRST.

Hunger and Thirst, what they are.-Generally referred to tho
  stomach and throat, but perceived by the bram.—Proofs and
  illustrations—Exciting causes of hunger.—Common theories
  unsatisfactory—Hunger sympathetic of the state of the body
  as well as of the stomach—Uses of appetite—Relation be-
  tween waste and appetite.—Its practical importance.—Con-
  sequences of overlooking it illustrated  by analogy  of the
  whole animal kingdom.—Disease from acting m opposition
  to this relation.—Effect of exercise on appetite explained.—
  Diseased appetite.—Thirst.—Seat of Thirst.—Circumstances
  in which it is most felt.—Extraordinary effects of injection
  of water into the veins in cholera.—Uses of thirst, and rules
  for gratifying it.

   In  the preceding chapter we have  endeavoured
 to show, first, that nutrition is required only because
 waste, and a deposition  of new particles, are con-
 tinually going  on, so that the body would speedily
 become exhausted if its constituent materials were
 not renewed; secondly, that the  sense of appetite is
 given to animals for the express purpose of  warn-
 ing them when a fresh supply of aliment is needed
 —as, without  some  such monitor, they would be
 apt to neglect  the  demands of nature; and, thirdly,
 that  vegetables have no corresponding  sensation,
 simply because,  from their being at  all times  in
 communication with  the soil, their nutrition goes
 on continuously in proportion  as  it  is necessary,
 and  without requiring any prompter to put it in ac-
 tion at particular times.
   If these  principles be correct, it follows that, in
 the  healthy state (and let the  reader be once for
 all made aware that in the following pages the state
 of health is always implied, except where it is oth< 
     SEAT OF THE SENSATION OF HUNGER    27

erwise plainly expressed), the dictates of appetite
will not be every  day the same, but will vary ac-
cording to the mode of life and wants of the system,
and, when fairly consulted, will be sufficient to di-
rect us both at what time and  in what quantity we
ought to take in either solid or liquid sustenance.
But, to make this  perfectly evident,  a few general
observations may be required.
  It is needless to waste words in attempting to de-
scribe what hunger and thirst are:  every one has
felt them, and no one could  understand them with-
out such experience, any more than sweetness or
sourness could be understood without tasting sweet
or sour  objects.   Their end is manifestly to pro-
claim that farther  nourishment is required for the
support of the system; and our first  business is
therefore to explain their nature and seat, in so far
at least as a knowledge  of these may be conducive
to our welfare.
  The sensation of hunger is commonly referred to
the stomach, and that of thirst to  the upper part of
the throat  and back of the mouth;  and  correctly
enough to  this extent, that  a  certain condition of
the stomach and throat tends to produce them.   But,
in reality, the sensations themselves, like all other
mental affections and emotions, have their seat in
the brain, to which a sense of the condition of the
stomach is conveyed through the medium of the
nerves.  In  this  respect, Appetite  resembles the
senses of Seeing, Hearing, and  Feeling; and no
greater difficulty attends the explanation of the one
than of the others.   Thus, the cause which excites
the sensation of  colour, is certain rays of light
striking upon the nerve of the eye;  and  the cause
which excites the perception of  sound,  is the at-
mospherical vibrations  striking upon the nerve of
the ear; but  the sensations themselves take place
in the brain, to which, as the organ of the mind, the
respective impressions are conveyed.  In like man- 
28      HUNGER A MENTAL  SENSATION,
ner, the cause which excites appetite is an impres-
sion made on the nerves of the stomach; but  the
feeling itself is experienced in the brain, to which
that impression is  conveyed.   Accordingly, just as
in health no sound is ever heard except when  the
external vibrating  atmosphere has actually impres-
sed the ear, and no colour is  perceived unless  an
object be presented to the eye,—so is appetite never
felt except where, from want  of food, the stomach
is in that  state which forms the proper stimulus to
its nerves, and where the communication between
it and the brain is left free and unobstructed.
   But as,  in certain morbid states of the brain  and
nerves, voices and sounds are heard, or colours  and
objects are seen, when no external cause is present
to act upon the ear or the eye,—so, in disease, a
craving is often felt when no real want of  food ex-
ists, and where, consequently, indulgence in eating
can be productive of nothing but mischief.  Such
an aberration is  common in nervous  and mental
diseases, and not unfrequently adds greatly to their
severity and  obstinacy.  In indolent  unemployed
persons, who spend their days in meditating on then-
own feelings, this craving is very common,  and from
being regarded and indulged  as if it were healthy
appetite,  is productive  of  many dyspeptic affec-
tions.*
   If the correctness  of the preceding  explanation
of the sensation of hunger be thought to  stand in
need of confirmation, I would refer to the very con-
clusive experiments by  Brachet of Lyons, as setting
the  question  entirely at rest.  Brachet starved a
dog for twenty-four hours, till it became ravenously
hungry, after which  he divided  the nerves which
convey to the brain a sense of the condition of the
 stomach.  He then placed food within its reach,

   * Dyspepsy (from the Greek words mi?, dys, bad, and ttottiii,
 pe}Ao,l concoct) is synonymous v.nh indigestion. 
         AS  PROVED  BY EXPERIMENTS.      29

 but the animal, which a moment before was impa-
 tient to  be fed, went and lay quietly  down, as if
 hunger had never been experienced.  When meat
 was brought close to it, it began to eat; and, appa-
 rently from having no longer any consciousness of
 the  state of its stomach—whether it was  full or
 empty^it continued to eat till both it and the gullet
 were inordinately distended.  In this, however, the
 dog was  evidently impelled solely by the gratifica-
 tion of the sense of taste; for on removing the food
 at the beginning of the experiment to the distance
 of even a few inches, it looked on with indifference,
 and made no attempt either to follow the dish or to
 prevent its removal.*
  Precisely similar results ensued when the nervous
 communication between the stomach and brain was
 arrested by the administration of narcotics.   A dog
 suffering from hunger turned listlessly from its food
 when a few  grains of  opium were introduced into
 its stomach.   It may be said that such a result is
 owing to the drug being absorbed and carried to the
 brain through the ordinary medium of the circula-
 tion ; but Brachet has proved that this is not the
 case,  and  that the influence is primarily exerted
 upon the  nerves.  To establish this point, two dogs
 of the same size were selected.  In one the  nerves
 of communication were left untouched, and in the
 other they were divided.  Six grains of opium were
 then  given to  each at the same  moment.  The
sound dog  began immediately to feel the effects of
the opium, and became stupid, while the other con-
tinued lying at the fireside for a long time, without
any unusual appearance except a little difficulty of
breathing.  In like  manner, when the experiment
was repeated with that powerful poison nux vomica,
upon two dogs  similarly circumstanced, the  sound

  * Brachet,  Recherches Experimentales sur les Fonctions du
 Systdme Nerveux Ganglionaire, chap. iii.  Paris edition.
                     C 2 
30  INFLUENCE OF EMOTION ON APPETITE.

one fell instantly into  convulsions, while  the other
continued for  a long  time as if nothing  had hap-
pened.
  These results demonstrate, beyond the possibil-
ity of doubt, the necessity of a free  nervous com-
munication between the stomach and brain, for en-
abling us to  experience  the sensation of hunger.
The connexion between  the two organs is, indeed,
more  widely recognised in practice than it is in the-
ory ; for it is a very common custom with  the Turks
to use opium for abating the pangs of hunger when
food is  not to be had, and sailors habitually use to-
bacco for the  same purpose.  Both substances act
exclusively on the nervous system.
  The relation thus shown to subsist between the
stomach and the brain, enables us, in some measure,
to understand the influence which mental emotion
and earnest intellectual occupation exert over the
appetite.  A man in perfect health, sitting down to
table with an excellent appetite, receives a letter
announcing an unexpected calamity, and instantly '
turns  away with loathing from  the  food which, a
moment before, he was prepared to eat with relish;
while another, who, under the fear of some misfor-
tune, comes to table indifferent about food, will eat
with great zest on his " mind being relieved," as the
phrase goes, by the receipt of pleasing intelligence.
In such cases, no one will imagine that the calamity
destroys appetite otherwise than through  the medi-
um of the brain.  Sometimes the feeling of loathing
and disgust is  so intense,  as not only  to destroy ap-
petite, but to induce sickness and vomiting,—a re-
sult which depends  so closely on the state of the
brain, that it  is often induced even by mechanical
injuries  of that organ.
  The analogy between the external senses and the
appetite is, in various respects, very  close.  If we
are rapt in study, or intent on any scheme, we be-
come  insensible to impressions made on the ear or 
     CAUSE  OF THE SENSATION OF HUNGER.   31

eye.   A clock may strike, or a person  enter the
room, without  our being  aware of either event.
The same is the case with appetite.   If the mind is
deeply engaged, the suggestions of appetite are un-
perceived  and unattended to—as  was well exempli-
fied in the instance of Sir Isaac Newton, Avho, from
seeing the bones of a chicken lying before him, fan-
cied that he had already dined, whereas,  in reality,
he had eaten nothing for many hours.   Herodotus
ascribes  so much  efficacy to mental occupation in
deadening the sense of hunger, that he  speaks  of
the inhabitants of Lydia having successfully had re-
course to  gaming  as a partial substitute  for food,
during a famine of many years' continuance.   In
this account there is, of course, gross exaggeration;
but it illustrates sufficiently well the principle under
discussion.
  Many  attempts  have been  made  to  determine
what the peculiar condition of the stomach is which
excites in the mind the sensation of hunger; but
little  success has  hitherto attended  them.  For a
long time it was imagined that the presence of gas-
tric or stomach juice, irritating the nerves of the mu-
cous membrane, was the exciting cause; but it was
at last ascertained, that, after the digestion of a
meal is completed, and the chyme has passed into
the intestine, the gastric juice ceases to be secreted
till  after a  fresh supply of food has been taken in.*
It was next  supposed  that the mere emptiness  of
the stomach was  sufficient to excite hunger, and

  *  It is difficult, as in the  above sentence, to avoid occasion-
ally using expressions,  and referring to processes, which have
not previously been explained ; but it  would only lead to confu-
sion and unnecessary repetition to stop at every page and intro-
duce explanations, which, after all, the reader would scarcely
understand on  account of  their brevity. In the  present  in-
stance, therefore, when I allude to the process of digestion, it is
better to refer the reader to  the outline given at the beginning
of Chapter IV., than to distract his attention by introducing it
also here. 
 J2    HUNGER DEPENDANT ON THE STATE

 that the sensation arose partly from the opposite
 sides rubbing against each other.   But this theory
 is equally untenable ; for the stomach generally con-
 tains a sufficient quantity of air to prevent the actual
 contact of its sides, and moreover it maybe entirely
 void of food, and yet no appetite be  felt.  It may be
 laid down, indeed, as a general rule, that an interval
 of rest must follow the termination  of digestion be-
 fore the stomach  becomes fit to resume its func-
 tions,  or appetite is  experienced in any degree  of
 intensity; and the length of time required for this
 purpose varies very much, according to  the mode
 of life and to  the extent of  waste going on in  the
 system.  In many diseases, too, the stomach re-
 mains  empty for days in succession, without any
 corresponding excitation of hunger.  Even in heal-
 thy sedentary people, whose expenditure of bodily
 substance is small, real appetite is  not felt till long
 after the stomach is empty, and hence, one of their
 most common complaints is the want of appetite.
   Dr. Beaumont suggests a  distended state of the
 vessels which secrete the gastric juice as the exci-
 ting cause of hunger, and thinks that  this view is
 strengthened by the rapidity  with which the juice is
 poured out after a short fast—a rapidity, he says,
 which cannot be accounted for except by supposing
 the juice to have  existed, ready made, in the ves-
 sels or follicles by which  it is secreted.  But some-
 thing more is required to render any of these expla-
 nations satisfactory; because  there is an obvious
 relation between appetite and the wants of the sys-
 tem, which none of them take sufficiently into ac-
 count,  and which is nevertheless too important  to
be overlooked.
  If the body be very actively exercised, and a good
deal of waste  be  effected by perspiration and ex-
halation from the lungs, the appetite becomes keen-
er, and more  urgent  for  immediate gratification •
and if  it  s indulged, we eat with a relish unknown 
   OF THE GENERAL SYSTEM AND STOMACH.  33

on other occasions, and afterward experience a sen-
sation of bien-etre or internal comfort pervading the
frame, as if every individual part of the body were
imbued with a feeling of contentment and satisfac-
tion, the very opposite of the restless discomfort
and depression which come upon us,  and  extend
over the whole system, when appetite is disappoint-
ed.  There is, in short, an obvious and  active sym-
pathy between the condition and bearing  of the
stomach and those of every part of the animal frame
—in virtue of which, hunger  is  felt very  keenly
when the  general system stands in urgent need of
repair, and very  moderately when no waste has
been suffered.  This principle is strikingly illustra-
ted during recovery  from a severe illness.   " In
convalescence from an acute disease," as  is well
remarked by Brachet, " the stomach digests vigor-
ously, and yet the individual is  always hungry.
This happens because all the wasted organs  and tis-
sues demand the means of repair, and demand them
from the stomach, which has the charge of sending
them ; and, therefore, they keep up in it the contin-
ual sensation of want, which, however,  is  in this
case only sympathetic of  the state of the body."*
No testimony can be stronger than this.
  The effects of exercise, also, show this connexion
very clearly.   If we merely saunter out for a given
time every day, without being actively enough en-
gaged to quicken the circulation and induce increas-
ed exhalation from the skin and lungs, we come in
with scarcely any change  of feeling or condition;
whereas, if we exert ourselves sufficiently to give a
general impetus to the circulation,  and  bring out
moderate perspiration, but without inducing  fatigue,
we feel a lightness and energy of a very pleasurable
description, and generally accompanied by a strong

  * Brachet, Recherches Experimentales sur les Fonctions du
Systeme Nerveux Gang'ionaire, p. 181. 
34    SYSTEM AND STOMACH SYMPATHIZE.

desire for food.   Hence the keen relish with which
the fox-hunter sits down to table after a successful
chase.
  This intimate  communion between the state of
the system and that of the stomach is a beautiful
provision of nature, and is one of the causes of the
ready sympathy which has often been remarked as
existing  between the stomach and all the other or-
gans—in other words, of  the readiness with which
they accompany it in its departure from health, and
the corresponding aptitude of their disorders to pro-
duce derangement of the digestive function.  Appa-
rently for the purpose,  among others, of thus inti-
mately connecting the stomach with the rest of the
system, it.is supplied with a profusion of nervous
filaments of every kind, which form a closely-inter-
woven nervous  network  in its  immediate neigh-
bourhood, and the abundance of which accounts for
the severe and often suddenly fatal result of a heavy
blow on the pit of the stomach.
  Without pretending to determine what the precise
condition of the nerves of the  stomach is, which,
when conveyed to the  brain, excites the sensation
of appetite, I think it sufficient  for every practical
purpose if we keep in mind that the co-operation of
the  nervous  system  is necessary for the production of
appetite, and that  there  is  a direct sympathy betiveen
the  stomach and the rest of the body, by means  of
which the stimulus of hunger becomes unusually
urgent where the bodily waste has been great, al-
though a comparatively short time has elapsed since
the preceding meal.
  Appetite, then, being given for the express pur-
pose of warning us when  a supply of food is neces-
sary, it follows that its call will  be experienced in
the highest intensity when waste and growth—or,
in other words, the operations which demand sup-
plies of fresh materials—are  most active ;  and in
the lowest intensity when, from  indolence and the 
           OF WASTE  AND APPETITE.         35

cessation of growth, the demand is least.  In youth,
accordingly, when bodily activity is very great, and
a liberal supply of nourishment is required both to
repair waste and to  carry on growth, the appetite is
keener  and less discriminating than  at any other
period of life, and,  what is worthy of remark,  as
another admirable instance of adaptation, digestion is
proportionally vigorous and rapid: whereas, in ma-
ture age, when growth is finished, and the mode of
life more sedentary, the same abundance  of ali-
ment is no longer needed, the appetite becomes less
keen and more select  in its choice, and digestion
loses something of the resistless power which gen-
erally distinguishes it in early youth.  Articles  of
food which were  once  digested with ease are now
burdensome to the stomach, and, if not altogether
rejected, are disposed  of with  a  degree of labour
and difficulty that was formerly unknown.
  When, however, the mode of life in mature age
is active and laborious, and the wraste matter thrown
out of the system is consequently considerable, the
appetite for food and the power of  digesting it are
correspondingly strong; for in general  it is only
when the mode of life  is indolent and inactive, and
the waste consequently small, that the appetite and
digestion are weak.  So natural, indeed, is the con-
nexion between the two conditions, that exercise is
proverbially the first thing we think  of recommend-
ing to improve the appetite and the tone  of the
digestive  organs, when these are observed to be
impaired;  and where  positive disease  does not
exist, no other remedy is half so effectual.
  It is highly important to notice this natural rela-
tion between waste and appetite, and between  ap-
petite and digestion; because, if it be  real, appetite
must be the safest  guide we can follow in deter-
mining  when  and how much we  ought to eat.   It
is true  that, amid the factitious calls and wants of
civilized life,  its suggestions are often  perverted, 
 36        OF WASTE AND APPETITE.

 and that hence  we may err in blindly following
 every thing which assumes its  semblance.  The
 conclusion to  be drawn from this, however, is not
 that the sense of hunger will, if trusted to, generally
 mislead  us, but only that we must learn to distin-
 guish its true dictates before we can implicitly rely
 on its guidance.  If, when fairly consulted,  its dic-
 tates are found to be erroneous, it will constitute
 the  only known instance where the Creator has
 failed  in the  attempt to fulfil his  own design—an
 assumption not only repugnant alike to feeling and
 to reason, but in fact altogether gratuitous.  For
 the apparent discrepances which occasionally pre-
 sent themselves between the wants of the system
 and the  dictates  of appetite, are easily explicable
 on the more solid ground of our own ignorance and
 inattention.
   Many practical errors arise from overlooking the
 relation which nutrition ought to bear to waste and
 growth.   Thus, it is no uncommon thing for young
 men who have experienced all the pleasures of a
 keen appetite  and  easy digestion when  growing
 rapidly or leading an active life, to induce  severe
 and protracted indigestion, by continuing, from mere
 habit, to  eat an equal quantity of food either when
 growth is  finished  and the system no  longer  re-
 quires the same  extensive  supply,  or after a com-
 plete change  from active to sedentary  habits has
 greatly diminished that waste which alone renders
 food necessary.  This is, in fact, one of the chief
 sources of the troublesome dyspeptic complaints
 often met with among the  youthful inhabitants of
 our larger cities and colleges.
  The error, however, is unhappily not confined to
the young, but extends generally to all whose pur-
suits are  of a sedentary nature.   There are numer-
ous persons, especially in  towns  and among  fe-
males, who, having their time and employments
entirely at their own disposal, carefully avoid every 
    EVILS  OF FULL DIET AND INACTIVITY  37

tfiing which requires an effort of mind or body, and
pass their lives in a state of inaction entirely incom-
patible with the healthy performance of the various
animal functions.   Having no bodily exertion to
excite  waste, promote circulation, or stimulate nu-
trition, th^y experience little keenness of appetite,
have weak powers of  digestion, and require but a
limited supply of food.   If, while inactive and ex-
pending little, such persons could be contented to
follow  nature so  far as not to provoke appetite by
stimulants and cookery, and to eat and drink only
in proportion to the wants of the system, they would
fare comparatively well.  But having no imperative
occupation, and no enjoyment from active and use-
ful exertion, their time  hangs heavily on their hands,
and they are apt  to have recourse to eating as the
only avenue to pleasure still open to them;  and,
forgetful or ignorant of the relation subsisting be-
tween  waste and nutrition, they endeavour to renew,
in the  present indulgence of appetite, the real en-
joyment which  its legitimate gratification  afforded
under different circumstances.  Pursuing the pleas-
ures of the table  with the same  ardour as before,
they eat and drink freely and abundantly, and, in-
stead of trying to  acquire a healthy desire for food
and increased powers of digestion by exercise, they
resort  to  tonics,  spices, wine, and other stimuli,
which  certainly excite for the moment, but eventu-
ally aggravate the mischief by obscuring its prog-
ress and extent.   The natural result of this mode of
proceeding is, that the stomach becomes oppressed
by excess of exertion—healthy appetite gives way,
and morbid craving takes its place—sickness, head-
ache,  and bilious attacks  become frequent—the
bowels are habitually disordered, the feet cold, and
the circulation  irregular—and a state of bodily
weakness and mental  irritability  is induced, which
constitutes a heavy penalty for the previous indul-
gence.  So far, however, is the true  cause of all 
38  EVILS OF  NEGLECTING THE  RELATION

these phenomena from being perceived even then,
that a cure is sought, not in a better regulated diet
and regimen, but from bitters to strengthen the stom-
ach,  laxatives to carry off the redundant materials
from the system, wine to overcome  the sense of
sinking, and heavy lunches to satisfy the morbid
craving which they only silence for a little.  Some,
of course, suffer in a greater, and others in a less
degree, according  to peculiarities of constitution,
mode of life, and  extent of indulgence; but daily
experience will testify, that, in its main features,
the foregoing description is not  overcharged,  and
that victims to such dietetic errors  are to be met
with in every class of society.
  The  fact of nature having meant the inactive  and
indolent to eat and drink less than the busy and la-
borious, is established  not  only by the  diminished
appetite and impaired  digestion  of human  beings
who  lead a sedentary  life, as contrasted with the
keen relish and rapid digestion usually attendant on
active exertion in the open air, but on a yet broader
scale by the analogy of all other animals.  In  no-
ticing this relation, Dr. Roget  remarks, that " the
greater the energy with which the more peculiarly
animal functions of sensation and muscular action
are exercised, the greater must be the demand for
nourishment, in order to supply the expenditure of
vital force created by these exertions.  Compared
with the  torpid and sluggish reptile, the active  and
vivacious  bird or quadruped requires and consumes
a much larger quantity of nutriment.   The tortoise,
the turtle, the  toad, the  frog, and the chameleon,
will  indeed live for months without taking any
food."—" The rapidity of development," he contin-
ues,  " has also great influence  on the quantity of
food which an animal requires.  Thus, the caterpil-
lar, which grows very quickly, and must repeatedly
throw off its integuments during its continuance in
the larva  state, consumes a vast quantity of food 
       BETWEEN  WASTE  AND APPETITE.     39

compared with the size of  its body; and hence we
find it provided with a digestive apparatus of consid-
erable size."*
  In thus insisting on regular bodily and mental ac-
tivity as indispensable to the enjoyment of a good
appetite and sound digestion,  the attentive reader
will not, I trust, be disposed to accuse me of incon-
sistency because, when treating of muscular  exer-
cise in the former volume,f I explained the bad ef-
fects, and inculcated  the impropriety, of indulging
in any  considerable  exertion immediately before or
after a full meal.  It is true, as there mentioned, that
exercise, either in excess  or at an improper time,
impairs the tone of the stomach; but it  is not on
that account the less true that bodily exertion, when
seasonably and properly practised, is the  best pro-
moter of appetite and  digestion which wre possess;
and it is only under the latter conditions that I now
speak of it as beneficial, and even indispensable to
health.
  In a work like the present, it is obviously impos-
sible to fence round every  general proposition with
the numerous limitations which an unusual combi-
nation of circumstances, or  a departure  from  the
state of health, might demand.   And, even if possi-
ble, it would not be necessary,  as the laws of exer-
cise have been so fully explained in the volume al-
luded to, that  their  rediscussion here would una-
voidably involve much repetition  from its pages.
At the  same time, some  warning remark may be
required to prevent any risk of misconception, as it
might otherwise be plausibly argued, for  example,
that there can be no such relation as I have alleged
between waste and appetite, because  a European,
perspiring under a tropical sun, incurs great waste,

  * Roget's Bridgewater  Treatise  on Animal and Vegetable
Physiology, vol. ii., p. 112.
  t Principles of Physiology, &c, chapters TV. and V. 
40        DISEASE FROM  INACTIVITY.
 and yet loses both appetite and  digestive powrer.
 To render this a valid exception, it must be shown
 that the European is intended by nature to live in a
 tropical climate ; because, if he is  not, his condition
 under such an influence must necessarily be more
 or  less closely allied to the state of disease, and
 therefore beyond the  sphere to which alone my re-
 marks are meant to apply.   But even in that instance
 there is less contradiction than might be supposed,
 for the waste  of  the system  being  chiefly fluid,
 excites—not appetite, but  its kindred sensation—
 thirst, to repair the loss by an unusual demand for re-
 freshing liquids.
  So true is it that the Creator has  established a
 relation between  action and nutrition, that when
 we attempt for any length of time to combine a full
 and nutritious diet with systematic inactivity, the
 derangement of health which generally ensues gives
 ample proof of the futility  of struggling against his
 laws.   Individuals, indeed, may be met with, who,
 from some peculiarity of  constitution, suffer less
 than  the  generality of mankind from making  the
 experiment; but even those among them who es-
 cape best, generally owe their safety to the constant
 use of medicine, or to a natural excess in some of
 the  excretory functions, such  as  perspiration  or
 the urinary or alvine discharges, by means of which
 the system  is relieved  much in the same way  as
 by  active  exercise.   In others, again, the day  of
 reckoning is merely delayed, and there is habitually
 present a state of repletion, which  clogs the bodily
 functions, and may lead to sudden death by some
 acute disease, when the individual is apparently in
 the highest health.  I am  acquainted with several
 individuals of this  description, who, in the absence
 of all bodily exercise, are accustomed to live very
fully,—to  eat  in the  morning a hearty breakfast,
with  eggs, fish, or flesh,—a good solid luncheon,
 with wine or malt  liquor, in the forenoon,—a most 
   DEFICIENT DIET AND EXCESS OF LABOUR.  41

substantial dinner, with dessert and  several glasses
of wine, and afterward tea and wine and water, in
the evening,—and who nevertheless enjoy tolerably
good  digestion.  But this  advantage is gained  at
the expense of a very full  habit of body, and a
liability to frequent and profuse perspirations, and
to severe  attacks of bowel complaint, endangering
life; so that even they cannot by  any means be
regarded as real exceptions to  the general rule.
   It is, then, no idle whim of the physician to insist
on active exercise as the best promoter of  appetite
and digestion.   Exercise is, in fact, the condition
without which exhalation and excretion cannot go
on sufficiently fast to clear the  system of materials
previouslv taken in ; and where no waste is incur-
red, no need of a fresh supply, and consequently,
in a healthy state of the system, no natural appetite,
can exist." It is therefore  not less unreasonable
than  vain for  any one to  insist on possessing, at
the same time, the incompatible enjoyments of lux-
urious indolence and a vigorous appetite, sound di-
gestion of a  hearty meal,  and general  health of
body; and  no one who  is  aware of the relation
subsisting between waste and  appetite can fail to
perceive the fact,  and to  wonder  at the contrary
notion having ever been entertained.
   Among the operative part of the community we
meet with innumerable examples of an  opposite
condition  of  the system, where,  from excess of
labour, a greater expenditure  of energy  and sub-
stance  takes  place than  what their deficient  diet
is able to repair.  It is true that the disproportion
is generally not sufficient to cause that immediate
wasting which accompanies actual starvation, but
its effects are  nevertheless very palpably  manifest
in the depressed buoyancy, early old age, and short-
er lives of the labouring classes.   Few, indeed, of
 those who are habitually subjected to considerable
                       D 2 
42  INFLUENCE OF DISEASE ON APPETITE.

and  continued exertion survive their forty-fifth or
fiftieth year.   Exhausted at length by the constant
recurrence of their daily task and imperfect nour-
ishment, they  die of premature decay long before
attaining the natural limit of human existence.
   In those states of the system, again, such as fever,
during the continuance of which most of the secre-
tions are vitiated, and the stomach itself is weakened,
and where food would consequently be hurtful rather
than advantageous, appetite  is scarcely felt,  and
loathing often occupies its place.  But the moment
that, by the diminution of the disease, the secretions
and  exhalations begin  to return  to  their  healthy
state, and nutrition is resumed, appetite begins to
be again  felt,  and  by-and-by becomes abundantly
vigorous, in order to restore the-system to  its  for-
mer state.  The utmost caution,  however, is  still
required in its gratification, as a  premature indul-
gence is almost certain again to stop the secretions
and to produce a relapse.  Ignorance of this prin-
ciple among the community at large, and the conse-
quent error of giving food when there is no demand
for it, often do  more to defeat the  best laid plan of
cure than the  severity of the disease itself.  The
sick man's friends, in their anxiety to support his
strength, too frequently turn a  deaf  ear to even'
caution which is suggested, and stealthily adminis-
ter sustenance when the system does not require it,
and when it serves only to aggravate the danger and
increase the weakness of the patient.
   Appetite, it ought to be observed, may, like other
sensations, be educated  or  trained to considerable
deviations from the ordinary standard of quantity
and quality—and this obviously  for the  purpose of
enabling man to live in different climates and under
different circumstances, and avoid being fixed down
to one spot and to one occupation.   In civilized
life, however, we  are accustomed to take undue
advantage of this capability, by training the appetite 
     CONFOUNDING APPETITE WITH TASTE.  43

to desire a greater quantity of food than what the
wants  of  the system require,  and stimulating  its
cravings by a system of cookery little in harmony
with the intentions of nature.   But this is evidently
an abuse, and  no argument whatever against the
sufficiency of its natural indications to lead us right.
  The most common source, however, of the errors
into which we  are apt to fall in taking appetite as
our only guide, is  unquestionably  the confounding
of appetite  with taste, and continuing to eat for the
gratification  of the latter long after the  former is
satisfied.  In fact,  the whole science of a  skilful
cook is expended in producing this willing mistake
on our part; and he is considered decidedly the
best artiste  whose  dishes shall recommend  them-
selves most irresistibly to the callous palate of the
gourmand, and  excite on it such a sensation as shall
at least remind him of the enviable excellence of a
natural appetite.   If we were  willing to limit the
office  of  taste to its proper sphere, and to cease
eating when appetite expressed content, indigestion
would be a much rarer occurrence in civilized com-
munities than it is observed to be.
   Viewed, then, in its proper light, appetite is to be
regarded as kindly  implanted in our nature for the
express end of proportioning the supply of nourish-
ment to the wants of  the  system; and if ever it
misleads us, the  fault is not in its unfitness for its
object, but in the artificial training which it receives
at our own hands.   When we attend to its real dic-
tates, we eat moderately, and at such intervals of time
as the previous  exercise and  other circumstances
render necessary; and in so doing, we reap a re-
ward in the daily enjoyment of the pleasure which
 attends the  gratification of healthy appetite.  But
 if we err, either by neglecting the timely warning
 which it gives, or  by eating more than the system
 requires, mischief is sure to follow.  In the  former
 case,  waste continues  to  make  progress  till  the 
44    APPETITE DISORDERED  BY DISEASE.

body becomes exhausted;  and in almost exact pro-
portion  do the cravings of appetite  become more
and more intense, till they pass into those of uncon-
trollable hunger, which overthrows  all  obstacles,
and seeks gratification at the risk of  life itself.  In
the latter case, indigestion, gloomy depression, and
repletion, with its concomitant evils, make their
appearance, and either imbitter or cut short exist-
ence.
  Mischief sometimes arises also from people not
being sufficiently aware, that, in common with other
sensations, appetite may be so far deranged by dis-
ease as  to  give very incorrect  and unnatural indi-
cations.  It often happens, for  example, that a pa-
tient shivers and complains of cold, when we know
by the  thermometer that  the  heat  of the skin is
really above instead  of below the natural stand-
ard.   In like manner, in some morbid states of the
nervous system, a craving  is often felt which impels
the patient to eat, but which is not true  hunger;
and here food, if taken, is digested with great diffi-
culty.   Occasionally,  on the other hand, no desire
for  food is experienced when  the  system really
needs it, and when it would be digested  with ease
if  introduced  into the stomach.  Esquirol alludes
to  cases of this description, and  I have  met with
similar  examples.  Voisin also mentions,  that, in
the Hospital of Incurables in Paris, there are some
idiots so low in the scale of intelligence as to make
no attempt to  take the food which is placed before
them, although they eat and digest readily when
fed by others. Sometimes, again, appetite is de-
praved in  quality,  and the patient desiderates the
most nauseous and repulsive kinds of food, such as
earth, chalk, coals, and excrement.  There are states,
too, in which the appetite is prodigiously increased,
and the patient consumes incredible quantities of
food,—which, however, are very imperfectly digest-
ed.   C larles Domery, for  instance, when a French 
THIRST--ITS  SEAT.
45
prisoner  at Liverpool, consumed, in  one day, four
pounds of cow's udder and ten pounds of raw beef,
with two pounds of tallow candles and five bottles
of porter; and, although allowed the daily rations
of ten men, he was still not satisfied.   Baron Percy
speaks of another man, who ate twenty-four pounds
of beef in as  many hours, and thought nothing of
swallowing a  dinner  prepared  for fifteen German
boors.   I once attended a patient who was afflicted
with a similar inordinate craving, and whose  only
pleasure was in eating.   In such cases no restraint
except actual coercion is sufficient to prevent indul-
gence ; but the craving itself is as much the product
of disease as the shivering in the beginning of fever,
and can no more  be removed  by reasoning than
the sensation  of cold can be removed by telling a
patient that his skin is thermometrically warm.  But
these, being cases of disease, do not in any degree
militate against the accuracy of the exposition above
given of the healthy uses of appetite.

   The general considerations which I have just sub-
 mitted to the reader on the subject of appetite for
 food, apply so closely to the sensation of Thirst,
 that to enter  into any detail concerning  the latter
 would be little else but to be guilty of repetition.
 1 shall therefore  limit myself to a  very few re-
 marks.
   Thirst is generally said to have  its seat  m the
 back of the mouth and  throat; but the condition
 of these parts is merely a local  accompaniment of
 a want experienced  by the whole frame, and per-
 ceived by the nervous system.  Local applications,
 accordingly, go but  a  short way in giving  relief,
 while the introduction of fluids by any other  chan-
 nel—by immersion  in a bath, by injection into the
 veins, or through an external opening into the  stom-
  ach—is sufficient to quench thirst without the liquid
  ever touching the throat.   The affection  of that 
46   THIRST  VARIES ACCORDING TO FOOD.

part, therefore, is merely a result of the state of the
system, and not itself the cause of thirst.
  Thirst, or a desire for liquids, is experienced in its
greatest  intensity when the secretion and  exhala-
tion  of the animal fluids is most  active; and  it  is
consequently most urgent in summer, in warm cli-
mates, and in  persons engaged in severe exertion,
particularly if exposed at the same time to a heated
atmosphere.  Blacksmiths, glassblowers, engineers,
and others, whose employment exposes them to the
heat of furnaces, and in whom perspiration is ex-
cessive, are accordingly almost-  constantly under
the influence of thirst; whereas those who are em-
ployed in professions requiring only moderate exer-
tion  in a temperate atmosphere, and in whom the
fluid secretions are very moderate, rarely  experi-
ence the sensation in an urgent degree.
  Thirst varies in intensity also according to the na-
ture of the food.  If the diet be hot and stimulating,
such as results from a free admixture of spices or
salt, the desire for drink is greatly increased.   The
same thing happens if the food be of a dry and solid
nature.   The purpose of the increased thirst in the
former circumstance, is manifestly to dilute and di-
minish the excess of stimulant, and thereby  prevent
the injury which it would otherwise  inflict.   The
same principle explains the thirst experienced by
those who  drink too much wine.   In instances of
this kind, I  have heard great thirst in the evening
and  during  the  night complained of as habitual,
without the person even suspecting that it was ow-
ing to the wine ; and yet, on abstaining from the lat-
ter, the thirst very soon disappeared.
  Continued thirst, it is well known, is much more
intolerable  than continued hunger.  The mass of
circulating  fluid in the  body is very great, and, as
the various excretions consist chiefly of fluid matter,
it necessarily happens, that when these have been
eliminated  for a considerable  time  without  any 
               USES OF  THIRST.             47

liquid being received into the system, the propor-
tion  of solid matter in the  body becomes unduly
large.   The blood, consequently, becomes thicker,
and  changed in quality, and much more  irritating
than it is in its natural state.  The craving of thirst
is  thus generally rendered  more urgent and over-
powering than that of hunger.
  In Asiatic Cholera, the watery  portion of  the
blood,  on which its fluidity depends, is drained off
with frightful rapidity ; and the result is, in the first
place, an almost complete stoppage of the circula-
tion, and, in the second, a constant craving  for drink
to  supply  the  place of the lost serum, which con-
sists chiefly of water, holding some of the alkaline
salts in solution.  This circumstance explains, in
some degree, the extraordinary effects which have
been produced, even in the worst stages of the dis-
ease, when life seemed almost extinct, by  injecting
large quantities of  saline  solutions into the veins.
Patients apparently on the verge of existence, cold,
pulseless, and inanimate, have, in the course of a few
minutes, been enabled by this means to  sit  up in
bed,  and to exhibit all the signs of restored strength
and health.  The effect, it is true, was  rarely per-
manent, but for the time it was so wonderful  as
often to look like restoration from the dead.
  Fluids taken into the stomach, it is proper to  ob-
serve, are not subjected to  the slow process of di-
gestion, but are absorbed directly into the  system;
so that, when  we  take  a moderate draught,  the
whole  of it is  taken up from the stomach  in a very
few  minutes.  Keeping in view this fact, and  the
above  striking illustration of the influence of  the
condition of the blood upon the body at large, it be-
comes  easy to concehe why, in a state  of exhaus-
tion from abstinence, drink should be more speedily
restorative and refreshing than food.
  Thirst, like appetite for food, is intended  to direct
us when and in what quantity we  ought to drink;
-V 
48
MASTICATION.
and so long as we confine ourselves to  the  fluids
with which nature provides us, there is little chance
of our going far wrong by listening to its calls.  But
when we come to the use of fermented and stimu-
lating liquors, which excite a thirst not recognised
by nature, the  principle ceases  to operate.  At
present,  however, my observations apply entirely
to the former, and I shall  touch upon  these other
liquids when treating of diet in a subsequent part of
the  volume.
                 CHAPTER  III.

    MASTICATION, INSALIVATION, AND DEGLUTITION.

Mastication.—The teeth.—Teeth, being adapted to the kind of
  food, vary at different ages and in different animals.—Teeth
  classed and described.— Vitality of teeth and its advantages.—
  Causes of disease in teeth.—Means of protection.—Insaliva-
  tion and its uses.—Gratification of taste in mastication.—
  Deglutition*

  Having seen that a regular supply of nourishment
is carefully ensured by the constantly  returning im-
pulses of appetite, we come next  to  examine the
mode in which the food is  prepared for becoming a
constituent part of the animal machine, and endow-
ed with the properties of life.
  The first important step in the complicated pro-
cess of digestion, is that by which the food, after be-
ing received into the mouth, is  mixed with the sa-
liva, and broken down till  it becomes of a uniform
pulpy consistence, fit for being easily swallowed and
acted upon by the gastric  juice on its  arrival in the
stomach.   The term mastication, or chewing, is used
to denote this operation ; and the chief instruments
by which it is performed are the teeth, the jaws, the
muscles which move  the jaws, the tongue, and the 
DIFFERENT KINDS OF TEETH.       49
salivary glands.  On each of these we shall offer a
few observations.
  The teeth vary a good deal according to the kind
of food on which the animal is destined to live; but
in man and the higher orders of animals they may
be divided into three distinct groups:  1st, The in-
cisor, or cutting teeth, being the eight broad and flat
teeth, with a sharp cutting edge, seen in front of the
upper and lower jaws, and marked I in the subjoin-
ed wood-cut, which represents one half of the low-
er jaw,  and consequently only  one fourth of the
whole number of  teeth.   Thus we find  only  two
incisors marked in the wood-cut, although there are
eight  of them in all, viz., two more are on the other
side of the lower jaw, and four  corresponding ones
in the upper.   2d, The cuspidati,  canine, or dog teeth,
being the sharp-pointed, roundish-bodied teeth, four.
in number, one, C, in contact with each of the outer
          A
incisor teeth, and called canine from being large in
the dog and carnivorous animals, and used by them
for the purpose of seizing and tearing their  food;
and, 3d, The molarrs, or grinders,  B G, twenty in
number, situated at the back part of the jaw, and so




                        !7   3f0?3/
 
50       DIFFERENT KINDS OF TEETH.
called from their office being to grind or bruise the
food subjected to their action.*  The term grinders,
however, is sometimes restricted to the three back
teeth on each side, marked G, and seen to have
double roots and a broad grinding surface; and the
two intervening between them and the cuspidati are
styled bicuspidati, or double-speared, from bearing  a
greater resemblance to  a double-headed  canine
tooth than to the other grinders.
  The teeth are modified in different animals to suit
their habits of life.  In herbivorous animals, the
canine teeth, for which they have no use, are com-
paratively undeveloped ;  whereas in carnivorous an-
imals, which  tear their prey in pieces, the  canine
teeth are large, powerful,  and pointed, and  the in-
cisors comparatively small.  In these animals they
constitute what are properly called the tusks, and in
some species they are of a truly formidable char-
acter.  The molar, or grinding teeth, differ  in like
manner, according to the  nature  of the food.  In
herbivorous and granivorous animals they are large
and powerful, and to increase their  efficacy the
lower jaw admits of considerable lateral motion in
a horizontal direction; whereas, in carnivorous ani-
mals, it admits of motion only upwards and  down-
wards, as in opening and shutting the mouth.  The
lateral grinding motion is very evident in ruminating
animals, such as the cow, which,  after having filled
its  stomach with provender, is generally seen to lie
down and ruminate, or chew the cud, as it is called
—the rumination  consisting in bringing up small
masses of herbage from the stomach, and submit-
ting them to a thorough mastication or grinding be-
tween its molar teeth, before being again swallowed
and digested.
  From this relation between the food and  the or-

  * In Latin, cuspis signifies the point of a spear; canis, a dog :
vtola, a mill; incisor, any thing which cuts. 
VITALITY OF  TEETH.
51
gans of mas.ication, naturalists  can tell  with cer-
tainty, by simply inspecting the teeth, on what kind
of food the animal to which they belong is intend-
ed to live; and as the teeth of man partake of the
characters of those of both herbivorous and carniv-
orous animals, there cannot be a doubt that his diet
was intended to be of a mixed kind, not confined
exclusively  to either the  vegetable or the  animal
kingdom.
  Hard and resisting as the teeth appear, they must
still be regarded as living structures.  Anatomically
speaking, each tooth is divided into three parts :  the
fang, or root, implanted in the socket of the jaw-
bone ; the neck, or portion encircled by the gum;
and the white crown, appearing above the gum, and
covered with enamel.
  The root of each tooth is perforated longitudinal-
ly by a small canal, through which the bloodvessels
and nerve are admitted to  its  central parts.   From
these bloodvessels the tooth derives its nourishment
when growing ;  but they afterward almost entirely
disappear.   From the nerve it derives that sensibil-
ity which makes us instantly aware of the contact
of  bodies either too hot or too cold with the teeth;
and which, when the nerve is diseased, gives rise to
the racking pain of toothache.
   So effectually is life maintained  in the teeth by
this provision of vessels  and nerves, that a tooth
newly extracted from the socket of a young  animal,
and implanted  in the fleshy comb of a cock, has
been found to adhere and retain its vitality ;  and in
like manner, if, in early life,  a  tooth extracted by
accident be immediately  replaced in its socket, it
will generally adhere and live.
   The visible part, or crown of the  tooth, is covered
 with a very hard, white,  ivory-looking  substance,
 called enamel, which serves to prevent it  from being
 worn down by friction, and into which neither blood-
 vessels nor nerves have been observed to penetrate. 
52      DEVELOPMENT OF  THE TEETH.

Owing to this structure, the tooth can be safely ex-
posed without sustaining  damage—a privilege  on
which  most persons  will be disposed to place a
higher value after having experienced the pains con-
sequent upon injury of the nerve from a portion of
the enamel being broken off.
  An obvious advantage attending the vitality of the
teeth is, that it enables them to accommodate them-
selves to the growth of the jaw and the rest of the
system at the different periods of life.   In early in-
fancy, when the human being is designed to live
exclusively on his mother's milk, which of course
requires no mastication, and consequently no teeth,
the latter are still imperfectly formed and entirely
hidden in the jaw:  it is only at the end of  some
months that the front  or cutting  teeth begin to ap-
pear ; and the whole set of milk, deciduous,  or fall-
ing-out teeth, twenty in number, is not completed
till  about or after the third year.  In the course of
three or four years more, however, growth has ad-
vanced so far that the first set of teeth no longer fill
the jaw;  and they soon begin to  be displaced by
the second, or permanent set, the gradual develop-
ment of which commences at that period of life, and
is not finished till the appearance  of the last four
grinders, or wisdom-teeth, about the age of maturity.
  It is a curious fact, that the infant is born with the
rudiments of both sets  of teeth in the jaw at the
same time, although neither makes its appearance
till  long after birth.   The  permanent teeth lie in a
line under the milk-teeth, and it is from their growth,
causing the gradual absorption of the roots of the
first teeth, that the latter no longer  retain their hold
of the  jaw, but drop out as soon as the others are
ready to protrude. In the preceding wood-cut, the
situation of the permanent teeth before they emerge
from the jaw is rudely represented at A, where the
outer surface of the jaw-bone has been removed on
purpose to show the appearance of the roots.  But 
PRESERVATION  OF THE TEETH.      53
nothing of this kind is to be found in the adult jaw,
the parts marked A being inserted in the plate mere-
ly to illustrate what was once  the  position which
the permanent teeth occupied.
  The changes in the condition of the teeth, it may
be remarked in passing, indicate clearly what spe-
cies of food nature has intended for us at different
ages.   In early infancy, when  no teeth exist,  the
mother's milk is the only nutriment required; and
in proportion as the teeth begin to appear, a small ad-
dition of soft farinaceous food,  prepared with milk,
may be made with propriety, and gradually increas-
ed.  But it is impossible to look at the small jaw,
moderate muscle, and imperfect teeth of early life,
without perceiving that, only the mildest kinds and
forms of animal food are yet admissible, and that
the diet ought to consist essentially of soft and  un-
irritating materials.   It is not  till  the  permanent
teeth  have appeared that a full proportion of  the
ordinary kinds of butcher-meat becomes either ben-
eficial or safe.
   The teeth, being living parts, and at the same time
endowed with a mechanical function, are  liable to
injury in both capacities.  Being composed chiefly
of earthy matter, such as phosphate and carbonate
of lime, the contact of strong acids decomposes
their  substance, and leads to  their rapid decay.
Hence, the whiteness produced by acid tooth-pow-
ders and washes is not  less deceitful than ruinous
in its  consequences ; and hence also great caution
is necessary in swallowing the acid drops frequently
prescribed by the physician, which  ought never to
be allowed to come in contact with  the teeth.
   Being constantly moistened with saliva, the teeth
have a tendency to become incrusted with the tartar,
or earthy matter, which it contains  in solution,  and
which is separated from it partly by the evaporation
of the more fluid constituents in breathing, and partly
by chymical decomposition. As this incrustation not 
54      PRESERVATION  OF' THE TEETH.

only destroys the beauty of the teeth, but also pro-
motes  their decay, it becomes an object of care to
remove it as soon  as  it is formed; and the most
effectual mode of doing so is to brush the teeth reg-
ularly twice a day—especially in the morning, when
the quantity is greatest—with a brush dipped in soft
water, till every particle is removed.  The addition
of  any soft impalpable powder will assist in the
effect; but nothing capable of acting chymically on
the  teeth,  or  of injuring them by friction,  ought
ever to be  resorted to.   Washing the  mouth after
every meal is also a good preservative.
  When the teeth are  not used for  a  time, and
when digestion  is impaired,  the quantity of tartar
which accumulates on them is very great.   Hence
they are always most incrusted in the morning, and
in  fevers and  other  affections where no food is
taken, and the stomach is at the same time disor-
dered.  I have seen one instance in which  a thick
crust of tartar was removed  by a dentist in the
belief of its being a diseased tooth—the tooth itself
on  which it was  formed being left  in the jaw per-
fectly sound.
  When the tartar is not duly removed, its presence
injures the  teeth, irritates  the gum, and generally
leads,  sooner or later,  to considerable  suffering.
The regular washing and brushing above mentioned
ought, therefore, to be sedulously practised at every
period of life, and taught as  a duty to the  young.
When digestion is very  vigorous, the health good,
and the diet plain, and containing a full proportion
of  vegetable matter, the deposition of tartar seems
to be diminished, and the teeth to be naturally of a
purer white.  Many rustics and savages thus possess
teeth which would be envied in a town.
  When digestion is impaired, and acidity prevails
in the stomach, the mucous secretions in the mouth
also become altered in  character, and by their in-
cessant  contact injure and even destroy the teeth. 
        PRESERVATION  OF THE TEETH.      55

From this cause we often see the teeth in young
people in a state of complete decay.  They are in
reality the subjects of chymical decomposition, and
eaten away by the morbid secretions of the mouth ;
and hence, in such  cases, we generally find the
individual complaining  of heat and  soreness of
the tongue, gums, and mouth, and occasionally of
the teeth being " set on  edge."
  Considered as living parts, the teeth require some
additional care.  In that capacity they are exceed-
ingly apt to suffer from sudden changes of tempera-
ture.   Being  from their solidity rapid conductors
of heat, their internal nerve speedily becomes af-
fected by the alternations of temperature to which
they are daily exposed,  both in taking food, and in
the change from a warm to a cold atmosphere.  It
is a not uncommon practice, for example, to take a
glass of cold wine or water immediately after fin-
ishing a plateful  of  very hot soup; and it is quite
usual to take tea and  coffee, and every kind of meat,
as  hot as  they can possibly be swallowed—than
which practices it would be difficult to imagine any
thing more hurtful to the teeth.
  For the same reason,  in going out at night from
a warm room to the  cold air, it is desirable to pro-
tect the teeth  from  the influence of the  sudden
change, by breathing through two or three folds of
a silk handkerchief, or through a woollen comforter.
When the teeth and  lower part of the face are left
exposed in such circumstances,  rheumatism  and
toothache not unfrequently ensue  from the direct
impression of  the  cold air upon parts rendered
more susceptible by  the preceding heat.
  The great source of injury to the teeth, however,
both in childhood and in mature age, is disordered
digestion.  If the health be good, and the stomach
perform its functions with vigour, the  teeth  will
resist  much  exposure  without  sustaining injury.
But if these conditions  fail, they will  rarely con-
tinue long unscathed. 
56
SALIVA  AND ITS USES.
  It is almost always from the latter cause that, in
infancy, teething so often gives rise to serious con-
stitutional disorder.
  Something more, however, than the mere action
of the teeth  and jaws,  is required to prepare the
morsel for being swallowed.  If we take a bit of
dry biscuit or mealy potato into the mouth, and at-
tempt to masticate it, we encounter at first no small
difficulty from  the  stiffness and  resistance of the
dry mass, and feel instinctively that it would be in
vain to attempt to swallow it, until moistened either
by  continued mastication or by the admixture of
fluid from without.   In  ordinary states of the sys-
tem, accordingly, a fluid called saliva, or spittle, is
copiously secreted and  poured into the mouth for
this very  purpose; and the process by  which its
due  admixture  with the contents of the mouth is
accomplished, is called  the insalivation of the food.
  To provide this  necessary fluid, and to connect
its supplies directly with the process of mastication
to which  it is subservient, several  glands for its
secretion have been placed in the  immediate neigh-
bourhood  of  the mouth and jaws, in such  a way
that the latter cannot be opened and shut without
affording them a stimulus, and still farther increas-
ing the secretion which  the presence of the morsel
is itself sufficient to begin.  From this arrangement
it follows, that the more perfectly mastication is
performed, the more thoroughly does the morsel
become impregnated with the salivary fluid, and the
better fitted is  it rendered for subsequent degluti-
tion and digestion.
  The apparatus of mastication varies according to
the kind of food on which the animal is destined to
live ; but in the higher orders of animals, it consists
essentially of  the  parts  already mentioned.   In
some animals, however, which live on soft gelatin-
ous food—as the whale—no teeth are to be found,
because their peculiar power  is not required.   In 
         MASTICATION--RUMINATION.       57

others—as  the granivorous, or grain-eating birds—
the grinding or triturating process is effected not in
the mouth,  but in the gizzard, where the food (mixed
with  gravel, which the animal is instinctively im-
pelled to swallow  for the purpose)  is effectually
bruised and softened down by the strong muscles
which constitute the greater part of its substance.
In these instances the  gravel is the grinding instru-
ment, and without its presence digestion cannot be
carried on, any more than it could in man without
the agency of teeth.
  The degree of mastication required varies  also,
according to the mode  of life of the animal, and the
digestibility of its food.  Animal food, for example,
being easy  of digestion, requires less mastication
than vegetable food, which is  more difficult.   This
is so  much the case, that most animals which live
on  fresh vegetable  matter spend half their waking
hours in ruminating, or  re-masticating  the  food,
which they have already cropped' and stored up for
the purpose in one  of their four stomachs.  To this
necessary act in them, Providence  seems  to  have
attached a  high degree of gratification, for the very
purpose of ensuring its regular performance.
  Man, being naturally omnivorous, or adapted for
the digestion of both animal  and  vegetable sub-
stances, holds, as it were, an intermediate place in
regard to the rapidity of mastication.  He neither
is obliged to ruminate like the cow, nor can benefi-
cially bolt  his food with  the rapidity displayed by
beasts of prey.  His object is merely to reduce the
alimentary  mass to a  soft  and pulpy consistence,
and digestion is  promoted or retarded in exact pro-
portion as he approaches  or falls short of this point.
Hasty mastication is consequently injurious, because
it prevents  the food from being sufficiently broken
down and impregnated with saliva;  and the more
uncommon  error of protracted mastication is also
injurious, owing to the undue dilution which the 
58       MASTICATION OF  THE FOOD.
 mass  sustains from the overflow of the  salivary
 secretion.
   Due mastication being thus essential to healthy
 digestion, the Creator, as if to ensure its being ade-
 quately performed, has kindly so arranged, that the
 very act of mastication should lead to the gratifi-
 cation of taste—the mouth being the  seat  of that
 sensation.   That this  gratification of taste wa3 in-
 tended, becomes obvious, when we reflect that, even
 in eating, nature  makes it our interest to  give at-
 tention to the process in which we are, for the time,
 engaged.   It is well known, for example, that when
 food is presented to a hungry man, whose mind is
 concentrated on the indulgence of his appetite, the
 saliva begins to flow unbidden, and what he eats is
 consumed with a peculiar relish.  Whereas, if food
 be presented to an individual who has fasted equally
 long, but whose soul is absorbed in some great un-
 dertaking or deep emotion, it will be swallowed al-
 most without mastication, and without sufficient
 admixture with the saliva—now deficient in quantity
 —and consequently lie on the stomach for hours
 unchanged.   A certain degree of attention to taste,
 and  to the pleasures of appetite, is, therefore, both
 reasonable  and  beneficial; and  it  is  only  when
 these are abused that we  oppose the intentions of
 nature.
  From the existence of this intentional relation be-
 tween mastication  and the salivary secretion, the
 latter is  always most  copious in those  creatures
 whose food  requires  continued  mastication.  In
 ruminating animals, accordingly, the salivary glands
 are numerous and of great size, while  they are at
the same time so  situated, that the play of the mus-
cles in the act of rumination communicates to them
 a proportionate stimulus.   In  those, again, which
do not masticate  at all, but swallow  their food en-
tire,  there is scarcely  any salivary secretion, and
the glands appropriated to it are very small.   Birds, 
             USES  OF MASTICATION.          59

and many fishes and reptiles, belong to the latter
class.
  From the foregoing explanation of the object and
conditions of mastication, the reason will be appa-
rent why fluids do not require to undergo that pro-
cess, and also why dry mealy substances stand in
need of protracted chewing before they can be ea-
sily swallowed.   When hot spicy food is taken into
the mouth, the secretion of saliva is immensely in-
creased,  obviously for the purpose of diluting the
excess of stimulant before it shall be allowed to
reach the stomach.  But when the food is of a mild
and unirritating quality, much dilution is  unneces-
sary, and the secretion is accordingly moderate.
  The chief purpose  of  mastication, then, is evi-
dently the minute division of the aliment, so as to
admit of its being easily acted upon by the gastric
juice when received into  the stomach.  Dr. Beau-
mont, however, seems to me to  go too far in infer-
ring, that " if the materia alimentaria could be intro-
duced into the stomach in a finely divided state, the
operations of mastication, insalivation, and deglu-
tition, would not be necessary."   It would  require
a more extensive range of experiments than that
which  he has  made, to prove that " aliment is as
well digested and assimilated, and allays the sensa-
tion of hunger as perfectly, when introduced directly
into the  stomach (through an opening in  the side)
in a proper state of division, as when the usual pre-
vious steps have been taken."*   It is quite true that
mastication  and deglutition are  chiefly mechanical
processes; but it is difficult to believe that so much
care would have been  taken to  provide  a proper
supply of a fluid of a constant and peculiar character
like'saliva, if water were  capable of answering the
purpose as well, and if saliva were useful only in lu-
  * Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and
the Physiology of Digestion, by William Beaumont, M. D.
Pittsburgh, 1833, p. 67. 
60
DEGLUTITION.
 bricating  the food.  There  subsists, moreover, be-
 tween the sense of taste and the power of digestion,
 a certain relation, which renders it more than prob-
 able that the active gratification of the former du-
 ring mastication is favourable to the production and
 flow of nervous energy towards  the  stomach, and
 consequently in so far conducive to  the healthy per-
 formance of digestion, that even in  that point of
 view insalivation could not easily be  dispensed with.
 Dr. Beaumont's experiments, however, abundantly
 demonstrate that Montegre, and  those who, along
 with him, consider the saliva as the principal agent
 in digestion, have not  a shadow of foundation for
 their opinion.
  When unmasticated  food  is  introduced into the
 stomach,  the gastric juice acts only upon its sur-
 face, and other purely chymical changes sometimes
 commence in its substance before its  digestion can
 be effected.  Hence often arise, especially in  chil-
 dren, those pains and troubles, that nausea and  acid-
 ity, consequent on the  continued  presence of undi-
 gested aliment in the  stomach.  By a peculiarity
 of constitution, however, the stomach will not long
 retain food which it cannot dissolve.  After a num-
 ber of hours,—varying, according  to the state  of
 health, from one or two to ten,  or even twenty,—it
 is either rejected by vomiting, or transmitted un-
 changed  to the intestine, where  its presence irri-
 tates and gives rise to colic, flatulence, bowel-com-
 plaints, and, in delicate  children, not  unfrequently to
 convulsions.  Hence another proof of the impor-
 tance of slow and deliberate mastication.
  As soon as the morsel has been thoroughly mas-
 ticated and impregnated with saliva, it is ready for
transmission to the stomach.   To this part of the
process  the term deglutition, or sioallowing, is ap-
plied.
  Immediately at the back part of the mouth sever-
 al passages present themselves, leading in different 
                  THE GULLET.               f) I

 directions—one upwards and forward into the nose,
 another downwards and in front into the windpipe,
 and a third downwards and behind into the oesopha-
 gus, or gullet, and stomach.  The last is the passage
 taken by the food, and the violent  coughing and oc-
 casional  suffocation induced when  it accidentally
 passes into the windpipe, are but a specimen  of the
 serious evils which would be continually occurring
 if some provision were not made to obviate the dan-
 ger, while the rarity with which such accidents ac-
 tually happen, proves the almost unfailing efficacy of
 that which has been devised.
  The passage of the food into the nostrils  is pre-
 vented by the interposition of a  moveable  fleshy
 fold or valve hanging down from the palate, and vis-
 ible at the back part of the  mouth ; this, in the act
 of  swallowing, is stretched backwards so as  to ex-
 tend to the back part of the throat,  and thus entirely
 shut up the opening into the nostrils.  The passage
 into the windpipe, again,  is protected by a cartila-
 ginous lid or covering called epiglottis (from en epi,
 upon, and yA<oms glottis, the tongue), which projects
 backwards from  the root of the toiigue, and con-
 ducts the morsel over the glottis or opening of the
 windpipe.   The epiglottis, however, is  greatly as-
 sisted  in this operation by that rising upwards and
 forwards  of the gullet  and  windpipe to meet  the
 morsel, of which we are  conscious in the  act  of
 swallowing, and the  effect of which  is in some de-
 gree to hide the glottis under the backward projec-
 tion of the root of the tongue, and allow the mor-
 sel  to drop past it into the gullet.
  Once fairly in  the gullet,  the course of the food
 into the stomach  is easy  enough.  The gullet is
simply a round tube, made up of two rows of mus-
cular or  fleshy fibres, the one longitudinal, and the
other transverse and circular, with a soft, moist  li-
ning membrane to facilitate the transmission  of its
contents.   When the morsel is introduced, its  upper
                      F 
62         DEGLUTITION--VOMITING.

part  contracts involuntarily, and pushes the mass
downwards ; the portion now reached contracts in
its turn, and propels it farther;  and so on in suc-
cession till it arrives at the stomach.
  Deglutition, or swallowing, is thus a more compli-
cated operation than at first sight it appears to be.
On looking at any person eating, one  is apt to think
that  the  morsel passes along the gullet into the
stomach by its own weight; but we  speedily per-
ceive the  error when we recollect that,  in the
horse and the  cow for example,  the mouth is on a
level  with the ground when  feeding, and  that the
morsel is  consequently propelled upwards into the
stomach against its own gravity.  It is well known
also,  and often made a matter  of  public  exhibi-
tion,  that a man can swallow  even liquids when
standing on the crown of his head, with the natural
position of the stomach reversed.
  Deglutition is easier and quicker when the appe-
tite is keen, and the alimentary  bolus or morsel  is
moist and properly softened.  It is slow and diffi-
cult when the morsel  is dry and mealy, and the ap-
petite nauseated.   In  vomiting,  the  action of the
muscular  fibres is inverted, or  proceeds from the
lower end of  the gullet towards the mouth;  and
hence the object is carried upwards instead of down-
wards, as in the natural order. 
SURPRISING  POWER  OF  DIGESTION.    63
                  CHAPTER IV.

ORGANS  OF DIGESTION--THE STOMACH--THE GASTRIC
                       JUICE.

Surprising power of digestion.—Variety of sources of food.—
  All structures, however different, formed from the same blood.
  —General view of digestion, chymification, chylification, san-
  guification, nutrition.—The  stomach in polypes, in quadrupeds,
  and in man.—Its position, size, and complexity, indifferent ani-
  mals.—Its structure;  its peritoneal, muscular, and villous
  coats;  and uses of each.—Its nerves and bloodvessels, their
  nature, origins, and uses.—The former the medium of com-
  munication between the brain and stomachs—Their relation
  to undigested food —Animals  not conscious of what goes on
  in the stomach.—Advantages of this arrangement.—The gas-
  tric juice the grand agent in digestion.—Its origin and na-
  ture.—Singular case of gunshot wound  making a permanent
  opening into the stomach.—Instructive experiments made by
  Dr. Beaumont.—Important results.

   If, in the whole animal economy, where  all is ad-
mirable, there be one operation which, on reflection,
appears more wonderful  than  another,  and which
evinces in a higher degree the prodigious resources
and power of the Creator in fashioning every thing
to his  own will, it  is perhaps  that  by  which the
same kind of nutriment is extracted from  the most
opposite  varieties of food consumed by living be-
ings.   For,  singular as it may  appear,  recent re-
searches tend  to establish the fact, that, even in
animals differing so widely in their  aliment as the
herbivorous and carnivorous quadrupeds,  the ulti-
mate products of digestion in both—the  chyle  and
the blood—are identical in composition, in so  far at
least as can be  determined by their  chymical anal-
ysis.*

   *  See Roget's Bridgewater Treatise, note at p.  58, vol. ii. 
64     VARIETY OF  SOURCES OF  FOOD.

  Remarkable, however, as this uniformity of re-
sult undoubtedly is, it becomes still  more striking
when we contemplate the variety of sources from
which food is derived for the support of animal life.
To use the words of an able writer already quoted,
" There is no part of the organized structure of an
animal or vegetable, however  dense  its texture or
acrid  its qualities, that may not, under certain  cir-
cumstances, become the food of some species of in-
sect, or contribute in some mode to the support of
animal life.   The more succulent parts  of  plants,
such as the leaves or softer stems, are the principal
sources of nourishment to the greater number of
larger quadrupeds, to multitudes of insects, as well
as to numerous  tribes of other  animals.    Some
plants are more particularly assigned as the appro-
priate nutriment of particular species, which would
perish if these ceased to grow : thus, the silkworm
subsists almost exclusively upon the leaves  of the
mulberry-tree ; and many species of caterpillars are
attached each to a particular plant, which they prefer
to all others. There are at least fifty different species
of insects that feed upon the common nettle;  and
plants of which the juices  are most  acrid and poi-
sonous to the generality of animals, such as euphor-
bium, henbane, and nightshade, afford a wholesome
and delicious food to others."*   Nor are the precis-
ion and accuracy with which  the  same  fluid—the
blood—affords to every structure of the body the
precise species of nourishment or  secretion which
its elementary composition requires, however  dif-
ferent each may be from the rest in chymical qual-
ities, less admirable and extraordinary than its own
original formation from such a variety of materials.
To bone, the blood furnishes the elements of bone
with unerring  accuracy ; to muscle the same blood
furnishes the  elements  of  muscle,—to nerves the

     * See Roget's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii., p. 59. 
  ALL STRUCTURES FORMED FROM THE BLOOD. 65

elements of nerve,—to skin the elements of skin,—
and to vessels the elements of vessels ;—and  yet,
while each of these differs somewhat in composition
from  the others, the constituent elements  of the
blood by which they are  furnished are everywhere
the same.
  Similar phenomena, indeed, occur in the  vegeta-
ble world ; but this, instead of diminishing our won-
der, rather tends to augment it.-  The  same  ele-
ments, extracted from the same soil, are converted
into every variety of vegetable product—into leaves
of every shade of green,  flowers of every form and
teint, and juices of every quality, from the deadly
poison up to bland and life-supporting milk.  Nay,
even in the same plant—as in the poppy—we some-
times find the seeds and  the capsule which covers
them endowed with the most opposite properties.
   It would be very interesting to discover by what
resources nature thus effects the production of the
s,ame kind of nutritive fluid, or chyle, from  so great
a variety of substances, and apportions to every
part  the precise elements of  which it stands  in
need; but it is doubtful whether the human faculties
were ever designed to  penetrate so far  into  the
modes of vital action,  and, in the meantime, it will
be better  for us  to confine our attention to that
branch of the inquiry which bears a direct reference
to our  own welfare.   We know already, that cer
tain organs are concerned in the processes above
 mentioned, and that these  organs act under the reg-
 ulation of certain general  laws.  If we make our-
 selves  acquainted with,  and carefully fulfil these
 laws, we reap a rich reward in the enjoyment of
 sound and vigorous digestion.   Whereas,  if, either
 from ignorance  or from carelessness, we neglect
 their fulfilment, we bring  upon ourselves  a severe
 punishment in the form of dyspeptic or nervous dis-
 ease.  Assuredly, then, alternatives like these ought
                      F2 
66      GENERAL VIEW  OF DIGESTION.

to excite some desire for information in the minds
even of the most indifferent.

  Before, how* .er, commencing a description  of
the organs concerned in digestion, it will be useful
to take a general view of the  different  stages  of
preparation through which the food passes, between
its reception into the stomach and  its assimilation,
or ultimate conversion into a constituent part of the
animal body, and becoming endowed with the prop-
erties of life.  The reader will thus be better ena-
bled to understand the meaning of various  terms
and expressions, the frequent use of which it is  al-
most impossible to avoid, even in the  beginning  of
our exposition.
  When the food is received into the stomach, it is
there subjected to the action of a solvent fluid, call-
ed the gastric or stomach juice (from yaarrip, gaster,
stomach), by which it is  gradually converted into
a soft grayish and pultaceous  mass, called  chyme
(from xvh°!i  chymos, humour or juice); whence the
process  is  called chymification, or  chyme-making.
The chyme, as fast as it  is formed, is expelled by
the contractile power of the stomach into the duode-
num (from duodenus, consisting of twelve, because
it is supposed to be about twelve inches long), or
first portion of the intestines.   It there meets with
the bile from the liver, and with the pancreatic juice,
which very miuh resembles the saliva, from the pan-
creas,  or sweet-bread (was, pas, all, and *peas, kreas,
flesh, it being of a fleshy consistence), a large gland
which lies across the spine a little below the stom-
ach, and is marked P in the wood-cut given in the
chapter on  Chylification.   By the  action of these
two fluids, the chyme is converted into two distinct
portions,—a milky white  fluid named chyle (from
X«X"ff, chylos, chyle), and  a thick yellow residue.
This process is called chylification, or chyle-making.
The chyle is then sucked in by absorbent vessels. 
GENERAL VIEW  OF DIGESTION.      67
extensively ramified on the  inner membrane or li-
ning of the bowels, and sometimes named, from the
white colour of their contents, lacteals, or milk-bear-
ers (from lac, milk).  These lacteals ultimately con-
verge into one trunk, named the  thoracic  duct, or
chest-pipe  (from its course lying through the thorax
or chest), and which terminates, as will be seen in a
subsequent cut, in the great vein under the clavicle,
or collar-bone, hence called subclavian vein, just be-
fore the latter reaches the right  side  of  the  heart;
and there the chyle is poured into the general  cur-
rent of the venous blood.
   But  although  thus  mingled with the  blood, the
chyle is not yet sufficiently capacitated  for its du-
ties in the system.  To complete its preparation, it
still requires to be exposed to the  action of the air
during respiration.*  This is accordingly  done by
its passing through the lungs along with the dark or
venous blood, which stands in  need  of the same
change.   In the course of this process, both the
chyle  and the venous blood are  converted  into red,
arterial, or nutritive blood, which is afterward dis-
tributed by the heart through the arteries, to supply
nourishment and support to every part of the body.
Hence the change which takes place in the lungs is
properly  enough named sanguification, or blood-ma-
king.
   The thickish yellow residue left in the duodenum
after the separation of the chyle from the chyme, is
that portion of the food which  affords no nourish-
ment,  and which, after traversing the whole length
of the intestinal canal, and undergoing still  farther
change,  is thrown out of the body in the shape of
faces, or excrement.  But in this course its bulk is
increased, and its appearance changed, by the ad-
dition of much waste matter, which, having already
 served its purposes in the system,  is at last, as will

   *  For a  full explanation of the nature of respiration, see the
 author's Principles of Physiology, &c, chap. vii. 
68    STOMACH IN THE LOWER ANIMALS.

be afterward shown, thrown out by the same chan-
nel.

  With this general view of the nature of Digestion
before us, we can now examine more satisfactorily
the structure and mode of action of the organs con-
cerned in effecting it.   Chymification being the first
step in the complicated process, we shall begin with
the organ by  which it is performed, namely, the
Stomach.
  In the lowest class  of animals,—the hydra, for
example, which belongs to  the order of gelatinous
polypi, and abounds in stagnant pools,—the stomach
is like a  simple bag, devoid of any peculiar organ-
ization; or, more  properly speaking,  the  animal
itself  is nothing more than a living stomach; for
the minutest inspection can discover in it no trace
of any thing like vessels, nerves, brain, lungs, heart,
or other known organ."  Even the experienced eye
of Cuvier, aided by a powerful  microscope, could
detect in their structure nothing more than a trans-
parent parenchyma, full of darkish grains or points,
and offering no trace of any  distinguishable organs.*
In form, the animal somewhat resembles  the finger
of a glove, the hollow in the centre being appropri-
ated for the reception of its food; and yet with all
this simplicity of structure, it not only moves and
swims, but seizes its prey by means of its tentacula,
thrusts it into its cavity, and digests it visibly—" a
vue d'ozil."   And what is still more strange, when it
is turned inside out, the surface, which was former-
ly the exterior of the body,  now digests as actively
and efficiently as if it had never served any other
purpose.
  Animals of this very simple description have obvi-
ously  no need of vessels of any kind, because every
part of the internal surface of the body is in imme-
diate contact with its food, and seems to  imbibe or
       * Cuvier's Regne Animal, vol. iii., p. 295. 
       THE HUMAN STOMACH DESCRIBED.     69

absorb directly all the nourishment which it requires;
for vessels are wanted only where digestion goes
on in one part, and the nutriment requires to be car-
ried to  another—a vessel being neither more nor
less than a tube for conveying the requisite nour-
ishment from the place  in  which it is  prepared to
parts where its presence is necessary.  Owing to
this extreme simplicity  of organization,  a  hydra
may be cut into  pieces, each of which will become
a perfect animal.  But, in proportion as we ascend
in the scale of creation, the organization becomes
more complicated, and the functions more numer-
ous, and also more dependant on each other; so
that, when we arrive  at man—the highest of all—
we find that the loss  or  injury of any vital organ
puts a stop to or impairs the action of all the rest.
It is impossible,  however, in an elementary work
like this, to trace the gradation through  the different
series of animals.   We must confine our examina-
tion to man, and only borrow from other creatures
such illustrations  as may be necessary for throw-
ing light upon the human structure.
  In man, then, the stomach is a large membranous
and muscular bag, lying under the convexity  of the
lower ribs of the left  side,  and stretching towards
the right a little beyond the hollow commonly cal-
led the  pit of the stomach.  In shape it somewhat
resembles  the bag of a  bagpipe,  as will be seen
from the figure on page 71; its left or larger extrem-
ity being in contact with the ribs, and its right or
narrow  extremity situated  under  the pit of  the
stomach.
  Its position (Stm.) relatively to the chest, bowels,
and liver,  will be understood by inspecting the sub-
joined figure, already given in the former volume.
It is separated from the cavity of the  chest by the
diaphragm or midriff D D, with which its upper sur-
face is  in  immediate contact,  and through  which
the gullet passes  to enter  its left  extremity.   Its 
70              THE STOMACH.

right or pyloric extremity, marked  P in the cut on
the opposite page, lies close to the lower surface
of the liver (Liv.), the latter being a little displaced
to show its situation.   On the lower surface it has
the appearance of resting on the intestines, as if
imbedded among their folds.
  The  parts of the stomach which  have received
names  and require to be noticed, are,—the cardiac
orifice  (marked C in the next figure, and so named 
THE STOMACH.
71
from  oeing near the «ap, hear, or  heart), in wnich
the gullet terminates, and through which food  and
drink  are introduced; P, the pylorus, or pyloric  ori-
fice (from  iruAupos, pylon>s, a irate-keeper, because it
allows none but digested food to pass out), where
 the intestine called the duodenum begins, and through
 which the chyme passes after digestion is comple-
 ted,  and which, when the stomach is full, is nearly
 on a level with the cardia, although when empty it
 is lower; SS, the smaller arch or curvature; and GGG,
 the greater  arch  or curvature.  The spleen is at-
 tached to that part of the larger arch marked with
 dotted points.   From the situation of the cardia C.
 and its  connexion with the gullet, it will be at once
 perceived that this forms one of the points of attach-
 ment by which the stomach is retained in its place.
  In size, the stomach varies much in different indi-
viduals  as well as in different  animals, according to
the  bulk and quality of their  food.  As a genera]
rule, it  is larger  among the  labouring  poor  than 
72     THE  STOMACH  VARIES  IN SIZE.
among the rich, as the former require a larger quan-
tity of their inferior food to obtain from it an equal
amount of nourishment.  For the same reason, an-
imals which subsist on vegetable substances have a
very capacious stomach, while those subsisting on
animal or concentrated food have it  simple  and
small.   In man, its capacity may be diminished or
augmented within  certain limits by corresponding
modifications of diet.   In some  gluttons, and in ca-
ses of diseased appetite, it has been found of enor-
mous dimensions;  but this rule does  not  always
hold,  for the stomach  is  sometimes smaller  than
usual in immoderate eaters, and then its contents
pass through only  partially digested.
  In accordance with this relation between the ca-
pacity and  structure of the organs  of  digestion
and the quality of the food, the  stomach and intes-
tines are found to be very small and short  in carniv-
orous quadrupeds  and birds of  prey, which are in-
tended to live on concentrated aliment.  The same
is the case with thegranivorous, orgrain-eatingbir&s,
as their food also is contained in a small bulk.   But
in_herbivorous animals—in the food of which the
nutritive principle forms a very  small proportion of
the whole, perhaps not one  twentieth, and which
consequently require a large bulk of it for  their sus-
tenance—the digestive apparatus is on a large scale,
as any  one may conceive in a moment, by compa-
ring the portly protuberance of the cow with the
lank paunch of the greyhound.   The  cow, in fact,
is little else but a  living laboratory for the conver-
sion of vegetable into  animal matter;  and  accord-
ingly, not only is  its stomach large and  complex,
but its intestinal canal is nearly twenty-four times
the length of its body; whereas, in some carnivo-
rous  animals, the whole intestine does not exceed
once their own length.
   In ruminating animals, such as the sheep and ox,
the stomach, as  will be  seen  from  the annexed 
      STOMACH IN  RUMINATING ANIMALS.   73

figure, not only is  large, to adapt it to the bulky
nature of their  food, but is complicated in its struc-
ture, to fit  it for effecting the  great changes which
vegetable aliment requires  to undergo  before it can
be converted into blood.  It may, indeed, be said
to consist of four distinct stomachs conjoined.  In
the first of these, AA, termed the paunch, the herb-
age is deposited when first swallowed, after hasty
and ineffectual mastication.  It there  undergoes a
kind of maceration, or steeping, in  a fluid provided
for the purpose;  after which  it passes  from the
paunch into a smaller bag, called  the reticulum, or
bonnet, B, which in some animals, such as the cam-
el and  dromedary, is designed  exclusively  as  a
reservoir for water, which, being there  stored up in
large  quantities,  ready  for  use when  wanted, fits
them  in a wonderful manner for travelling through
the arid deserts where no water is to  be obtained,
and where, without such provision, they would of
course soon perish.   So admirably is the reticulum
adapted for this special purpose, that the water con
tained in it undergoes little or no change either in
                       G 
74    STOMACH  IN RUMINATING  ANIMALS.
 quality or quantity, although, if it were collected in
 the ordinary digesting stomach, it would be entirely
 absorbed in the course of a few minutes.   It is not
 even mixed with the food which is swallowed after
 it, as the animal has the power of directing solids at
 once into the other cavities.  From  the  reticulum,
 the alimentary mass is again returned to the mouth
 there to be thoroughly masticated and mixed with
 the saliva;  after which it descends  a second time
 through the  gullet; but instead of passing, as before,
 into the paunch, it  enters  the  third bag,  omasum,
 or many-phes, C, where it undergoes farther chan-
 ges, and is then transmitted to the fourth portion D
 adjoining the pylorus, and named ab-omasum, or red-
 bag.  The last portion is exactly similar in structure
 and  in  function to the simple stomach of man and
 the other mammalia, and  is, in fact, the true stom-
 ach, the other three being merely preparatory or-

  The first part of the process, by which the food is
 taken hastily  into the paunch,  and afterward sent
 back to the  mouth in detached  portions, for farther
 mastication, is called rumination, or cheiving the cud,
 and those species which perform it are thence called
 ruminating animals.   Sheep and cows may be seen
 lying ruminating in pasture-fields after having crop-
 ped as much herbage  as fills the paunch;  and feed-
 ing is thus rendered to them a source of prolonged
 enjoyment.                                  s
  In those birds, again, which live on hard  grain and
 seed, and possess no organs of mastication where-
 with to  bruise  or grind them down, another modifi-
cation of the digestive apparatus is found.   Nature
has furnished them with a membranous bag,  called a
 crop, or craw, into which the food is received and
where it is slightly softened by a mucous fluid se-
creted from the surface of the bag.  Thus prepared
it is transmitted  into an  organ analogous  to the
stomach of  other animals, and  called the gizzard 
      STOMACH IN  GRAIN-EATING BIRDS.    75

which has a very singular structure.  Its walls are
composed of four distinct portions of thick, tough,
muscular substance, a large one at each side of the
cavity, and  a  small  one at each end.  The inner
surface of the muscle is lined with an  extremely
callous cuticle, approaching in hardness to cartilage
or horn.   When the moistened grain is introduced
into the gizzard from the crop, the muscular walls
of the gizzard  enter into powerful action, and, by
their  alternate contraction and  relaxation, bruise
the grain  as between two grindstones.  In some
birds  their action is assisted by a quantity of small
gravel, purposely swallowed along with the food;
and it is well  known to seamen that poultry never
thrive on  a voyage, however well they may be fed,
if gravel  or coarse  sand, as well as food, is not
placed within their reach.  Mr. Hunter has counted
as many as a  thousand small stones in the gizzard
of a common goose.*
  The astonishing force with which the muscles of
the gizzard act, and the resistance of its  lining
membrane, may be conceived from the experiments
of Spallanzani and Reaumur, who compelled geese
and  other birds to swallow  needles, lancets,  and
other sharp metallic bodies, and, on afterward kil-
ling them, regularly found the points broken off, and
the edges blunted, without any injury having been
sustained by the gizzard  itself.

  In  structure, the stomach of both  man and ani-
mals  consists of three membranous layers or coats,
of follicles  or glands, and of numerous bloodvessels
and nerves.
  The first or external layer is the smooth, glistening,
whitish membrane, which is familiar to all who have

  * The above descriptions and figure are taken, with slight al-
terations, from the Treatise on Animal Physiology in the Libra-
ry of Useful Knowledge. 
76         COATS  OF  THE  STOMACH.

ever seen an animal opened, or hanging at a butch-
er's door.  It is a fold of the tough shining mem-
brane, called peritoneum (from mptreivo), periteino, I
extend round), which lines the abdomen, and con-
stitutes the outer covering of  all  the abdominal or-
gans.  Its use is obviously to strengthen  the sub-
stance of the stomach, to assist in binding down
this and  the other organs in  their respective situa-
tions, and, by the smoothness and constant moisture
of their surfaces, to enable them to move upon each
other, and adapt themselves freely to their different
states of emptiness and distention.

  The second, 'middle, or muscular coat consists of
fleshy fibres, one layer of which, running longitudi-
nally from the cardia to the pylorus, seems to be a
continuation  of the longitudinal muscular fibres of
the gullet: another runs in a circular direction, em-
bracing, as it were, the stomach from one curvature
to the other,  and  constituting what are called the
transverse fibres. A third and more internal layer of
this coat  is spoken of by Sir Charles Bell, as a con-
tinuation of the  circular fibres of the gullet, which
divide into two parcels, the one distributed over the
left or larger end, and the other over the pyloric or
narrower end.
  The uses of the muscular coat  have, as we shall
afterward see, a direct reference  to the  special
function  of digestion.   By the joint action of its
longitudinal  and circular  fibres, the stomach  is
enabled to contract,  and shorten its diameter in ev-
ery direction, so as to adapt its capacity to the vol-
ume of its contents; while, by their successive ac-
tion, or alternate contraction and  relaxation, a kind
of churning motion is produced, Avhich contributes
greatly to digestion by the motion which it imparts
to the food, and  the consequent exposure which it
effects of every  portion of it in its turn to the con-
tact of the gastric juice. 
COATS OF  THE  STOMACH.         77
  The force and rapidity of these muscular contrac-
tions  are  modified by the more or  less stimulant
nature of the food, the state of health, exercise, and
other circumstances ; but, according  to Dr. Beau-
mont, the ordinary direction  in which they  take
place, and the course which they impart to the food,
are as follows :—
  The alimentary bolus  or morsel, on entering the
cardiac orifice, turns to  the left, follows the line  of
the great curvature of the stomach towards the py-
lorus, returns in the line of the smaller curvature,
makes its appearance again at the cardia, and then
descends as before to  the great curvature, to under-
go  similar revolutions till digestion be completed.
Each revolution occupies about from one to three
minutes, and its rapidity increases as chymification
advances.
  In treating of muscular action in the former vol-
ume, I pointed out (p. 95) the necessity of  the co-
operation of a nervous stimulus to produce the
result; and  remarked that there are two  kinds  of
muscles, one called the voluntary, which contract at
the command of the will, and the other the involuntary,
over which  the will  has no control, and which act
only in obedience  to their own  peculiar stimuli.
Of  the latter description are the muscular fibres  of
the stomach.  They  contract when the stimulus  of
food is applied to them ; but we can neither contract
nor relax them by an effort of the will, nor  are we
even conscious of their  existence.
  It is, indeed, fortunate for us, that the necessary
motions of  the  stomach  are not intrusted  to our
guidance, like those of  the hand or  foot.   Suppo-
sing that we were to eat three meals a day,  the di-
gestion of each requiring three or four hours,—and
that its management depended entirely upon our su-
perintendence,—our whole attention would  be re-
quired to the process, to the exclusion of every other
duty, for ten or twelve hours a day ; and every  time 
78    MUCOUS COAT OF, THE  STOMACH.

that our thoughts wandered  for  a few minutes,
digestion would stand still, and the stomach be dis-
ordered by the chymical decomposition of the food
which would ensue, so that it would be impossible
for us to dedicate any time either to business or to
social enjoyment.  But from all these inconvenien-
ces we are entirely freed by the  stomach being
placed under the dominion of the involuntary nerves,
and so constituted as to perform its functions with-
out any aid from our will.

  The third and innermost coat, called the mucous,
or villous, is  that smooth,  unequal, velvety  mem-
brane, of a reddish-white or pale pink colour, which
lines the internal surface  of  the stomach.  From
being of  much greater extent than the other two
coats, its surface is thrown into ruga, plica, folds,
or wrinkles, which are simple in man, but very mark-
ed  in some animals,  as seen familiarly  in tripe.
The subjoined wood-cut, from the Library of Useful
Knowledge, will give  some notion of their appear-
ance   Near  the pyloric orifice the villous coat is
doubled on itself, so as to  form a ring, called the
valve of the  pylorus, the object of which is to pre-
vent the too early  exit of the food;   this object,
however, it  accomplishes,  not  by any contractile
power of its own, but by the aid of a layer of mus-
cular fibres lying behind it.  The villous coat is con- 
       BLOODVESSELS OF  THE STOMACH.     79

stantly covered with a very thin, transparent, viscid
mucus, and its folds are always best seen in those
who die suddenly.  After disease, when the stom-
ach is relaxed, they frequently disappear.
  In addition to the folds just described, the mucous
coat contains a great number of spheroidal glandular
bodies or follicles, some of them scarcely larger than
pinheads, which lie immediately beneath and almost
incorporated with it, and which are most numerous
near the pylorus.   Physiologists are  not entirely
agreed, whether the fluid secreted by these follicles
be the gastric juice,  or merely the mucus already
referred to as lubricating the  internal surface of the
stomach.   The latter, however, is the opinion gen-
erally entertained, and the one which is supported,
as we shall afterward  see,  by the strongest evi-
dence ; the gastric juice being, in fact, secreted di-
rectly from  the  capillary  or hair-sized  vessels in
which the minute branches of the arteries terminate.
  Of the nerves and bloodvessels supplying the stom-
ach it is unnecessary to say much.  We shall af-
terward have occasion to notice the former at some
length, and to the general reader the origin and dis-
tribution of the bloodvessels are as unimportant as
they would be difficult of comprehension;  for the
nature of the red blood is the same by whatever ar-
tery it is supplied,  and  that  of the dark blood the
same by whatever vein it is  returned to the heart.
All that it is important to know is, that the stomach
receives a large  supply of blood by means of nu-
merous bloodvessels, the  principal of  which, as
represented on the wood-cut at page 71, follow the
course of the greater and smaller curvatures GG
and SS, and send off innumerable small branches
as they proceed to every part of the stomach.  The
coronary artery, and the pyloric branch of the hepatic,
or liver artery, go to the smaller curvature, while
another branch of the  hepatic, and one from the
splenic, or spleen artery, are ramified on the larger
curvature. 
80    BLOODVESSELS OF THE STOMACH.

  In determining the uses of the internal or villous
coat of the stomach, we must  begin by considering
separately that of each of the elementary structures
of which it is composed—its follicles, bloodvessels,
and nerves—and the nature of the peculiar secre-
tion, the  gastric  juice,  to which it gives rise.
  The follicles pour  out  the bland  viscid mucus
which lubricates the internal coat, and protects it in
some degree from sustaining injury by the immedi-
ate contact of irritating bodies.  When the follicles
are diseased, as in what is called water-brash, they
sometimes throw out  a large quantity of a ropy
transparent fluid, which oppresses the stomach and
impairs digestion.
  The bloodvessels of the stomach, like those  of
every other part, are more or less active, according
to the energy of its functions at the time.  In treat-
ing of the laws of exercise as applicable to all living
parts,* I  took  considerable pains to point  out the
relation which the Creator has established between
the activity of every organ and the  energy of its
vital functions.  When the brain is exercised and
the mind active, an augmented flow of blood takes
place towards it to support its increased  action.
When it  is inactive and the mind indolent, a dimin-
ished flow of blood  occurs.  In like manner, when
the muscles are  called  into vigorous action, the cir-
culation of the blood  through them is  quickened,
and  their nerves are  more than usually excited:
greater waste  of material is caused by the increase
of activity, and more blood, consequently, is requi-
red to repair the waste  and sustain their tone.  This
law was so well known to the older writers, that  it
was  announced  by  them as an axiom in the very
comprehensive phrase, JJbi stimulus,  ibi affluxus—
uWherever a stimulus is, there is also an afflux."
  The stomach forms  no exception to this general
* Principles of Physiology, &c. 
       BLOODVESSELS  OF THE STOMACH.    81

 law of the animal economy.  When it is empty and
 idle, it is contracted upon itself into comparatively
 small bulk ; and its bloodvessels become  shortened
 and tortuous in a corresponding degree.  The result
 is both a diminution of their calibre and a slower
 circulation through their branches.  But when the
 stomach is full and active, the bloodvessels have free
 scope, their  tortuosity  disappears, their diameter
 enlarges, and the circulation through them becomes
 quicker, and fit for the rapid secretion of the  mucous
 and gastric fluids  in the quantities which we have
 seen to be required for  the fulfilment of digestion.
 Accordingly, when the  latter process is  going on,
 the small arterial branches ramified on the  mucous
 coat of the stomach become so multiplied and dis-
 tended, as to impart to  it a deeper red colour  than
 it has when the stomach is empty.  The  increased
 afflux of red or arterial blood to the stomach during
 digestion, is not merely inferred from the  analogy
 of other organs. Many opportunities have occurred
 of ascertaining the fact; and, as I  shall have occa-
 sion to mention, Dr.  Beaumont very often saw it
 take place.
  A corresponding change occurs in the veins of the
 stomach during digestion.  Their diameter becomes
 enlarged,  their course more straight, and the  cur-
 rent of blood through them  more rapid.   As the
 minute or capillary extremities of the arteries open
 upon the  inner surface  of the stomach, and there
 exhale a fluid secretion, so the corresponding venous
 capillaries  likewise open  upon the same surface,
 and inhale or absorb fluid, which they carry into the
 general circulation.  The rapidity with which  this
 absorption sometimes  takes place is almost incred-
 ible ; for a large draught  of water may be thus taken
up in a few minutes.  Fluids mixed with camphire
or other strong-scented  substance have been given
to animals as an experiment, and,  on killing them
shortly afterward, the  peculiar smell has  been  de- 
82        NERVES OF THE STOMACH.
tected in the blood.   Liquids are thus not digested,
but simply absorbed.
  Rapid, however, as the process is, poisons which
enter the system by absorption do not by any means
act so instantaneously as those which directly affect
the nervous system.

  In regard to the peculiar influence which each of
the nerves ramified on  the stomach exercises  on
its functions,  much difference of opinion still pre-
vails.  We may, however, gather some useful no-
tions by adverting to the different sources whence
they are derived, and comparing these with the pur-
poses for which we know from  analogy that differ-
ent kinds of nerves are required.
  Strictly speaking,  the  nervous filaments supplied
to the stomach proceed from three distinct sources,
and may be held to fulfil as many distinct uses.   In
apparent accordance with this, we  observe three,
if not four, distinct classes of operations going on
in that organ, each of which may, from analogy, be
presumed to require a distinct nerve for its perform-
ance.  These  are, first, the pleasurable conscious-
ness attendant on the presence of wholesome food
in a healthy stomach, and which becomes painful
and disagreeable when the stomach is diseased or
the food of improper quality; secondly, the peristal-
tic or muscular motion which commences the mo-
ment food is swallowed, and continues  till digestion
is completed; and,  lastly, the  different processes
of circulation, nutrition, secretion, and absorption,
which go on in the component tissues of the stomach
and support its life.   To these ought perhaps to be
added the sensation in which the feeling of appetite
originates, and which we have  already seen to be
connected with the  pneumogastric nerve.  But as
it is still uncertain whether it and the first of the
three now named may not be modifications of the
same thing, I shall not insist  on considering them
as different. 
     USES OF THE PNEUMOGASTRIC NERVE.   83

  Although we cannot state positively what particu-
lar  nerve presides over each of these functions, it
may be mentioned that strong presumptive evidence
has been adduced, particularly by Brachet, to show
that the  pneumogastric* nerve is charged with the
involuntary motions of the stomach, as well as with
the sense of its condition.  Food being the natural
stimulus  of  that  organ, as light is of the eye, its
presence alone, without and even against the will,
suffices to produce the contraction of its muscular
coat;  and  accordingly, the more  stimulating the
food, the more rapid and vigorous is the muscular
contraction which it excites.  So far, indeed, do the
stomachic nerves respond  to their own stimuli, that,
if nauseous  or other irritant  and indigestible  sub-
stances be swallowed, the -action of the muscular
coat becomes so violent as to excite sympathetical-
ly the  simultaneous  contraction of the  diaphragm
and abdominal muscles, to aid in their  immediate
expulsion by vomiting;  and this is the reason why
such substances are in common use as emetics.
  Magendie doubts whether these  movements are
in any measure dependant upon nervous influence ;
but the fact of their being so seems to be proved by
the experiments  of Gmelin and Tiedemann, who
found them constantly produced when the pneumo-
gastric nerve was irritated either by the scalpel or
by the contact of alcohol.   Brachet, also, who ex-
amined the subject with great care, obtained similar
results;  and  the  only plausible argument against
their conclusiveness  consists  in the double func-
tion which seems thus to  be assigned to a single
nerve—that  of conveying  to  the brain a sense of
the  state  of the stomach, and that of imparting  mo-
tion to its muscular fibres.  Brachet, however, turns
this charge into an additional proof;  for, on careful
dissection, it appears that the pneumogastric nerve
  * From irvtvutav, pneumon, a lung, and yaarnp,gaster, the stom-
ach, or lung and stomach nerve 
84  USES OF THE PNEUMOGASTRIC  NERVE.

is really a compound of two distinct sets of fibres,
intimately connected, no doubt, in  structure and in
function, but each essentially distinct in its origin,
and so far fitted for a peculiar office.
   When the pneumogastric or chief nerve of the
stomach is tied or cut through, and its ends separa-
ted so as to interrupt the flow of nervous energy to-
wards that organ, digestion is either entirely arrest-
ed or greatly impaired.  By the greater number of
physiologists this result is considered to arise from
the consequent stoppage of that gentle and contin-
ued agitation of the alimentary mass in the stomach
which  is  necessary  for its thorough  impregnation
with the gastric juice,  and which we have seen to
depend on a stimulus communicated to its muscular
coat by that nerve.   By some, however, this expla-
nation is regarded as incorrect.,  Magendie and Dr.
Holland, for example, say that  they have sometimes
observed digestion continue even after the division
of the  nerve; and that, when it is retarded or im-
paired, the result arises only from the troubled state
of respiration which the  cutting of the nerve in-
duces at the same time.   To this, again, it is an-
swered, that Dupuytren has divided the nerve below
the part where the pulmonary branches are given
off, and consequently left respiration unimpaired;
but that still digestion was arrested, provided a por-
tion of it was cut out so as not to allow  the current
of nervous  influence to  continue: for  if  the two
ends of the nerve be left  nearly in contact, it ap-
pears that  little  interruption of its  action  takes
place.
  Here, however, I cannot help observing, that, in
drawing conclusions from experiments  of this na-
ture, the constitutional disturbance inseparable from
the infliction of extensive wounds on living animals
is seldom taken sufficiently into account.  As regards
digestion,  for example,  it is not to be expected that
that function can be carried on with all the regular- 
     USES OF THE PNEUMOGASTRIC NERVE.  85

ity of health when the animal is suffering severe
pain, even although the stomach be left untouched.
Brachet  indeed has shown, by direct experiment,
that digestion may be  interrupted almost as effect-
ually by making an incision on  the side or thigh
(provided it be sufficiently deep and painful to ex-
cite  constitutional disturbance), as by  cutting the
pneumogastric nerve itself.  This being the case,
we must not be too  hasty in considering every ap-
parent result as inseparably and exclusively connect-
ed with the individual injury under our notice at the
time ; we must repeat our observations under every
variety of circumstances, and be careful to separate
the accidental from  the essential, before admitting
the inference to be correct.  It is, in fact, this un-
avoidable source of  vagueness  which so often ren-
ders experiments on living animals as inconclusive
as they are inherently cruel.
  But  after making every  allowance on  this ac-
count, the experiments on digestion have been so fre-
quently repeated, and so extensively varied, that the
general results already noticed may safely be regard-
ed as demonstrated.   On all hands, accordingly, the
necessity of the co-operation of the nervous energy
in effecting it is admitted; for no one seriously de-
nies the  fact, that retardation or total cessation of
digestion ensues, when the flow of the nervous fluid
towards  the stomach is prevented by the  division
and separation of the cut ends of the pneumogastric
nerve, or by the operation of narcotics and the other
disturbing causes already alluded to.   It is true that
the mode in which the nerve acts is  not yet ascer-
tained, although the fact of its necessary co-opera-
tion is rarely disputed.  As, however, the direction
of a current of galvanism to the cut end of the nerve
next the  stomach suffices to re-establish digestion
after that process has been suspended by the inter-
ruption of the nervous influence consequent on its
division,  we may reasonably infer that, in the heal-
                      H 
*
 86    USES OF THE SYMPATHETIC  NERVE.

 thy state, the nerve merely transmits  to the stomach
 a stimulus or  energy generated  for  the purpose
 either in the brain or in the spinal marrow and gan-
 glia—that the nerve, in  short, acts  only as a con-
 ductor, and does not originate  the influence which
 it evidently imparts.   In several of Brachet's cases,
 indeed, as well as in those of Tiedemann, the con-
 tinued irritation of the cut end  of the nerve  proved
 sufficient to carry on digestion to a certain point, by
 affording, in  another way, the necessary stimulus
 to the muscular contractions of the stomach: for
 in all these  experiments, digestion  was  found to
 have  advanced almost in exact proportion  to the
 degree of admixture which had been  effected of the
 food with the gastric juice,—an admixture now as-
 certained to be produced  chiefly by the contractile
 power of the stomach itself.

  The muscular contractions of the  stomach being
 thus under the guidance of the pneumogastric nerve,
 what  are called its vital functions—those by which
 its life is sustained—viz., circulation, nutrition, se-
 cretion, and absorption, are generally considered to
 be carried on under the influence of  the great  sym-
pathetic or ganglionic nerve, so called from its  very
 extensive ramifications being supposed to bring the
 different parts of the system into relation with  each
 other, and which, accordingly, is found to exist in
 animals that have neither brain nor spinal marrow,
 nor nerves of voluntary motion.  In man, however,
 the sympathetic nerve receives filaments from the
 sentient or feeling part of the spinal marrow,  proba-
 bly for the purpose of connecting more intimately
 the organic with the higher functions  of animal life.
 But as much obscurity still prevails on this subject)
 and moreover we  have no direct control  over the
 action of the ganglionic  nerves, I  shall not detain
 the reader with any  conjectural  discussion, but
 rather request his attention for a moment to the oir- 
      IMPORTANCE OF NERVOUS  AGENCY.    87

cumstance that it is through the medium of the ner-
vous communications above hinted at, that the very
remarkable influence which all must have experi-
enced and  observed as constantly exerted by the
mind and stomach on each  other, is kept up—an in-
fluence so powerful in its effects on both bodily and
mental health, as to require special notice when we
shall treat of the practical application of the present
exposition.
  The importance of the nervous agency in effect-
ing digestion has been denied, because we are  not
conscious of the presence of food  in the stomach.
But in health  the want of  such consciousness is a
privilege and not a defect; and it has been admira-
bly pointed out  by Dr. Southwood Smith,* that in
possessing, as we do, the distinct consciousness of
a pleasurable feeling in the stomach  after indulging
in a suitable  meal, we  have all that is desirable for
either utility or  enjoyment.  If we were aware of
the presence of every portion of food which  the
stomach contained, and of  the changes occurring in
each, our attention would  be so disagreeably  and
unprofitably taken up that Ave would pray to be de-
livered   from the  annoyance.   Where, however,
from disease or the food  being inappropriate, the
stomach is injured by  what is eaten, consciousness
then becomes painful, for  the  express purpose of
 warning us that mischief has been  done, and that we
must take  means for its removal.
   The nerves of the  stomach, it ought to be re-
 marked, have a direct relation to  undigested food;
or, in other words, undigested food forms their  nat-
 ural and appropriate stimulus.   In consequence of
 this arrangement, when any body incapable of di-
 gestion is introduced into its cavity,  distinct uneasi-
 ness is speedily excited, and an effort is soon made
 to expel it either upwards by the  mouth or down-
* Philosophy of Health, vol. i., p. 80 
88
THE GASTRIC JUICE.
wards by the bowels.   It is in this way that bile in
the stomach  excites nausea, and that tartar emetic
produces vomiting.  The nerves of  the bowels, on
the other hand, are  constituted with relation to the
presence of digested food, and consequently, when
any thing escapes into them from the stomach in an
undigested  state, it  becomes to  them a source of
irritative excitement;  and hence the colicky pains
and bowel-complaints  which so commonly attend
the passage of such undigestible substances as fat,
husks of fruits, berries, and cherry-stones, through
the intestinal canal.

  Such, then, are the component parts of the stom-
ach, and such the  uses which they individually
fulfil; but before  we  can consider  them  in their
combined form, there is still another agent, and an
important one, in digestion, which has already been
repeatedly named, and which, though not a portion
of the stomach, yet plays too conspicuous a part in
its operations not to require some separate notice—
the gastric, or stomach juice.
  The existence of  a solvent fluid in the stomach
has long been known, and its uses suspected; but
for our first accurate acquaintance with its proper-
ties and mode of action, we  are indebted chiefly to
the sagacity  and  persevering zeal of Spallanzani,
who investigated  the  subject with great care and
success about the middle of  last century.   Consid-
ering the peculiar difficulties by which the inquiry is
surrounded, it is offering no trifling homage to that
distinguished observer to say, that by means of nu-
merous, varied, and well-devised experiments  on
man and animals, he succeeded in overcoming most
of the obstacles which had baffled the ingenuity of
his predecessors, and in obtaining results,  the gen-
eral  accuracy and importance  of which are now
appreciated more and more highly, in proportion as
our knowledge advances, and  opportunities  pre- 
THE GASTRIC JUICE.
89
 sent themselves of bringing them to the test of ex-
 perience.
   It is rarely, indeed, that we can actually see what
 is going on in a healthy stomach; but in a few in-
 stances this advantage has been enjoyed, and turned
 to account in investigating the phenomena of diges-
 tion.   By far the most  instructive example of this
 kind which has ever occurred, has lately come un-
 der the observation of Dr. Beaumont of the Ameri-
 can army; and, as that gentleman eagerly embraced
 the opportunity  so unexpectedly afforded him, of
 testing the prevailing doctrines by a series of exper-
 iments, continued during a period of several years,
 and under various conditions of health and external
 circumstances, I  shall so  frequently  have occasion
 to refer to his observations, that it will be useful to
 give a brief outline of the case before entering far-
 ther upon the subject, in order that the reader may
 be enabled to judge  for  himself what weight  is
 due to Dr.  Beaumont's evidence on any  disputed
 point.
   Dr. Beaumont, while  stationed at Michilimacki-
 nac, in the Michigan territory, in 1822, in the milita-
 ry service of the  United States, was  called upon to
 take charge of Alexis St. Martin, a young Cana-
 dian of eighteen  years  of age, good constitution,
 and robust health, who  was  accidentally wounded
 by the discharge of a musket on 6th June, 1822.
   " The  charge," says Dr. Beaumont,  " consisting
 of powder and duck-shot, was received in the left
 side, at  the distance of one  yard from the muzzle
 of the gun.  The  contents entered posteriorly, and
in an oblique direction, forward  and inward ; liter-
ally blowing off integuments and muscles to  the
size of a man's hand, fracturing and carrying away
the anterior half of the sixth rib, fracturing the fifth,
lacerating the  lower portion  of the left lobe  of the
lungs,  the  diaphragm, and perforating  the  stom-
ach."
                       H2 
90
SINGULAR  CASE  OF
  On the fifth day, sloughing took place ; lacerated
portions of the lung and stomach  separated, and
left a perforation  into the latter " large enough to
admit the whole length of the middle finger into its
cavity;  and also  a passage  into the chest half as
large as his fist."  Violent fever and farther slough-
ing ensued ;  and for  seventeen days every  thing
swallowed passed out through the wound, and the
patient was kept  alive chiefly by nourishing injec-
tions.  By-and-by the fever subsided,  the wound
improved in appearance, and after the fourth week
the appetite became good, digestion regular, the
evacuations natural, and the health  of  the  syste;n
complete.  The orifice, however, never closed ; and at
every dressing the contents of the stomach flowed
out, and its coats frequently became everted or pro-
truded so far as to equal in size a hen's egg, but they
were  always easily returned.  The above figure 
           WOUND IN  THE  STOMACH.        91

exhibits the appearance of the wound after it was
healed.   The  circumference  of the wound EEEL,
extended to about twelve inches ; and the opening
into  the  stomach  AAA, nearly in its centre, was
about two inches below the left nipple F.   The folds
of the villous  coat are visible at BC.
  Some months after, St. Martin suffered extreme-
ly from the death and exfoliation of portions of the
injured ribs and their  cartilages, and his life was
often in jeopardy ; but, through the skill and unre-
mitting care with which he was treated by Dr. Beau-
mont, he ultimately recovered, and in April,  1823,
was  going  about, doing light work, and rapidly re-
gaining strength.
  On 6th June, 1823, a year from the date of the ac-
cident, the injured parts  were all sound except the
perforation into the stomach, which  was now two
and  a half inches in circumference.   For  some
months  thereafter the food could be  retained  only
by constantly wearing a compress and bandage; but
early in winter, a small fold or doubling of the vil-
lous coat began to appear, which gradually increas-
ed till it filled  the aperture, and acted as  a valve, so
as completely to prevent any efflux from within, but
to admit of being easily  pushed back by the finger
from without.
  Here, then,  was an admirable opportunity for ex-
perimenting on the subject of digestion, and for ob-
serving  the healthy and  undisturbed  operations of
nature free from the agony of vivisections, and from
the sources of fallacy inseparable from operating
on  animals.  Dr.  Beaumont  was sensible  of its
value, and accordingly pursued his inquiries with  a
zeal, perseverance,  and  disinterestedness highly
creditable to his character both as a man and as  a
philosopher.   Having been fortunate  enough to ob-
tain  a copy of his work, I shall not hesitate to make
free use of its contents.
  Dr. Beaumont began  his experiments in  May, 
92
SINGULAR  CASE  OF
1825, and continued them for  four or five months,
St. Martin being then in high health.  In the au-
tumn, St. Martin returned to Canada, married, had
a family, worked hard, engaged as a voyageur with
the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, remained there
four  years, and was then engaged at a great ex-
pense by Dr. Beaumont to  come  and reside near
him on the Mississippi, for the purpose of enabling
him to complete his  investigations.   He came ac-
cordingly in August, 1829, and remained till March,
1831.  He then went a second time to Canada, but
returned to Dr. Beaumont in November, 1832, when
the experiments were once more resumed, and con-
tinued till March, 1833, at which time  he finally left
Dr. Beaumont.  He now enjoys perfect health, but
the orifice made by the wound remains in the same
state as  in 1824.
  Dr. Beaumont describes the aperture  in St. Mar
tin's stomach as being situated about three inches to
the left  of the cardia, near the  left superior termina-
tion  of  the  great curvature.   When the  stomach
was nearly empty, he was able to examine its cavi-
ty to the depth of five or six inches by artificial dis-
tention.   When it was entirely empty, the stomach
was  always contracted on itself, and the valve gen-
erally forced  through the orifice,  together with a
portion of the mucous membrane equal in bulk to a
hen's egg.  After sleeping for a few  hours on the
left  side,  the protruded portion became so much
larger as to spread " over the neighbouring integu-
ments five or six inches in circumference, fairly ex-
hibiting the  natural  ruga, villous  membrane, and
mucous coat, lining the gastric cavity.  This ap-
pearance is almost invariably exhibited in the morn-
ing before rising from bed."   Such was  the very
favourable subject on whom Dr. Beaumont's obser-
vations  and experiments were made, and such were
the numerous opportunities which he enjoyed  for
repeating them, and verifying their accuracy.  Hav- 
          WOUND IN  THE STOMACH.        93

ing given this outline, we now return to the consid-
eration of the gastric juice, on the origin and quali-
ties of which it throws much light.
  In treating of the properties of the  gastric juice,
I shall on all disputed points give a decided prefer-
ence  to  the observations of Dr. Beaumont  over
those of any other physiologist; because, although
a few cases have occurred, in which, from external
wounds, direct access has been given to the interior
of the stomach, and Richerand and  others have
availed themselves 01 the opportunities thus afforded
of adding to our knowledge of the digestive process,
still, in most of them which have been recorded,
the patients were a comparatively short time under
observation, and were not sufficiently re-established
in health to admit of either extensive or conclusive
experiments being made.  Whereas,  in the  case
which Dr. Beaumont had the good fortune to meet
with, the patient remained under his eye for several
years, and in the  enjoyment  of the  most robust
health; so  that  ample time and opportunity were
afforded  for every variety of  experiments which
reflection could suggest, and  for their subsequent
repetition  under such modifications as seemed to
be requisite for clearly distinguishing the accidental
from the constant and essential result.  In addition
to these reasons, it ought to be added, in justice to
the American physiologist, that, from the excellent
judgment with which he carried on his investiga-
tions, and  the scrupulous  care with which  he an-
nounces his results and separates facts from theory,
it is impossible  not to place  great confidence both
in his personal qualifications as an observer, and in
the general accuracy of his statements.   Moreover,
as he enjoyed the rare advantage of seeing what he
describes to have taken place in the stomach during
healthy digestion, his  evidence conies  before us
with the strongest possible claims on our attention.
   The first disputed point which is  conclusively 
94    PECULIARITIES OF GASTRIC JUICE.

settled  by Dr. Beaumont is, that the gastric juice
does not continue to be secreted between  the intervals
of digestion, and does not accumulate to  be ready for
acting upon the next meal.  By inducing St. Martin
to fast for some hours, and  then  placing him with
the opening in the left  side exposed  to  a  strong
light, so as to give a distinct view of the cavity of
the stomach, Dr. Beaumont found its only contents
to consist of a little viscid and occasionally slightly
acidulated mucus mixed with saliva, and in no in-
stance  did he perceive  any accumulation of the
proper gastric juice.  The same results had indeed
been obtained by Tiedemann and other physiolo-
gists before the publication of Dr.  Beaumont's me-
moir ; but the  evidence  of  the latter  is so much
more direct and incontrovertible, that it may justly
be regarded as setting the question for ever at rest.
  Having proceeded so far, Dr. Beaumont next en-
deavoured to discover at what time the gastric juice
begins to be poured out, and under what conditions
its  secretion is carried on;  and here again ocular
inspection afforded him satisfactory results.
  It has already been remarked,  that, on pushing
back the valve which filled up the opening into the
stomach, the cavity within became visible to a con-
siderable extent; and that when St. Martin lay over
for a time on  the left side, a portion of the villous
coat, large  enough to exhibit several inches of its
surface, generally protruded.  Owing to these cir-
cumstances, Dr. Beaumont could easily observe
what changes  occurred, both when food was swal-
lowed in the usual way, and when  it was introduced
at the  opening left by  the wound.  Accordingly,
on examining  the surface of the  villous  coat with
a  magnifying-glass, he  perceived an  immediate
change of appearance ensue whenever  any aliment
was brought into contact with it.  The action of
the neighbouring bloodvessels was instantly  in-
creased, and their  branches dilated so as to admit 
     MODES OF OBTAINING GASTRIC JUICE.   95

the red blood much more freely than before.   The
colour of the membrane consequently changed from
a pale pink to a deeper red, the vermicular or worm-
like motions of the stomach became excited, and
innumerable minute lucid points and very fine  ner-
vous and vascular papillae could be seen arising from
the villous coat, from  which distilled a pure, colour-
less, and slightly viscid  fluid,  which collected  in
drops on the very points of the papilla?, and trickled
down the sides of the stomach till it mingled  with
the food.   This afterward  proved to be the secre-
tion peculiar to that organ, or, in other words, the #
true gastric juice ; the mucous fluid secreted by the
follicles, which some  have mistaken for it, is not
only more viscid, but wants  altogether the  acid
character by which it is generally distinguished.
  Pursuing his  experiments,  Dr. Beaumont  then
found that the contact, not only of food, but  of any
mechanical irritant, such as the bulb of a thermom-
eter, or other indigestible body, invariably gave rise
to the exudation of the gastric fluid from these vasr
cular papillae ; but that, in the latter cases, the secre-
tion always ceased in a short time, as soon appa-
rently as the organ could ascertain that the foreign
body was one over which the gastric juice had no
power.   But the  small quantity obtainable in this
way is perhaps more pure  and free from admixture,
and therefore better adapted for examination,  than
any which can be procured under any other circum-
stances.
  Various methods have been employed  for procu-
ring the gastric fluid in a state of purity.   Pieces of
dry sponge, enclosed in a dry, hollow, perforated ball,
with a string attached to  it, have been  swallowed
both by man and  by inferior animals, and afterward
withdrawn to have the juice expressed from them.
In  some instances  the stomachs of criminals and
animals killed after fasting  have  been opened, and
the secretion  collected.  At other  times the juice
has been procured by voluntary or artificial vomii- 
96      ELEMENTS  OF GASTRIC JUICE.

ing.   None of these methods is  equal to that em-
ployed by Dr. Beaumont; but of the three the first
is unquestionably the best,  because, although  no
gastric juice previously exists, the very contact of
the ball excites the secretion of a quantity sufficient
to moisten  the sponge.   In the  second  mode  of
proceeding, any portion of juice secreted  in conse-
quence of a stimulus applied after the stomach is
opened, must necessarily be very small, and rendered
impure by the large admixture of mucus which it
will contain; while, by the third method,  either  no
gastric juice but merely mucus will be procured, or
it will be expelled mixed with the food which had
previously elicited its secretion.
  Gastric juice,  in  its purest form, and  unmixed
with any thing except the small portion of mucus
from which  it can never be obtained entirely free,
is described by Dr. Beaumont to be a clear transpa-
rent fluid, without smell, slightly  saltish (probably
from the admixture of mucus), and very perceptibly
acid.  Its taste, he says, resembles that of thin mu-
cilaginous water, slightly acidulated with  muriatic
acid.  It is readily diffusible in water, wine, or spir-
its, and  effervesces slightly   with  alkalis—a  direct
proof of its acid  nature.  It  coagulates  albumen,
and is powerfully antiseptic, checking the progress
of putrefaction in meat.  When pure, it will  keep
for many months; but when diluted with  saliva, it
becomes fetid in a few days.   According to Profes-
sor Dunglison, to whom  some was submitted  by
Dr. Beaumont for analysis, it contains free muriatic
and acetic acids,—phosphates  and muriates with bases
of potassa, soda, magnesia, and lime,—together with
an animal matter soluble in cold, but  insoluble in
hot water.   Tiedemann and  Gmelin, again, describe
it  as  composed  principally  of muriatic and  acetic
acids, mucus, saliva, osmazome, muriate and sulphate
of soda, with little or no albumen;  and, according to
the same physiologists,  the proportion of acid is
always greatest when vegetables or other substances 
     GASTRIC  JUICE A  SOLVENT  OF FOOD.  97

of difficult digestion constitute the chief part of the
diet.  Other chy mists  give  an analysis somewhat
different from either of these ; a circumstance which
was indeed to  be expected, considering  not only
the differences caused by variations  of diet, but also
the necessarily different  degrees of purity of the
fluid submitted to examination.
  The  most remarkable  property  of the gastric
juice is unquestionably the power which it possesses
of dissolving and reducing to the appearance of a
soft, thickish fluid mass every thing in the shape of
food which is submitted to its action,—while it ex-
erts no perceptible influence on living  or inorganic
matter; for, so far as is yet known, nothing which
is not organized, or which  is still  alive, can serve
as nutriment for the animal frame. Water  is the
only inorganic body which is taken  into the system
for its own sake, and all mineral and other inorganic
productions enter it as component parts of previously
organized substances of either an animal or a vege-
table nature.  To a great extent, indeed, vegetation
seems to be merely a process for the conversion
of inorganic matter into a proper nutriment for the
support of animal life ;  and many species of animals
seem in their turn to be little else  than living ma-
chines for  the  conversion of vegetable substances
into a nutriment fit for other species by which they
are  intended to  be  devoured.  It  is true that, in
some parts of South America, the natives, pressed
by want, consume quantities of a soft unctuous clay,
which is of course destitute  of organization ; but as
there is every reason to believe that  no nourishment
is derived from it, and that it merely serves to allay
the pangs of hunger, such instances form no excep-
tion to the  general rule.
  It would have been easy for the Creator to be-
stow such  a structure on all animals, as to  make
them subsist entirely  on vegetable aliment.   But
the arrangement which he has seen fit to adopt, is
                         I 
98        ACTION OF GASTRIC JUICE.
the source of an infinitely greater amount of active
enjoyment than what could otherwise have existed.
Had there been no beasts of prey, the world would
soon have been overrun with herbivorous creatures
to such an extent, that their numbers would speedily
have become excessive in reference to the possible
supply of food, and there would have been infinitely
more suffering from starvation and  disease, than
what actually arises out of their existing relation to
each other.   On the present plan, there is  ample
food and enjoyment for all; and when the time does
arrive when one animal must become the  prey of
another, the deprivation of life is in most cases un-
foreseen, and the suffering which attends it is in gen-
eral only momentary in  duration.  There is thus
both complete enjoyment of life while it lasts, and
a great additional field opened for the support of an
immense class of animals, which, with their present
constitution, could not otherwise have existed at all.
  The gastric juice,  as already remarked, has no
power over living animal  matter—a most wise and
admirable  provision, since otherwise it would at
once have attacked and destroyed the very organ
which produces it.  This is the reason why worms
are able to exist in the stomach of man and other
animals; so that, if it were  possible  for an oyster
swallowed  directly from the shell to continue to
live, it would effectually resist every  attempt at di-
gestion.  But it, in common with most other beings,
cannot sustain life under such circumstances;  and
as soon as it  dies, the gastric juice  assumes the
mastery, and speedily converts it into  chyme.
  If any thing could  have opened Montegre's eyes
to the fallacy under which he laboured in consider-
ing the gastric juice as almost identical with saliva,
the  circumstance we are  now to mention would
have sufficed.  When a person, previously in good
health, dies by a violent death, or when an animal
is killed soon after a meal, it very often  happens 
ON  THE STOMACH.
99
that, on opening the body after an interval of some
hours, the  stomach is found to be eroded, and its
contents poured  into  the cavity of the abdomen,
precisely as if a hole had been formed in it by ulcer-
ation.  It was long before the reason of this was
discovered; but at length it was ascertained to arise
from  the action of gastric juice (the abundant secre-
tion of which  was provoked by  the immediately pre-
ceding meal) upon the substance of the stomach,  now
subjected to its power from being deprived of  life.
This fact has been so often verified, that it is by all
admitted as  incontrovertibly  true.   If, therefore,
the gastric juice  be merely saliva and mucus, we
might  expect to find after death some traces of sim-
ilar results from the contact of saliva with the mouth
or gullet; but there no such erosion is ever witnes-
sed, nor, as Montegre himself admits, does saliva
exert any solvent power whatever over dead animal
matter out of the body.   These  facts appear quite
sufficient to convince any unprejudiced mind.
  The power of  coagulating milk, and albumen or
the white of eggs, is another  remarkable  property
of the  gastric  juice,—and one so familiarly known,
that in dairies an infusion of the stomach  of  the
calf is in common use, under the name of runnet or
rennet, for curdling milk.  In infants, also, we know
that the nurse's milk has scarcely reached the stom-
ach before coagulation takes  place; a  fact which
leads many inexperienced mothers to infer that the
infant is already suffering from acidity, and to coun-
teract  the supposed evil by repeated doses of mag-
nesia—which, of  course, do more harm than good.
The coagulation  of milk in the stomach  is so far
from being a morbid process, that milk cannot be
properly digested without it.   By the separation and
absorption of the  fluid whey, the curd is reduced to
a proper consistence for being acted upon, both by
the gastric juice  itself and by the contractions of
the muscular coat. 
100    GA&TR1C JUICE ANTISEPTIC, AND

  The  gastric juice  is also powerfully antiseptic;
that  is to say, it prevents animal substances from
becoming putrid, and even renders  sweet such as
have advanced a considerable way  towards putre-
faction.  Dr. Beaumont mentions that the pure juice
will keep unchanged for almost any  length of time ;
and, according to Spallanzani, meat may be preserv-
ed in it without taint for five or six  weeks, or even
longer. This antiseptic tendency of  the gastric fluid
accounts for the circumstance that little or no mis-
chief results from the common practice among epi-
cures,  of not making use of game till the putrefac-
tive process is advanced farther than is agreeable
to the  palates of the uninitiated.
  The qualities of the gastric juice are so directly
adapted to the natural food of the animal, that flesh
introduced into the stomach of an ox or a sheep, for
example, undergoes  scarcely any  change; while
vegetable food, on the other hand, remains equally
undigested in that of a beast of prey.  Thus," when
a hawk or an owl has swallowed a small bird, in the
stomach of which have been seeds, these bodies are
not dissolved by the gastric fluid,"* but pass through
the intestines unaltered.   Man, the dog, and some
other  creatures, possess the power of digesting all
sorts of  aliment, whether vegetable or animal, and
are hence called omnivorous; but even in them, the
relation  which the properties of the gastric juice
bear to the qualities of the food chiefly or exclusively
used is so close, that,  when a widely different kind
is suddenly resorted to, indigestion is the almost in-
evitable consequence, because then  the gastric juice
has not had time to acquire its requisite adaptation
 to the new materials on which it has to act.
   Even in its chymical constitution, the gastric juice
 of carnivorous animals differs from that of the her-
 bivorous ; a  circumstance which accounts  for  the
   * Macgillivray's Description of the Rapacious Birds of Great
 Britain, p. 24 
          VARIES  ACCORDING TO  FOOD.     101

difference of effect.  In the former, such as that of
birds of prey, serpents, and fishes, no free or un-
combined acid can be detected, although it is inva-
riably found in the gastric fluid of vegetable-eaters.
In crows and dogs, on the other hand, and  such
animals as can live on  either kind of aliment, it is
never acid except when they have  been fed chiefly
on grain or plants.  In man, the same relation has,
by numerous experiments, been ascertained to exist.
  But although, in every class of living beings, the
gastric juice is constituted with a direct relation to
its natural food, still its qualities may be so much
modified by a very gradual change of diet, as  to fit
it for digesting aliment of a very dissimilar or oppo-
site kind.  Thus, in the natural state, the stomach
of a sheep exerts scarcely any action  on beef or
mutton;  but if the change from the one kind of food
to the other be made by slow degrees, the gastric
juice will in the end become so essentially altered
as to enable it to digest them.  In this way,  as is
mentioned by Delabere Blaine, a horse at the  Vet-
erinary College was supported for some time by an-
imal matter alone; while others have subsisted on
dried  fish or on milk.*  It  has been shown,  also,
by John Hunter, Spallanzani, and others, that eagles,
falcons, owls,  pigeons, and domestic fowls, may for
a time be fed on aliments altogether foreign to  their
natural  habits.  But these facts only show the ex-
tent to which nature will go, on an emergency, for
the preservation of life; and no more indicate the
equal fitness of both kinds of aliment, than the fact
of some men being able to stand for a few minutes
on their heads proves an inverted position to be the
natural attitude of the human race.
  In consequence  of this adaptation of  the gastric
juice  to  the nature of  the food, it  is obvious  that
sudden and extreme changes from one kind of diet to

        * Blaine's Veterinary Art, 3d edit, p., 274.
                       I 2 
102
GASTRIC JUICE VARIES
another must be injurious, because  the stomach has
not time to modify its secretions sufficiently to meet
the altered demand made  upon its powers.   This,
accordingly, is  one of the reasons why so much
caution  is  used in  bringing horses into condition
after having been for some time in the pasture-field.
When they have previously been on dry food in the
straw-yard, corn may be given with greater safety:
so that it is the change, not so much in quantity as m
kind of aliment, which causes the risk.  And, on this
account, when a horse is to be put upon hard food,
after having been fed on  grass or other succulent
vegetables, Blaine recommends, not only that hay
and corn should be given in very small quantities at
first, but that the hay  should be moistened, and the
corn mixed with bran and mashed;  by which means,
having acquired a greater analogy to grass, it will
be more easily acted upon by the gastric juice, which
has been previously adapted for green food.
  Even in man, the gastric juice undergoes consid-
erable  modifications,  not merely  according to the
kind of aliment habitually used, but also according
to the wants of the system, the season of the year,
and the state of the health; so that, while sudden
and great changes from one kind  of diet to  another
are positively hurtful on the one hand, absolute uni-
formity is not less objectionable on the other.
  Many attempts have been made  to ascertain to
which of the elements of the gastric juice its power
is chiefly to be ascribed, and experiments have been
instituted on them individually to discover which of
them is most nearly analogous  to it in effect.  From
the general results, it appears that acetic acid  (vine-
gar) and muriatic acid have" a wider range of influ-
ence, and produce solvent effects more closely re-
sembling those of gastric juice, than any other known
substances. Both of these acids, it will be recollect-
ed, are constituent elements of the gastric fluid ; and
it has» in consequence, been argued, that to them it is 
ACCORDING TO FOOD.          103
indebted for all its energy.  And, indeed,  without
laying too  much stress on this real or  supposed
analogy, it is impossible to overlook the well-known
fact, that scurvy, and a highly alkaline state of the
system, are generally induced by a  diet  restricted
for a long time to animal food alone, and are pre-
vented or cured most easily by a free use of lemon-
juice or of vegetable  matter, either fresh or fer-
mented.  In these circumstances, the vegetable acid
is probably efficacious both by directly improving
digestion, and by combining with the excess of the
alkaline salts already existing in the  system.  It is
worthy of remark, too, that in weak  stomachs acid-
ity is almost invariably induced by the use of vege-
table food, possibly to some extent for the very pur-
pose of effecting its digestion;  for it has been as-
certained beyond a doubt, that in herbivorous ani-
mals the gastric juice always contains some free or
uncombined  acid—and in man also,  after  living
much on vegetables for some time.
   The  necessity of acid for the chymification of
vegetable food, affords an explanation of the fond-
ness which the Germans and Dutch display for saur-
kraut—or cabbage in a state of acetous  fermenta-
tion—and of its alleged  easy digestibility.   It ex-
plains, also, the general use of vinegar along with
salads, cucumbers, oysters, salmon, and other sub-
stances of difficult digestion, and shows that its util-
ity is not imaginary, but  loudly proclaimed by na-
ture's own acts.
   Another important principle, which Dr. Beaumont
conceives to be established by his numerous exper-
iments, and which forced itself upon him by de-
grees, is, that in health the  gastric secretion al-
ways BEARS A DIRECT RELATION TO THE QUANTITY OF
ALIMENT NATURALLY  REQUIRED  BY THE  SVSTEM ;  SO
that, if more th;m this be taken, there will neces-
sarily be too  small a supply of the juice for the di-
gestion of the whole. The principle here laid down 
104      GASTRIC  SECRETION VARIES

is in perfect harmony with the sympathy which we
have seen to exist  between  the stomach and  the
rest of the body, and therefore not only is  highly
probable in itself, but, if sound, will prove a most
valuable guide  in the  practical regula ion of diet.
The number  of phenomena which it explains,  and
its general applicability to daily use, afford no small
presumption  of its  truth.   When, for example, we
eat more than the wants of the system require, in-
digestion  will follow, because there will be more
food in the stomach than what the quantity of gas-
tric juice provided is able to  dissolve; the propor-
tion of the juice secreted being in  relation, not to
what we eat,  but to the actual wants of the system,
which, in the case  supposed, we have greatly ex-
ceeded.   Here  a remarkable  harmony will be  per-
ceived between the quantity of the secretion  and
the true indications and uses  of appetite as a guide
to diet, explained in a preceding chapter (p.  35).
  The gastric secretion, and  the appearance of the
villous coat, undergo great modifications during dis-
ease,  and on  this subject  also Dr. Beaumont's ob-
servations are highly valuable ;  because, instead of
merely inferring, as others are obliged to do, he en-
joyed the privilege of seeing with his eyes what
was actually going on.   In the course of his attend-
ance on St. Martin, he found that, whenever a fever-
ish state was  induced, whether from obstructed per-
spiration, from undue excitement by stimulating li-
quors, from overloading the stomach, or from  fear,
anger, or other mental emotion depressing  or  dis-
turbing the nervous system,  the villous coat  became
sometimes red and dry, and at other times pale  and
moist, and lost  altogether its smooth and healthy ap-
pearance.   As a necessary consequence, the usual
secretions became vitiated,  impaired, or entirely
suppressed; and the follicles  from which, in  health,
the mucus which protects the tender surface of the
villous coat is  poured out, became flat and  flaccid, 
        AND  IS  DEFICIENT  IN DISEASE.     105

and no  longer yielded  their usual bland secretion.
The nervous and vascular papillae, thus deprived of
their defensive shield, were then subjected to undue
irritation.  When these diseased appearances were
considerable, the system sympathized, and dryness
if the  mouth, thirst, quickened pulse, and  other
symptoms, showed  themselves;  and no  gastric
TUICE COULD BE PROCURED OR EXTRACTED EVEN ON THE
APPLICATION OF THE USUAL STIMULUS OF FOOD.
  These facts, if correctly observed, are of extreme
importance;  and from the care with which Dr.
Beaumont pursued his investigations, I do not think
their  general accuracy can be called in question.
The dry, irritated appearance of the villous coat, and
the absence of the healthy gastric secretion in the
febrile state, not only explain at once the want of
appetite, nause.a, and uneasiness generally felt in
the region of the stomach,  but show the folly of at-
tempting to sustain strength by forcing the patient
to eat when food cannot be digested, and when na-
ture instinctively refuses to receive it.

  Before dismissing this part of the subject, it may
be  remarked, that the  alleged sympathy of the
stomach with the wants of the body has been de-
nied,  because the  sense of hunger disappears the
moment food is  swallowed, or the stomach is dis-
tended  even  with clay or sawdust,  although the
actual wants of the system cannot by possibility
have been supplied in either case.   But these facts
seem to me  rather to justify the inference that a
sympathy does  exist.   Hunger ceases when food
is taken, simply because now  the condition of the
stomach is in the desired relation to the state of the
body, and the nerves consequently feel and transmit
this impression  to the more  distant parts.  In the
other case, again, it ceases because the stomach
cannot  at first distinguish what is food from what is
not; and therefore, when distended, expresses con- 
106   DIFFERENT THEORIES OF  DIGESTION.

tent, because it feels satisfied that it has been hon-
estly dealt with, and got what it wanted.  But when-
ever it discovers the cheat, which it does in no long
time, hunger returns, and can be properly appeased
only by digestible substances.   Dr. Beaumont  in-
deed expressly mentions, that, although the gastric
secretion commences the  moment any indigestible
body touches the mucous surface  of the stomach, it
invariably ceases soon after  discovering  that the
substance is one over which it has no  power—thus
strongly confirming the existence of the sympathy.
                  CHAPTER V.

          THEORY AND LAWS OF DIGESTION.

Different theories of Digestion.—Concoction.—Fermentation.—
  Putrefaction.—Trituration.—Chymical solution.—Conditions
  or laws of digestion.—Influence of gastric juice.—Experi-
  ments illustrative of its solvent power.—Its mode of action on
  different kinds of aliment—beef, milk, eggs, soups, &c.—In-
  fluence of temperature.—Heat of about  100° essential to di-
  gestion.—Gentle and continued agitation necessary.— Action
  of stomach in admitting food.—Uses of its muscular motion.
  —Gastric juice acts not only on the surface of the mass, but
  on every particle which it touches.—Digestibility of different
  kinds of food.—Table of results.—Animal food most digesti-
  ble.—Farinaceous next.—Vegetables and soups least digesti-
  ble.—Organs of digestion simple in proportion to concentra-
  tion  of nutriment.—Digestibility depends on adaptation of
  food to gastric juice more than on analogy of composition.—
  Illustrations.—No increase of temperature during digestion.—
  Dr. Beaumont's summary of inferences.

  Before  entering upon the consideration of the
theory  of  digestion which naturally evolves  itself
from  the facts expounded in the preceding chapter,
it may be of advantage to turn for  a moment to the 
     EXPLODED  THEORIES OF  DIGESTION.   107

various theories  which  have prevailed  since  the
subject first attracted the attention of the learned.
  Hippocrates regarded digestion as a kind of con-
coction, or stewing; and many of his followers be-
lieved that it is effected in the stomach by the agen-
cy of heat alone, much in the same way as food is
cooked over a fire.  It is quite ascertained that heat
favours the process, but it is pure absurdity to main-
tain that that agent alone will accomplish digestion.
  Others of the  older physiologists contended that
chymification  results from simple fermentation of
the alimentary mass, and referred to the gas disen-
gaged  during difficult digestion, as a proof that the
process of  fermentation was going on.  But  it is
now demonstrated that the tendency of healthy di-
gestion is rather to arrest than to induce fermenta-
tion, and that  the latter takes place only when  dis-
ease exists, or when more food has been swallowed
than the quantity of gastric juice secreted by the
stomach is  able  to dissolve.  Moreover,  the  pro-
ducts of digestion and of fermentation  are so ex-
tremely different, that it is impossible  to believe
them to originate from the same chymical action.
   The next theory which prevailed considered di-
gestion to be the result of the putrefactive process.
The single fact that the gastric juice not only arrests
putrefaction, but even restores to sweetness meat in
which that process is begun, is  sufficient to demon-
strate the wildness of such a supposition.
   Another set of physiologists imagined that tritu-
ration  would account best for all the changes occur-
ring in the food during digestion; and consequently
regarded the chyme as a sort of emulsion formed
by the intimate  mixture of  the  aliment  Yvith the
juices of the stomach, just as an emulsion is form-
ed by  rubbing down almonds in a mortar.  The ad-
vocates of this theory referred for  proofs not only
to the contractile motions of the stomach already
noticed, but to the muscular apparatus for tritura- 
108   CHYMICAL THEORY  OF DIGESTION.
tion which forms so remarkable a feature in the giz-
zard of granivorous birds.  But, in adopting this
conclusion, they forgot that in birds the triturating
apparatus does not digest, but  serves, like the or-
gans of mastication in man and quadrupeds, merely
to bruise the grain on which the animal lives.  In
birds, in fact, digestion begins only after the tritura-
tion is finished.                            .
   V more recent and much more accurate view 01
digestion  is  that which considers it  as neither more
nor less than a chymical solution of the food in the
gastric juice.  This theory is supported by a greater
number of facts and  experiments than any other ;
but, although substantially correct, it is, perhaps, too
exclusive and limited in its principles.  It is true,
that by the  agency of gastric juice on food out of
the body, a change very similar to chymification
can be effected on it; but when we remember that
chyme, or the result of real digestion,  is essentially
the same in its elementary or component principles,
whatever be the kind of food from which it is form-
ed, and that as yet we are acquainted with no purely
chymical agent which, applied to different substan-
ces, gives rise to the same uniform product, we shall
be 'more willing to  believe that  chymification is
neither a purely mechanical nor a purely chymical
 operation;  but the result of a vital process, to which
 both mechanical and chymical forces contribute,
 and which  no action or  combination of inanimate
 matter can either exactly imitate or supersede.
   To enable ourselves to  appreciate correctly the
 nature of digestion, we must begin by considering
 the conditions essential for its performance, or with-
 out which  it cannot be carried  on.
   The first indispensable requisite is an adequate
 supply of gastric juice, and its thorough admixture
 with every particle of the food on which it is to oper-
 ate.  The  second  is a steady  temperature of about
 98° or 100° Fahr. ; and the third is  the gentle and 
    CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR DIGESTION. 109

continued agitation of the alimentary mass in the stom-
ach while digestion is going on.
  In illustration of the influence of the first  con-
dition, I may refer to the experiments already men-
tioned as having been made by Spallanzani, Stevens,
and others, to show the solvent power of the gastric
juice on food even out of the body.  Spallanzani
states, that when small portions of well-masticated
beef or mutton are placed in a vial, with a due pro-
portion of  gastric juice, and the requisite tempera-
ture and gentle agitation are secured by placing the
vial in the  armpit, the appearances presented at the
end of a few hours are extremely analogous to those
observed in the natural process of chymification ;
the meat being in both cases converted into the soft
grayish mass  of a pultaceous  consistence called
chyme.
  Dr. Beaumont, who was well aware of the  im-
portance  of Spallanzani's researches, and of the
almost universal adoption of his views by succeed-
ing physiologists, till confidence in their accuracy
was for a  time shaken by the bold  and fallacious
assertions  of  Montegre,  felt that  the opportunity
afforded him by St.  Martin's wound for verifying or
disproving  the  experiments on which these views
were founded, was much too  valuable to  be lost.
He therefore entered upon a long series of investi-
gations, of which the  following is  an imperfect,
though, I hope, instructive abstract.
  To test the reality of the solvent powers ascribed
to the gastric juice, Dr. Beaumont withdrew from
St. Martin's stomach about one ounce of it, obtained
after a seventeen hours fast, by introducing first a
thermometer to induce the secretion, and then a
gum-elastic tube to carry it off.  Into this quantity,
placed in a vial, he introduced a piece of boiled
recently-salted beef, weighing three drachms.   He
then corked the vial tightly,  and immersed it in
water raised to the temperature of 100°, which he
                      K 
110     ACTION OF GASTRIC JUICE  ON
had previously ascertained to be the heat of the
stomach when the  secretion was  going on.  In
forty minutes, digestion had distinctly commenced
on the  surface of the beef.  In fifty minutes, the
fluid became  quite opaque and cloudy, and the tex-
ture of  the beef began to loosen and separate.  In
sixty minutes, chyme began to be formed.  In one
hour  and a  half, the muscular fibres  hung loose
and unconnected, and floated about  in  shreds.  In
three hours, they had diminished about one half.  In
five hours,  only a few  remained undissolved.  In
seven hours,  the muscular texture was no longer
apparent; and in  nine hours, the solution was com-
pleted.
  To compare the progress of digestion in the nat-
ural way with these  results, Dr. Beaumont, at the
time of commencing the experiment just described,
suspended a piece of the same beef, of equal weight
and size, within the stomach,  by means of a string.
At the  end of the first half hour it presented the
same appearances as the piece in the vial; but when
Dr. Beaumont drew out the string at the end of an
hour and a half, the beef had been completely di-
gested  and disappeared, making a difference of
result in point of time of nearly seven hours.  In
both, the solution began on the  surface, and  agita-
tion accelerated its progress  by removing the ex-
ternal coating of  chyme as fast as  it was formed.
When the  experiment was repeated with chicken
instead  of beef, the solution was  slower, from the
greater  compactness of the chicken not allowing
the gastric fluid to penetrate its substance so readily.
Had the beef and chicken been masticated before
being subjected to experiment, the difference be-
tween them in the rapidity of digestion would proba-
bly have been less.
  To ascertain still more accurately the difference
between natural and artificial digestion (the one in
and the other out of the stomach), Dr. Beaumont put 
      SUBSTANCES OUT OF THE STOMACH.   Ill

twelve drachms of recently-salted boiled beef into a
vial, with the same number of drachms of fresh gas-
tric juice obtained through the opening of the stom-
ach after a fast of eighteen hours; and then placed it
in a basin of water on a sand-bath, where he kept it
at the heat of 100° Fahr., and continued to agitate it
gently.   Digestion soon commenced, and progres-
sed uniformly for about six  hours, when it  ceased.
One half of the meat was then dissolved, and the
texture  of the remainder loosened and tender—re-
sembling the same kind of aliment when  ejected
from the stomach partly digested some hours after
a meal, as frequently seen  in cases of indigestion.
On weighing the undissolved portion which remain-
ed after all action had ceased, six drachms and
twelve grains of the beef were  found to have been
digested by twelve drachms, or nearly double its
weight, of gastric juice.  It thus appears that a given
quantity of  gastric fluid can digest  only a  relative
proportion  of meat; so that, when more is  eaten
than what there is juice sufficient to dissolve, stom-
achic disorder must necessarily follow.  In this lat-
ter case, Dr. Beaumont found that the addition of
fresh juice causes digestion  to be resumed.
   To discover what influence would be exerted on
food  masticated, swallowed, and mixed with the
gastric juice in the usual way, and then withdrawn
from the stomach, Dr. Beaumont gave St. Martin an
ordinary dinner of boiled salted  beef, bread, potatoes,
and turnips,  with a gill of pure water for drink; and
twenty minutes afterward  drew off through the
opening about a gill of the contents of the stomach
into an open-mouthed vial.  In this short space of
time  digestion had already commenced, thus  nega-
tiving the  common notion that an hour  elapses
before  it begins.  The vial Avas  now placed  in a
water-bath,  at a temperature of  100°, and continued
there for five hours.  Examined at  the end of that
time, the whole contents were found to be dissolved. 
112  MODE OF ACTION OF GASTRIC JUICE.

On then extracting an equal quantity of chyme from
the stomach, and comparing it  with  the  solution
in the vial, little difference was observable between
them, except that the process had  been somewhat
more rapid in than  out of the stomach.   But this
experiment is remarkable in another point of view,
as showing that in the  short space of twenty min-
utes enough of gastric  juice had been secreted for
the entire completion of digestion.
  With a view  to verify these results,  and also to
discover the  comparative digestibility  of  different
kinds of aliment, Dr. Beaumont gave St. Martin for
dinner eight ounces of  recently-salted lean beef, four
ounces of potatoes, some bread, and four ounces of
boiled turnips.  After fifteen minutes he withdrew
a portion of the contents of the stomach, and found
that some  of the meat had already been  slightly
digested.   In a second portion,  withdrawn at the
end of forty-five minutes, fragments of the beef and
bread were perceptible, and in a still more advanced
state  of digestion;  the meat was  in small shreds,
soft and pulpy, and the fluid containing it had be-
come  more opaque and gruel-like in  appearance.
When two hours had elapsed, a third quantity was
taken  out, at which time nearly all the meat had
become chymified and changed into a reddish-brown
fluid;  but small pieces  of vegetable matter  now pre-
sented themselves for the first time,  but  in a state of
digestion so much less advanced than the meat, that
their  peculiar structure was still distinctly visible.
Some of the second and third portions, put into  a
vial and treated in the  usual way, advanced to com-
plete digestion, as in the other experiment, except
that the process was slower, and that a few vegeta-
ble fibres remained to the last undissolved;  thus
confirming the general opinion, that vegetables are
more  difficult of digestion than animal substances.
   The mode  of solution by the gastric juice varies
according to the nature of the food on which it acts. 
    ACTION OF GASTRIC JUICE ON LIQUIDS. 113

We have seen that it gradually reduces solids to a
soft and fluid state ;  but its effect on milk and albu-
men is different.  It begins by coagulating them,
so as to give them the requisite  consistence for
being affected by the muscular contractions of the
stomach, and impregnated with the juice.   Fifteen
minutes after  St. Martin had drunk half a  pint of
milk, a portion taken out of the  stomach  by Dr.
Beaumont presented the appearance of a fine, loose-
ly-coagulated substance, mixed with a semi-trans-
parent whey-coloured fluid.   A drachm of warm
gastric juice, poured into two drachms of milk, at a
temperature of 100°, produced  a precisely  similar
appearance in twenty minutes.  In another  experi-
ment, when four ounces of bread were given along
with a pint of milk,  and the contents were examin-
ed at the end of thirty minutes, the milk was coagu-
lated, and the bread reduced to  a soft pulp  floating
in a large proportion of fluid.  In two hours the
whole was completely digested.
  When the white  or  albumen of two eggs was
swallowed on an empty stomach, small white flakes
began to be seen in about ten or fifteen minutes, and
the mixture soon assumed an opaque whitish ap-
pearance.   In an hour and a half the whole had
disappeared.  Two drachms  of  albumen,  mixed
with two of gastric juice out  of the  stomach, under-
went the same  changes, but in a • rather longer
time.
  When the food is chiefly  liquid,  as when soup is
taken either alone or in large proportion, the more
fluid part is speedily absorbed, to fit the remaining
nutritious portion for being  better  acted on by the
gastric juice and muscular power  of the stomach.
Fifty minutes  after St. Martin had dined on vegeta-
ble soup, beef, and  bread, Dr. Beaumont found the
stomach to contain  a pulpous mass, like thick gruel
in consistence,  and of a semi-gelatinous  aspect.
The fluid portion had  been absorbed to  such an
                      K  3 
1 14 ACTION OF GASTRIC JUICE ON VEGETABLES.

extent, that the remainder was even thicker  than
is usual after eating more solid food.   From many
similar observations, Dr. Beaumont infers it to be
a general law, that soup and liquids cannot be di-
gested until they are formed into a thicker mass by
the absorption of their watery part—as till then they
are too liquid to be easily acted on by the gastric
juice.  Hence  their unfitness for  weak stomachs,
and the impropriety of large libations of tea or cof-
fee at breakfast by  persons whose  digestion is bad.
During recovery from illness, chicken-tea, beef-tea,
and soups are often useful, simply because the sys-
tem  then requires  the liquid  to make up its lost
blood.
  Unfortunately, Dr. Beaumont made  few experi-
ments on the action of gastric juice upon vegeta-
bles ; and, in the few  recorded, he generally  con-
tents himself with noting the length of time required
for their solution,  which generally proved consid-
erably longer than  for animal substances.  In one
experiment, however, he states, that an hour  after
giving St.  Martin   nine ounces of raw,  ripe, sour
apples, the stomach was full of fluid and  pulp, " quite
acrid, and  irritating the edges  of  the  aperture, as
is always the case when he eats acescent fruits or vege-
tables.'1''   In an hour and a half the contents were
still more sharp and acrid, and the  pulp of the apple
visible.   At the end of two hours the stomach was
empty, but the  mucous membrane exhibited an irri-
tated appearance.   With  farinaceous  vegetables,
however, the results were different.  Thus, when a
pint of thick, rich, boiled sago, sweetened with sugar,
was given, the  whole was  digested in less than two
hours, and there was  neither acrimony of the gas-
tric  contents, nor   smarting of the  edges of the
wound : on the contrary, it seemed peculiarly grate-
ful to the stomach, and rendered the mucous mem-
brane soft, uniform, and healthy. The same results
followed a repetition  of the experiment,  and also 
        INFLUENCE  OF TEMPERATURE.     115

when a pint  of soft custard was taken.   In some
states of the  stomach, it is true, even farinaceous
food excites  acrimony and irritation, but rarely in
the same degree as the other forms of vegetable ali-
ment.

  Such being the influence of gastric juice on differ-
ent aliments  at the natural heat of  the  body, we
have now to ascertain, in  the second  place, what
share the high temperature has in the result.
  To determine this point, Dr. Beaumont took out
two ounces of gastric juice, and divided it into two
equal portions, in separate vials.   He added to each
an equal weight of masticated fresh beef; and placed
the one in a bath, at the temperature of 99°, and the
other in the  open air, at  34°.   As  a  contrast  to
these, he placed beside the latter a third vial, con-
taining the same weight of masticated meat in  an
ounce of clear water.
  In two hours the meat in the warm vial was par-
tially digested; that in the cold  gastric  juice was
scarcely changed;  and the third portion, in the cold
water,  seemed  only a little  macerated.   In six
hours the meat in  the warm vial was half digested,
while that in  the two  others had undergone no far-
ther alteration.  The gastric juice in the first vial
having by this time dissolved as much as  it could of
the beef, four drachms more were added from the
stomach, and the  vial was replaced in  the bath.
Digestion,  which  had previously ceased,  was now re-
sumed, and went  on as steadily as if it had not been
interrupted; thus showing, in a striking manner, the
impropriety of exceeding in our  meals the quantity
for which alone a sufficiency of gastric juice can be
provided.
  At the end of twenty-four hours, the  three por-
tions were examined.  That contained in the warm
juice  was completely dissolved,  and presented the
usual appearances.  The portions contained in the 
116  INFLUENCE OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION

cold juice and in the cold water very much resem-
bled each other, and  exhibited no appearance of
chyme whatever.   They were macerated or soften-
ed, but not digested.   These experiments, and others
of a similar nature, show clearly that a temperature
equal to ordinary blood-heat is requisite for chymi-
fication.
  To make  sure that it was the  Ioav temperature
alone which prevented the occurrence of digestion
in the experiment detailed, Dr. Beaumont now placed
the vial containing the meat which had been exposed
without effect for twenty-four hours to the action of
the cold gastric juice, on a water-bath  at the ordi-
nary blood-heat.   In a very short  time " digestion
commenced, and advanced regularly as  in the other
parcels."  The same results were always  obtained
from a repetition of these experiments,  so that they
may be held as perfectly conclusive in  establishing
the essentiality of heat to the digestive process.

   Thirdly.—The necessity of gentle and continued
agitation for the accomplishment of digestion is so
obvious from the preceding exposition, that it re-
quires no direct experiments to establish it.  When
portions of meat were suspended in the  stomach, by
a string so short as to prevent them from being fully
subjected to the motion already described as always
going on during digestion, the action of the  gastric
juice was confined almost entirely to their surface,
and a longer time  was consequently required for
their solution than when  they were left at liberty.
In like manner, when meat out of the stomach was
placed in a vial containing gastric juice, its solution
was uniformly accelerated by gentle agitation, which
acted simply by removing the coating of chyme as
it formed on the surface, and thus affording to the
gastric fluid an easier access to the undigested por-
tions below.  Accordingly, when, in one of Dr. Beau-
mont's  experiments,  two ounces  of unmasticated 
       OF THE  STOMACH  ON  DIGESTION.   117

roasted beef were introduced through the external
aperture into the stomach, and held by a string, only
one half of it was digested  in four hours, evidently
from the want of mastication confining the action
of the  gastric juice to the surface of the mass, and
because the string prevented it from following the
regular motions of the stomach.

  Having now made the reader sufficiently acquaint-
ed with the agents concerned in, and the conditions
essential to, the performance of digestion out of the
body, we have next to exhibit the same agents and
the same conditions in  their ordinary  operation in
the living being,  and to  describe the beautiful ar-
rangements by which they  are respectively and un-
erringly regulated.
  It has been  already shown, that, in endowing us
with appetite, nature has  intended both to ensure
by its means a timely provision for the wants of the
system, and to guard against our eating more than
enough to supply them.   We have also seen  that,
within certain  limits, the quantity  of gastric juice
secreted bears a direct relation to the quantity of
food consumed; that when the food exceeds consid-
erably the real necessities  of the system, a part of
it remains undigested, because the stomach is  una-
ble to  secrete a sufficiency of fluid  for the solution
of the whole; and that,  as  a necessary conse-
quence, indigestion follows.  This being  the case,
we may expect to find all the arrangements of na-
ture made  with a view to  prevent us from hastily
filling  the stomach  to repletion, without being  fully
warned beforehand of the error we are committing.
And such accordingly is the fact.
  Considered in this light, the processes of mastica-
tion, insalivation, and deglutition, are not only use-
ful in  preparing the morsel for the future action of
the  gastric  juice, but, by  transmitting the  food to
the  stomach in small portions at  a time, likewise 
118 INFLUENCE OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION

serve the  important secondary purpose of prevent-
ing its too  rapid or excessive distention.  To this good
end, indeed, the stomach  itself contributes, as has
been distinctly shown by Dr.  Beaumont.  In  the
natural state of that organ, a regular and gentle con-
traction of its whole fibres and cavity follows  the
introduction of each individual morsel, and it is  not
till the  relaxation consequent on that contraction
takes place, that  another is  willingly admitted.
This arrangement  was more  than suspected  by
other physiologists, but it remained for the Ameri-
can  experimenter to demonstrate its existence and
purposes.   It is true that, during a hurried repast
for example, food  may be rapidly introduced into
the stomach by an active  effort of the will, but it is
precisely in such circumstances that we are apt to
eat too much, and that indigestion follows; because,
from no time being allowed for the secretion of the
requisite quantity of gastric juice, and its proper
mixture with each portion of the aliment, the stom-
ach  is placed  in an  unnatural situation, and its
nerves  cannot receive the  same  impression  of
" enough eaten," which is designed by nature  to
arise only from the  one being duly proportioned to
aad mixed with the other.  The advantage of the
natural arrangement is therefore  confirmed rather
than refuted by what  may  at first appear an  ex-
ception.
  When Dr. Beaumont depressed the valve in St.
Martin's stomach, and  introduced a few spoonfuls
of soup at the orifice, he observed the rugae or folds
of the mucous membrane to close gently upon it,
gradually  diffusing it through the gastric cavity, and
completely preventing  the  entrance  of a second
quantity till this diffusion was effected—when relaxa-
tion again took place, and admitted  of a farther
supply.   When  solid food was introduced in  the
same way, either in larger pieces or finely divided,
the  same gentle ^contraction and grasping motion 
       OF THE STOMACH ON DIGESTION.    119

were  excited, and  continued from  fifty to eighty
seconds,  so as to prevent more from being intro-
duced without considerable  force till the contrac-
tion was at an end.  When St. Martin was so placed
as to  admit of the  cardia or upper orifice of the
stomach being brought into view, and he was then
made to  swallow a morsel  of  food in the natural
way,  a  similar  contraction of  the  stomach, and
closing of its  fibres  upon the bolus, was invariably
observed to take place ; and till this was over, a
second morsel could not be received without a con-
siderable  effort.  And  accordingly,  when,  either
from  haste or hunger, we disregard the order of
nature, and hurriedly gulp down food without due
mastication, and without allowing time for the reg-
ular contraction of the stomach, we necessarily ex-
pose  ourselves to the  risk  both of  overloading it,
and of ultimately impairing its digestive power.
  Such being the provision  made for ensuring the
gradual admission  of food  into the  stomach, the
next requisite is  its  proper admixture with the gastric
juice.
  Food being the appropriate stimulus of the secre-
ting vessels of the  stomach, the moment the ali-
mentary  morsel  comes  into contact with the mu-
cous  membrane,  the action  of  the  latter, as w7as
formerly pointed out, becomes increased ; its blood-
vessels  are distended,  its  colour  deepens to  a
brighter  red,  and the  gastric  juice  immediately
begins to be poured out.  The  muscular fibres of
the stomach, being  acted upon by the same stimu-
lus, next come into  play, and execute their specific
functions  of alternate  contraction and relaxation.
By  these means the aliment speedily becomes im-
pregnated with the  gastric fluid, and undergoes the
influence of that continued gentle agitation already
described as essential to digestion, and which seems
to have for its chief object  the careful admixture
cf every portion  of  the nutriment with the quantity 
120 ADMIXTURE OF FOOD AND GASTRIC JUICE.

of gastric juice necessary for its  solution.   The
particles of food are  thus continually changing
place, and if the quantity taken be not too great for
the power of the gastric juice which the stomach
can supply, chymification goes on equally through-
out ; so that, if the contents of the stomach be
withdrawn in  from thirty minutes  to an  hour
after a moderate meal, they will be found to con- v
sist of perfectly formed chyme and  particles of
food, intimately mixed and blended, in larger or
smaller proportions, according to  the vigorous or
enfeebled  state of the digestive  organs, and the
quality  of the  aliment  itself.  So effectually in-
deed has the admixture of food and solvent  juice
taken place in  this short time, that, as  already
shown, when a portion is removed from the stom-
ach and placed in an appropriate vessel, digestion will
commonly continue in'it, provided  it be placed in a
proper temperature, and subjected to gentle and
continued agitation.
  It is  the  impossibility of  its being  adequately
acted upon by the  muscular  contractions of the
stomach, which renders  fluid andhighlyconcentra-
ted nourishment, when exclusively used, so difficult
of digestion; and hence the reason why a certain
bulk and consistence given to whale oil,  for exam-
ple, by the admixture of  such innutritious substan-
ces as vegetable fibre, bran, or even sawdust, make
it a more acceptable and digestible article  of food
to the inhabitants of the northern regions, than when
it is consumed  in its pure state.  In like manner,
in civilized society, bread, potatoes, and vegetables
are useful, not less by giving the requisite bulk and
consistence to the rest of the food, than by the nu-
triment which they contain.  Soups, jellies, arrow-
root, and similar substances, are, for the  same rea-
son, more easily digested when eaten along with
bread or some  bulkier aliment, than when taken
alone, especially if used  for some time. 
  ADMIXTURE OF FOOD AND GASTRIC JUICE. 12i

  The motion which we have seen to be excited in
the stomach by the entrance of aliment, is at first
very gentle and slight; but in proportion as diges-
tion proceeds, or the organ is distended,  it becomes
more rapid and energetic;  and then it serves the ad-
ditional purpose of  gradually propelling  the chyme
through the pylorus into the intestine, there to be
farther  prepared and converted into  chyle.  The
necessary  churning or agitation  of the food is,
from the peculiar situation of the stomach, greatly
assisted by the play of the diaphragm and abdom-
inal muscles during  inspiration  and   expiration;
and the diminution of the vivacity and extent of
the  respiratory movement  which always  attends
despondency and grief, is one source of the enfee-
bled digestion  which notoriously  accompanies or
follows depression  of mind.  The  same cause also
leads necessarily  to  an unfavourable condition ol
the blood  itself, which in its turn weakens diges-
tion in common with  every  other function; but the
muscular or mechanical influence is that which at
present chiefly concerns us.  On the other hand,
the active and energetic respiration attendant on
cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirits adds  to  the
power of digestion, both  by aiding the motions of
the stomach, and by  imparting to it a more richly
constituted blood.  If to these causes be added the
increase of nervous stimulus which pleasing emo-
tions occasion in the  stomach (as in the muscles,
and organs of  secretion generally), we shall have
no difficulty in perceiving why digestion goes on so
well in parties where there is much jocularity and
mirth.  " Laughter,"  says  Professor Hufeland  of
Berlin,  " is one of the greatest helps  to digestion
with which I am acquainted;  and the custom prev-
alent among our forefathers, of exciting it at table
by jesters  and  buffoons, was founded on true medi-
cal principles.   In  a word, endeavour to  have cheer-
ful  and merry companions at  your meals: what 
122  ACTION OK GASTRIC JUICE ON FOOD.

nourishment  one receives amid mirth and jollity
will certainly produce good and light blood."* -
  Exposed to the action  of all the agents above
enumerated, and to the increased nervous and vas-
cular excitement which are necessary during diges-
tion, a  singular change  soon  commences in the
food, and  goes on till chymification is completed.
After a little while the contents of the  stomach,
whatever their nature and variety, begin to be con-
verted  into  a substance  of a homogeneous, soft,
grayish, and viscid appearance, of a sweetish, fade,
and slightly  acid taste, but which  still preserves
some  of the  qualities  of  the food, and  is  called
chyme.  The chyme always forms  on that part of
the food with which the gastric  juice is in immedi-
ate contact; and, in proportion  as it is produced, it
is  carried  gradually onwards by the gentle motion
of the stomach towards the pylorus, where conse-
quently  it always  exists  in the greatest  quantity.
At the cardiac or left end of the stomach it is most
sparingly found, both because digestion is there only
beginning, and because the chyme is speedily re-
moved from it and  carried away towards the py-
lorus.
  The doctrine hitherto generally received, and held
by Dr. Wilson  Philip and others as demonstrated,
is, that " the layer of food  lying next to the surface
of the stomach is first digested, and in proportion
as this undergoes the proper change, and is moved
by the muscular action of the stomach, that next in
turn succeeds, to undergo the same change."  Dr.
Beaumont however declares, that,  whatever may
be the case in rabbits and other animals on which
Dr. Philip's  experiments were made, such was not
the order observed in the stomach of Alexis St. Mar-
tin,—and such, he naturally infers, is not the order
in the human stomach in  general.   Nor is such, I
  * Art of Prolonging Human Life, English edition.  London,
1829, p. 282. 
     ACTION  OF GASTRIC  JUICE  ON FOOD.  123

may add,  the order which either experience or a
correct  view of the antecedent circumstances and
physiological conditions ought to lead us to antici-
pate.  When vomiting, for instance, occurs an hour
or two after a meal composed of different ingredi-
ents has been swallowed, no such separation into di-
gested and undigested portions is to be found, but the
whole are observed to have undergone changes pro-
portioned to their degrees of digestibility, whether
they were eaten first or last.
  In conformity with this view, Dr. Beaumont men-
tions, that when St. Martin swallowed  a mouthful
of any tenacious food after the digestion of  the pre-
ceding meal was considerably advanced, he always
saw it first pass towards the great curvature of the
stomach and then disappear.   In a minute or two it
reappeared, more  or less broken down, and mixed
with the general alimentary mass;  and in a short time
longer  it Avas so much changed as entirely to lose
its identity.  From these and numerous other facts,
Dr. Beaumont infers, that " there is a perfect admix-
ture of the whole ingestae during the period of ali-
mentation and chymification;" and that " the whole
contents of the stomach, until chymification be near-
ly  complete, exhibit a heterogeneous mass of solids
and fluids—hard and soft, coarse and fine, crude and
chymified—all intimately mixed, and circulating pro-
miscuously through the gastric cavity, like the mixed
contents of a close vessel, gently agitated or turned
in  the hand."—(P. 112.)  As we proceed we shall
meet with  various indirect  proofs of these state-
ments being correct.
   If Dr. Beaumont's  observations on this subject
are accurate, we  may expect to find that chymi-
fication commences on the surface of each individual
fragment of the food, and is not confined to the
outer surface of the entire alimentary mass, as sta-
ted by  Dr. Philip.  Such,  accordingly,  is the fact.
When Dr. Beaumont extracted a portion of the food 
124  GASTRIC JUICE ACTS ON EVERY PORTION

through the opening half an hour or an hour after
eating, he invariably found it composed of perfectly
formed chyme and particles of food intimately mix-
ed and blended; and in these  experiments every
portion of  the aliment was already so completely
supplied with gastric  juice, that its  chymification
proceeded till the whole was digested with no other
aid than that of the requisite heat and agitation.
  When a meal is taken before the preceding one
is out of the  stomach, digestion is observed to be
disturbed.  Dr. Wilson Philip explains  this by sta-
ting, that the newly-swallowed food becomes imbed-
ded in, and occupies the centre of, the older and
half-digested  mass, where it remains distinct and
untouched till the former meal is entirely disposed
of.  A more logical explanation, however, and one
more in harmony with facts, is offered by Dr. Beau-
mont, who ascribes the disturbed  digestion to  the
supply of gastric juice having been entirely taken up by
the first meal, and to  the  stomach, now  compara-
tively exhausted, being  unable  to  secrete a  fresh
supply for the second—seeing that, in ordinary cir-
cumstances, its vessels secrete only enough to meet
the real wants of the system.  Dr.  Beaumont  addu-
ces, in confirmation of this view, the fact that many
children, and most cooks, are in the habit of eating
small quantities of food  almost  every hour or two
without their digestion suffering materially, because
then the amount of gastric juice secreted is quite
equal to the chymification of the whole quantity
taken.
  Reasonable as this inference appears from  the
facts stated by Dr. Beaumont, I cannot help thinking
that there is  something more in the constitution of
the stomach than the mere deficiency  of gastric
juice, which renders the too early intrusion of new
food hurtful.  We know, for example, that at  the
commencement of digestion, the muscular contrac-
tions  of the  stomach are comparatively slow  and 
         OF FOOD WHICH IT  TOUCHES.      125

feeble, and that, as chymification advances, they be-
come rapid and energetic, as if to remove the chyme
as fast as it is formed.  If, then,  new food, for which
the feebler movement is best adapted, be introduced
when digestion is far advanced, and the energetic
motion going on, may not this  disproportion be it-
self an impediment, and co-operate with  the  defi-
ciency of the gastric juice in disordering digestion]
Moreover,  as the stomach, in common with every
other organ intended for alternate activity and re-
pose, is always more or less fatigued by the active
fulfilment of its function,  its premature excitement
by new food must add to its exhaustion, and weak-
en its power (in the same way in which fresh mus-
cular exertion adds to the  exhaustion of muscles al-
ready sufficiently exercised), and consequently lead
to imperfect digestion.
   The same principle which explains the necessity
of repose for repairing the vascular and nervous en-
ergy of the stomach, when these have been excited
and exhausted by the labour of digestion, also af-
fords a solution of the question why the appetite
does not return as soon as the stomach is empty,
but begins  to be felt  only after the stomach has en-
joyed a period of repose, varying in duration with
the mode of life, the state of health, and the nature
of the previous meal.
   If we regard chymification as going on at the sur-
face of every individual portion of the food which
has been sufficiently supplied with gastric juice, we
at once see that the constant motion of the stomach is
necessary,  1st,  to remove  the chyme from the  sur-
face of each little fragment of the alimentary mass;
and, 2dly, by this very removal to expose  a fresh
surface  of  the fragment to the  contact of  the  mu-
cous membrane, thereby enabling it to excite such
farther  secretion of gastric juice as may be requi-
red to complete its digestion.  In this way the  for-
mation and removal of chyme go on from the very
                     L2 
126
CONDITIONS  FOR  THE
first, although it is then necessarily produced and re-
moved more slowly than after the gastric solvent
has had time to act. It is generally said that an
hour  elapses before any  chyme is formed; but Dr.
Beaumont has detected its existence at a much ear-
lier period, and is of opinion that, from the uniform
and constant decrease in the contents of the stom-
ach, which  begins  as soon as the food  is swal-
lowed, chymification commences almost immedi-
ately.   This decrease, though slow at first, becomes
gradually  accelerated, till the  whole mass is con-
verted into  chyme.   Apparently  in harmony with
this more energetic action, the acidity of the  gas-
tric fluid also becomes greater, and affords a great-
er stimulus,  in proportion as digestion advances.
  As formerly explained, the thickish, semi-fluid,
grayish chyme, into which the aliment is converted,
is gradually  impelled towards the  pyloric extremity
of the stomach, in proportion  as  it is formed.   On
its arrival there, the pylorus, or valve between the
stomach and the  intestine called the duodenum,
opens and allows the chyme to pass into the intes-
tine.  But, by a curious mode  of  sensibihty, if any
portion  of undigested food be mixed with it, the py-
lorus  contracts  upon it, refuses it egress, and throws
it back into  the stomach for farther digestion.
  If, however, any thing really indigestible finds its
way into the stomach, and presents itself at the py-
lorus—or if the  stomach has temporarily lost its di-
gestive power, and the food remains in it for many
hours unchanged—then  the pylorus, after repeat-
edly refusing egress, at last opens and allows it to
pass into  the gut.   So marked is the contractile
impulse towards the pylorus when digestion is go-
ing on, that Dr. Beaumont found even the bulb of his
thermometer carried down with a steady and con-
siderable force.
  Such  are  the direct conditions  requisite  for the
fulfilment of digestion: but there remain others, of 
       FULFILMENT OF  DIGESTION.          127

an indirect kind, which also require to be noticed.
Of these, a due supply of arterial blood and nervous
energy is the most remarkable ; but as both produce
their effect by modifying the secretions and motions
of the  stomach, already described as the direct re-
quisites of digestion, it will save a good deal of rep-
etition if, for the present, we take their  influence
for granted, and reserve their further elucidation till
we come to treat of the practical applications of the
preceding exposition.

  Having thus obtained a comprehensive view of
the agents employed in effecting digestion, and of
the changes  produced by it on  different  kinds of
food, we find another important subject of investi-
gation,  immediately connected with  the process,
presenting itself— the comparative  digestibility of dif-
ferent kinds of food.   Dr. Beaumont did not neglect
this  branch  of the inquiry; but the  experiments
which  he performed for its elucidation  are, like
those of most of his predecessors, deprived of great
part of their  value by the vague way in which they
seem to have been  conducted, and  the  common
omission of all particulars in regard to  those condi-
tions which are known to exert a powerful influence
on the  progress of digestion.
  The  following table exhibits the  general  results
of all the experiments made upon St. Martin poste-
rior to  1825 ;  and the average is deduced from those
which were performed when the  stomach was con-
sidered by Dr.  Beaumont to be in its natural state,
and St. Martin  himself subjected  to ordinary exer-
cise, 
128 TIME  REQUIRED FOR  THE DIGESTION
TABLE showing the Mean Time of Digestion of the
              different Articles of Diet.
      Articles of Diet


Rice  .
Sago  .
Tapioca
Barley
Milk  .
Ditto  .
Gelatine
Pigs' feet, soused
Tripe, soused
Brains .
Venison steak
Spinal marrow
Turkey, domestic
  Do.     do.
  Do.    wild
Goose .
Pig, sucking
Liver, beef's, fresh
Lamb, fresh
Chicken, full-grown
Eggs, fresh
Do.  do.
Do.  do.
Do.  do.
Do.  do.
Do. whipped
Custard
Codfish, cured, dry
Trout, Salmon, fresh
     Do.      do.
Bass, striped, fresh
Flounder     do.
Catfish       do.
Salmon, salted
Preparation.

Boiled
  Do.
  Do.
  Do.
  Do
Raw
Boiled
  Do.
  Do.
  Do.
Broiled
Boiled
Roasted
Boiled
Roasted
  Do.
  Do.
Broiled
  Do.
Fricassee
Hard boiled
Soft  do.
Fried
Roasted
Raw .
  Do.
Baked
Boiled
  Do.
Fried
Broiled
Fried
  Do.
Boiled 
OF  DIFFERENT  KINDS OF FOOD.      129
Table showing Mean Time of Digestion, continued.
      Articles of Diet


Oysters, fresh
  Do.    do.
  Do.    do.
Beef, fresh, lean, rare
 Do.  do.  dry  .
 Do. steak .
 Do. with salt only
 Do. with mustard, &c
 Do. fresh, lean  .
 Do. old, hard, salted
Pork-steak  .
Pork, fat and lean
 Do.  recently salted
 Do.       do.
 Do.       do.
 Do.       do.
 Do.       do.
Mutton, fresh
  Do.    do.
  Do.    do.
Veal, fresh  .
 Do.  do.   .
Fowls, domestic
 Do.     do.
Ducks,   do.
 Do.   wild  .
Suet, beef,  fresh
Suet, mutton
Butter
Cheese, old, strong
Soup,  beef, vegetables
  and bread
 Do.  marrow-bones
 Do.  beans
 Do.  barley
 Do.  mutton
Green  corn and beans
Preparation.

Raw .
Roasted
Stewed
Roasted
   Do.
Broiled
Boiled
   Do.
Fried
Boiled
Broiled
Roasted
Boiled
Fried
Broiled
Raw .
Stewed
Roasted
Broiled
Boiled
Broiled
Fried
Boiled
Roasted
   Do.
   Do.
Boiled
   Do.
Melted
Raw .

Boiled
   Do.
   Do.
   Do.
   Do.
   Do.
 Time re-
quired for
Digestion. 
130    COMPARATIVE DIGESTIBILITY  OF
Table showing Mean Time of Digestion, continued.
		Mode	Time re-
Articles of Diet.		of	quired for
		Preparation.	Uigeslion. H. M.
Chicken soup		Boiled	3
Oyster soup		Do.	3 30
Hash, meat and vegetables		Warmed	2 30
Sausage, fresh		Broiled	3 20
Heart, animal		Fried	4
Tendon		Boiled	5 30
Cartilage		Do.	4 15
Aponeurosis		Do.	3
Beans, pod .		Do.	2 30
Bread, wheaten, fresh .		Baked	3 30
Do. corn .		Do.	3 15
Cake, do. .		Do.	3
Do. sponge		Do.	2 30
Dumpling, apple .		Boiled	3
Apples, sour and hard .		Raw .	2 50
Do. do. mellow		Do.	2
Do. sweet do. .		Do.	1 30
Parsnips		Boiled	2 30
Carrot, orange		Do.	3 15
Beet .		Do.	3 45
Turnips, flat		Do	3 30
Potatoes, Irish		Do.	3 30
Do. do.		Roasted	2 30
Do. do.		Baked	2 30
Cabbage, head		Raw .	2 30
Do. with vinegar .		Do.	2
Do. do.		Boiled	4 30
  This table is very interesting, but the results must
not be too much relied upon, or regarded as repre-
senting the uniform rate of digestibility.  We have
already seen that chymification is greatly influen-
ced by the interval which has elapsed since the pre-
ceding meal,  the  amount of  exercise  taken,  the
keenness of the appetite, the state of the health  and
mind, the completeness of the mastication, the state
of rest or exercise after eating, and various other 
          DIFFERENT  KINDS OF  FOOD.      131

circumstances ; and, above all, the quantity swallow-
ed in proportion to the  gastric juice secreted.  And
consequently, if an experiment be made without re-
gard to these conditions, and without any thing be-
ing recorded except the time occupied in digestion
in the individual case, the conclusions deduced from
it may be most fallacious.  The very aliment which,
taken in full quantity,  remains on the  stomach for
hours, may, in a Siyialler quantity, be entirely di-
gested in one third of the time.  Thus, in the fore-
going table, two and a. half hours are  set down as
the average time required for the chymification of
jelly, but h. ihe 41st experiment, we find that eight
ounces of that  substance were entirely digested in
one hour.   So  that,  if  all the other conditions are
not carefully kept in view at each trial, the results
cannot possibly be held as conclusive.
  It may be said that, on the day of the 41st exper-
iment, St.  Martin's digestion must  have been par-
ticularly good—and, in truth, it seems to have been
so; for at 9 o'clock a. m. he breakfasted on soused
tripe, pig's feet, bread,  and coffee, and yet, only one
hour later, no vestige of any of these savoury things
remained in the stomach.   What renders this result
the more remarkable  is the fact, that, in another
table at page 45, a simple breakfast of  coffee and
bread is set down as having required four hours for
its  digestion.  The rapid disposal of the same ele-
ments, with the addition of soused tripe and pig's
feet, instead of disproving my  position, evidently
strengthens it, by showing that, if from any cause
the digesting power varies in intensity, the result
obtained from the experiment on one kind of food
cannot, with any show of reason, be considered as
an  accurate index to its rate of digestibility in com-
parison with that of other kinds.
  This neglect of the other conditions is according-
ly the circumstance which throws a doubt over the
results not only of Dr.  Beaumont's experiments, but 
 132    COMPARATIVE  DIGESTIBILITY OF

 of those of every other inquirer.  Dr. Beaumont
 indeed candidly admits, that his were performed for
 the purpose of demonstrating other important prin-
 ciples connected with digestion, and not at all with
 the view of determining the comparative rates of
 digestibility of different kinds of  aliment;  and in
 alluding to the various requisites for a satisfactory
 series of experiments, he himself justly states, that
 this would be an Herculean task, which it would take
 years to accomplish.   In considering the following
 general results, then, the reader ought to bear :n
 mind that they are only probable and approxima-
 tive, and not strictly demonstrated or certain.

   As a general rule, animal food is more easily and
 speedily digested, and contains a greater quantity of
 nutriment in a given bulk, than either herbaceous
 or farinaceous food; but, apparently from the same
 cause, it is also more heating and stimulating.   Mi-
 nuteness of division, and tenderness of fibre, are shown
 by Dr. Beaumont's experiments to be two grand es-
 sentials for the easy digestion of butcher-meat; and
 the different kinds of fish, flesh, fowl, and game, are
 found to vary in digestibility chiefly in proportion
 as they approach or depart from  these two stand-
 ard qualities.
   Farinaceous food, such as rice, sago, arrow-root,
 and gruel, are also  rapidly assimilated, and prove
 less  stimulating to  the system than  concentrated
 animal food.  Milk seems to rank in the same class,
 when the stomach is in  a healthy state.
  The  other kinds of vegetable substance are the
 slowest of all in undergoing digestion, and very fre-
quently pass out of the stomach and  through the
bowels comparatively little changed;  and hence the
uneasiness which their presence so often excites in
the bowels, especially in persons of weak digestion,
owing to the nerves of the intestines having a rela-
tion to digested food.  In a  given bulk they contain 
          DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD.      133

less nutriment, and excite the system less, than any
other kind of food; so that they are well adapted for
the diet of those in whom it is necessary to avoid
every kind of stimulus, and who  are not subjected
to great muscular exertion: but to a person under-
going hard labour, they afford inadequate support.
  Liquids—soup, for example—are slow of diges-
tion,  and hence are  unfit for most dyspeptic pa-
tients.  Before the gastric juice can act upon them,
the fluid part must be absorbed, and the mass thick-
ened  to a proper consistence  for undergoing the
usual churning motion.  On examining the contents
of the stomach an hour after St.  Martin had dined
on beef-soup, Dr. Beaumont found that the absorp-
tion of  the watery part had been carried so far as
to leave the remainder of even a thicker consistence
than  after an ordinary solid meal.  When drink is
swallowed, it is carried off in the same wray by ab-
sorption,  and is not  digested or allowed  to  pass
through the pylorus.   One purpose of this provision
seems to be to prevent the gastric juice from being
rendered inefficient by too much dilution.
  When the  food  on which an animal lives is of a
highly concentrated kind, and contains much nour-
ishment in a small bulk, the apparatus of  organs
provided for  its digestion is on  a correspondingly
small scale in point of extent.  Thus, in carnivorous
animals, whose food is, bulk for bulk, the most nu-
tritious  of all, the stomach and intestines are simple
and short, the latter not  exceeding in length more
than from one to four or five times that of the body.
In herbivorous animals, on the other hand, whose
food is  sparingly nutritious, and therefore requires
to have  a large bulk or volume, the stomach, as we
saw in a former chapter,  is greatly more complica-
ted, and the length of the intestines enormously in-
creased.  Man, being intended to  feed on both ani-
mal and vegetable substances, possesses  an organ-
ization which holds an intermediate place between
                        M 
134      WHY ANIMAL  FOOD IS MORE

the two extremes.  In him, neither are the  intes-
tines so short as in carnivorous animals, nor have
they the complexity and length characteristic  of the
herbivorous—thus clearly showing the intentions of
nature in  regard to his food, and at the same time
allowing him a considerable latitude of adaptation
when the  force of circumstances for a time denies
him access to any variety.
  Animal  food being in general more quickly digest-
ed than vegetable, and a  simpler organization being
sufficient for its conversion into chyme, many phys-
iologists have inferred that this  was owing  to  its
being already of an animal nature, and therefore re-
quiring scarcely any change to fit it for becoming a
constituent  part of the  living fibre.  But  I  agree
with Dr. Beaumont in thinking that this explanation
is more gratuitous than philosophical, and that the
process of chymification implies almost as complete
a change  in the one instance as  in  the other.   In
both, the operation of the gastric  juice seems to be
entirely analogous.  In  both, a complete  solution
takes place, and the chyle into which animal food
is ultimately  converted bears no  greater resem-
blance to the future animal fibre, than does that pro-
duced from vegetable aliment.  Thus, the chyle of
a horse, which lives exclusively on vegetables, has
quite as great a resemblance to its future muscle, as
that of  a tiger, a lion, or a fox has to its future
produce.  Besides, whether the  food be animal or
vegetable, the ultimate result of digestion is always
the formation  of new animal matter; but in  the
former  case, the nutritive  particles  are mixed  up
with a smaller proportion of innutritious matter than
in the latter, and consequently a larger quantity of
them can be extracted from a given bulk in a shorter
time than  in the case of vegetables. There are most
probably also minute differences  in the chymical
composition of the chyle derived from different kinds
of food; but its general nature—its fitness for form- 
        DIGESTIBLE THAN  VEGETABLE.     133

ing new animal tissue—and that of the process by
which it is produced, are always the same.
  Animal  food, it is true, affords a more stimulating
nutriment than farinaceous and other kinds of vege-
table aliment, and hence it is avoided in diseases of
excitement.   But it seems to me that this stimulus
is owing not only to its own inherent properties, but
also to its more highly concentrated  state,  and to
the much  greater quantity of chyle which is derived
from it than from an equal bulk of vegetable aliment.
From the  numerous experiments of injecting water,
poisons, and  other  substances into the veins,  per-
formed  by Magendie and  others,  we  have direct
proofs that the same agent which, introduced rapidly
into the system, will sometimes act so powerfully as
to destroy life, will excite scarcely any perceptible
disorder if introduced very slowly.  Analogy, there-
fore, bears us out in believing that the rapid admix-
ture of very  nutritious  chyle with the blood  may
over-stimulate the system, when its more gradual
introduction would have  produced no such effect.
At the same time, there can be no doubt  that there
is also a greater inherent stimulus in animal than in
vegetable aliment.
   It seems to be partly for the purpose of obviating
the evil of the too rapid introduction of nutriment,
and partly for that of varying the stimulus, that na-
ture has rendered a certain  bulk of food advanta-
geous to digestion,  and decreed that no animal can
long retain its health if fed on highly concentrated
aliment r^ne.  Dogs fed on oil or sugar, which are
almost Wiiolly converted into  chyle, become  dis-
eased and die in a few weeks; and, as Dr. Paris has
acutely remarked, the very capacity of our digestive
organs is a proof that nature never intended them
for the exclusive reception of highly concentrated
food.  Dr. Paris refers to post-horses fed chiefly on
beans and corn, as instances among the  lower ani-
mals of the insalubritv of too condensed  nutriment, 
136     WHY  ANIMAL FOOD  IS  MORE

and shows that they live constantly on the brink of
active  disease, and  every now and  then require
bleeding, laxatives, and emollients, to  keep them
in condition.  Sportsmen, boxers, and others, who
train themselves for severe  exertion,  are additional
examples showing that a similar mode of living in-
duces a morbid tension of the system  which cannot
be long kept up without danger.   The Kamtschat-
dales sometimes live with impunity for months on
fish-oil, by wisely mixing it up with sawdust or other
indigestible vegetable fibre.
  If the preceding explanation of the more rapid di-
gestion of animal than of vegetable substances, and
the higher stimulus  which they afford, be correct,
the common notion, of the  former being more digest-
ible than the latter solely because there is a greater
analogy between animal food and the  system which
it goes to nourish, and therefore a smaller change
to  be undergone,  necessarily falls to the ground.
If it be true—which it seems to be—that, in the nat-
ural state, in a temperate climate, animal food is
more easily  digested than vegetable,  the fair infer-
ence ought rather to be that the system requires the
former in larger proportion than the latter, and that
the gastric juice is purposely constituted with ref-
erence to this circumstance.   Accordingly, in  the
arctic regions, where the  climate   renders  great
stimulus necessary, animal  food, of to us the most
indigestible  kind—that consisting of pure fat and oil
—is eaten in immense quantities, and digested with
enviable facility; while in India and  other tropical
climates, where much less stimulus is required, the
natives digest vegetable aliment with at least  equal
ease and satisfaction.
   If, as Dr.  Paris imagines, animal food owes its di-
gestibility simply to its possessing "  a composition
analogous to that of the structure which it is de-
signed to supply," and therefore requiring "little
more  than division and depuration,"  instead of the 
         DIGESTIBLE  THAN VEGETABLE.     137

 alleged " complicated series of decompositions and
 recompositions which must be effected before ve-
 getable matter can be animahzed  or assimilated  to
 the body,"*—it follows  that butcher-meat must in
 all climates and situations  be  more digestible than
 vegetables ; and that raw meat, which has the great-
 est analogy of all to the  structure  of the body, must
 require still less digestive power for its solution and
 assimilation  than cooked  meat.   These proposi-
 tions, however, are wholly  at variance with experi-
 ence :  in particular, the  effect of cooking is unques-
 tionably to induce a change of composition subver-
 sive of the analogy on  which Dr. Paris rests his
 opinion.
   That the easier digestibility of animal food in man
 arises chiefly from its greater adaptation to the qual-
 ities of the gastric juice,  and not from any such anal-
 ogy as that now alluded to, is rendered still  more
 probable  by  the fact, that in him the gastric fluid
 contains  scarcely any free  acid, except where the
 diet has consisted for some time  principally of ve-
 getables ; whereas  it always contains a considera-
 ble proportion of acid in  herbivorous creatures.   In
 the latter, moreover, the analogy is quite as great
 between animal substances  and their own structure
 as in man, and yet to a cow, beef  is much more in-
 digestible than grass, notwithstanding the " decom-
 positions and recompositions" which  the latter  is
 supposed to  require before becoming animalized.
 Dr. Beaumont is therefore quite justified in maintain-
 ing, that the process of digestion implies as complete
 a solution and recomposition in the case of animal
 as of vegetable substances; and  that the rapidity
 with which the chymification of either is effected
 depends more on its adaptation to the properties of the
gastric juice provided by nature for its solution, than
 on the closeness of resemblance of its own composition
 to that of the body of which it is to become a part.
                * Paris on Diet, p. 93.
                      M2 
138 HEAT OF STOMACH DURING DIGESTION.

  Another prevalent notion—that the digestive ap-
paratus  is simpler and  shorter in carnivorous than
in herbivorous animals, merely because their food is
more analogous in composition to their own bodies,
and therefore requires less perfect digestion—seems
to me equally unfounded, and to be negatived by
the fact, that in  the grain-eating  birds, in the con-
stituent  elements of whose  food  there is no such
analogy, the intestines nevertheless scarcely exceed
in length those of carnivorous birds—a circumstance
at variance with the notion of length being neces-
sary solely on account  of the great elaboration re-
quired for the oonversion of vegetable into animal
substance.   The true principle—and it is important
to notice it, as the  error is generally adopted—ap-
pears to be, that where the food of the animal contains
much nutriment in a small bulk, there the stomach and
intestinal canal are simple and short; but where, on
the contrary, it contains little nutriment in a large
bulk, there great capacity, complexity, and length
become requisite to enable the animal to elaborate
a sufficiency of nourishment for its subsistence, by
taking in the requisite  quantity from which it is to
be derived.   Accordingly, in the elephant and some
other herbivorous animals, we find  the capacity to
depend  not on the length, but on  the width and in
creased surface of the intestine, or, in other words,
on  the  greater calibre  of its  cavity; whereas, in
some fishes which  live on very  concentrated  ali-
ment, the intestinal canal is not  much more than
the length of the body—thus showing that the com-
mon opinion on the subject is utterly untenable.

  Before concluding his experiments on the agents
employed in digestion, Dr. Beaumont  made  many
observations with a view to  ascertain whether any
increase of  temperature occurred during  that pro-
cess. By introducing  a thermometer with a long
stem at the external opening into  St. Martin's  stom- 
    dr. beaumont's general inferences. 139

 ach, both before and during chymification, he suc-
 ceeded in obtaining very accurate information on
 this point.  In two or three of the experiments the
 heat of the stomach seemed to  be increased after
 taking food, but in by far the greater number the
 temperature remained the same.   It appeared, how-
 ever, that the variations of the atmosphere produced
 a sensible change on the heat of the stomach—a
 dry air increasing and a  moist  air diminishing it.
 The ordinary temperature maybe estimated at 100°
 Fahr., and  in several  instances  it was higher at
 the pyloric than at the cardiac end.  On one cloudy,
 damp, and rainy day, the thermometer rose only to
 94o, and on another to 96° ; whereas next day, when
 the weather was clear and dry, it rose to 99o, and
 on that following, when the weather was both clear
 and cold, to 100o.   On several occasions it rose as
 high as 102o, and once to 103o ; but these were after
 exercise, which was always observed  to cause an
 increase of two or three degrees.  We have already
 seen that artificial digestion is entirely arrested by
 cold, and  is resumed on raising the temperature to
 ordinary blood heat.

   Such, then, are the phenomena and conditions of
 healthy digestion, and such is the light thrown upon
 them both by the valuable publication of the Amer-
 ican physiologist.  Before leaving this branch of the
 subject, however, it may be useful to lay before the
 reader, as  a kind of summary, the principal infer-
 ences deduced by Dr. Beaumont from his numerous
 experiments and observations.  But in doing so, I
 shall attempt to arrange the results in their natural
 order;  for in the original work they are given with
out reference either to logical sequence or to time. 
140 DR. BEAUMONT S GENERAL INFERENCES.

INFERENCES FROM DR.  BEAUMONT'S  EXPERIMENTS AND
                 OBSERVATIONS.*

 1.  That hunger Ss the effect of distention of the ves-
      sels that secrete the gastric juice.
 2.  That the process of mastication, insalivation, and
      deglutition, in  an  abstract point of view, do
      not  in  any way affect the digestion  of the
      food; or, in other words, when food is intro-
      duced directly into the  stomach in a finely
      divided state, without these previous steps, it
      is as readily and as perfectly digested as wheL
      they have been taken.
 3.  That saliva  does  not possess  the properties of
      an  alimentary solvent.
 4.  That  the  agent of chymification  is the gastric
      juice.
 5.  That  the pure gastric  juice is  fluid, clear, and
       transparent; without odour; a little salt; and
      perceptibly acid.
 6.  That  it contains free muriatic  acid, and some
       other active chymical principles.
 7. That  it is never found free in the gastric cavi-
       ty ; but is always excited to  discharge itself
      by the  introduction of food or other irritants.
 8. That it is secreted from vessels distinct from
       the mucous  follicles.
 9.  That  it is seldom obtained pure, but is gener-
       ally mixed with mucus, and sometimes with
       saliva.   When pure, it is  capable of being
       kept for  months,  and perhaps for years.
 10.  That it coagulates albumen, and afterward dis-
       solves the coagula.
 11.  That it checks the progress of putrefaction.
 12.  That it acts as a solvent of food, and alters its
       properties.
 13.  That, like other chymical agents, it commences

  *  The inferences are  given in Dr. Beaumont's own words.
 und the italics also are his. 
   dr. beaumont's general inferences. 141

      its action on food as soon as it comes in con-
      tact with it.
14. That it is capable of combining with a certain
      and fixed quantity  of food, and when more
      aliment is presented for its action than it will
      dissolve, disturbance of the stomach, or "in-
      digestion," will ensue.
15. That its action is facilitated by the warmth and
      motions of the stomach.
16. That  it becomes intimately mixed and blended
      with the ingestae in the stomach by the mo-
      tions of that organ.
17. That it is invariably the same substance, modified
      only by admixture with other fluids.
18. That  the motions  of the stomach produce a
      constant churning of its contents, and admix-
      ture of food and gastric juice.
19. That these motions are in two directions, trans-
      versely and longitudinally.
20. That no other fluid produces the same effect on
      food that gastric juice does ; and  that it is
      the only solvent of aliment.
21. That the action of the stomach and its fluids is
      the same on all kinds of diet.
22. That solid food, of a certain texture, is easier
      of digestion  than fluid.
23. That animal and farinaceous aliments  are more
      easy of digestion than vegetable.
24. That the susceptibility  of digestion  does not,
      however, depend altogether upon  natural or
      chymical distinctions.
25. That digestion is facilitated by minuteness of di-
      vision and tenderness of fibre; and retarded by
      opposite qualities.
26. That the ultimate principles of  aliment are  al-
      ways the same, from  whatever food they
      may be obtained.
27. That chyme  is homogeneous, but variable in  its
      colour and consistence. 
142 dr. beaumont's general inferences.

28.  That, towards the latter stages of chymification,
      it becomes more  acid and  stimulating, and
      passes more rapidly from the stomach.
29.  That the inner coat of the stomach is of a pale
      pink colour, varying  in its hues according to
      its full or empty state.
30.  That, in health, it is sheathed with mucus.
31.  That the appearance of the interior of the stom-
      ach  in disease is essentially different from
      that of its healthy state.
32.  That stimulating condiments are injurious to the
      .healthy stomach.
33.  That the use of ardent spirits  always produces
      disease of the stomach if persevered in.
34.  That water, ardent spirits, and most oi\ver fluids,
      are not affected by the gastric juice, but pass
      from the stomach soon after they have been
      received.
35.  That  the  quantity of food generally taken is
      more than the wants of the system require ;
      and  that such excess, if persevered in, gen-
      erally produces  not  only functional aberra-
      tion, but disease of the coats of the stomach.
36.  That bulk as well as nutriment is  necessary to
      the articles of diet.
37.  That bile is not ordinarily found in the stomach,
      and is not commonly necessary for  the diges-
      tion of the food ; but,
38.  That when oily food has been used, it assists its
      digestion.
39.  That oily food is difficult of digestion, though it
      contains a large proportion of the nutrient
      principles.
40.  That the digestibility of  aliment does not depend
      upon the  quantity of nutrient principles that
      it contains.
41.  That the natural temperature of the stomach is
      about 100° Fahrenheit. 
dr. beaumont's general inferences. 143
42. That  the temperature is not elevated by the in-
      gestion of food.
43. That exercise elevates the temperature ; and that
      sleep or rest, in a recumbent position, depres-
      ses it.
44. That gentle  exercise facilitates the digestion of
      food.
45. That the time required for that purpose is vari-
      ous, depending upon the quantity and quality
      of the food,  state of  the stomach, &c.; but
      that the time ordinarily required for the dis-
      posal of a moderate meal of the fibrous parts
      of meat, with bread,  &c.,  is from three to
      three and a half hours.

  A few more inferences are given, but are here
omitted, because they refer exclusively to the chyle,
which has not yet been treated of.  The second and
seventeenth are, perhaps, too strongly expressed.
A  complete change of  diet, for example, causes
some variation in the gastric juice, although  the lat-
ter inference,  taken in a literal sense, affirms the
contrary 
144      nature of chylification.
                  CHAPTER VI.

 CHYLIFICATION,  AND THE ORGANS CONCERNED  IN  IT.

Chylification.—Not well  known.—Organs concerned in  it.—
  The  intestinal canal.—Its  general  structure.—Peritoneal
  coat.—Mesentery.—Muscular coat.—Uses of these.—Air in
  irtestines.—Uses  of.—Mucous coat.—Analogous to skin.—
  The seat of excretion and absorption.—Mucous glands.—
  Absorbent vessels.—Course of chyle towards  the heart.—
  Nerves of mucous coat.—Action of bowels explained.—Indi-
  vidual structure of intestines.—The Duodenum—Jejunum—
  and  Ileum.— Liver and pancreas concerned  in chylifica-
  tion.—Their situation and uses.—Bile, its origin and uses.—
  The pancreas.—Its juice.—The jejunum described.—The il-
  eum— Ccecum—Colon—and  Rectum. — Peristaltic motion
  of bowels.—Aids to it.—Digestion of  vegetables begins in
  stomach, but often finished in the bowels.—Illustration from
  the horse.—Confirmation by Dupuytren.

  The  conversion of food into  chyme, an  opera-
tion which, as we have seen, takes place in the stom-
ach, is only one of the  series of changes  which
aliment undergoes before becoming fit to be assim-
ilated  with  the living body;  and the  next process
which we have to notice is chylification, or that by
which chyme is converted into chyle.
  In proportion as chyme  is formed from the food;
it is gradually propelled, as already shown, through
the pyloric orifice of the  stomach into the duode-
num, or beginning of the small intestine.   On its ar-
rival there, it is acted upon by the  bile from  the
liver, and the pancreatic juice from the pancreas;
and the result is the separation of the chyme into
two distinct  substances,—the one a milky-white
fluid called  chyle, which is absorbed into the sys-
tem, and forms nutriment,—and the other a yellow-
ish and more consistent mass,  which is the indi-
gestible remains of the food, and which, after travers- 
         NATURE OF CHYLIFICATION.      145

iug the whole length of the intestinal canal, and being
there mixed with the waste matter separated from
the blood in  order to be thrown out of the system
through the same channel, is at last expelled in the
form of faces or excrement.
  If physiologists experience  much  difficulty in
satisfactorily  explaining  all  the  phenomena  of
chymification,  or stomach-digestion,  the reflecting
reader will not be surprised  to learn that they are
still more puzzled to account for  those of chylifi-
cation, or intestinal digestion.  The organs concern-
ed in the latter are so deep-seated  and inaccessible
during life, that very few opportunities occur of ob-
taining accurate information on the subject; and,
therefore, in what follows,  I shall  not enter into
disputed or intricate details, but confine myself to
such general views as are not contested, and as the
reader may easily understand.  Fortunately, igno-
rance of this branch of the inquiry is of less prac-
tical importance than  if it extended to stomachic
digestion also ;  because such is the harmony be-
tween all  the parts of the  system,  that whatever
conduces to the perfect accomplishment of the first
stage of  the process, chymification, is in so far equal-
ly conducive to the proper fulfilment of chylifica-
tion, or intestinal digestion.
  The simple fact, indeed, of our  having no direct
control over the process of chylification, and of our
being able to modify it only by varying, through the
medium  of the stomach, the elements out of which
chyle is  to be formed and the mode  in Avhich they
shall be  digested, is a proof that, practically speak-
ing,  it is chiefly the laws  or conditions of  stom-
achic digestion which  are intended to regulate our
conduct; and that, in  obeying them, we in reality
obey also those of intestinal digestion.

  The organs concerned in chylification are  the
duodenum, the liver, and the  pancreas ; but in order
                        N 
146
IiNTEaTlNAL  CANAL.
to avoid repetition,  I  shall, in describing the first,
notice also the remainder of the intestine.
  The  intestine, or intestinal canal, as represented
in the subjoined figure, begins at the pyloric orifice
of the  stomach, P,  and after many  windings and
turnings, called convolutions (from the Latin word
convolutus, rolled or folded together), terminates in
the rectum or straight gut, Y, at the external orifice
called the anus.   Although continuous throughout
its whole extent, the intestinal tube is nevertheless
divided by anatomists into six portions,  to each of
which a different name is assigned ; the distinction
between some of these is more nominal than real,
but it still continues to be  made on  account of its
convenience.
  The first grand division is into the small and great
intestines; the former  beginning at the stomach,
including all the convolutions marked RSSSS,—and
the latter beginning at T, where the small intestine
terminates, and including the large gut UUUUXYY,
which surrounds, and is partly hidden by, the other
bowels.
  The  small  intestines, again,  are subdivided into
three portions,—the duodenum, the jejunum, and the
ileum ; and the larger,  in like manner, into three
portions—the caput cacum, or simply the cacum, the
colon, and the rectum.  Of  the whole  length,  the
small intestines constitute by much the greater part,
and they differ somewhat from the larger in function
as well as in magnitude.
   In structure, the intestines exhibit a great analo-
gy with the stomach. They consist, in common with
it, of three coats or layers of membrane ; the outer,
ox peritoneal,—the middle, or muscular,—and the in-
ternal, mucous, or villous.
   The peritoneal coat is the white, firm,  smooth,
shining, and  moist  membrane, seen  on the outside
of the intestine  on opening the cavity of the abdo-
men.  It serves both as a support and as a medium 
 
148   INTESTINE--PERITONEAL  COAT.

of attachment to fix the intestine in its place.   By
its smooth, soft, and lubricated surface, it admits
readily of the change of place among the bowels
necessarily produced by respiration, exercise, and
even by different degrees of distention of the bow-
els themselves.  Every time we breathe an undu-
lating motion is  communicated to the whole intes-
tines, which facilitates their action, but which could
not take  place unless they were capable of gliding
easily and freely over each other.   The peritoneal
coat, being strong, extensible,  and  elastic, is very
useful also as a support to the other coats.
   The peritoneal coat, after  forming the outer cov-
ering of  the  intestine, represented by  the  dotted
line round the circle I in the figure on  next page,
is continued from it in the form of a double mem-
brane (represented by the two dotted lines) towards
the spine S,  to which it is first firmly attached by
cellular substance ; after which the folds again sep-
arate, each being continued,  or reflected, as it is call-
ed, over the whole inner substance of the cavity of
the abdomen in the course shown  by the dotted
line, the figure itself representing a  transverse sec-
tion of the abdomen.   By  this arrangement two
important objects are attained.  First, the abdomi-
nal peritoneum AP forms a  soft lubricated surface,
corresponding to that of the bowels themselves ;
and, secondly, a firm point  of  attachment for  the
bowels is secured, by which they may be supported
in their proper places, and at the same  time admit
of some change of position.  The floating portion
of the peritoneum, M, by which the attachment  is
effected, is called the mesentery (from i*eoos, mesos, the
middle, and  evrepov, enteron,  intestine).   But the in-
testinal  canal being so  much longer than the por-
tion of the spine to which the mesentery is attach-
 ed, the  latter  is  necessarily disposed  in  folds,
 converging towards the spine, something like the
  folds of a fan converging towards  its  narrow end. 
        INTESTINE--THE  MESENTERY.     149

In this  way  the  mesentery, besides serving as a
support to the gut, serves also to receive and afford
protection  to the numerous vessels, nerves, and
lacteals, which are copiously  ramified on  every
portion, particularly of the small intestines.   This
 feature, however, will be better understood by in-
 specting the wood-cut on page 154, representing a
 portion of the bowel II, as attached to the spine by
 the mesentery MM, along which the absorbent ves-
 sels or lacteals  LL are seen to pass from the gu1
 towards the thoracic duct TD.
  The portion of peritoneum by which the small
 intestines are fixed to the spine, constitutes what is
 properly called  the  mesentery.  That  portion  by
 which the  larger bowel is attached is called the
 mesocolon, from its enclosing the colon; but in other
 respects the membrane presents no difference.
  The muscular coat is  composed principally of
 transverse and longitudinal fibres, and its sole ob-
ject here, as elsewhere, is to effect motion.  By the
 alternate  contraction of the two kinds of fibres,
 the contents of the gut are gradually propelled in a
downward direction, just as we see a motion prop-
agated from one  end of a worm to the other ;  and
hence  it is sometimes called the vermicular  motion
(from vermis, a worm).  Some nauseating substan-
ces, such  as emetics,  have the power of inverting
the order of the muscular contractions, and direct-
                      N2 
150  INTESTINE--THE  MUSCULAR  COAT.

mg the  contents upwards instead of downwards—
whence vomiting ultimately arises.   Other substan-
ces, again, have the property of exciting the natural
action to a higher degree, and consequently propel-
ling the contents faster downwards—in other words,
of purging.  Rhubarb, aloes, and similar  laxatives,
especially when combined with tonics, act in this
way,  and are consequently best adapted for obvia-
ting the kind of  costiveness which arises from im-
perfect  intestinal contraction.   In a natural mode
of life,  the  muscular coat is greatly aided in its
operation by the large abdominal and thoracic mus-
cles, brought powerfully and frequently into play
during active  exercise and employments.   When
this aid is withdrawn, as it is in sedentary people,
the intestinal action often proves insufficient for the
purpose ; and  hence the costiveness  which  is so
invariable an attendant  on most females, literary
men,  and others whose occupations  deprive them
of active muscular exercise in the open air.  In fe-
males, the use of tight  stays renders the free ex-
pansion of the chest, and corresponding motion of
the abdomen, altogether impossible, and thus aggra-
vates the evils  of  their sedentary mode  of life.
Hence also the  peculiar fitness, in such cases, of
the class of purgatives above alluded to,  in prefer-
ence to those of a saline nature, which act chiefly
by  stimulating the  mucous surface to farther se-
cretion.
  In addition to the ordinary longitudinal and trans-
verse fibres, the  colon presents three remarkable
muscular bands running along its whole length, and
one of which is represented on the colon in the figure
on page 140.  On the rectum all the three bands
are seen.   It is  in the colon and  rectum that the
feculent matter accumulates before it is thrown out
of the bowels,  and these bands are useful chiefly by
adding to their propelling power.
  The natural  tendency of muscular fibre being to 
     INTESTINE--THE  MUSCULAR COAT.    151

contract, it may naturally be  supposed that, after
the intestine is emptied, its opposite sides will come
into  contact, and, by thus obliterating the  cavity
altogether, present an obstacle to the subsequent
passage of any solid matter.   But, on inspecting the
abdomen after death, we rarely meet with any con-
siderable portion thus contracted ;  and in general,
the whole intestines are distended to a greater or
less  degree,  according  to  circumstances.   The
agent by which this effect  is brought about, is one
known more familiarly by  the inconveniences and
pain to which it gives rise when in  excess, than  by
its proper uses, which are nevertheless important.
I allude to the presence of air in the bowels, which
is as necessary to their healthy action as their mus-
cular contraction itself.  Air, in fact, by its expan-
sive energy, forms the antagonist power to the mus-
cular coat, and serves to dilate the bowel after the
requisite contraction has propelled its contents.  A
certain  degree of distention, indeed, not only is a
stimulus to farther muscular contraction, but is use-
ful in facilitating the passage of the subsequent por-
tions of the feculent matter ;  and hence the  injec-
tion  of  air into the bowels  in large quantity, has
lately been employed successfully in overcoming
obstinate  constipation.
  The mucous, internal, or villous coat of  the intes-
tine, also resembles in many respects that of the
stomach.   It is a soft, velvety membrane, full  of
wrinkles  or  folds through the greater part  of its
course, by means of which its surface is greatly  in-
creased in extent, so  as to  afford ample  space  for
the ramification of the bloodvessels, nerves, and ab-
sorbents, with which  it is very plentifully supplied.
The  cut on p. 161 will convey some idea of its ap-
pearance, as  seen in the smaller intestine.  So  far
as nutrition is concerned, the mucous coat  is the
truly essential part of the bowel.   It alone is in  di-
rect  contact  with the chyme, and in its cavity the 
152      INTESTINE--MUCOUS  COAT.

bile and pancreatic juice perform their respective
parts, and give rise to the formation of chyle, which
is  afterward transmitted  from its surface  into the
general system.  The peritoneal and muscular coats
are useful only in affording protection, and  commu-
nicating the power of propelling its contents.
  The mucous coat appears, on examination, to be
so entirely continuous with the skin, that no line of
demarcation can be detected between  them either
at the mouth  or at the  anus.   In  structure  they
greatly resemble each other, and the  sympathy be-
tween them  is well  known to be very rapid and  in-
timate.  Eruptions on the skin, for example, are  al-
most always owing to disorder of the digestive or-
gans ;  and bowel-complaint, on the other hand, is
often produced by a sudden chill on the surface.s  In
like manner, in enormous eaters like those formerly
mentioned, an immense exhalation takes place from
both the skin and the bowels, and in many instan-
ces the one supplies the place of the other in a con-
siderable degree.  We have seen, moreover, that in
the lowest tribes of animals, the digesting surfaces
and skin are not only undistinguishable, but actual-
ly convertible into each other by the simple process
of turning the animal inside out, when each will
perform the function of the other as well as if it had
never done any thing else.
  In common with the skin, too, the mucous coat is
charged with the double  function of excretion and
absorption.  For the former, it is eminently fitted by
its plentiful supply of blood, and by the great num-
ber of minute vessels ramified on its surface, from
the extremities of which  the excretion  takes place.
It  is by this channel that  much of the waste matter
requiring to be removed from the body is  thrown
out.   Being  poured into the  cavity of the intestine
from the small arterial branches, it mixes there with
the indigestible residuum of the food and bile, and,
united with them, forms  the  common feces or ex- 
    INTESTINE--MUCOUS COAT--ITS USES.   153

crement.  When the blood is suddenly repelled from
the surface  by a chill, and thrown in upon these
vessels  in large quantity, the  natural excretion  is
sometimes increased to such an extent as to con-
stitute bowel-complaint;  while at other times, that
peculiar form of action is induced which constitutes
inflammation.   The local stimulus of some kinds of
food, and of many medical substances, also excites
the secretion  to  unusual activity.   Salts, for in-
stance,  have this  effect, and thus often produce nu-
merous  fluid evacuations, the substance or materials
of which did not before  exist in the bowels; and
hence the mistake into which  many fall, of taking
more medicine on the ground of this effect proving
that much stuff was lodging in the bowels—when,
in fact,  it was not only removed, but created by the
physic.   It is from exciting a fluid discharge of this
description, that saline purgatives are so useful for
lowering the tone of the system when that is requi-
red;  but, for the same reason, they are most im-
proper where  relaxation  and debility already exist.
In the cholera, almost the whole fluids of the body
are carried off by this channel,  leaving the blood too
thick in consistence to circulate longer through the
smaller vessels.
  The excretions from the minute arterial branches
ramified on the internal  coat  are mingled with a
bland Jluid from the mucous follicles,  the evident
use of which is to protect from injury the sensitive
surface  of the intestine.  Occasionally, however,
the mucous  secretion becomes  so abundant and vis-
cid as to adhere with unusual force, and to impede
the formation and absorption of the chyle, and even
the action of the usual purgatives.  Worms are then
common, and  cannot be expelled except by reme-
dies which tend to remove the mucus in which they
live imbedded.
  To fit the mucous coat  for its office of absorption,
an immense number of minute  vessels, called absor- 
154 INTESTINE--MUCOUS COAT--ABSORBENTS.

bents, are ramified on its internal surface, the nature
and purposes of which are analogous to those men-
tioned  in the former volume when describing the
functions of the skin.*  In both structures the ab-
sorbents are small capillary or hair-sized vessels, so
infinite  in number that  at  least one goes to every
little point or papilla.  Those which open upon the
inner surface of the smaller intestines, and which
suck in or absorb the chyle, are called lacteal absor-
bents, or simply the lacteals, or milk-vessels (marked
LL in the  subjoined wood-cut),  from the white col-
s..>-
our of the chyle shining through them, and giving
them the appearance of vessels full of milk.  In
that part of the gut they are so numerous, that every
minute point of the villous coat may be seen by the
aid of a  microscope to contain one, with its mouth
open  to  receive the chyle  as fast as it is formed:
*■ Principles of Physiology, &c., chap. ii. 
 INTESTINE--MUCOUS COAT--ABSORBENTS.  155

Even in  the  colon  the  absorbents are numerous;
but, as all traces of chyle have there disappeared,
they are  much fewer than in the smaller intestines.
In the colon they serve chiefly to remove the more
watery portions of the intestinal contents, by which
means the feces are rendered more  solid and less
bulky, and therefore better adapted for being retain-
ed for a time  without inconvenience.  It sometimes
happens  that, when food or medicine cannot be
swallowed in the usual way, life is preserved by in-
jecting it into the bowels;  in which case the ab-
sorbents  of the large gut become active, and carry
it into the system.   Opium laxatives and other rem-
edies are often administered in the same way, when
any reason exists against giving them by the mouth.
  There  are  absorbents  in every structure  of the
body, because there are everywhere waste particles
to be taken up and removed; but, except in the case
of the lacteals, their contents are limpid, or colour-
less,  and hence in other places they are called lym-
phatics:  in  almost every other respect, however,
the two  classes of vessels are analogous to  each
other.
  The peculiar property by which the minute lac-
teal vessels take up the white chyle is not well un-
derstood. From the fact in physics that liquids rise
in capillary tubes, the inference  has been  drawn
that  absorption in living vessels  also  takes place
from  capillary attraction.  But in the animal body
the application of the principle is undoubtedly mod-
ified by the properties peculiar to organization, and
one of the most remarkable proofs of this is the cir-
cumstance of the absorbent vessels in different sit-
uations having to some extent a specific adaptation
to the qualities of the substances upon which  they
are severally destined to act.  At one time, indeed,
it was supposed that the principle of exclusive adap-
tation was so complete that every absorbent vessel
was permanently shut to every thing except its own 
156  INTESTINE--MUCOUS COAT--ABSORBENTS.
 peculiar object, and that, from amid many elements^
 each selected its own with unerring tact.   But of
 late it has been proved that the absorbents are less
 rigidly discriminating than was previously supposed,
 and that substances are readily taken up by them
 which nature  never intended them to receive.  In
 mixing madder with the food of fowls, for example,
 for the  purpose of dying their bones, the colouring
 matter of the root is ta-
 ken up without difficulty
 by  the  absorbents along
 with the chyle, although
 madder  was   certainly
 never intended to be their
 natural  stimulus.   But
 even admitting this  lati-
 tude in its fullest extent,
 there still exists a fitness
 and  peculiarity  of  rela-
tion between  the absor-
bents and their proper ob-
 jects, which renders the
latter more  accessible to
them than  any  foreign
body.
  The lacteal vessels are
 most easily  seen an hour
 or two after a meal; be-
 cause they are then fully
 distended  with  chyle,
 even in  their  smaller
 branches. The latter, in-
 deed, may then be  dis-
 tinctly traced proceeding
 from the different   por-
 tions of  intestine,  and
gradually coalescing into
larger trunks,  as seen at
 LL in the figure on p. 154.
 
     INTESTINE--COURSE OF THE CHYLE.   157

These, again, terminate in the vessel called the
thoracic duct (the beginning of which is seen at TD
in the same figure), by which the chyle is conveyed
almost in a direct course along the spine, and which
is represented at DDDD in the  preceding  cut.  On
its arrival at  the upper part of the chest, the thora-
cic duct crosses over and opens into the vein S, just
before the latter reaches the right side of the heart,
so that the chyle is there poured into the circulating
current of the venous blood.
   Such is  the course of the chyle.  But the lacteal
absorbents, in their progress from the intestine to
the thoracic duct, pass through the small  glandular
bodies called the mesenteric glands  (M. G. p.  154),
where some change, the nature of which  is not at
all understood, is produced upon the chyle, but
which seems nevertheless to be  of importance to
its constitution.  Where these glands are  hardened
and enlarged, as they often are in scrofulous children
with large prominent bellies and  thin  bodies, nu-
trition is  greatly  impaired, although the  appetite
and stomachic digestion remain comparatively un-
affected.
   The reason why the chyle is  carried so far to be
poured into the current of the venous blood, just
before the latter reaches the right side of the heart,
is, on consideration, not less obvious than cogent.
Chyle  itself  is not fitted to  become a constituent
part of the animal frame.  Before it can become so,
it must be converted into blood ; and this can be effect-
ed only by exposing  it  to  the action of the air, in
the air-cells of the lungs, in a state of intimate mix-
ture with the venous blood.  This admixture, again,
is ensured by the  gradual way in which the chyle
advances along the thoracic duct, and falls into the
circulating current almost drop by drop ;  and it takes
■»lace just  before  the dark blood has  finished  its
course, and is again subjected to complete aeration in
jts passage through the  lungs.  As explained in the 
158
BAD  AIR HURTFUL.
former volume, this aeration is so indispensable to
the renovation of the old and the formation of new
blood, that whenever it is rendered imperfect, either
by obstructions in the lungs themselves, or by the
absence of a sufficiently pure air without, the result
is invariably injurious to health; because the blood,
being no longer properly constituted, becomes inca-
pable of furnishing a healthy stimulus and nourish-
ment to all the parts of the body.   Hence the rapid
"decline" which follows the appearance of pulmo-
nary consumption, and other diseases affecting the
structure, and interrupting  the functions, of  the
lungs.
   Everybody knows as a fact that bad air is hurtful,
and that wasting disease  of the lungs is  attended
with rapid loss of flesh and strength ; but the man-
ner in which these effects are produced is  not so
familiarly known.  Yet, in a practical point of view,
a  knowledge of the  principle  is highly important.
Properly  considered,  respiration  is  in  reality  the
completion of digestion.  The stomach may convert
the food into chyme, the small intestines may con-
vert the chyme into chyle, and the absorbents may
take up the latter, and duly convey it into the  cir-
culating system ; but, unless it undergo the necessary
change in the air-cells of the lungs, it will not con-
stitute  good  blood, or afford due nourishment to the
body.  Hence it is that those among the working
classes who are much confined in an impure  and
insalubrious  atmosphere, even when plentifully sup-
plied with  food, are generally thin and ill-nourished;
and hence those who, along with good digestion,
have small narrow chests, and very limited respira-
tion, are  commonly  found to  be constitutionally
lean,—while those who, along with good digestion,
have amply-developed lungs, and free and powerful
respiration,  are at the same time remarkable  for
proportional vigour of nutrition and  stoutness of
body.  Tt  is  on this account that in chronic pulmo- 
        NERVES OF  THE  MUCOUS  COAT.     159

nary  disease recovery is always to be distrusted,
unless,  along with the disappearance of the promi-
nent symptoms, restoration of the lost flesh occurs.
If nutrition remains impaired,  however great the
relief may be in other respects, there is reason  to
believe that the lungs are still so extensively diseas-
ed as  to injure their  functions, and  that, on the
application of any fresh exciting cause, the dormant
mischief will resume  its activity.   In such cases,
when stomachic digestion is sound,  a full diet gen-
erally over-stimulates  the  system, by pouring into
the blood more chyle than  the  lungs  are able  to
assimilate;  in  consequence of which  it is diffused
ovc:  tbf  whole body in  an imperfect  state  of
preparation.
   The mucous  membrane is, like the skin, well pro-
vided with nerves, and has a mode of  sensation pecu-
liar to itself.  Every villous point, indeed, has a ner-
vous  fibre ramified on  it, to  give it the necessary
sensibility  to its own stimuli.  It  is true, we are
not so conscious in health of  the impressions made
on the intestinal nerves; but this, as already shown in
describing the  stomach, is  a privilege and not a de-
fect.  They recognise  their appropriate stimuli, and
cause the necessary  actions  to follow without re-
quiring aid from the will.  But when they meet with
substances which ought not to  be  there, such  as
pieces of indigested food, or foreign bodies which
nave  no natural relation to their constitution, they
immediately indicate  uneasiness, and  excite the
muscular contractions  to rid them of the offending
cause.
  To secure full and natural action in the intestinal
canal, several principal conditions  are thus neces-
sary,  failure of any of which  may  impair  their
activity.  The first condition is well-digested chyme
and chyle; the second, a due quantity and quality
of mucous and vascular secretions from the villous
coat;  the third, full contractile power in the muscu- 
 160        INTESTINE--DUODENUM.

 lar fibres of the intestine, and free action of the ab-
 dominal  and respiratory  muscles; and the last,  a
 due nervous sensibility to receive  impressions, and
 communicate the necessary stimulus.  And hence,
 when the bowels act imperfectly, it is of importance
 to ascertain to what cause the inability is to be as-
 cribed, that an appropriate treatment may be de-
 vised.

   Such are the general structure and uses of the in-
 testinal canal; but there are modifications in its in-
 dividual portions  on which it may be right to  offer
 a few additional remarks.   We shall begin with the
 duodenum.
   The duodenum (from duodeni, twelve, being  con-
 sidered equal in  length to twelve finger-breadths)
 commences at the  pyloric orifice  of  the stomach,
 from which it crosses over, under the lower surface
 of the liver, towards the right side ; it then descends
 in front of the right  kidney, and  there forming  a
 second curve, it  proceeds again  towards the left,
 and a little beyond the spinal column,  terminates in
 the jejunum.  It  thus describes a course like the
 letter C,  and has  its convexity turned towards the
 right, while  the pancreas or sweetbread (PP) lies in
 the space enclosed by its concavity.  To enable the
 reader to form some notion of the relative position
 of these parts, I have introduced a wood-cut on the
next page, showing the situations and appearance
 of the different organs after the intestines, as in the
figure on page 147, have been removed from  the
body.  The letters LLLL point  out  the  inferior
 surface of the liver, a little raised  from its natural
position, to show the gall-bladder G, and the pancreas
PP, round the right end of which the duodenum is
 curved.   S indicates the spleen, with a vacant space
over it, in which  the  stomach lies.  The kidneys,
 KK, lie one on each side of the spine ; and the two
pipes TJU are the  ureters,  which  convey their se- 
 
 162        INTESTINE--DUODENUM.

 creted fluid to the  bladder B.  The letters A A indi-
 cate the great artery (the aorta), through which the
 nutritive blood descends to supply the bowels and
 lower parts of the body; and VV mark  the corre-
 sponding vein (the cava), by which the  dark  blood
 returns from the extremities towards the heart.  R
 is the beginning of the rectum, or straight gut, seen
 at YY in the cut on page 147.
   The  duodenum, being  thus  in  the  immediate
 vicinity of the spine, is fixed firmly down  in its
 position by the  connecting membrane,  and is  not
 left to float loosely in the cavity of the abdomen or
 belly.   Had it not been tied down in this way, it
 would not only have acted by its weight as a contin-
 ual drag upon the stomach, and  disturbed its  func-
 tions, but likewise have  been constantly  altering its
 own relation to the pancreatic and hepatic (or  liver)
 ducts, and thereby affecting the  flow of their re-
 spective fluids into its cavity, by which chylification
 would have been often interrupted.
  The duodenum is much smaller in diameter than
 the stomach, but larger  than the jejunum, or ileum ;
 and its muscular coat is also thicker.  From its size
 and the importance of the changes effected in it, it
 has been considered by some as  a secondary stom-
 ach, or ventriculus succenturiatus.   It is more firmly
 fixed to the body than the other intestines, and does
 not, like them, float loosely in the abdomen.   In its
 course,  until its  termination in the jejunum,  it de-
 scribes  a kind of C, the  concavity of which  looks
 to the left.   From  this shape it has been separated
into  three portions—the  first situated horizontally
beneath the liver ; the second descending vertically
in front of the right  kidney; and the third in  the
transverse mesocolon.
  Its mucous membrane presents a number of cir-
cular folds, as shown in the subjoined  wood-cut.
These folds or ruga are called valvula conniventes, 
DUODENUM.
163
or folding valves, and are inherent in the nature of
the  mucous coat, and not produced by mere folds
of the whole thickness of the intestine, consequent-
ly they exist even when the  latter  is  distended.
They are comparatively few in number in the part
of the duodenum near the stomach, and gradually
multiply in the course downwards till they arrive at
the  maximum of development at its lower end and
in the jejunum; they again diminish in the ileum,
and  disappear altogether in the larger gut.  The
bloodvessels  and nerves of the duodenum are ex-
tremely numerous, and indicate the importance of
its functions.
  The duodenum serves to receive the chyme as it
issues from the stomach, and to prepare it for the
farther action of the agents of digestion.  The bil-
'iary and the  pancreatic juices contribute most to
chylification.  The  pancreas is the largest of the 
164   THE LIVER--EILE— ITS  NATURE.

salivary  glands.  A considerable  excretory duct
passes entirely through this organ, and opens into
the duodenum.   The excretory portion of the bil-
iary system includes the proper excretory duct of
the liver, and a cul-de-sac of this canal termed the
gall-bladder.  The  bile is generally distinguished
into cystic  and hepatic.   From this peculiarity it is
legitimately enough inferred that the liver serves
the double purpose of providing a fluid indispensable
for chylification and the proper action of the bow-
els as organs of excretion, and  also of separating
from the venous blood useless or spent materials,
which require to be thrown out of the system.  The
influence of the bile as a stimulant to the bowels is
proved by the fact that costiveness ensues when it
is  deficient  in quantity, and an opposite condition
when the secretion is redundant, as during the heat
of autumn.
  Bile is a bitter, viscid, greenish-yellow fluid, the
taste and general appearance of which are familiar
to most people; and the office of which in the ani-
mal economy must be one of no small moment, if it
be justly chargeable with even a tenth part of the
catalogue of human ills which are laid to its ac-
count.  Its secretion seems to go on continuously;
but the quantity produced depends much  on the
amount of venous blood which is circulating through
the liver at the time.  Hence, in health, it is always
greatest soon after a meal; because, as we have al-
ready seen, the supply of blood in both the arteries
and the veins connected with digestion is then at its
maximum.
  But as the secretion of the bile is constantly go-
ing on, and  its presence in the duodenum is required
only when the latter contains chyme, a contrivance
becomes requisite for storing it up in the interval,
to be ready for use when wanted.  This is effected
by the small shut sac or bag G, named the gall  (or 
        THE  LIVER--BILE--ITS NATURE.    165

bile) bladder, which adheres to the lower surface of
the liver, and is  always most full  after a fast of
some duration.   The bile contained in the gall-blad-
der is generally more viscid, dark,  and bitter than
that which proceeds directly from the liver—appa-
rently from the absorption of its more fluid parts.
It is in this bag that gall-stones, as they are called,
are sometimes  formed,  and it is  their passage
through the narrow tube in which it  terminates that
causes the acute  pain so often complained of in
that affection.
  From the liver the bile is conducted into the du-
odenum through  a membranous tube of about  the
diameter of a quill, and which is called the biliary or
hepatic duct.  In its course a similar pipe, called the
cystic duct (from wans, kystis, a bladder), from  the
gall-bladder, unites with it into  one  trunk, like the
two limbs of the letter Y ; and this trunk enters the
duodenum by an orifice common to  it and the pan-
creatic duct.
  In the healthy state bile is to be found only in the
duodenum, and not in the stomach; although one
would suppose the contrary from the familiar way
in which we speak of the stomach being oppressed
with bile, and of our being " very bilious." When
vomiting is excited, either artificially or by illness,
we no doubt often bring up plenty of bile.  Some-
times this bile  has been existing in the stomach,
and causing  nausea;  but very often it  is brought
into the stomach solely  by the inverted action
which constitutes  vomiting, and  was consequently
placed there by the very remedy which is supposed
to have cleared it away.   The process of vomiting
is accompanied by an inverted action of the intes-
tinal canal, whereby it propels its contents upwards
instead of downwards, and  thus the bile is,  as it
were, forced up from the duodenum into the stom-
ach, instead of  being propelled downwards and ex- 
166      THE PANCREAS — ITS JUICE.

pelled in the usual way.  Hence, in sea-sickness for
example, the first fits of retching generally bring up
nothing but food or mucus—the real contents of the
stomach,—and it is only after  continued straining
that bitter bile makes its appearance.  In the heal-
thy state, fat or oily food often causes the presence
of bile in the stomach,  as if its aid were necessary
there for the accomplishment of digestion.
  The pancreas, or sweetbread, PP, is  a large oblong
gland, which lies across the  spine, and secretes a
fluid almost identical with the saliva.  Its duct, as
stated above, enters the duodenum along with the bil-
iary duct, so that the two fluids meet  at their en-
trance, which  takes place at  the first curvature of
the intestine, at the distance of about one third of its
whole length from the stomach.
  The  bile and pancreatic  juice,  thus  poured out
together, are both requisite for the  formation of
chyle,  and apparently  modify  the action of each
other.  The bile being somewhat of an unctuous na-
ture, and the  pancreatic juice  somewhat  alkaline,
their union forms a kind of saponaceous compound,
which  is less  irritating, and more easily incorpora-
ted with the chyme, than pure bile.
  In proportion as the chyme is formed and expelled
from the stomach it is received into the duodenum,
where  it probably undergoes some farther  change,
even before arriving at the entrance of the biliary
or pancreatic ducts.  From the numerous folds or
wrinkles which line the inner surface of the duode-
num, and impede the motion of its contents, and also
from the intestine itself being more fixed down, and
less subjected  to the influence of the movements of
respiration, the progress of the chyme along its sur-
face is very slow.  Every particle of  chyme is thus
allowed to receive its share of the bile and pancreat-
ic juice as it  proceeds on  its  course, and time  is
afforded for the requisite changes  taking place.
  By  simply  stating that,  in the duodenum, the 
        INTESTINE--JEJUNUM—ILEUM.     167

chyme becomes mixed with the  two fluids just
mentioned, and that the result is its separation into
a fluid, milky,  and nutritive portion, named chyle,
which is absorbed by the lacteals, and a darker,
yellow-coloured, thickish mass, which remains in
the bowel, we  communicate to the reader almost
eveiy thing that is known on the subject.   Theories
and conjectures could be added, but scarcely any
facts of a very positive nature.

  The remainder of the small intestine, namely, the
jejunum (from jejunus, fasting or hungry, because it
is generally empty), and the ileum (from ti\m, eileo, I
twist or turn about), marked  RSSSS in the cut  on
p. 117, are  merely continuations  of the duodenum,
and have  precisely the same number of coats  and
the same  general structure.  The inner surface
presents the  same kind of folds or ruga, whereby
the extent of the mucous membrane  is increased,
and ample space given for tke ramifications of blood-
vessels, and the origin of the absorbents  by which
the chyle is sucked up and carried into the system.
Exhalation or exudation also goes  on from  their
surface, and in bowel complaints often becomes so
excessive as  in a few days to reduce the patient to
the extremity of emaciation and weakness.
  As the contents of the jejunum and ileum advance,
the proportion  of chyle in them becomes smaller
and smaller, and the residual matter becomes more
and more consistent, yellow, and fetid—approaching,
in short, to the ordinary appearance of excrement
when expelled from the body.  In accordance with
these changes, the number of absorbent vessels, and
the distinctness of the villous folds,  gradually di-
minish as  we proceed downward,  till, on arriving
at the termination of the ileum, in the  colon, or
great gut,  they altogether disappear,  and the con-
tents  assume the colour, smell, and appearance by
which excrement or  feculent matter  is character-
ized. 
168          INTESTINE--COLON.

  The division between the small and great intes-
tines  is indicated, not only  by marked differences
in their diameter and external appearance, but also
by an internal valve placed between them, the ob-
ject of which is to prevent the contents of the colon
from following a retrograde course and returning to
the ileum.   It is also worthy  of notice,  that  the
colon is  not a gradually enlarged continuation  of
the ileum.   On the contrary, the latter enters the
side of  the  colon  almost at right  angles  to  its
course, at a little distance from its commencement.
The small  portion of the  colon which thus lies at
one side of the entrance  of the  ileum, and which
has of course no opening at its extremity, is thence
called the  caput cacum coli, or  blind head  of the
colon, or simply the cacum.   Its position is at  T in
the figure on p. 147, but it is hidden by the folds of
the ileum.
  The colon (from  koi\ov,  coilon,  hollow) or  great
gut UUU in the same figure, constitutes not more
than one fifth in length  of the intestinal canal.  It
begins at the lower part  of the  right side  of the
belly, at  T in the cut on page 147;  rises upwards
on the same side towards the liver; crosses over to
the left side in contact with the stomach; descends
along the left side of the abdomen; makes a turn
at UWX like  an italic s (and hence called sigmoid
flexure),  while lying on the left haunch-bone; and
lastly, terminates in the rectum or straight gut YY
at the anus.  Being fixed by local attachments, the
colon  remains always in the same situation, and
thus describes a figure not unlike a square, in the
centre of which lie the whole of the smaller intes-
tines.  In  the cut referred to, the  left portion is
hidden behind them.
  The diameter of the colon is about double that of
the small intestines.  In  structure it is analogous
to them, having three coats; but the valvula conni-
ventes, or folds of the mucous coat, are no longer to 
       INTESTINE—VERMICULAR MOTION.   169

 be seen, and with  them all traces  of chyle and
 chyle-bearing vessels also  disappear.  The  colon
 serves more as a reservoir for waste or excremen-
 titious matter than as a vital organ.  Absorption is
 carried on from  its  inner surface, but through the
 medium of lymphatic absorbents and minute venous
 ramifications, and not of lacteals.   Hence not only
 food, but medicine,  are frequently administered  by
 being injected into  the rectum, and life has been
 saved in this  way when nothing could be given  by
 the mouth.
   The passage of the intestinal contents from the
 stomach  downwards  is  effected  chiefly  by the
 peristaltic or vermicular motion, that is, the succes-
 sive muscular contraction of the middle or  fleshy
 coat  already  frequently adverted to;  and  this,  in
 its turn, is greatly aided by the constant but gentle
 agitation which the  whole digestive  apparatus re-
 ceives during  the act of breathing, and during exer-
 cise of every description.  In inhaling air into the
 lungs, the diaphragm is depressed,  the bowels are
 pushed down, the walls of the belly yield, and it
 becomes protuberant.  When air is thrown out from
 the lungs, the diaphragm  rises into the chest, the
 bowels follow, and the belly becomes flattened and
 drawn in.  The stomach and bowels are thus placed
 between, and receive a never-ending impulse  from,
 two bodies differently placed and in continual mo-
 tion.  During  exercise breathing  is deeper, and
 muscular contraction greater in power and in ex-
 tent ;  and hence the assistance afforded is also in-
creased.  Those  who  take  no  exercise, or who
have  the  chest  and  bowels confined and bound
down by tight stays and bandages, lose this natural
stimulus, and  have, in consequence,  the  bowels
obstinate and troublesome.
  The  great extent and capacity of the intestinal
canal in herbivorous  animals, and others living on
bulky and innutritious food, have been already no- 
170         INTESTINAL  DIGESTION.
ticed, and their reason explained.  Perhaps it ought
to be added, that an additional reason is the fad
that the digestion of vegetable nutriment is not, like
that  of animal food, completed in the stomach, bul
in the intestines.  It is familiarly known,  for exam-
ple, that when digestion is weak, fruits  and fresh
vegetable aliments  often pass through the bowels
very little changed; and that, even at the best, they
are digested more  slowly  than animal  food.  On
examining the bodies  of animals at different inter-
vals  from the time of feeding, the  distinguishing
fibrous  structure of vegetable food is observed to
diminish in proportion to  its  distance  from  the
stomach, and it does not finally disappear till it is
nearly arrived at the end of its course.   From this
it has been inferred, that the digestion of vegetable
matter is only partially accomplished in  the stom-
ach, and that it requires the aid of  the intestinal
juices for its completion.  Delabere  Blaine  arrives
at the same conclusion, from considering the pecu-
liar digestion of the horse.  In the horse, the stom-
ach  is a simple bag, of very moderate  size,  and
yet that animal not only can drink a gallon  or two
of water at  a time, but can eat a much larger quan-
tity  of hay  or grass than its stomach seems to be
capable  of  containing.  Blaine  explains this by
stating  that, in reality, oats and hay are not long
retained in  the stomach, and that, after receiving
the requisite supply of gastric juice, and undergoing
its influence to some  extent,  they are  gradually
propelled towards the duodenum, where their diges-
tion is continued, but not completed till  long after
being subjected to the action of the bile and pancre-
atic juice, and passing through the remainder of the
small intestine.  It is owing, he adds, to this speedy
evacuation  of the stomach, that  the horse  is less
inclined to  drowsiness, and  less  incommoded  by
active exercise soon  after meals, than almost any
other animal. 
           INTESTINAL DIGESTION.         171

  T"ae late Baron Dupuytren had several opportuni-
ties of observing something  analogous to  this in
the human subject.  He had, at various times, under
his care, patients  in whom  an opening into the
intestine had taken place at different distances from
the stomach, and through which the intestinal con-
tents readily escaped.   On giving several kinds of
food at one meal, he remarked that they presented
themselves at  the wound  in the inverse order of
their digestibility.   Thus, fresh vegetables always
made their appearance first, still retaining much of
their peculiar  structure; while animal substances
either  did not appear at all, or were so much altered
in appearance  as  scarcely to  be recognised. In
the  natural evacuations,  however,  the vegetable
structure was  generally imperceptible;  so that  a
considerable change must have taken place on it as
it advanced through the bowels, after passing the
seat of the wound.
   From the circumstance of vegetable aliment con-
taining little nourishment and much indigestible mat-
ter, it  naturally happens that a larger quantity of re-
fuse remains to be thrown out of the bowels when
it constitutes the chief part of the diet, than when
animal or farinaceous  food, which  contains  much
nourishment and little indigestible matter, is used.
Hence, as a general rule, the  bowels act more free-
ly, or  are more open, in the former than in the lat-
ter case ;  and hence the common saying, that  milk,
eggs, jellies, and meat, are  binding.  They have the
appearance of being so chiefly  because  they are al-
most wholly absorbed.  But as neither the stomach
nor the bowels are adapted  in structure for very
concentrated food, such articles cannot be long used
with advantage.  Brown and rye bread, and fruits,
 are in repute for relieving a costive  habit of body,
 and their usefulness is explicable on the same prin-
ciple.   They leave  a large residue to be  thrown
out of the system, and this residue forms the natural 
172
CONCLUDING
REMARKS.
stimulus of the bowels, and consequently excites
them to freer action.  This effect is probably aided
also by the stimulus which  the indigestible refuse
imparts to the mucous glands, increasing the lubri-
cating secretion, and giving additional facility to the
propelling powers.
  In the preceding exposition of the structure and
functions of the organs of  digestion, many  omis-
sions  necessarily occur,  and many questions  of
much intrinsic  interest  are  passed over with very
little notice.  But a minuter survey was incompat-
ible with both the objects and the limits of the work.
My great aim  was, not to  extend the bounds of
physiology, but to turn to a  useful purpose what is
already known in regard to  one of its most impor-
tant departments, and to interest a larger class of
people in its cultivation.  If I have said enough to
make the points of doctrine  on which I have touch-
ed intelligible to the ordinary reader, and to impress
him with a just sense  of their practical value, I
shall have accomplished the utmost I have  sought
to attain. 
PART  II.
THE  PRINCIPLES OF  DIETETICS VIEW-
    ED IN RELATION TO THE  LAWS
               OF  DIGESTION.
                  CHAPTER I.


                 TIMES OF EATING.

The selection of food only one element in sound digestion.—
  Other  conditions essential.—Times of eating—No stated
  hours for eating.—Five or six hours of interval between meals
  generally sufficient.—But must vary according to circum-
  stances.—Habit has much influence.—Proper time for break-
  fast depends on constitution, health, and mode of life.—Inter-
  val required  between breakfast and dinner—best time for
  dinner—circumstances in which lunch is  proper—late din-
  ners considered—their propriety dependant on mode of life.—
  Tea and coffee as a third meal—useful.in certain circumstan-
  ces —Supper considered.—General rule as to meals.—Nature
  admits of variety,—illustrations—but requires the observance
  of principle in our rules.

  Having, in the first part of the present work, tra-
ced the progress of the food through its successive
stages of preparation for becoming a  constituent el-
ement of the animal frame, and examined the struc-
ture and nature of the various organs engaged in di-
gestion, I shall  now endeavour to turn  the exposi-
tion to account, by making it, as far as possible,  sub-
servient to a closer and more rational  observance
of the laws of digestion, and to a better adaptation
                       P2 
174
TIMES OF  EATING.
of diet and regimen to different ages, sexes, and con-
stitutions, than that  which is generally prevalent.
I am deeply sensible of the imperfections which
will  abound in this part of the  work; but, at the
same time, I am so strongly impressed with the ur-
gent importance of the subject,  and  with the suc-
cess which will infallibly attend  its further investi-
gation on sound physiological principles, that I con-
sider the likelihood of personal failure to be of very
secondary  importance,  when compared  with the
benefits which will accrue  to society from  the ex-
ertions of others whose labours may be more profit-
ably directed by an acquaintance with  the  guiding
principles unfolded in these pages.
  According to the popular notions of dietetics, the
selection of the proper kind of food seems to con-
stitute the only condition required for the enjoyment
of healthy digestion.  Hence medical men are con-
stantly questioned whether this  or that article of
diet is good or bad for the stomach, while curiosity
rarely, if ever, extends  so far as  to inquire whether
nature has annexed any other conditions which also
it may be expedient  to  know and to observe.  In
reality, however, the choice of aliment is but one
out of many circumstances which require to be at-
tended to ;  and it often  happens that the same food
which  is digested  with ease when the collateral
conditions are fulfilled, will remain for hours on the
stomach unaltered when they are neglected.  Some
of these conditions, therefore, I  shall now endeav-
our to point out.  And, first, of

  Times of Eating.—If  we look to the exposition
of the objects of eating  already given in treating of
appetite, it will be obvious that nature intended us
to regulate our meals by the demands of the sys-
tem, and not to eat at  stated hours as  a matter of
course, whether nourishment were required or not.
If we are engaged in exercises which induce a rapid 
     REGULARITY  IN THE TIME OF MEALS.  175

expenditure of material, or if growth is going on so
rapidly as to require unusually ample supplies, food
ought  to be taken both  more  frequently and in
larger  quantity than when we are differently cir-
cumstanced; or, in other words, food ought to bear
a relation to the mode of life and circumstances of the
individual, and not be determined by a reference to
lime alone.
  As society  is constituted, however, there is so
much uniformity of occupation in the different class-
es of which it is composed, and the animal economy
is otherwise so much adapted to the performance of
periodical operations, that stated times may with ad-
vantage be fixed for each class, and thus the benefits
of that social and  exhilarating-  intercourse which
we all see to be so conducive to healthy digestion
may be generally obtained.  Individuals may suffer
a little from this arrangement, but the vast majority
will undoubtedly be benefited.
  Where the mode of life is regular and nearly the
same throughout a whole class, the same waste will
go on, and the same demand for a supply of nourish-
ment occur, throughout all  the  individuals compo-
sing it, subject only to such variations as are induced
by original differences of age and constitution.  Con-
sequently, as regards such a class, regularity in the
recurrence of their meals is not less natural than
advantageous ; because not only are all the individ-
uals subjected  to  nearly the  same exertions, but
every day is so like another, that the want will al-
ways be  felt at the same hour ; and it is only when
we attempt to  combine the same order of diet with
different  and even incompatible modes of life, that
nature  refuses to sanction the  arrangement.
  So strong, indeed, is the tendency to periodicity in
the  system, that appetite  returns for a time at the
accustomed hour, even after the mode of life, and
consequently the wants of the system, have under-
gone a change ; and if not gratified it again subsides. 
 176   INTERVAL BETWEEN MEALS TO BE

 Ultimately, however, it calls with too strong a voice
 to allow of its being thus disregarded.
  Nature has accorded to man considerable latitude
 in fixing the interval within which the demands of
 appetite must be gratified, and in this provision has
 obviously had in view the infinite variety of circum-
 stances in which he may be placed in the discharge
 of his numerous duties.  As a general rule, five  or
 six hours should  elapse between one meal and an-
 other—longer if the mode of life be indolent, shorter
 if very active.  Digestion  occupies from  three  to
 four or five hours, and the  stomach requires an in-
 terval of rest after the process is finished, to enable
 it to recover its tone, before it can again enter upon
 the vigorous performance of its function.   Appetite,
 accordingly, does not begin to show itself till  some
 time after the stomach has been empty, and if food
 be taken before it has recovered its tone, the secre-
 tion of gastric juice and the contracting of its mus-
 cular fibres are alike imperfect, and digestion con-
 sequently becomes impaired.
  The interval between each meal ought to be longer
 or shorter in proportion to the quantity eaten, and
 to the  more or  less active habits of the individual:
 and it would be  absurd to fix the same standard for
 all.  A strong labouring man, whose system is sub-
jected to great waste from being engaged all day  in
 hard work, will require not only more frequent, but
 more copious meals than an indolent and sedentary
 man; and those who eat very little will require  to
 eat at shorter intervals than those whose meals are
 heavy.  An  invalid on restricted diet may thus re-
 quire to eat every four hours, where formerly, with
 a more copious diet,  once in six hours was suffi-
 cient.  Some indeed  are  so constituted  as to re-
 quire only one or  two abundant meals in twenty-
 four hours.
  Early training exercises great  power  over the
 stomach as well as over the mind.  In  savage life, 
       DETERMINED  BY CIRCUMSTANCES.   177

where the supplies of food are precarious, a single
meal may be copious enough to  serve for two or
three days together.  The monks of La Trappe make
it a part of their religion to eat only once a day, and
nothing but vegetable food—unless when sick, in
which case  milk  is allowed; but it is long before
they become reconciled to the restriction.   I once
travelled for three days in a French diligence with
one of the order,  then on his way from Italy to the
Monastery of La  Trappe, near Nantes, and observ-
ed that he scrupulously adhered to his single meal.
He had a dispensation, however, authorizing him to
eat animal  food  and use wine during his journey;
and I was surprised at the extent to which he avail-
ed himself of the  permission, and to see him devour
at one time  a store sufficient to last for a week in-
stead of a day.  But, as in the case of the boa con-
strictor in similar circumstances, a deep lethargy
immediately succeeded, and it  was not till four or
five hours afterward that his almost apoplectic fea-
tures became again animated and expressive; long
before his time came round, however, his renewed
appetite  betrayed itself by  expressive glances to-
wards the comforts of the breakfast-table.
  Nature, then, has fixed no particular hours for eating,
but has left us to  adapt our regimen to our respect-
ive ages, constitutions, and modes of life.   Where
the mode  of life is uniform, fixed hours  may be
adopted ; where it is irregular, we ought to be gui-
ded by the real wants of the system as indicated by
appetite.
  According to this principle, meals ought to be
early or  late in proportion to the habits of the indi-
vidual.   If,  adhering to  the order of nature, we
work by day and  sleep by night, then early break-
fast, early dinner, and an early evening meal, will
undoubtedly be the most conducive to sound diges-
tion and the enjoyment of health.  But if,  against
the laws  of nature, we  rise from bed late in the 
178       SUSCEPTIBILITY  GREATEST
forenoon, reserve our activity till late in the after-
noon, and do not go to sleep till two or three hours
before daybreak, then  assuredly the late breakfasts
and dinners of the fashionable society of the present
day are the best for our comfort that can be devi-
sed ; and the chief error lies in the practice of those
who, while they in other respects live in conformity
with nature, adopt the  hours which are  suitable for
those only who turn night into day and day into
night.
  The proper time for taking breakfast depends a
good  deal on the individual constitution and mode
of life.  Those who  eat supper ought not to break-
fast till one or two hours at least after  rising;  but
persons who dine late and eat nothing afterward
require breakfast sooner.  Individuals of a delicate
frame  are often unable for either bodily or  mental
exertion in the morning,  and are invariably injured
by any attempt at exercise or serious thinking be-
fore breakfast.  Experience is the only sure guide
in such cases, but, as a  general rule, breakfast about
half an hour or an  hour after rising will be found
most beneficial; and those who rise very early will
do  well to follow the French custom of taking a
small cup of coffee or tea, and bread, on getting up,
and reserve  their appetite for a more  substantial
breakfast three  hours later.   This is an invaluable
rule for students, who often seriously impair their di-
gestive functions by studying for hours in the morn-
ing, regardless of the craving of the system for nour-
ishment and support.
  If exposure of any kind is to be  incurred in  the
morning, whether to the weather or to the  causes
of disease, it becomes a matter of much  importance
that breakfast should  be taken  previously. It is
well known that the system is more susceptible of
infection, and of the influence of cold, miasma, and
other morbid causes, in the morning before eating
than at any other time  ; and hence it has become a 
BEFURE  BREAKFAST.
179
point of duty with all naval and military command-
ers, especially in bad climates, always to give their
men  breakfast before exposing  them to morning
dews or other noxious influences.  Sir George Bal-
lingall even mentions a regiment quartered in New-
castle, in which  typhus  fever was very prevalent,
and in  which,  of all the means used to  check its
progress,  nothing proved, nearly so successful as an
early breakfast of warm coffee.   In  aguish coun-
tries, also, experience has shown that the propor-
tion of sick among  those who are exposed to the
open air before getting any thing to eat, is  infinitely
greater than among those who have been fortified
by a comfortable breakfast.   Where there  is any
delicacy of constitution, the  risk is of course in-
creased.
   The cause of this  susceptibility in the morning is
not difficult to be discovered.  Not only  have the
stomach,  duodenum, and upper intestine  been en-
tirely empty for  several hours, but the  absorbents
and other parts engaged in the function of alimenta-
tion have likewise been in  a state of repose.  A
considerable exhalation from the skin and lungs has
at the same time been going on; and  this, taken
along with the deposition, which there is reason to
believe  takes place more actively during  sleep,  of
new particles to the  existing organization, necessa-
rily reduces the quantity and  quality of the circu-
lating fluids, and  gives rise  to a certain degree of
debility, which  is  favourable to the  action of any
morbid  cause, and which can be  removed only by
a supply of that nourishment of which the system
stands so much in need, and for which the  digestive
organs are so vigorously prepared.  The loss of
fluids during the night by insensible perspiration is
said by Sanctorius to be twice as much  as when
awake.*  This, and the loss by pulmonary exhala-
* Paris on Diet. p. 102. 
180          DELICATE PERSONS
 tion, cause a corresponding demand for fluids in the
 morning, and hence the reason Avhy our first daily
 meal is almost universally of a more fluid and less
 substantial description  than any of the subsequent
 ones; while our active exertion and  loss of solids
 during the day create a proportionate demand for a
 more substantial repast in the afternoon.
   The function of absorption is thus at its highest
 pitch of activity in the morning ; and if  the  body
 be exposed to miasma or other impurities, they will
 be much more easily and speedily absorbed by the
 skin, the pulmonary membrane, and the  stomach
 before eating, than after the  absorbents have been
 supplied with their  legitimate  food.  This is the
 true theory of the greater susceptibility  of  infec-
 tion and other poisonous influences when the stom-
 ach  is empty.
   So rapid is absorption from the stomach in the
 morning, that I have repeatedly seen nine tumblers
 of a saline mineral water taken at  eight  o'clock,
 and a very hearty breakfast finished within half an
 hour after the water was drunk !   When in bad
 health three years ago, I observed almost equal ex-
 pedition in my own person.  I took  half a pint of
 ass's milk at seven o'clock, and in consequence of
 coughing violently, was  frequently seized Avith vom-
 iting and  retching Avithin twenty minutes after ta-
 king it; but  only twice or thrice Avas any portion
 of the milk perceptible, although the stomach Avas
 entirely emptied.  This  Avas even more remarkable
 than the other case, inasmuch as milk undergoes
digestion, Avhich water does not.  In allusion to this
rapidity of absorption, Sir Francis Head, in speaking
of the quantity of the chalybeate waters swalloAved
of a morning at  the Brunnens of Nassau, humor-
ously remarks, that " one Avould think that this del-
uge of cold water Avould leave little room for tea
and sugar ; but, miraculous as it may sound, by the.
(imp I got to my ' TJof.'1 there was a?, vivrh xtnvricre in 
SHOULD  BREAKFAST  E\RLY.       181
the vessel as when she sailed ; besides this, the steel
created an appetite which it was very difficult to
govern."*
  In setting out early to travel, a light breakfast be-
fore starting is a great protection against colds and
subsequent fatigue or exhaustion.  I am quite aAvare
that robust and healthy men can and do take much
active exercise before  breakfast, Avith apparent im-
punity, if not benefit, and I have often done so my-
self ; but experience ultimately taught me that I be-
came sooner exhausted on continuing the exertion
through the day, than when I began by eating a lit-
tle.   During the first winter of my studies in Paris,
I regularly attended the surgical visits at the Hotel
Dieu, which  began at  six o'clock in the morning,
and lasted till nine, or  frequently half past nine.
Not being then aware of the principle  under dis-
cussion, I ate nothing till my return home ; but I
felt more weariness before the day was done than
the mere exertion ought to have produced. At last,
on noticing for a time  the regularity with  which
many of the workpeople passing along paid their
respects  at a small shop, the only one then open,
where fancy rolls were sold, along with wine and
brandy,  I thought of following their example, and
trying how far a roll would add to my comfort, and
impart additional vigour to the  system.  I soon
found great reason to be pleased with  the expedi-
ent, and  discovered that  I was not only less ex-
hausted  during the day, but more able to follow the
.ecture which concluded the visit, and in possession
of  a keener  appetite  for breakfast at  my return ,
and ever since I  have acted  on the principle noAv
inculcated, and with marked benefit.   I was then
astonished at the regularity with which the Parisian
workmen seemed to  take their morning dose, or
vetit verre of brandy, on their way to their labours.

       * Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau, p 46.
                        a 
f
185J EXPOSURE HURTFUL BEFORE BREAKFAST.

apparently for the very  purpose of getting that
wholesome energy which they ought to have sought
in food alone.
  During  the prevalence of cholera, both here and
on the Continent, it was often remarked that a large
proportion of the attacks occurred early in the morn-
ing, in persons who had gone to bed apparently well.
Chronic invalids and persons of a delicate habit of
body are also familiar with the  fact of the animal
heat and general vigour diminishing towards morn-
ing.  When reduced in strength by pulmonary com-
plaints,  I  often passed the night  in comparative
comfort, sure to awake about  five or  six o'clock
Avith a feeling of chill and absence of animal heat,
which I could not dissipate till after receiving suste-
nance.
  From these facts, the general inference  is clearly
warranted, that delicate persons ought to have some
kind of  food soon after  rising, and that even those
who are healthy Avill  act wisely in  not  exposing
themselves  unnecessarily  to  fatigue, infection, or
other morbid causes, without having previously sup-
plied the wants of the system, either partially by a
cup of coffee or tea, or entirely by a regular  break-
fast.  Where fever, for example, is in a family, the
danger of infection will be much greater to a person
going directly from his own bed to the  bedside  of
the patient, than to one who first takes  the precau-
tion of drinking were it only a cup of coffee.   I have
elsewhere noticed the safety which Captain Murray
obtained for his crew in the West Indies,  partly by
attention to  this rule; and have likewise referred to
the experience of Sir George Ballingall even in our
own climate.*
  In boarding-schools for the young and groAving,
who require plenty of  sustenance, and are often
obliged  to rise early, an early breakfast is  an almost

     * See the Principles of Physiology, &c, chap. iii. 
BEST  TIME FOR  DINNER.        183
indispensable condition  of  health.  On  the  Conti-
nent, in similar establishments, seven o'clock is the
common hour for breakfast, especially in summer.
  In recommending Avhat I conceive ought to be the
general rule, let me not be understood as wishing  to
extend it so far as to advise those whose constitu-
tions admit of two or three hours' activity  before
breakfast, to abandon what  experience proves to be
beneficial to them.   My only wish is to help those
who are in doubt as  to choosing the plan which is
most likely to be  of advantage, and to relieve those
who are already suffering from ignorance.

  The morning meal being comparatively a light
one, and the stomach being then in high vigour, di-
gestion goes on  briskly, so that  appetite  revives
within a shorter time than  after the more substan-
tial dinner.  Accordingly, in all nations and classes
of society not perverted from the  course of nature
a longer interval  than five hours rarely elapses be-
tween breakfast and  dinner.  Our forefathers dined
at noon, as our  sailors continue to do at the present
day;  and  over no small portion  of the Continent
of Europe, the  same  primitive hour  is still adhered
to; and among the labouring  population of Great
Britain, one or two o'clock is  the common dinner-
hour, nine being that of breakfast.  The universal-
ity of a mid-day meal among those  who rise early,
is itself a strong  presumption in favour of its  pro-
priety, and of its being in  harmony with the laws
of the animal economy.
  To prevent business from interfering unduly with
digestion, it was formerly the custom in Edinburgh
to shut up shops and  counting-houses for two hours
in the middle of  the day;  and in Switzerland, the
same practice is or lately was prevalent.  The mem-
bers of the family being then assembled, relaxation
and enjoyment take  the place of the cares  of tho
world; and the result is highly satisfactory.   The 
184       BEST TIME FOR DINNER.
appetite is keen enoragh to induce them to eat with
zest all that nature requires, Avhile it Avants the re-
sistless force which is given  by a fast of eight or
nine hours.   There is consequently slower masti-
cation, less cramming, and a much earlier return of
the aptitude for business; while at the same time
the mental and bodily faculties are refreshed by the
interruption of their accustomed labour, and the af-
fections cherished by healthful domestic intercourse
taking place before too  much Aveariness is induced
to permit of its being enjoyed.  In England, such
weariness is a very common occurrence.  The pa-
rent and husband, exhausted by the eager pursuit
of wealth during the livelong day, returns home in
the evening jaded and harassed, and little able to
take pleasure or interest in the enjoyments of his
wife and  family.   Hence, indeed, too  often arise
indifference and unhappiness between those whom
nature has formed as if on  purpose to suit each
other.
  In enterprising commercial communities—in Lon-
don  and Liverpool for example—it is  a  common
practice to hasten away to the counting-room  im-
mediately after an early breakfast; to remain there
in active employment from nine or ten o'clock in
the morning till six o'clock in the evening, and then
to hurry home to  a  late dinner at six or seven
o'clock; by which time  the vital functions have be-
come so far exhausted, as to create a strong desire
for indulgence in something stimulating both in food
and  drink.  If this desire be  gratified, immediate
relief is obtained, and  a feeling of comfort  per-
vades the frame;  but nothing can be more errone-
ous than to regard this as a proof of the indulgence
being beneficial.  The organization soon gets accus-
tomed to  the stimulus; its susceptibility becomes
impaired by the frequency with which the latter is
administered;  and in a short time indigestion is the
inevitable consequence. 
             BEST TIME FOR  DINNER.        185

    The evils attendant on this course of life are not
  unfrequently aggravated by the preposterous means
  resorted  to for their prevention.   Having  some
  vague notion that exercise improves digestion, and
  not being at all aware that there is an improper as
  well as a proper time for taking it, many persons,
  after being exhausted by seven or eight hours' con-
• finement to the counting-house, proceed to take a
  walk of four or five miles before going home to din-
  ner, and  thus utterly throw away the little strength
  that was  left to them,  and are filled with disappoint-
  ment  on finding their appetite and  digestion worse
  than  before.*  Dr. Paris mentions the  case  of a
  clerk  in  a public office who brought upon himself
  all the horrors of dyspepsy and melancholy by fol-
  loAving this plan.  He breakfasted at nine, went to
  his office at  ten, continued there till five, walked
  till seven, and  then  dined.  He Avas cured in six
  weeks, by adopting a more  rational regimen and
  dining at three o'clock.
     Many  females and delicate persons injure  their
  powers of digestion by delaying their exercise till
  the system is too much exhausted to profit by it.
  In boarding-schools the same error is often  com-
  mitted from the desire which  is felt to have all the
  lessons over  before allowing any play.
     As  a general rule, then, not more than five hours
  ought to intervene between  breakfast and dinner.
  If the mode of life be  such as involves great activity
  in the open air,  or the period of life be one of  rapid
  growth or filling up (as during  youth or convales-
  cence from illness), the interval may Avith propriety
  be shortened ; Avhereas, if the mode of life be sed-
  entary, and unattended with much activity of nutri-
  tion,  the interval may be considerably  protracted
  without  inconvenience.   Much, also, ought to de-

     * Respecting  the proper regulation of  exercise, see The
  Principles of Physiology, chap. iv.
                         Q 2 
186       BEST  TIME  FOR  DINNER.

pend on the natural rapidity  or slowness of diges-
tion.  In some constitutions, chylification goes on
so slowly that the individual can pass Avith  ease
eight or ten hours Avithout food; whereas, in oth-
ers, it is so rapid that a fresh supply becomes neces-
sary in half the time.  The proper rule in every
case is, to  take dinner  at such  an interval  after ^
breakfast as the return of healthy appetite indicates,
whether that interval be longer or shorter than the
average specified.
  That, according to this rule, the general time for
dinner ought to be somewhere about five hours  after
an ordinary breakfast, is evident from  the almost
universal return of appetite at the end of such an in-
terval,  and from the fact that many, through sheer
inability to resist longer the wholesome cravings of
nature, are in the regular practice of eating dinner
at that time, but  to  save appearances give it the
name of luncheon ; by which means they hold them-
selves  entitled to the enjoyment of a second and
more substantial dinner later in the day.
  Invalids, dyspeptics, and all who,  possessing vig-
orous digestion, wish to retain it, Avill  do  well to
follow the intentions of  nature, and observe the in-
tervals which she has appointed.   Those who disre-
gard them, and still digest Avithout  difficulty, have
reason to be grateful to  Providence  ; but they  may
rest assured that they will longer enjoy their privi-
lege, and better evince  their gratitude,  by  submit-
ting their conduct to the ordinary laws  of the ani-
mal economy, than by presuming too much on their
supposed exemption "from the salutary restraints of
reason and experience.
  Supposing nine o'clock to be the hour of breakfast,
the natural dinner-hour would thus be two o'clock;
and such, accordingly,  is that sanctioned by the
most extended experience, and which ought to be
adhered to by all  whose occupations will admit of 
BEST TIME FOR DINNER.       187
its observance, and who wish to enjoy the  highest
health of Avhich they are susceptible.
  Artificially arranged, however, as society now is,
whole classes of the community find it impossible to
dine till much later in the day.   The question then
comes to be—As we cannot follow the system laid
down by nature, what is the next best to be done 1
Ought we to eat nothing till we can find time to dine
at five, six, or seven o'clock ;  or ought we rather to
take a light meal at the natural time, about one or
two o'clock, and reserve our appetite chiefly for the
substantial  meal which Ave have leisure to digest 1
  The principle in virtue of which digestion is in-
terrupted by bodily or mental labour occurring after
a full meal, having been already sufficiently explain-
ed, it needs scarcely be added, that the second is
the better plan; and moreover, that by leaving  the
stomach too long empty, we risk impairing its func-
tions and weakening the system.
  When dinner cannot be taken earlier than  seven
or eight hours after breakfast, most people will find
it advantageous to partake of some slight refresh-
ment in the meantime—enough to blunt the  keen-
ness  of appetite, but  not entirely to destroy it.
When the individual is exposed to  much bodily  ex-
ertion in the open  air, or is at the period of rapid
growth, a portion  of animal  food, or an ordinary
luncheon, taken in  moderation, may be allowable,
and even requisite ; but where the  habits  are sed-
entary and the constitution formed, a bit of bread or
biscuit and a  glass of  water will be far more ser-
viceable.  Many people, from  want of any better
occupation, make a pastime of filling their stomachs
every forenoon at the pastry-cook's, Avith as little
regard to its powers and necessities as if digestion
were meant merely as an appendage to taste; and
think themselves entitled  to complain  of their  de-
fective appetites, and the great discomfort which at-
tends the subsequent ingestion of  a heavy  dinner. 
188        BEST  TIME  FOR  DINNER.
 To relieve the weakness, arising not from exhaus-
 tion, but from the oppression of satiety, they resort
 to wine, as if by adding fuel to the fire they could
 hope to extinguish the flame !
   Even in fashionable life the superiority of nature's
 arrangements over those of man is so far acknowl-
 edged, that it is an almost universal rule for children
 to dine in the middle of the day ; and  there cannot
 be a  doubt that the practice is  attended with mani-
 fold advantages to the young,  although, as regards
 their moral training, these would be greatly increas-
 ed were they to  associate at meals Avith  their pa-
 rents, instead of being left entirely to the  company
 and management of servants.
   Supposing it to be made an imperative  condition
 of our social existence that we  shall rise after mid-
 day, and not go to bed till  a late hour  in the morn-
 ing, the present fashion of dining at seven or eight
 o'clock becomes  much more rational  than is com-
 monly imagined  by those  who declaim against it
 without regard to the concomitant circumstances.
 It is, no doubt, most absurd and hurtful for a man
 who rises at seven or eight o'clock, breakfasts at
 nine,  and goes to  bed at eleven, to delay dining till
 seven in the evening; but it by no means follows
 that seven is a bad dinner-hour  for a person who ri-
 ses at twelve or one o'clock, breakfasts at  two, and
 goes to bed at three in the morning.  The interval
 between the breakfast at one and dinner  at seven
 o'clock, is  the same as between breakfast at nine
 and dinner at three, namely, six hours—which is
 little more than enough.  The error lies, not in the
 hours chosen for meals, but in the  utter perversion
 of the whole system of living, by which  night  is
 converted into day, and the business of life is post-
poned five or six  hours beyond  the time appointed
by the Creator for its  performance.   So  far from
 the late dinner being hurtful in such circumstances,
 it is only the stimulus and support which it affords 
           BEST  TIME  FOR  DINNER.       189

that  enables the victims to withstand the fatigue
even for a single week.
  No one has a stronger sense of the injury done to
society by the wide departure from the laws of na-
ture by which its present arrangements are charac-
terized, and no one is more willing to contribute all
that  is within his power to reform them, than the
writer of these pages; but let the whole system be
amended, and do not limit the reform  simply to al-
tering the hour of dinner, while the conditions which
have led to the existing arrangement are left un-
changed.
  In the country,  even among the higher classes, a
greater approximation to the order of nature is ob-
servable than in towns.  The inducements to sleep
away the day and to be awake during the night are
diminished; bodily exercise  and exposure to the
open air are more  indulged in; the appetite becomes
keener, and digestion more vigorous; and, as a ne-
cessary result, meals are taken an hour or two ear-
lier.   But, throughout all these changes, the general
feature of having  some kind of refreshment, either
luncheon or dinner, within four, five,  or  six hours
after breakfast, may be pretty accurately  traced.
  If  business admits of it, and the person can then
command two hours of relaxation, the best plan, un-
questionably, is to dine about five or six hours after
breakfast.   But if this be impossible, and  active ex-
ertion of mind or body must be continued for several
hours longer, it will be far better to eat some light
refreshment in the forenoon, and to postpone din-
ner not only till  business is over, but till half an
hour or an hour's repose has allowed its attendant
excitement or fatigue to subside.   By this means
the stomach will enter upon its  duties with vigour,
and the dinner be  digested with greater comfort and
despatch, than if we sit  doAvn to table the moment
our work is finished.   In this way, the tedious quar-
ter of an  hour preceding the announcement  of 
190       BEST TIME  FOF DINNER.

" dinner" is far from being lost to  the subsequent
digestion.
  Very few people, indeed, can eat a good dinner
and return immediately to bodily or intellectual la-
bour with continued impunity.   On this account,
actors, for example, aa hose vocation requires exer-
tion of both mind and body, almost all either dine
very early, or take their chief meal at night on their
return home, the latter  being  the  more  common
practice.  Students, literary men, and persons in-
tently engaged in business, are very apt to  damage
themselves by  neglecting relaxation  at  and after
meals.
  The time for dinner ought, then, to  vary accord-
ing to the constitution, occupations, and mode of
life of the individual; and the nearer  the whole of
these can be made to approximate to the intentions
of nature, the more vigorous will be the powers of
digestion, and the more  complete the nutrition of
the body; and, consequently, the more easily will
the stomach  recover the tone which  it may have
lost from previous mismanagement.  In attempting
to cure indigestion,  notwithstanding the most scru-
pulous adherence to the rules given for the proper
selection of food, if we set at defiance all the other
conditions of healthy digestion, our adherence will
be of little avail.  Whereas, if we fulfil the laws of
our constitution, by  rising from bed in  the morning,
obtaining  a healthy appetite and lively circulation
by the regular exercise of the various functions of
mind and body in a  free and pure atmosphere, eat-
ing moderately, and enjoying social relaxation after
our meals—digestion Avill be so far strengthened,
that no very rigid observance of any particular kind
of diet will be necessary;  it being always under-
stood, however,  that we  shall not exceed in quan-
tity what the wants of the system require.
  It would be a Avaste of time to discuss gravely
whether tea  and coffee  ought  to be  allowed in the 
          USES  OF TEA  AND  COFFEE.       191

evening.  Custom has already decided the point,
and experience has shown that, taken in modera-
tion, they rather promote than impede digestion.
When the dinner is early—say at one, two, or three
o'clock—a light  meal of tea and bread in the even-
ing is very suitable, as it saves the necessity of eat-
ing a heavier supper.  If the individual be accus-
tomed to much active exertion in the afternoon, so
?.s to cause  considerable waste in the system, and
especially if he  be young, a  small addition of ani-
mal food may be made with  great propriety to the
evening meal.   But, on the  other hand, Avhen the
dinner is late, or little exertion is incurred after it,
tea or coffee ought to be used more as  a diluent
than as a meal.
  The French drink a single cup  of strong coffee
Avithout cream immediately  after  dinner, and find
digestion go on all the better for it.  It  acts as a
■strong stimulant, and certainly increases  the  feel-
ing of comfort for the time.  Like all other stimu-
lants, howe\er,  its use is attended with the disad-
vantage of exhausting the sensibility of the part  on
Avhich it acts, and inducing weakness.  This incon-
venience is not felt to the same extent, indeed, after
coffee as after spirits, but still it  exists;  and it is
infinitely better that the stomach should be brought
up to do its own work ungrudgingly,  than  taught to
depend upon assistance from without; and, there-
fore, such assistance  ought to  be  reserved for the
relief of occasional exhaustion, instead of being re-
sorted to as a regular indulgence.   The French par-
take of a much greater variety of  dishes  at one
meal than Ave are accustomed to do, and may thus
require the aid of  coffee to keep the stomach from
actual rebellion.  But the Avay to  obviate this ne-
cessity is obviously to eat a more simple and more
moderate meal.
  A great deal has been said  and Avritten about the
properties of tea and  coffee as articles of diet.  At 
192    PROPRIETY OF  A THIRD MEAL.

present, however, we have to do with them only as
elements of a third meal, and must reserve the dis-
cussion of the other branch  of the subject to a
future opportunity.
  In. determining whether a third meal ought to be
taken, either as tea or as supper, the general prin-
ciple already laid down will be very useful.  If din-
ner be sufficiently early to admit of digestion being
completed, and the stomach afterward recruited by
repose, and if the mode  of life  be active, so as to
occasion a natural return of appetite before the day
is  done,  the propriety of a third  meal cannot be
questioned.  But if dinner be late, and there be  too
short an interval between it and bedtime to admit
of digestion being finished and the appetite renew-
ed, then every  additional mouthful  swalloAved is
sure to do mischief.  The farmer Avho dines at two
o'clock, for example,  and, after  walking about  his
fields for three or four  hours  in the afternoon,
comes home in the  evening with a genuine and  un-
deniable  appetite, has a legitimate right to an addi-
tional supply  of Avholesome food before betaking
himself to his couch;  because a sufficient interval
has elapsed to allow the stomach to recover itself
from the labour of digesting his dinner, and the con-
tinued Avaste of the  system requires to be replaced.
In like manner, the man of fashion, who dines at
seven o'clock, and frequents assemblies till three or
four in the morning, is well entitled  to some kind
of supper  about one  or two o'clock, and could
scarcely  get  through  his laborious duties  without
farther sustenance  from  either  food or wine, or
both.   Even in his  case, six hours may thus inter-
vene between dinner and supper;  and Ave know
that, on an average, digestion  is finished in four or
five hours. The  chief difference between him and
the farmer is, that the  farmer  reaps health  and
sound digestion from adhering in his hours to  the
institutions of the Creator, and that the man of fash- 
      PROPRIETY  OF SUPPER CONSIDERED.  193

ion impairs his  constitution  and enfeebles  his  di-
gestion—less by the improper intervals at which he
eats, than by his wide departure from the order of
nature in the hours which he observes.
  If, in adopting the precepts of ultra-temperance,
Ave dine  early, live actively, and go to bed with the
stomach entirely  empty, Ave may sleep,  but our
dreams will scarcely be more pleasant, or our sleep
more tranquil, than if the stomach were overloaded.
A gnawing sense of vacuity  is felt in such circum-
stances,  which is  apt to induce restlessness, and
nervous  impatience and irritability.  I have repeat-
edly  seen these  unpleasant symptoms dispelled,
and sound sleep obtained, by no other prescription
than a cupful of arrow-root  an hour or tAvo before
bedtime.
   Except  in early  life, and in the case of those
 who  lead  a very  laborious existence, and  observe
very early hours, supper as a fourth meal is alto-
gether superfluous, at least where any thing  is eaten
at tea.   In youth, waste, groAVth, and nutrition  are
so active, that a moderate supper is often indispen-
sable, especially when the muscular system is freely
exercised  in the open air.   But it ought to be of  a
light  nature, and taken at least an hour or  tAvo  be-
fore going to bed.   If dinner be taken early, and
tea be used in the afternoon, not as a meal,  but
merely as  a diluent,  a life"ht supper will  be very
proper.
   In short, the grand rule in fixing the number and
periods of our meals is, to proportion them to the real
ivants of the system, as modified by age, sex, health,
and manner of life, and as indicated by the true returns
of appetite ; and, as an approximative guide, to bear
in  mind that, under ordinary circumstances of  ac-
tivity and  health,  three, four, or  five  hours  are re-
quired for the digestion of a full meal, and one or
tAvo hours more of repose before the stomach  can
again become fit for the resumption of its  labours. 
194         PRINCIPLES ON WHICH

If the meal be temperate and the mode of life natu-
ral, digestion will  be completed in from three to
four  hours, and one  hour of rest will  serve to re-
store its tone ; but if the quantity of food be great,
or the general habits be those of indolence, diges-
tion  may be protracted to five or six hours, and two
or more be required for subsequent repose.  It  is
therefore  utterly absurd and inconsistent with the
laAvs of nature to pretend,  as many  Avriters have
done, to lay down rules  Avhich shall apply to every
individual and to every variety of  circumstances.
As already  mentioned,  rules applicable to  classes
may be prescribed, because  there is a considerable
similarity in the circumstances of all the individuals
comprehended in it; but even  there numerous ex-
ceptions must occur, which  can" be  judged  only by
the standard of the individual constitution.
   The Creator indeed has obviously never intended
that we should be bound down to the rigid obser-
vance of  a very strict order in diet;  but, to fit us
for the ever-varying circumstances in which we are
placed, has wisely and benevolently allowed us con-
siderable latitude, and made  appetite to vary in the
extent and earnestness of its demands  in proportion
to the waste to which we  are subjected  for the
time.  It is astonishing how rapidly a healthy frame
accommodates itself even to great changes, when
temperance is duly observed, and a proper regard
is paid to the intimations of  appetite.
   In suiting my own mode  of life  to the  circum-
stances under Avhich I have at various times been
placed, I have repeatedly, even as an  in valid, made
sudden changes in the hours of eating, with no fur-
ther injury than temporary  discomfort; but then I
always adhered to the general principles above in-
sisted  on.  It was by some of these experiments
that my attention Avas first drawn to the great influ-
ence of the accessary conditions in retarding  or
promoting digestion.  At one time, on altering my 
      MEALS  OUGHT TO  BE DETERMINED.   195

place of residence from Aix to Marseilles, I changed
at once from breakfasting at eight o'clock, dining
at two, and taking tea in the evening, to breakfast-
ing at eleven, and dining at  six.   For the first feAV
days  I felt uncomfortable  in waiting so long in the
morning ;  but by following  the  plan of  taking a
small cup of coffee and a crust of bread soon after
rising, and attempting no active bodily  exertion
. till after breakfast, every feeling of inconvenience
ceased, and the system adapted itself to the change
as completely as if it  had never been accustomed
to any thing else.  Three months afterward I em-
barked on the Mediterranean, and again passed at
once  to  breakfasting between  seven  and  eight
o'clock, dining about noon, and  taking tea in the
evening, which  I continued to do for some   time
after  arriving in Italy.  On my way home the hours
of eating were never two days the same, and yet I
did not suffer.  If breakfast was early, I ate it  with
relish.  If it was late, I had recourse to a biscuit, or
some dried fruit, early in the  morning, to sustain
the system in the meantime, and Avas ready  for it
when it came.  In the same way, if dinner was to-
day at one o'clock, I took it Avhen it Avas offered,
and had recourse to some refreshment in the even-
ing :  if to-morrow it was postponed till eight o'clock,
which sometimes happened, the refreshment  came
in the forenoon, and a moderate meal was taken in
the evening.
  In  these changes, however, it will  be remarked,
that the laws of  digestion  were in reality much less
infringed  upon as to time than one might  imagine
from  merely hearing that I dined one day at noon
and the next day at  eight o'clock in the evening.
At whatever hour the meal was taken, the real
wants of the system were supplied Avhen they man-
ifested themselves in the  form of appetite, and the
requisite intervals were observed.  If a substantial
breakfast was taken at eight o'clock,  then a corre- 
196
TIME OF  MEALS.
sponding interval elapsed before another meal fol-
lowed at one or two.   If, again, the morning allow-
ance Avas trifling, then the real breakfast followed at
an interval correspondingly short, namely, at eleven
o'clock.  So also with dinner.  And if dinner Avas
at one o'clock, tea  folloAved  at  the distance of six
or seven hours ; Avhereas, if it came at six or seven
o'clock, a  refreshment preceded and  nothing fol-
lowed it, and the result Avas comfort and sound  di-
gestion.  If, hoAvever,  we yield unguardedly to the
impulse of appetite in  travelling, and eat and drink
plentifully instead  of temperately, no arrangement
of hours that we can make Avill render our situation
either pleasant or healthful.
  While, therefore, it seems  to be obvious beyond
a doubt, that those who live according to the laws
of nature and begin their activity with the morning,
should breakfast betimes, dine early in  the day, and
fake a lighter meal in  the  evening, and that those
who do so Avill reap a  reward in health and vigour
of mind  and  body unattainable  to  the same ex-
tent by those who live  differently, and convert night
into day,—it Avould be  not less hurtful than absurd
to prescribe the same  hours for meals  to all, what-
ever  their  hours of activity, and whatever  their
modes of life ; and I cannot help thinking, that it is
the preposterous attempt to  generalize too much,
Avhich, losing sight of true principle and the modifi-
cations which it requires in  individual cases, has
brought dietetic precepts into disrepute, and led to
the belief that the" rules laid down are merely arbi-
trary assumptions, resting on no solid foundations in
the human constitution,  or in the designs  of our
Creator.
  As  experience is the best guide to knoAvledge, I
may be alloAved to  add, that, when travelling on the
continent in health and  strength, I suffered more
from feverish fatigue and stomachic discomfort, in-
duced by ignorant infringement of the laws of diges- 
      ON THE PROPER  QUANTITY OF FOOD.   197

tion, than I ever afterward did, even from more con-
tinued exertion Avhen travelling as an invalid under
a better regulated system of diet.  I did not, in ei-
ther case,  make any exception to the meals which
awaited our  arrival at the inns, or to  the hours
at which  they were served.  The chief difference
was,  that,  when well, I  ate till my appetite was ful-
ly satisfied, under the notion that, in  travelling,  a
full diet is necessary to enable one to withstand the
fatigue ; and  that, as an invalid, on the other hand,
I ate  more sparingly, and, if the  regular meal was
much later than usual, had recourse to biscuit, fruit,
or a slice of cold meat, as an intermediate refresh-
ment, to prevent the stomach becoming exhausted
from too long a fast.  Following the dictates of ex-
perience, I have long adhered to the latter plan, and
am convinced that few who have tried both will long
prefer the former.
                  CHAPTER  II.

        ON THE PROPER QUANTITY OF FOOD.

Quantity to be proportioned to the wants of the system.—Appe-
  tite indicates these.—Cautions in trusting to appetite.—Gen-
  eral error in eating too much.—Illustrations from Beaumont,
  Caldwell, Head, and Abercrombie— Mixtures of food hurtful
  chiefly as tempting to excess in quantity.—Examples of dis-
  ease from excess in servant-girls from the country, dressma-
  kers, &c.—Mischief from excessive feeding in infancy.—Rules
  for preventing this.—Remarks on the consequences of excess
  in grown persons.—Causes of confined bowels explained—
  And necessity of fulfilling the laws  which God has appointed
  for the regulation of the animal economy inculcated.

  The next important step in the regulation of diet
is to determine  the quantity which ought to be
eaten.
                        R2 
 198    TOO MUCH FOOD IS USUALLY TAKEN.

   To ensure easy digestion and sound health, the
 quantity of food ought always to be proportioned to
 the wants of the system ; but this can be done only
 by a constant reference to the individual's constitu-
 tion and circumstances, and  not by attempting to
 lay down any standard as admitting of universal ap-
 plication.
   We have  seen that, where waste is great  and
 growth active,  an abundant supply of food is requi-
 red, and that, in accordance with this relation, it is
 in such circumstances that the desire  for food is
 most keenly felt.  Generally speaking, appetite is a
 safe guide  as to quantity; but, in following its dic-
 tates, we must take special care neither to eat so fast
 as to prevent it from giving timely intimation that we
 have  had enough, nor to confound the mere gratifi-
 cation of taste, or the yearning  of  a Aracant mind,
 with  the natural craving of unsatisfied want.  Dr.
 Beaumont's remarks on  this subject are character-
 ized by so much soundness of judgment, that no apol-
 ogy can be required for soliciting the attention of
 the reader to the following very pertinent extract
 from his work.
  " There is no subject of dietetic economy," says
 Dr. Beaumont, " about which people err so much,
 as that which relates to quantity.  The medical pro-
 fession, too,  has been accessory to this  error, in
 giving directions  to dyspeptics to eat until a sense
 of satiejty is felt.   Now this feeling,  so essential to
 be rightly  understood, never  supervenes until  the
 invalid has eaten too much, if he have an appetite,
 which seldom fails him.   Those even who are not
 otherwise predisposed to the complaint, frequently
 induce a diseased state of the digestive organs by
 too free indulgence  of the appetite.  Of this fact,
the medical profession are, generally, not sufficient-
ly aware.   Those who  lead  sedentary lives, and
whose circumstances will permit of  what is called
 free living, are peculiarly obnoxious to these com- 
    INDICATION  O" SUFFICIENCY OF FOOD.   199

plaints.  By paying particular attention to their sen-
sations during  the  ingestion of their  meals, these
complaints may be  avoided.  There appears to be a
sense  of perfect intelligence  conveyed from  the
stomach to the encephalic centre, Avhich, in health,
invariably dictates what quantity of aliment (respond-
ing to  the sense of hunger and its due satisfaction)
is naturally required for  the purposes of life ; and
which, if noticed and properly attended to, would
prove the most salutary monitor of health, and ef-
fectual preventive of disease.  It is not the sense
of satiety, for this is beyond the point of healthful in-
dulgence, and  is  nature's earliest indication of an
abuse and overburden of her poAvers to  replenish the
system.   It occurs immediately previous to  this,
and may be known by the pleasurable  sensations of
perfect satisfaction,  ease,  and quiescence of body and
mind.  It is when the stomach says enough, and is
distinguished from  satiety by the difference  of the
sensations,—the  former  feeling enough—the latter
loo much.  The first is produced by the timely re-
ception into the stomach of proper aliment, in exact
proportion to the requirements of nature, for the
perfect digestion of which a definite quantity of gas-
tric juice is furnished by the proper  gastric appa-
ratus.  But to effect this most agreeable of all sen-
sations and conditions—the real Elysian satisfaction
of the  reasonable epicure—timely attention must be
paid to the preliminary processes, such as thorough
mastication and moderate or slow deglutition.  These
are indispensable to the due and natural supply of
the stomach, at the stated periods of alimentation ;
for if food be SAvallowed too fast, and  pass into the
stomach imperfectly masticated,  too  much is  re-
ceived in  a short time, and  in too imperfect a
state of preparation, to be disposed of by the gastric
juice.
  " The quantity of gastric juice, either contained in
its proper vessels or in a state of preparation in the 
200 QUANTITY OF FOOD TO BE PROPORTIONED

circulating fluids, is believed to be in exact propor-
tion to the proper quantity of aliment required for
the due supply of the system.  If a more than ordi-
nary quantity of food be taken, a part of it will re-
main undissolved in the stomach, and produce  the
usual unpleasant symptoms  of indigestion.  But if
the ingestion of a large quantity be in proportion to
the calls of nature, which sometimes happens after
an unusual abstinence, it is probable that more than
the usual supply of gastric  juice is furnished ; in
which case the apparent excess is in exact ratio to
the requirements of the economy,  and never fails
to produce a sense of quiescent gratification and
healthful  enjoyment.  A  great deal  depends  on
habit in  this respect.   Our  western  Indians, who
frequently undergo long abstinence from food,  eat
enormous quantities when they can procure it, with
impunity."*
  If the purposes for which eating is necessary be
kept in mind, the keen appetite and vigorous diges-
tion observable in growing youths, and in those Avho
undergo much active exercise in the open air—and
the weaker appetite and feebler digestion observed
during the middle period of life, especially in per-
sons of sedentary habits—will appear to be in strict
harmony with the wants of the system in the  re-
spective circumstances.  But from no attention being
paid by either the  old or the young to the principle
by  Avhich the supply of nourishment ought to be
regulated, and the haste Avith  which  every one
labours to appease the  cravings of hunger, it may
be  affirmed, as  a  general fact, that  mankind  eat
greatly more than is required for their sustenance ;
and the indigestion thereby  induced is a salutary
provision  of nature to prevent the repletion which
would otherwise ensue.
  Sir Francis Head, in his humorous book entitled
* Beaumont's Observations, &c, p. 63. 
       TO AGE, SEX,  AND MODE OF LIFE.    201

Bubbles from the  Brunnens  of Nassau,  by an Old
Man,  expresses  his  astonishment  at  the " enor-
mous quantity of provisions" which the invalids and
sojourners  at these  watering-places " so placidly
consume;" and, after noticing " the heavy masses
which constitute the foundation of the dinner, and the
successive  layers of salmon—fowls—puddings—
meat again—stewed fruit—and, lastly, majestic legs
of mutton—which form the lighter superstructure,"
he adds :—" Nothing which this world affords could
induce me to feed in  this  gross manner.  The pig
which lives in his sty  Avould have some excuse, but
it is really quite shocking to see any other animal
overpowering himself at mid-day with such a mix-
ture  and superabundance of  food"  (p.  71).  In
another page he returns to the subject, and quaintly
enough remarks, " that almost every  malady to
which the  human  frame  is subject is, either by
high-ways or by-ways, connected Avith the  stom-
ach;  and I  must  own, I never saw a fashionable
physician mysteriously counting the pulse of a
plethoric patient, or  with a  silver spoon on his
tongue, importantly looking doAvn his red  inflamed
gullet (so properly termed  by Johnson ' the meat-
pipe'), but I feel a desire to exclaim, ' Why not tell
the poor gentleman at once—Sir, you've eaten too
much, you've drunk too much, and you've not taken
exercise enough!' That these are the main causes
of almost every one's illness, there can be no greater
proof than that those  savage nations which live ac-
tively and temperately have only one great disorder
—death. The human frame was not created imper-
fect—it is we ourselves who have made it so ; there
exists no donkey in creation so overladen as our stom-
achs ; and it  is because they groan under the weight so
cruelly imposed upon them, that we see people driving
them before them in herds to drink at one little brun-
nen" (p. 91-2).
  Our supposed " Old  Man" is bv no  means singular 
202      INTEMPERANCE IN EATING

in his opinions.  The celebrated Roman physician
Baglivi, who, from practising extensively among
Catholics, had ample opportunities of observation,
mentions that in Italy an unusually large proportion
of the  sick recovered during Lent, in consequence
of the  lower diet which is then observed as part of
the  religious duties.   This is a striking fact, and
gives unequivocal proof, not only in favour of tem-
perance, but in evidence of the assertion that excess
in quantity is a prevailing error in society.
  Professor Caldwell, of Transylvania University,
Kentucky, in one  of his  vigorously-conceived and
very instructive essays, inveighs  eloquently against
the  intemperance  of his countrymen in eating as
well as in drinking, and tells them that one Ameri-
can consumes as much food as two Highlanders or
two Swiss, although the latter are among the stout-
est  of  the  race.   " Intemperate  eating,"  says he,
" is perhaps the most  universal  fault Ave  commit.
We are all guilty of it, not occasionally,  but habitu-
ally, and almost uniformly, from the cradle to the
grave.   It is the bane alike of our infancy and youth,
our maturity and age.   It is infinitely more common
than intemperance in drinking;  and the aggregate
of the mischief it does is greater.   For every reeling
drunkard that disgraces our country, it contains one
hundred gluttons—persons, I mean, who eat to ex-
cess and suffer by  the practice."  How, indeed, he
afterward exclaims, can  the  case  be  otherwise,
while children and  youth are regularly taught, hired,
bribed,  or tempted, "to  overeat themselves from
their birth!  Do you ask  me for  evidence  in proof
of this  charge 1  Go to  our dining-rooms, nurseries,
fruit-shops, confectionaries, and pleasure-gardens—
go even to sick-rooms—and you will find it in abun-
dance.   You will witness there innumerable scenes
of gormandizing, not only productive of disease in
those concerned in them,  but in many instances
offensive to beholders.  The frightful  mess often 
A PREVAILING ERROR.         203
consists of  all sorts of eatable  materials that can
be collected and crowded  together; and  its only
measure is the endurance of appetite and the capa-
city  of  the stomach.   Like the  ox in rich  pasture-
ground, or the SAvine at his swill-trough, men stow
aAvay their viands until they have neither desire nor
room for any more.  I do not say that such eating-
matches always and everywhere occur among us.
But  I do  say that they occur too frequently, and
that  they form fit subjects for  caricature  pictures
by European tourists of our domestic manners.  I
add, however, that  similar scenes  present them-
selves in every country  I have  visited, where pro-
visions  are abundant and cheap.'"*
  This  is a strongly-drawn picture, but, with a mod-
ification in degree, it is perhaps not  less applicable
to our own an.I other  European countries than to
the  United  States.   The " Old  Man's" description
of German  feeding is, in its main features, essen-
tially the same ; and, so far as my observation and
experience go, it is only in a less degree  that we
fall short of our brethren in America.  As a general
rule, we also  exceed, though  not to the same ex-
tent. This is owing partly to our more advanced
civilization, and partly to the greater  difficulty of
procuring the means of  excess  ; and if I have re-
sorted to Germany and  the United  States for the
most striking illustrations of the principle,  it is not
from want of examples at home, but because we
are so much more alive to the errors of our neigh-
bours than to our own, that the principle involved
in their commission will be more readily recognised
when pointed out in them than Avhen its perception
is made to imply condemnation of ourselves.
  It  is  a trite observation, that medical men are

  * Transylvania Journal of Medicine  for September, 1832, p.
313.  See also Dr. Caldwell's excellent Thoughts on Physical
Education, and the True Mode of Improving the Condition of
Man; reprinted for A. nnd C. Black, Edinburgh, 1836. 
204   ABSURDITY OF CORNARo's SYSTEM.

constantly exclaiming against the eating propensi-
ties of their patients, and inculcating the practice
of temperance.   One of the most  eminent physi-
cians of the present day says :  " I believe that ev-
ery stomach, not actually impaired by organic dis-
ease, Avill perform its functions if it receive reason-
able attention ; and when we consider the manner
in which diet is generally conducted, both in regard
to quantity and to the variety of articles of food and
drink Avhich are mixed up into one  heterogeneous
mass, instead of being astonished at the prevalence
of indigestion, our wonder must  rather be that, in
such circumstances, any stomach is capable of di-
gesting at all.   In the regulation of diet, much cer-
tainly is to be done in dyspeptic cases by attention
to the  quality of  the articles that are taken ; but I
am satisfied that  much more depends  upon  the quan-
tity ; and I am even disposed to  say, that the dys-
peptic might be almost independent of any attention
to the  quality of his  diet, if  he rigidly observed the
necessary restrictions in regard to quantity."*  The
latter opinion is obviously borne out by Dr. Beau-
mont's observation of the poAver of digestion being
limited by the amount of gastric juice Avhich the
stomach  is capable of providing—an amount vary-
ing with the wants of the system, and consequently
with the  mode of life.
   Cornaro, Cheyne,  and others, have most absurd-
ly attempted  to determine a standard quantity of
food for all mankind, and have fixed it at the  Ioav-
est possible limit.  The very attempt, however, is
inconsistent with the laws of the  animal economy;
since the supply required must necessarily vary not
only according to the age, sex, and constitution of
the individual, but according to the mode of life and
the circumstances by which he  is surrounded ; and
it would  be, therefore, not less injurious  than un-

 * Abercrombie on Diseases of the Stomach, &c, 1st ed., p. 72 
       FOOD PROPORTIONED TO ACTIVITY.   205

natural for any one to adhere to the same invaria-
ble proportion.
  Mixtures of different kinds of food are strongly
condemned  by almost all Avriters on dietetics, as
injurious to digestion.   So far, however, as my ob-
servation goes, they produce mischief much more
by the inducement to excess in quantity Avhich variety
affords, than by the mere mixture of different sub-
stances.   In a healthy stomach, indigestion is rare-
ly if ever induced by  eating several kinds of food
at one meal, provided the total amount consumed
be not beyond the wants of the system, and do not
exceed the due proportion to the quantity of gastric
juice which the stomach is able to provide.  When
only one dish is partaken of, there is less tempta-
tion to exceed in  quantity than Avhere  several are
tried.
   The first intimations of  satisfied appetite are un-
questionably the best  warning Ave can  have when
to stop eating.  If we do not go beyond this point,
the subsequent sensations are pleasurable and in-
vigorating, and, after  a brief interval, we  are per-
fectly disposed to return to active exertion.  But,
if we eat more than enough, fulness and oppression
are almost immediately experienced, and a consid-
erable time must elapse before either mind or body
can effectually resume its activity.
  Where, either from long over-indulgence or other
causes, the appetite cannot be safely folloAved as a
guide  in regulating the  quantity of  food, Ave shall
not err very far if Ave proportion  our meals  to the
amount of the preceding exercise.  When this has
been  active and in the open air, and Avaste has con-
sequently been considerable, a liberal allowance of
food will be more easily digested than perhaps half
the quantity would be after a  Aveek's  inaction.
Hence it is a great error to devour the same quan-
tity of food daily, whatever our mode  of life  and
bodily exertion may be; and yet  nothing is more 
206          ADAPTATION OF DIET
common than to  see persons who  have passed
from a  life  of varied activity to one  of a purely
sedentary nature, continue to eat—merely because
they have been accustomed to it—as much food as
if they were still engaged in constant bodily exer-
tion.  Many females of the higher and middle class-
es, who scarcely ever stir out of doors  except to
church, nevertheless make as hearty meals twice or
thrice a day as if they were undergoing  pretty se-
vere exertion; but  they sooner or later  reap their
reward in bad digestion and annoying nervous dis-
orders.
  In towns Ave often observe the bad effects of over-
feeding in young female servants recently arrived
from the country.   From being accustomed to con-
stant exercise in the open air,  and to the compar-
atively  innutritious  diet  on which the  labouring
classes subsist, they pass all at  once, with appetite,
digestion, and health in their fullest vigour, to  the
confinement of a house, to the impure atmosphere
of a croAvded city, and to a rich and stimulating
diet.  Appetite,  still keen, is freely  indulged ;  but
waste being diminished, while nutrition is increas-
ed, fulness is speedily induced, followed  in its turn
by inflammatory disease or fever, which sometimes
cuts short  life,  where, with better  management,
health  might have  been  preserved for years.   In
many instances, again, life is saved by the digestive
powers being the first to give way, and refusing ei-
ther to receive or to concoct the same quantity of
aliment as before, and the patient then escapes with
the minor evils of protracted dyspepsy or indiges-
tion.
  The  operation of the same principle is  still more
conspicuous in girls sent  from the  country to  the
work-rooms of fashionable milliners  and dressma-
kers in the larger towns.   Transferred at once from
activity in  the open air  to confinement all day,
and often to a  late  hour  at night, at a  sedentary 
TO  CIRCUMSTANCES.
207
occupation, Avhere there is scarcely even the means
of changing their position, and much less of enjoying
active muscular exercise, and where, consequently,
there is little Avaste, the digestive powers speedily
give Avay, because  less food is noAV required  to
repair the diminished loss.   If the individual adapts
her eating to her change of circumstances, she may
escape severe disease ; but if, as generally happens,
from pure  ignorance,  she  continues  to eat to the
same extent  as before, headaches, sickness, bilious
disorder, and indigestion will be among the smallest
of her evils, and she will have reason to be thank-
ful if she does not become the victim of confirmed
bad health.   In establishments of this description,
the provision of the means of  exercise, even  by
dumb-bells,  shuttlecock, or othenvise, in  a large
room with open windows for a few minutes, several
times a day, would not only prevent, much suffering,
but even repay itself in an economical point of vieAv,
by producing an increased  aptitude  for work, and
less frequent absence on account of illness.  In these
days of wide-spreading philanthropy, considerations
of this kind ought to be more attended to.
  The necessity of proportioning the supply of food
to the expenditure incurred, and to the mode of life,
is still  further illustrated in the case of individuals
changing from an agricultural or other employment
carried on in the open air in the country, and involv-
ing no very great bodily labour, to  one  of a me-
chanical kind carried on in an impure atmosphere in
a city, and requiring a severe and continued muscular
exertion.  It is a matter of experience, for example,
that the stout young men from the country, Avho are
generally selected as  apprentices for the laborious
occupation of letter-press printing, almost uniformly
break down during the first ten or twelve months;
and it is only after some years' training that  they
are  able to  Avithstand the fatigue.   The vitiated
atmosphere in which they work has some share in 
208       EVILS OF INTEMPERANCE.
producing this  result; but the chief  cause  is, un-
doubtedly, the inadequacy of their ordinary diet to
repair the great expenditure of muscular energy to
which  they are habitually subjected, and for which
they have  not  been previously prepared.   In the
office AA'here this volume is printed, four strong and
healthy lads were engaged  last summer as press-
men, and put to work along with an equal number
of experienced  men.   Already (February) every
one of  the  former has  been laid up from sickness
for weeks,  although  the Avhole of  them are  of the
most sober and steady habits; while not one of the
older and more  experienced  men has felt any incon-
venience from his exertions.  This very instructive
fact is  also deserving of attention, as corroborating
what I  have elsewhere said in regard to the necessity
of proper management during the period of transition
from youth to  manhood—a period during two or
three years of which more good or more mischief
may be done to the human constitution, than during
almost any other ten years of life.*  That, in times
past, pressmen have  suffered at least as much from
their own mismanagement as  from the  nature of
their employment, is  rendered probable by their
proverbial dissipation.   In  utter ignorance  of the
structure and laws of the animal economy, they not
unnaturally  sought to relieve the exhaustion under
which  they suffered  by the stimulus  of  spirituous
and other intoxicating liquors, instead of seeking it
—where only it can be effectually obtained, and at a
cheaper rate—in a more Avholesome and nourishing
diet.  It is  gratifying to perceive, however, that in
this, as in many other trades, the progress of knowl-
edge is already leading to the prevalence of more
rational ideas, and to the consequent formation of
better habits.

     * Principles of Physiology, &c, chaps, vii. and x. 
        ERRORS  OF DIET IN  INFANCY.    209

  There is no period of life during which  it is of
greater importance to folloAv the intentions of nature
in the regulation of diet, both as  to  quantity and
quality, than during the earliest part of childhood;
for at no period is the neglect of them more fatal.
Surprise is sometimes  expressed at the number of
children Avho are carried off before  completing their
first  or second year;  but  when Ave  consider the
defective education, and entire  ignorance of the hu-
man economy, not only of the nurses  and servants,
to whose care the young are  intrusted, but of the
parents  themselves, our wonder ought  to  become
greater that so many survive than that so many die.
There is perhaps not one  mother  in  ten thousand
who, before becoming  such, has ever  inquired into
the nature and wants of the newly-born infant, or
knows on what principles its treatment ought to be
directed;  and hence the hurtful and superstitious
notions  of the human economy which still linger in
the nursery, long after  they have ceased to prevail
in the world of science.
   Those whose opportunities  of observation have
been extensive, will agree Avith me in opinion, that
nearly one half of the  deaths occurring during the
first two years of existence are ascribable to misman-
agement and to errors in diet.   At birth, the stomach
is feeble,  and as yet  unaccustomed  to  food.  Its
cravings are consequently easily satisfied, and fre-
quently reneAved.  A healthy infant seeks the breast
with avidity, but sucks a little  at a time.  It leaves
an interval for thoroughly digesting the little Avhich
it has swallowed; after which its appetite  revives,
and a fresh supply is demanded in a language Avhich
no mother can misinterpret. During the first months,
appetite ought to be the mother's guide in offering
the breast; and if she knoAv how to read the expres-
sion of  her infant aright, she  will Avant no  other.
At that early age, there ought  to be no fixed time
for giving nourishment.  The   stomach  cannot be
                       S 2 
210    ERRORS OF  DIET IN INFANCY.
thus satisfied.  In one child digestion may be slow,
and the  interval  be consequently too short; in an-
other it  may be  quick, and the interval too long.
But the active call of the infant is a sign which
needs never be mistaken, and none else ought to be
listened  to.
   Many mothers consider  every expression of un-
easiness as an indication of appetite, and Avhenever
a child cries  they offer it the breast again, although
ten minutes may not  have elapsed since its prece-
d ing repast.  Nothing can be more injurious than this
custom.   It overloads and oppresses the stomach,
—excites  griping and  boAvel-complaints, restless-
ness and fever,—and not unfrequently leads to fatal
diseases in the brain.  It does harm also by with-
drawing the  mother's notice from the real source
of uneasiness.
  It is astonishing, indeed, with what exclusiveness
of understanding eating is regarded even by intelli-
gent parents as  the grand solatium, or panacea for
all the pains and troubles which afflict  the  young.
If a child  falls over a stone and bruises  its  leg, its
cries are immediately arrested by a sugar-biscuit
stuffed into its open mouth.  If its  temper is  dis-
composed  by the  loss  of a toy, it is forthwith sooth-
ed by an offer of  sweetmeats, the ultimate effect of
which is to  excite colicky pains in its bowels,
which are worse than the  original  evil, and  for
which, in their turn, it is presented Avith " nice pep-
permint drops," or some other equally pleasant an-
tidote.  Because  the mouth is open when the child
is crying, and the mouth leads to the stomach, pa-
rents jump to the conclusion that it is open for the
purpose of being  filled, and proceed  to cram it ac-
cordingly ;  forgetting  all the while that the  mouth
leads also to the Avindpipe, and may be open for the
admission of  air  to the  lungs as Avell as of food to
the stomach,  and that if they stuff it Avith cake or
pudding when it.  is open only for the reception of 
      REGULATION OF  DIET  IN INFANCY.   211

air, they run the risk of suffocating the little inno-
cent when their only wish is to sooth him.  Every-
body must have seen fits of convulsive cough in-
duced by fragments of food being drawn into the
windpipe in such circumstances.
  To confound  crying and the expression of pain
with  the  cravings of hunger, is far from being a
matter of indifference to the child.  If food be given
when it Avishes only to  be relieved from suffering,
the offending cause is left in activity, and its effects
are aggravated by the additional ill-timed distention
of its stomach.  But  so far is this important truth
from  being  sufficiently impressed on the  minds of
parents and nurses, that  nothing  is more common,
when the infant refuses  to swallow more, but still
continues to cry, than to toss it in the nurse's arms,
as if on purpose to shake down its food, and  then
resume the feeding.  And  in  such attempts  it is
too true that  the perseverance of the nurse often
gets the better of the child, and forces it at last to
receive the  food at which it really loathes.
  " Let appetite, then, be the  only  rule, but  allow
it to appear, and do not attempt to provoke it.   The
breast ought not to be c«Tered to the infant; it is for
him to seek it.  He has little need of sucking who
takes it Avith indifference, or as if he were confer-
ring a favour.   He who is hungry acts very differ-
ently ; all his gestures express clearly the want and
the desire;  his eye follows his nurse, and tries  to
interpret her every movement.  If he is crying, his
cries cease at her approach, and smiles replace his
tears.   If he is offered the breast, he seizes it with
ardour,  and  the mother yields to a natural want."
But it is far otherwise when real appetite is Avant-
ing, and " it then becomes an act of cruel perfidy to
tempt the infant by the offer of the breast.  How can
it be  expected to resist the temptation, when the
adult, whose appetite is already satisfied at the fes-
tive board, yields to the  solicitations of the  host, 
212  REGULATION  OF DIET IN INFANCY.

and gorges himself with aliments Avhich he cannot
digest?"*
  The same intelligent author remarks, that the low-
er animals instinctively avoid this error, and, instead
of offering suck too often, rather alloAV themselves
to be strongly solicited before yielding to the wishes
of their young.  By this provident arrangement,
the latter are protected from the evils of too fre-
quent eating.  Many mothers imagine that milk is
so bland a fluid that it is impossible for an infant to
take too much of it;  but the fallacy of the notion is
exposed when we  recollect that milk is  coagulated
the moment  it reaches the stomach, and that  the
real subject of digestion is curd—a substance  not
quite so light as milk has the  appearance of being.
  The grand rule,  then, during the early months of
infancy, is to satisfy the clearly indicated and  as-
certained wants of the child,  but neither to confine
it to regular  hours, nor to offer it  food when it is
crying solely from pain and not from hunger.  When
the system has become more  developed, and  the
stomach accustomed to the exercise of its functions,
regularity in the distribution of its meals may be
gradually  and beneficially introduced ; because, in
the animal economy, there is  a natural tendency to
periodicity, which  greatly facilitates the formation
of proper habits.
  From the sudden change attending the  introduc-
tion of the infant into the world, the many neAv sen-
sations Avhich it begins to feel, and the non-secre-
tion of milk in the  mother's breasts for some hours
after delivery, it seems to  have been intended by
nature that both parent and child should have some
time for repose before a supply of food should be re-
quired by the one  or furnished by the other.  But,
through pure ignorance and mistaken  kindness,
many nurses, imagining themselves wiser than  na-
* Londe, Elemens d'Hygiene, vol. ii., p. 161. 
      REGULATION OF DIET iN INFANCY.    213

ture, and conceiving that the neAvly-born infant must
of necessity be starving after what they consider a
nine months' fast, hasten to fill its  stomach  with
gruel or some other food.   Not unfrequently, severe
indigestion is thus induced at the very outset, which,
in a delicate  child, may be sufficient  to lay the
foundation of much suffering and bad health.
  On the general principle  that no  physical want
ever exists without the means of supplying it having
been provided  by nature, we may safely infer that,
in ordinary cases, the secretion of milk will be be-
gun before the infant can possibly require  it; and
to counteract this arrangement is to set ourselves
up in direct opposition to the Creator, and  to give
a species of food for which the stomach is not then
adapted.
   It is true that,  in the artificial state of society in
Avhich Ave live, the secretion of milk is sometimes
delayed so long  as to endanger the  welfare of the
child.   In such cases, it may be necessary to give
a few teaspoonfuls of fresh cow's milk diluted with
water, as a temporary substitute for its natural food;
but  this ought  to be only when the necessity is ob-
vious, and in very small quantity at a time, other-
wise the stomach  and bowels will  to  a certainty
suffer.
   One evil result  of the ignorance of the animal econ-
omy which prevails in society, is an habitual distrust
of, or want of faith  in,  the efficiency  of the laws
which God has appointed for the regulation of the
animal functions.  We  cannot rest satisfied with
discovering and  yielding obedience  to his designs,
but we also  must do something to assist or correct
 them !  At birth,  for example, the stomach and bow-
 els, never having been used for the  purposes  of di-
 gestion, contain  a  quantity of mucous  secretion—
 meconium—which requires  to be removed before
 they can enter upon their functions.   To effect this
 object, nature  has rendered the first portions of the 
214   CONSEQUENCES OF  OVER-EATING.

mother's milk purposely watery and laxative ;  and,
on the part of the infant, nothing further is required
than to allow it to follow its natural  instinct and
suck  it in.   Nurses,  however, distrusting nature,
often hasten to administer castor oil or some other
active purgative in preference, and the result is the
excitement of irritation in the stomach and bowels,
which is not always easily subdued.   If the young
of the lower animals were treated after the same
unnatural fashion, it can  scarcely be doubted that
the mortality among them also would be greatly in-
creased.
  That the prevalence of over-eating  is a general
error in society, especially among the  sedentary
classes, is strongly presumable, even without direct
proof, from two almost characteristic circumstances
—namely, the frequency of indigestion in one or
other of its numerous forms, and the almost univer-
sal use of purgative  medicines, with a view to re-
move from  the system  the superfluous materials
which have been poured into it without any natural
demand.
  It is perfectly certain that, in the natural state of
man, the bowels are quite able to act regularly with-
out the aid of laxatives.   If they are not, the Crea-
tor must have failed in  accomplishing his aim—a
conclusion  which no rational mind can arrive at.
If,  on the other hand, they are intended and consti-
tuted to act without external aid, it necessarily fol-
Ioavs that a wide departure from the order of nature
must have taken place somewhere, to produce the
inactivity which is now so generally complained of,
especially among the middle and higher classes, and
among females. On the principle we have laid down,
of  nourishment  requiring  to  be  proportioned to
waste, it will not be difficult to explain in what this
departure consists.  It is in the mode of life being
by  far too sedentary  to admit either of the natural
waste, which alone renders nourishment necessary, 
      CONSEQUENCES  OF OVER-EATING.    215

taking place, or of that constantly-recurring contrac-
tion and relaxation of the abdominal and respiratory
muscles, Avhich have been pointed out as aiding so
effectually the  peristaltic motions of the intestinal
canal.  If, in conformity Avith the diminished Avants
of the system, we reduce the quantity of food and
increase the exercise, neither the oppression of re-
pletion  nor the need of opening medicine Avill be
felt.  But if, along Avith diminished  exhalation and
diminished muscular action, we persevere in eating
copiously  of  nutritious aliments, either digestion
must fail, the system become too full, or some arti-
ficial stimulus be given to aid the bowels in expelling
its superfluous aliment.
   Such, accordingly, are the results observable  in
every-day life.  One is saved for a time from more
serious evils by his stomach becoming enfeebled,
and refusing to digest the excess of nourishment
which it receives.   In another, Avhose digestion is
more vigorous, the system becomes  full and excited
to the brink of active or inflammatory disease, a sud-
den attack of which hurries him to the tomb.  While
a  third gets rid of the load by stimulating the boAvels
to higher action than is natural to the mode of life :
in other words, artificial waste is excited by purga-
tives, to  supply the place of that which, ought  to
result from the active  use of the bodily poAvers, and
which alone renders a full diet proper or safe.
   It  is not enough, then, to sit by the fire, blame
nature, and lament over our unfortunate constitution,
 which obliges us to make such constant use of med-
 icine.  In the great majority of instances, nature is
 more willing to do her part than we are to do ours,
 and all that she requires of us is to  fulfil those con-
 ditions without Avhich she is powerless, and  we are
 sufferers and  unhappy.  If  we exercise our minds
 and  bodies in healthful  occupation, and seek  to
 inhale  the pure atmosphere  Avhich  God has spread
 around us, so as to impart  that gentle impulse to 
216   CONSEQUENCES OF  OVER-EATING.

the stomach and bowels which I have already de-
scribed as necessary to their action, we shall have
no  need of laxatives  to assist  them.  But if we
choose to neglect his laws, and to live in bodily in-
action within doors, and thus deprive the  boAvels of
all natural aid, let us at least take the blame to our-
selves, and  not unjustly throw  it  upon  the Ruler
Avhose injunctions we thus practically despise.  And
if, Avhile  leading this inactive life, we  continue  to
gratify taste  by eating much more than waste re-
quires, and thus stand in need of purgatives to ena-
ble us to throw off the load, let us at least be just,
and, instead of  lamenting over a  defective constitu-
tion, let us deplore the ignorance  which has hitherto
blinded us to the perception of the truth, and led us
to blame a Being whose  arrangements are so evi-
dently intended for our happiness.
  During the active years of childhood and youth,
when a  strong instinct impels to much locomotion
in the open air, how  rarely do we find the stimulus
of purgatives necessary to the proper  action of the
bowels,  except  after  errors in diet or some unusual
accident!  And what is it that  induces  imperfect
activity in later years, if not the  change in the hab-
its, occupations, and  mode of life 1  If the  lively and
bounding .girl, whose loose and unconstrained attire
admits of the freest  motion  and  fullest respiration,
passes in a few months from the  exuberant and
playful indulgence  of her feelings, intellect, and
muscular system, to the quiet and composed inac-
tion and confined dress of a sedate young lady, who
never walks out except  at  a measured pace  to
school or to church,  is it really wonderful that her
stomach  and bowels should  begin  to act Avith less
vigour, and that, in time, her constitution should be
so far impaired  as to render necessary the constant
use of laxatives f  The stomach and bowels, in fact,
are regarded very much as if they were independent
powers residing within us, and placed there purpose- 
        CONSEQUENCES  OF OVER-EATING.   217

!y for our molestation.  So many  heavy  charges
are continually brought against them, that they can
scarcely ever be found in the right.   They  are bla-
med for every act of mischief which cannot be clear-
ly proved against another organ ; and yet, influential
as they are in affecting our comfort, they are treat-
ed by us Avith very little  care or ceremony.  Their
powers and Avishes  are  consulted in nothing, but
their backs are loaded at the caprice of their  OAvners,
Avorse, as Sir F. Head observes, than any pack-horse;
nevertheless, we  abuse  them  most emphatically
when they sink to the earth  overAvhelmed by the
weight imposed on them.  They are, in short, the
scape-goats which must  bear all our physiological
delinquencies, and save us the pain of blaming our
selves.   If they feel uneasy after a heavy  meal, it
is not we who are to blame for  having eaten  it.  No !
it is the fish which lies heavy on the stomach, or
the stomach which is unfortunately at war Avith soup,
or potatoes, or some  other Avell-relished article. We
have nothing to do  Avith the mischief except as
meek and resigned sufferers.  We never eat more
than enough.  We never devour lobsters,  or oysters,
or salmon, or cheese, or any thing which experi-
ence has told us our enfeebled stomachs cannot di-
gest !  We are too prudent and  self-denying for that.
And yet,  somehow or another, our stomachs get
hold of all these things in spite of us, and Ave must
pay the same  penalty as if Ave had eaten them delib-
erately, and Avith malice prepense !   The  case is
hard, no doubt, that Ave  cannot lead indolent and
slothful lives, and yet enjoy the incompatible luxury
of having the appetite of a  rustic and the digestion
of a tiger ;—but since we are so unfortunately con-
stituted that we must act like rational creatures or
suffer the penalty,  would it not be a Avise proceed-
ing to set a better watch on the stomach, and try to
subject it to more effectual  control 1
                      T 
218         DIET IN  MATURE  AGE
  In mature and middle age, after the effervescence
and boisterous activity of youth are over, still great-
er caution than before becomes requisite.  GroAvth
no  longer  goes on,  and  nourishment is  needed
merely to supply waste; and accordingly the appe-
tite becomes less keen, and the power of digestion
less intense.  If the individual continues from habit
to eat as heartily as before, even after changing to
a sedentary mode of life, the natural vigour of the
digestive system may enable it to withstand the ex-
cess for a  time, but ultimately dyspepsy, or some
form of disease dependant on indigestion, will cer-
tainly ensue.  The attempt to combine the appetite
and digestive power of early youth with the altered
circumstances and comparative inactivity of mature
age, is the true source of  the  multitude of bilious
complaints, sick-headaches, and other analogous
ailments noAV  so  common  and so fashionable in
civilized society ; and they will never be got rid of
so long as  their exciting causes are allowed to op-
erate with  unrestricted freedom.
  The stomach, like every other organ of the body,
is, for  the Avisest purposes, allowed a certain range,
within Avhich it may exercise its functions without
injury to health; and it is only in virtue of  such a
poAver that it can adapt itself to the  different  cir-
cumstances in which an individual may be placed.
If every trifling change in the quantity or quality of
food were  to be followed  by mischievous  conse-
quences, no one could  retain health  for a single
day; and if the stomach had no power of partially
adapting itself to a particular kind of aliment, every
change of place and of climate must soon have been
attended by the loss of health  and  life; because
there are scarcely any two places or countries in
 .vhich precisely the same food would  be set before
us.
  According to this law of adaptation,  Avhich, of
course, has its  limits, the stomach may be accus- 
      ADMITS OF CONSIDERABLE VARIETY.   219

tomed to the reception of either a larger or a smal-
ler  quantity of food than what the necessities of
the system require.  If it  is accustomed to too
much, and less than usual be allowed, an unpleas-
ant feeling of vacuity will arise, accompanied by a
craving for more ;  but after a few days the unpleas-
ant sensation will disappear, and the feeling of sat-
isfaction be as great as if a full meal had been ta-
ken, and digestion will become more  healthy and
vigorous; whereas,  if more food  continues to be
taken than what the system requires, merely to grat-
ify the temporary craving, ultimate bad health will
be the inevitable result.
  This  is precisely the error  which is  generally
fallen into.   The  stomach  is  accustomed  during
youth to  receive and  digest a larger  quantity of
food than what is requisite to carry on groAvth and
repair the ordinary waste of the system ; and from
custom, not from want, we continue to fill it as lib-
erally after  growth  is completed and waste is di-
minished as we did before, when both were at their
height.   And  if by  any chance we  eat  less for a
day or  tAvo, we mistake the temporary sense of
emptiness for the  indications of appetite, and are
not satisfied till it is  removed.   The natural conse-
quence is, that we educate the stomach to demand
more  food than the system requires, and more than
it can itself continue tp digest; and  hence the nu-
merous  evils which  we  daily witness  as fruits of
indigestion.
  In thus punishing us Avith the pangs of indigestion
as a Avarhing  to more reasonable conduct, Provi-
dence displays the purest beneficence.  To place
this in a clear point of yieAV, let us suppose diges-
tion to continue perfect, notwithstanding the daily
reception of an  excess of food into the stomach,
the result Avould necessarily be the regular forma-
tion of an undue quantity of chyle ; this, in its turn,
would produce an  excess of blood throughout the 
 220   INDIGESTION  OFTEN BENEFICIAL.

 whole system ;  and the individual Avould thus exist
 Avith all his functions in a state of constant oppres-
 sion, and in continual danger of the  rupture of a
 bloodvessel, till, from mere fulness,  some  active
 disease would be excited, requiring the instant and
 vigorous use of the lancet for its relief,  or very
 probably cutting short life.   If,  then, man cannot
 restrain his  appetites, and effectually subject them
 to the control of reason, another check against con-
 tinued aberration is required; and, fortunately for
 us, it is to be found in  the refusal of the stomach to
 continue to digest much more than the quantity de-
 manded by the wants of the body.  In practical life
 we  meet, in fact, with  both results.  There  are
 some persons constituted with such vigorous pow-
 ers of digestion, that no quantity of food oppresses
 their stomachs.   If they  eat habitually more than
 what is  required to supply waste and sustain trie
 system, they speedily suffer from  repletion,  or some
 one or other of  the diseases arising out of its  ex-
 istence, such as  inflammation, apoplexy, rupture of
 bloodvessels, enlargement of the heart, or morbid
 growth in some  organ  of the body.  In the greater
 number, however, of those who exceed in quantity,
 the stomach  itself becomes  enfeebled by the over-
 exertion to Avhich it is subjected, just as the muscles
 do from excess of labour; and the consequence is
 impaired digestion,  which prevents the food from
 being duly  converted into chyle, and thus protects
 the system from the fulness Avhich would otherwise
 be induced.   Accordingly, it is a familiar truth, that
 those who eat most are not  always the best  nour-
 ished—and that,  on  the contrary, the stoutest men
 are often those Avho eat comparatively  little.
  It is therefore of  great importance to be able to
read aright the instructions of nature, and to act in
conformity with  their  meaning.   In practical ben-
efit to ourselves it  -will  make a great difference
 whether Ave  rog uJ  indigestion as merely an  acci- 
      DIET OF THE LABOURING CLASSES.    221

dental and capricious occurrence, unconnected with
conduct, or  as purposely meant to warn us  from
continuing  to act against laws instituted to secure
our well-being and happiness.  In the former  case,
we may go on unsuspectingly in the road to de-
struction till it is no  longer in our power to turn
back; whereas,  in  the latter,  we  cannot  feel  a
single pang of indigestion without being remind-
ed of some aberration from the path of duty, and
seeking to  return by the shortest way.  It is too
true that,  even when aware that we are  going
wrong, we  do  not always choose to  retrace our
steps;  but  it  is not  less true that we  shall  be
more likely to fulfil the laws of nature when we are
made acquainted with their existence and intention,
than when left to the  guidance of ignorance alone.
It must be observed,  also, that hitherto mankind
have not been taught  the requisite knowledge till
after their habits of action were formed; and there-
fore no inference can be drawn from their conduct
in circumstances so unpropitious,  which  can with
any fairness be held as applicable to the time  when
knoAvledge shall be communicated to the young as
an indispensable part of a useful education.
   If over-feeding be the prevailing error among the
middle and  higher  classes of the  community, the
opposite condition is  as unquestionably  that of a
large proportion of the  labouring poor.   Pressed
upon all sides by the powerful competition both of
constantly  improving machinery and of a  super-
abundant population, the manual labourer is impell-
ed to undergo an amount of ever-recurring bodily
exertion which far exceeds the natural powers of
his constitution, even when supported by the fullest
supply of nourishment; and when, as often happens
along with this excess of labour, his food, from in-
adequate wages, the size of his family, or his own
injudicious  management, is defective in quantity or 
RESULTS OF DEFECTIVE NUTRITION.
in quality, the consequences to his health and hap-
piness are disastrous in the highest degree.
  To those who have never reflected on the subject,
it may seem like exaggeration to say that, as a gen-
eral fact, at least nine tenths  of the lower orders
suffer physically, morally, and intellectually, from
being over-worked and under-fed; and yet I am con-
vinced that the more the subject shall be  investi-
gated, the more deeply shall we  become impressed
with the truth and importance of the statement.   It
is true that very few persons die from  actual want
of food;  but it is not  less certain that thousands
upon thousands  are  annually cut  off, whose  lives
have been greatly shortened by excess  of labour
and deficiency of nourishment.   It is a rare thing for
a hard-Avorking artisan to arrive at a good old age.
They almost all become prematurely old, and  die
off long before the natural term of life.  It is in this
way that, as remarked by Dr.  Southwood Smith,
the mortality of a country may be considered as an
accurate indication of the misery of its inhabitants.
According to Villerme, the rate of mortality among
the poor is sometimes double that among the rich.
Thus it is found, he says, that in a poor district in
France, one hundred die, while in a rich department
only fifty are carried off; and that, on taking into
account the whole population  of France, a  child
born to  parents  in  easy  circumstances has  the
chance of living forty-two and a half years, while
one born of poor parents can look for no more than
thirty.*
  These are striking facts, and  their truth is con-
firmed by every day's experience in Britain as well
as  in France.  Many causes concur to produce this
melancholy result, but among the principal is  un-
questionably the disproportion so generally existing
between toil and nutrition.   In the army, the opera-

       * Smith's Philosophy of Health, Chapter IV. 
      RESULTS OF DEFECTIVE NUTRITION.   223

tion of the same principle has long been recognised
in the  inferior strength and health of the privates
compared with  the  officers.  The officers,  being
better fed, better clothed, and better lodged than the
common soldiers, bear up  successfully  against fa-
tigue and temporary privations by which the latter
are overwhelmed.  During epidemics, too, the poor,
from their impaired stamina, almost invariably be-
come victims in a proportion far exceeding that of
the more wealthy classes.   This is, no doubt, partly
owing to their greater intemperance and  want of
cleanliness; but even these vices often derive their
origin  from the same root—the want  of adequate
repose and comfortable sustenance.
  The bad consequences of defective nourishment
are not confined in their operation to the bodily con-
stitution of the labouring poor.  Their minds also are
deteriorated.  The pressure of poverty is unfavoura-
ble to the growth  of  refinement and morality,  and
crime  and  turbulence  are  never so much to be
dreaded as during  times of scarcity and manufactu-
ring or agricultural distress.  Bodily health, satisfied
appetite, and peace  of mind, are  great promoters
of individual morality and  public  tranquillity;  and
whenever these are encroached upon in any great
class  of the community, discontent  and crime are
sure to follow.   In legislation this principle is  sel-
dom attended to, and laws are consequently enacted
merely for the suppression of the result, while the
source from Avhich it springs is left  altogether un-
noticed and in the fullest activity.
  Among the poorer classes, the "children as well
as the parents suffer much both physically and mor-
ally from insufficient food.  Their diet, being chiefly
of a vegetable  nature, and consisting of porridge,
potatoes, and  soups, with very little butcher-meat,
proves  far from adequate  to  carry on  vigorous
growth in  the  one, or repair waste in the  other;
hence arise  in the  young  an  imperfect  develop- 
 224   RESULTS OF DEFECTIVE NUTRITION.

 ment of the bodily organization, a corresponding
 deficiency of mental power, and a diminished ca-
 pability  of  resisting the causes of disease.   In
 work-houses and other charitable institutions, ample
 evidence of these  deficiencies obtrudes itself upon
 our notice, in the weak and stunted forms and very
 moderate capacities of the children.  Under an em-
 poverished diet, indeed, the moral and intellectual
 capacity is deteriorated as certainly as the bodily ;
 and a full exposition of this fact, and the principles
 on which it is founded, would  be  a  great public
 benefit.
  Even among the children of the wealthier classes.
 a sufficiency of nourishing food is not always pro-
 vided with the care which it deserves.  Both in fami-
 lies and in  boarding-schools, it  is no uncommon
 practice to stint the healthy appetites of the young,
 or to feed them with soups and other eatables which
 contain too little nutriment in  proportion  to their
 bulk.   I am  acquainted with many instances of this
 most injudicious error,  and have seen  scrofula and
 severe digestive affections brought on by perseve-
ring  in it through sheer ignorance, and even  in
the  belief that such  " temperance" Avas healthful.
Where adequate exercise is permitted,  and the food
is plain and nourishing, hurtful excess in eating wil!
rarely occur, at least in healthy children. 
DIFFERENT TEMPERAMENTS.      225
                  CHAPTER  III.

               OF THE  KINDS OF FOOD.

What is the proper food of man ?—Food to be adapted to consti-
  tution and circumstances.— Diet must vary with time of life.
  —Diet in infancy.—The  mother's milk,  the best.—Substi-
  tutes for it.—Over-feeding a prevalent error.—Causes which
  vitiate the quality of the milk.—Regimen  of nurses.—Wean-
  ing.—Diet, after weaning.—Too early use of animal food hurt-
  ful.—Diet of children in the higher classes too exciting—and
  produces scrofula.—Mild food  best for children.—Incessant
  eating very injurious.—Proper diet  from childhood to puberty.
  —It ought to be  full and nourishing, but not stimulating.—
  Often insufficient in boarding-schools —Diet best adapted for
  different constitutions in mature age.—Regimen powerful in
  modifying the constitution, mental as well as physical.—Far-
  ther investigation required.

  The next  question which presents itself is, What
is the proper food of man ?  In answering it, we
must begin  by  making distinctions, otherwise we
shall, in the  very outset, fall into error.
  On examining the structure  of the human body at
different ages and in different individuals,  remark-
able differences are observable  in the  relative  pro-
portions of  the  elements or  tissues of which  it is
composed.   In one, the muscular system predomi-
nates, and the body is remarkable  for a compact-
ness of fibre indicative at once of strength and ac-
tivity.  In  another, the lymphatic  system  is  the
most conspicuously developed, and  its features are
easily recognised by the full, soft, and rounded form,
and languid  action, Avhich  generally accompany it.
In a third, the thin  and sharp  outline,  irregular and
vivacious activity, and great susceptibility of impres-
sions, betoken the  predominance of  the  nervous 
226       FOOD  SHOULD BE ADAPTED
over all the other functions ; Avhile, in a fourth, the
florid complexion, expanded chest, and general viva-
city of disposition, as clearly point out the superior
development  and energy of the vascular system.
Such are the four principal constitutions, long famil-
iarly known under the names of the bilious, the lym-
phatic, the nervous, and the sanguine temperaments.
Very frequently the  habit of body indicates a mix-
ture  of two  or more of these temperaments, in
which case the results of course are modified accord-
ing to the proportions in which they are combined.
  The elementary textures being thus differently
proportioned in different individuals, it follows that
the aliment best suited for the support and repair of
one is not always so for the others ; in other words,
a distinct modification of diet ought to be adopted
for every marked variety of  constitution, because
a direct relation ought always to subsist between the
qualities of the food and the nature of the system which
it is  intended to nourish.   Thus, the highly concen-
trated and stimulating food which is  found neces-
sary for the proper sustenance of the trained pugil-
ist or sportsman, Avhose muscular frame is in high
development and constant exercise, Avould prove far
too exciting to the slender and irritable constitution
of a person whose characteristic feature  is the pre-
dominant activity of the brain and nervous system.
And, in like  manner, the generous and stimulating
diet which suffices  merely  to rouse a phlegmatic
organization to ordinary energy, would prove by far
too  nutritive for a person of a florid and sanguine
temperament, Avhose predisposition is already to-
 wards inordinate activity.
   The necessity of adapting the diet and regimen to
 the  individual  constitution and mode of life, be-
 comes so obvious to reason, Avhen thus plainly sta-
 ted, as to  excite surprise that it should  ever have
 been neglected. But, strange to say, although the
 ancient  Avriters attached much importance  to the 
TO  THE  CONSTITUTION.        227
subject, the relation between diet and constitution,
as a practical consideration, has of late been so en-
tirely overlooked, and sound physiological principle
has been so little consulted in the proper adaptation
of the one to the other, that we are at this moment
in possession of very little information of any value
regarding it, and a long time  must  elapse before
more can be supplied.   My own observations have
not been  extensive  or accurate enough to enable
me to lay before the reader any neAV  or definite re-
sults ;  and I notice the  deficiency here only be-
cause I am deeply impressed Avith its importance,
and hope that others may be induced  to observe for
themselves, and make known any information which
they may obtain.

   There is no kind of alimentary substance of which
it can be said absolutely that it is always proper for
the sustenance of man.  To be serviceable, the food
must be adapted to the age,  constitution, state of health,
and mode of life of the individual, and to the climate
and season of the year.  The same diet  which, admin-
istered to an adult, is healthful and nutritious, may
prove irritating and injurious to a child; and, in like
manner, the stimulating animal diet which in winter
is highly grateful to the system of a hard-working
unexcitable labourer,  may prove  utterly destruc-
tive of health when indulged  in during summer by
an inactive and  excitable female.  It  becomes,
therefore, an object of deep interest to determine
the principal causes and states of the  system which
render modifications of diet necessary.
   Among these modifying causes, the varying state
of the body at different periods of life ought certainly
to be considered as one of the most influential.  The
differences observed in the constitution of the same
person  at different  ages,  are at least as great as
those subsisting between different individuals at the
same age.  In infancy, the lymphatic and nutritive 
228
DIET IN  INFANCY.
functions greatly predominate over the muscular;
and if the highly animalized food which suits the
latter were then freely administered, it would infal-
libly induce disease, and fail to afford the requisite
nourishment.  In manhood, again, when muscular
activity and nutrition are at their height, the  lym-
phatic system in abeyance, and the person subjected
to laborious exertion, the mild food of infancy would
be equally misplaced.   In advanced  age,  another
change of constitution occurs.  The soft tissues of
early life have disappeared, and the whole frame is
dry and wasted—a condition which, in its turn, re-
quires food  of a different kind from that fitted for
either of the preceding stages.
  Even the state of the digestive organs at different
periods of life is sufficient to indicate a correspond-
ing modification  of diet to be  proper for  each.
In early infancy, when no teeth exist, and the mus-
cles  which move the jaws are still comparatively
small  and  powerless, and  mastication is  conse-
quently impossible, milk from the mother's breast
is manifestly the only food  intended by nature for
its use; and so long as it can be obtained of heal-
thy quality and in sufficient quantity, no other ought
to be substituted in its place.  After the milk-teeth
have  made  their appearance, but not till  then,  a
little  admixture  may be permitted, and gradually
and cautiously increased in proportion as dentition
advances, and the stomach becomes fitted to digest
other food.   If, hoAvever, the appearance  of  the
teeth be retarded  by inability  in  the mother to
furnish an  adequate supply  of  sustenance  (which
sometimes  happens), the deficiency must be made
up either by providing a  nurse of a healthy consti-
tution, or by other means to be presently mentioned.
The  former is the preferable remedy ;  but where  a
nurse cannot be procured, and the mother's milk is
scanty, the  child may, after the third or fourth
month, receive  at  proper intervals  a  small allow- 
        the mother's milk the best.    229

ance of cow's milk, diluted Avith one third of water,
and slightly SAveetened.  This makes  the  nearest
approach to the nature of the mother's  milk, and
is  therefore more suitable than any preparation of
milk  and  flour or arrow-root that can be given.
Ass or goat milk answers still better.
   The appearance of the first teeth is an indication
that the digestive  organs have become sufficiently
developed  to admit of small portions of barley-
water, panado, a thin arrow-root, or milk and water,
being given two or three times daily in addition to
the nourishment drawn from  the mother's breast,
if the latter be at all deficient.   Great care must be
taken, however, neither to exceed in quantity,  noi
to give the food  too rapidly; for  otherwise  the
stomach will become too full, and be weakened by
the'eftbrts it  is obliged to make.   1 have already
pointed out the importance of attending to this rule ;
and,  in  accordance with  it,  nature, by arranging
that the milk shall flow only by sIoav  degrees, has
taken care that, in suckling, the child  shall receive
 its food very gradually.  The very appearance of
 the teeth  indicates  a preparation of the digestive
 functions  for  more  substantial aliment; and by
 beginning cautiously the use  of small  quantities of
 such  simple  articles  as  those above named,  and
 gradually  increasing them according  to the  wants
 of the system, an excellent preparation is made for
 the process of weaning, which would otherAvise, by
 its suddenness, be  attended  witn  serious risk  to
 both parent and child.
   The milk of the parent  ought, in every instance,
 to constitute the  food of the infant,  unless some
 very urgent reason prevents the mother  from suck-
 ling, or renders  her  milk improper for the child.
 There is  ahvays  a relation betAveen the condition
 and  constitution  of the mother, and  the age and
 constitution of the infant, Avhich renders this proper,
 and  which cannot exist between the child and any
                        IT 
230    OVER-FEEDING TO BE AVOIDED.

other nurse, but which exercises an important in-
fluence on its nutrition.  It is well known, for ex-
ample, that during the first few weeks, the milk is
thinner and more watery than  it afterward becomes.
If, consequently, a newly-born infant be provided
with a nurse in the third or fourth month, the natu-
ral relation between its stomach and  the quality of
the milk is destroyed, and the infant suffers from
the oppression of food being too heavy for its pow-
ers.   If, again, an infant of five or six months old
be transferred to a nurse recently delivered, the ali-
ment which  it receives is too  watery for its sup-
port, and its health in consequence gives way.
  In like manner, if the parent be of mature age,
her own milk, or that of a healthy nurse of a nearly
similar age, will be more suitable to the infant than
the milk of a much younger  woman; because the
constitution of the offspring always bears a relation
to that of the mother, and is  adapted to the quality
of the fluid  which nature  has provided for it.   I
speak, of course, only of the healthy state; for in
cases of disease, the  mother may be, and often is,
the most unfit nurse that can be found for her own
child.  But as, in such instances, the parents are
always guided in their conduct by medical advice,
and this is not the place to discuss  the treatment
of disease, I need not now enlarge upon it.
  The leading error in the rearing of the  young, I
must again repeat, is over-feeding—an error serious
in itself, but which may easily be avoided  by the
parent yielding only to the indications of  appetite,
and administering food slowly and in small quanti-
ties at a time.  By no other  means  can the colics
and bowel-complaints, and irritability of the nervous
system, so common in infancy, be effectually pre-
vented,  and  strength  and healthy nutrition be se-
cured.  Nature never meant the infant stomach to
be converted into a receptacle for laxatives, carmin-
atives, antacids, spicy stimulants, and astringents; 
       mother's milk often vitiated.     231

and wh n these become necessary, we may rest
assured that there is something faulty in our man-
agement, hoAvever perfect it may seem to ourselves.
The only exception is where the child is defectively
constituted, and then, of course, it may fail to thrive
under the best measures Avhich can be devised for
its relief.
  Another cause of infantile indigestion, and which
is  too  much overlooked through ignorance  of its
importance,  is vitiation of the quality of the milk,
caused by imprudence, neglect, or anxiety on the
part of the  mother.   The  extent to  which this
cause operates in inducing  irritation and suffering
in the  child, is  not generally understood; and ac-
cordingly, it is not unusual for mothers to  display
as much indifference to health, regimen, and tran-
quillity of mind during nursing, as if the milky se-
cretion, and all other  bodily functions, Avere inde-
pendent of every external and corporeal influence.
Healthy,  nourishing,  and digestible milk can pro-
ceed only from  a healthy  and  Avell-constituted
parent ; and it is against nature  to expect  that, if
the mother impairs her health and digestion by im-
proper diet,  neglect of exercise, impure air, or un-
ruly passions, she can nevertheless provide a Avhole-
some and uncontaminatcd fluid,.as  if she Avere exem-
plary in her observance of all the laws  of health.
   It is no new or uncertain doctrine that the  quali-
ty of the mother's milk is  affected by her  own
health  and conduct, and that, in its turn,  it directly
affects the health of the nursling.  Even  medicines
given to the parent act upon the  child  through the
medium of the milk;  and a sudden fit of anger, or
other violent mental emotion, has not unfrequently
been observed to  change the quality of  the fluid, so
much as to produce purging and gripes in the  child.
Care and anxiety, in like manner,  exert a most per-
nicious influence, and not only diminish the quan-
tity, but vitiate the quality of the  milk. 
232      PROPER DIET FOR NURSES.

  As soon, then, may we expect  to see a bad tree
bringing forth good fruit, as bad management good
results ;  and low must that parent be ranked in the
scale of moral beings, who,  knowing the relation
we have pointed out, can still deliberately sacrifice
the welfare of her offspring by the improper indul-
gence of her appetites and  passions, and by culpa-
bly neglecting the duties and restrictions demanded
by her own health.
  It is a common mistake to suppose that, because
a woman is nursing, she ought therefore to live very
fully, and to  add an  alloAvance of wine, porter, or
other fermented liquor, to her usual diet.   The only
result of this plan is  to cause an  unnatural degree
of fulness in the system, which places the nurse on
the brink of disease, and which of itself frequently
puts a stop to, instead of increasing, the secretion
of the milk.  The health and usefulness of country
nurses are often utterly ruined by  their transplanta-
tion into the families of rich and luxurious employ-
ers.   Accustomed at home to constant bodily exer-
tion, exposure to the air, and  a moderate supply of
the plainest food, they live in the  enjoyment of the
best health, and constitute  excellent nurses.  But
the moment they  are translated from their proper
sphere, their habits and mode of life undergo an
unfavourable change.  Having no longer any labo-
rious duties  to perform, or any daily exposure to
encounter, they become  plethoric  and indolent; and
as they are at the same time too well fed, the digestive
functions become  impaired,  the  system speedily
participates  in  the disorder,  and  the milk,  which
was at first bland, nourishing, and  plentiful, now
becomes heating  and insufficient, and sometimes
even stops altogether.  The motive which induces
the mother to take the nurse out of her proper ele-
ment is extremely amiable—she is desirous  to see
that her  infant is  properly  attended to ; but the
method Avhich she takes to gratify  this desire is not 
PROPER  TIME  FOR  WEANING.     233
on that account the less short-sighted and errone-
ous.   If the nurse cannot be trusted with the child
at her oavh home, care ought to be taken  at least
that her diet and mode of fife be changed as little
as possible from those which experience has proved
to be most conducive to her health ;  and the system
of feeding, confinement,  and  indolence usually re-
sorted to,  ought to be strictly prohibited, as fraught
with evil to both nurse and child.
  Nature, indeed, has saved mothers the necessity
of oppressing their stomachs by way of  providing
for the Avants of their young,  and has enabled them
to give suck Avithout either suffering from exhaus-
tion or having recourse to inordinate eating.  This
is accomplished simply by the suppression of that
periodical evacuation to Avhich all healthy women
are subject during the greater portion of life, except
Avhen pregnant or  nursing; and as,  in every situa-
tion, it is  certainly  more advantageous for  all  par-
ties to follow  out the intentions of nature, than to
substitute any contrivance of their  own to effect a
given end, so,  in the present instance, more will be
gained by the observance of the ordinary laws of
health on  the part of the nurse, than by any foolish
deviation founded on ignorance and caprice.
  The length of time during  which  an infant ought
to be  fed at the breast is subject to some variation.
In this country, the end of the ninth month is  usu-
ally considered a  proper time  for weaning;  but
much depends on the condition of the mother, and
also on that of the  child. If both are in  vigorous
health, if the infant has cut several of its teeth, and
been already accustomed to  be fed,  and if the sea-
son be favourable, weaning ought to be then gradu-
ally accomplished.  But if the nursling is feeble in
constitution, the teeth late  in  appearing, and  the
nurse has  a sufficient  supply of good milk, espe-
cially if it be  the winter season, it  will be far bet-
ter to  prolong  the nursing for a few months.  In
                      II 2 
234
DIET  AFTER WEANING.
such a case, the single fact of the non-appearance
of the teeth Avould suffice to indicate an  unfitness
of the system for any other than the natural  food
from  the maternal breast.  In  general,  weaning
takes place too early.
  Where a  healthy and well-constituted nurse has
been provided, on account of the existence of an he-
reditary  taint, such as active scrofula or cancer, in
the parent, it is generally advantageous to  defer the
weaning beyond the usual time.  But Ave must, in
this case, be watchful not to delay it, if either the
nurse or the child begins to suffer from its continu-
ance.
  It would carry me  too  far from the main object
of this work to discuss all the contingencies against
which it is  occasionally  necessary  to  provide in
the management of the  young.  This, however, is
scarcely required, seeing that medical advice is gen-
erally resorted to at the time of their occurrence;
and the exposition of principles already given Avill
enable most reflecting readers to decide for them-
selves how  far they may  safely trust to their own
lights, without delaying "to seek advice from others
till the evil is done.
  After the  child has been Aveaned,  panado, gruel,
thin arrow-root,  tapioca, sago, rusk, or crust of
bread, may  be  allowed  along  with the  fresh  milk
and Avater and sugar, which ought still to constitute
the principal part of the  food ;  and  one  or  other
ought to be preferred according to its effects.  When
these are given in moderate quantity, and not too
frequently, they generally agree well; but in some
delicate children they cause acidity,  flatulence, and
griping.  In this case, a proportion of weak chick-
en-broth or  beef-tea,  freed from fat,  and thickened
with soft boiled rice or arroAv-root, may be added.
  The same kind of food ought to be continued till
after  the appearance of the canine  or dog-teeth.
When these have fairly protruded, a portion of soft- 
DIET  OF  CHILDREN.
235
boiled egg may be given as an introduction to the
use of a more completely animal diet.   In general,
solid animal  food ought not to be allowed in any
quantity till all the teeth have appeared, and the di-
gestive powers be fully adequate to its assimilation.
  In this respect, there are two errors which ought
equally to be avoided.   If animal food be given too
early, or in too great quantity, the system becomes
excited, and diseases of irritation are apt to be pro-
duced, which impede nutrition, and lead ultimately
to the production of scrofula and  other  organic
changes in the glands and boAvels, and not unfre-
quently also  in the brain  and  lungs.  In these in-
stances, the child generally eats heartily, but never-
theless continues thin,  and is subject to frequent
flushing and  irregularity of the  bowels, headache,
and restlessness.  His  mind partakes of  the  gen-
eral  irritability of the system, and  peevish impa-
tience  takes  the  place of the  placid good-humour
natural to healthy childhood.  In this state, the or-
dinary diseases of infancy—measles, scarlet fever,
and hooping-cough—are often  attended with an un-
usual and dangerous degree of constitutional dis-
turbance ; and when inflammation takes place, the
necessary depletion is borne with difficulty, and the
system does not easily rally.
  The consequences now enumerated, and the er-
ror from  which  they spring,  are most frequently
met Avith  in the middle and higher  classes of so-
ciety.  Aware that animal substances contain the
largest proportion of nutriment in a given bulk, but
ignorant of the relation subsisting betAveen particu-
lar kinds of food and particular states of the system,
and which in  practice can never be safely overlook-
ed, the fond parent  naturally imagines  that  the
more nutritious the food, and the larger the quan-
tity administered, the  stronger  and healthier will
the child become.  No suspicion is entertained tha'
strong diet may overpower weak organs, and thus 
236
BAD  EFFECTS  OF
induce the very evils which it is sought  to avoid;
Avhereas, by adapting the quality and quantity of the
food to the condition of the system, the assimilating
powers may be gradually invigorated, and healthy
nutrition be completely ensured.
  Among the wealthier classes, imperfect nutrition
most generally arises from excess in quantity, or a
too  stimulating quality of  food;   but  among  the
loAver classes, from deficiency in quantity or quality,
added to scantiness of clothing, want of cleanliness,
and imperfect ventilation.  And hence Dr. Clark, in
treating of the prevention of scrofula and consump-
tion in early life, lays  great stress on  the  proper
regulation of diet, and shows that, even in families
free from all hereditary taint, a morbid condition of
the system extremely favourable to the production
of both diseases is speedily brought about by con-
tinued mismanagement of diet; and both the public
and the profession are  deeply  indebted to him for
drawing attention to the extensive influence of dys-
peptic ailments in paving the  way for the future
inroads of a deadlier disease.   It is true that it  has
long been the fashion to ascribe all bodily and men-
tal disorders to bile, indigestion, or the state of the
bowels; but the rationale of the result has seldom
been perceived, or turned to any good  account in
improving preventive or remedial  treatment.   Dr.
Clark's treatise, however, presents a remarkable
exception,  and  may be  referred to as a  most in-
structive specimen of cautious and discriminating
medical inquiry.
  When we reflect that the object of digestion is to
furnish materials for the growth of the body, and to
supply the waste  which the system is  constantly
undergoing, it must appear self-evident,  that if  the
digestive poAvers  be impaired  by  disease, by  im-
proper quantity or quality of food,  or by any other
cause, the result must necessarily be the formation
of an imperfect chyle, and consequently of imper- 
IMPROPER DIET.
237
feet blood.  The elements of the blood are derived
from the chyle, and if it be  vitiated, the blood also
must suffer: if the blood be  empoverished, so must
necessarily be all the organs which it supplies; and
if the body be thus debilitated, can any wonder be
felt that it should no  longer be  able to  resist the
action of offending causes which full health alone
can Avithstand 1  No matter  whether the imperfect
chyle springs from deficiency or excess, from too
Aveak or too strong food, from constitutional debility
or the inroad of disease—imperfect nutrition is  its
invariable  consequence, and that  cannot happen
Avithout exposing the system to morbid  influences
in a greater or less degree, according to the nature
of the constitution and other concomitant circum-
stances.
   Wisely,  therefore,  does  Dr. Clark recommend
early and  earnest attention to a  proper dietetic
regimen, and  insist that " the food of the child  be
regulated chiefly by the state of the digestive or-
gans.  In proportion  to the delicacy of the child,
the diet Avill in general require to be mild; Avhen  he
thrives upon milk, farinaceous food, and light broths,
no stronger or more substantial food need be used
during the first tAvo years of life:  when  he looks
healthy and grows, and his bowels  are regular (for
this is one of the surest indications  that the  food is
suited  to the digestive organs), Ave have the best
proofs that the diet agrees with him. When, on the
other hand, the  child appears heated  or flushed
tOAvards evening, Avhen he drinks greedily and more
than is usual in children of the same age, and when
his bowels do not act regularly, we  may be assured
that there is something wrong in the regimen em-
ployed.
  " There is no  greater error in the management
of children than that of giving them animal diet too
early in life.   To feed an infant with animal food
iiefore it has  teeth for  masticating it, shows a total 
238    SCROFULA  FROM IMPROPER DIET.
 disregard to the plain indications of nature in with-
 holding such teeth till  the system  requires their
 assistance in masticating solid  food.  Before that
 period, milk, farinaceous food, and broth, afford that
 kind of sustenance which is best  suited to the  di-
 gestive organs, and to the nourishment of the sys-
 tem.  The method of grating and pounding meat as
 a substitute for chewing, may be Avell suited to the
 toothless octogenarian  Avhose stomach is capable
 of digesting it; but the stomach of the young child
 is not adapted to the digestion of such food, and Avill
 be disordered by it.   When the child has the means
 of masticating, a little animal food  may be allowed,
 but it should be of the lightest quality, and given on
 alternate days only; and even then  its effects should
 be watched, for all changes in the regimen of chil-
 dren should be gradual.
   " The frequent origin of scrofulous disease in de-
 fective  nourishment has led to the opposite ex-
 treme,  and  children who are disposed  to tubercu-
 lous disease  are too often subjected to a system  of
 over-feeding, which induces the disease it is intend-
 ed to prevent.   By persevering in the use of an
 over-stimulating diet, the digestive organs become
 irritated, and  the various secretions immediately
 connected with digestion are diminished, especially
 the biliary secretion; at  least the sensible qualities
 of the bile enable us to observe it best.  Constipa-
 tion of the bowels soon follows ;  congestion of the
 hepatic  and abdominal veins succeeds, and is fol-
 lowed by the train of consequences which have al-
 ready been detailed.  It would be well if the advo-
 cates of the system  of high feeding would bear in
 mind  the salutary adage, corpora impura quo plus
nutries, eo magis  ladis."*
  In proportion as the organization  becomes devel-
oped, and strength, activity,  and aptitude for abun-

      * Clark on Consumption and Scrofula, p. 283. 
       BAD  EFFECTS OF CONFINEMENT.   239

dant exercise increase, a larger allowance of plain
animal food  becomes  essential to health.  The in-
struments of mastication are now fully adequate to
their office, and the stomach is no longer oppressed
by the effort of digesting it.  To make it safe, Iioav-
ever, even at that age, ample exercise and exposure
to the  open  air are indispensable.   By undue con-
finement to the house  or to school, and deficient ex-
posure to the  air, a degree  of general delicacy is
kept up which is incompatible with the daily use of
a stimulant animal diet.   The waste occasioned by
the bodily action is too limited to require the copi-
ous supply of any very nutritious substances, and if
these be freely alloAved, they serve only to oppress
the digestive functions and impair the health.
  The prevalent and  pernicious custom of tasking
the minds and confining the bodies of children for
hours in succession at home and in schools,  at a
time of life when the growth of the body and  the
welfare of the system require constant and playful
exercise in the open  air, and perfect freedom from
care and excitement of mind, is the  fruitful source
of much future bad health, and is eminently calcu-
lated to defeat the object aimed at by parents, name-
ly, the mental  excellence of the child.  The prema-
ture exertion of intellect to  which it is stimulated
by the constant excitement of emulation and vanity,
far from strengthening, tends to impair the health
and tone of the brain,  and of all the organs depend-
ing on it ; and hence we rarely perceive the genius
of the school manifesting in future years any of the
superiority Avhich attracted attention in early life ;
but we find him, on the contrary, either sunk below
mediocrity, or dragging out a painful existence, the
victim of indigestion and melancholy.  On the other
hand, some  of the most distinguished men who
ever lived were in childhood remarkable only for
health, idleness, and apparent stupidity.  The illus-
trious  NeAvton was, by his own  account, an  idle 
 210  MENTAL PRECOCITY  NOT DESIRABLE.

 and inattentive boy, and " very low in the school,"
 till he reached twelve years of age ; and the young
 Napoleon  himself is described as " having good
 health, and being in other respects like other boys."
 Adam Clarke Avas considered " a grievous dunce"
 Avhen a boy, and was seldom praised  by his father
 except for his ability in rolling large  stones, which
 his robust frame and good health enabled him to do.
 Shakspeare,  Gibbon,  Byron,  Scott, and Davy, were
 in like manner  undistinguished for precocious ge-
 nius, and were fortunately allowed to indulge freely
 in those wholesome bodily exercises, and that free-
 dom  of mind, which  contributed so much  to their
 future excellence.  The mother of Sheridan, too,
 long regarded him as " the dullest and most hopeless
 of her sons."
  Among the many who give great promise in early
 life, and Avhose talents are then forced by ill-judged
 cultivation into  precocious maturity, how few live
 to manhood to reap the reAvard of their exertions,
 and Iioav few of those Avho  survive preserve their
 superiority unimpaired !  Tasso was  early  distin-
 guished, and Avrote his immortal epic at twenty-tAvo
 years of age ; but his life was miserable, and his rea-
 son disordered, and he died  at thirty-two.  Pascal
 is another example of the same  result, and Kirke
 White and many others might be named were it
 necessary.*
  Experience, indeed, amply demonstrates, that pre-
 cocious and excessive activity of intellect and viva-
 city of feeling are most powerful impediments  to
 healthy and vigorous digestion, and consequently to
 a sufficient nutrition.   In early life, therefore, when
 not only health, but future usefulness, depends main-

  * On this and kindred subjects,  the reader  will find much
valuable information in Dr. Brigham's Remarks on the Influ-
ence of Mental Cultivation and  Mental  Excitement upon
Health ; reprinted, with Notes, by Dr. Robert Macnish.  Glas-
gow, 1836. 
        DIET IN  YOUTH  TOO  EXCITING.    241

ly on the completeness and vigour Avith which the
system shall proceed towards its full development,
the preservation of the digestive organs by suitable
diet, exercise, and regimen, ought to be a primary
object of attention Avith every sensible parent.  Even
as regards superiority of mind, the healthy devel-
opment of the  body is  of essential importance, as
the only sure foundation on which mental excel-
lence can be built ; because, so long as mind and
body are intimately connected with each other, the
former must continue to be affected by every change
in the condition of the organization on which it de-
pends.  We enjoy acuteness of vision by preserving
the eye in high health, and exercising it  regularly
and moderately ; and, in like manner, we can ob-
tain and preserve intellectual poAver only by pre-
serving the health of the brain, and exercising it in
conformity Avith its natural constitution.
  Instead^ then, of feeding the closely-confined and
excitable  children of the middle and higher classes
from early infancy on quantities of stimulating an-
imal food, and  even giving them wine and ferment-
ed liquors, avo shall act more in accordance Avith
the laAvs of nature by restricting them, during the
three or four earliest years of childhood,  chiefly to
a mild farinaceous diet, with a  small alloAvance of
meat on alternate days ; and by seeking to increase
their digestive  power and bodily vigour by constant
exercise in the open air, before giving them a more
solid diet.  By these means the development of the
organization, the keenness of appetite, the tone of
digestion, and the desire of,  and fitness of the sys-
tem for, animal food, Avill increase in regular pro-
portion, and a free supply of that species of aliment
will even become necessary to carry on the groAvth.
In short, it must ever be remembered, that strength
is to be obtained not from the kind of food  which
contains most  nourishment in itself, but  from that
                       X 
242     INCESSANT EATING  HURTFUL.
which is best adapted to the condition of the diges-
tive organs at the time when it is taken.
  Children who  are  prone to bodily exertion, and
live almost entirely  in the  open air, as many of
those of the lower orders do, and who display no
unusual sensibility or activity of mind, or, in other
words, no unusual irritability of the nervous system,
not only bear, but require a larger proportion of ani-
mal food than their more delicate and sensitive com-
panions.  Not only is their digestion more vigorous,
but the waste going on in the system is much greater,
and the nutritive functions are more active; the
need, consequently, for nourishing food, and the de-
sire  to  procure  it,  are  proportionally increased.
Hence it happens that, in the wealthier classes of
society, young children suffer most from over-feed-
ing, while  in the poorer classes they suffer chiefly
from the opposite cause.  In both, defective nutri-
tion  is  the result; but the modes in which it is
brought about are very different.
  One of the most pernicious habits in which chil-
dren can be indulged is that of almost incessant eat-
ing.   Many mothers encourage it from the  facility
Avith which, for  a time,  the offer  of " something
nice" procures  peace.    Even from infancy,  the
child ought to be gradually accustomed to eat only
when hungry, and  when food is really  required.
After two years of  age, an interval of four hours
between meals will  rarely be more than enough;
and to give biscuit, fruit,  or bread in the meantime,
is just subtracting from the digestive power of the
stomach.  Like almost every  organ of the body,
the stomach requires a  period  of repose after the
labour of digestion,  and accordingly, in the healthy
state, the sensation  of appetite never returns till it
has been for some time empty.   To give food soon-
er, therefore, is analogous to making  a weary travel-
ler walk on without  the refreshment of a halt.
   It is a  great mistake  to suppose that  children 
   THE YOUNG REQUIRE NOURISHING DIET.  243

would not be quiet or contented without such indul-
gence.  On the  contrary, they would be healthier
and happier Avere the opposite system steadily pur-
sued.  The greatest obstacle to be encountered is
the ignorance of the nurse or mother, and her want
of resources for the entertainment and exercise of
the child's bodily and mental faculties.  If these be
duly attended to, the child will not think of eating
till the return  of appetite  enforces  the demand;
whereas, if it be left idle and neglected, every thing
Avill  be carried to its mouth, as its only remaining
resource against  absolute inanity.  So true is this,
that I should regard that nurse as unfit for  her em-
ployment who  should complain that  her  charge,
otherwise in good health, is incessantly craving for
something to  eat.  In  this respect children  are
like adults.  Give  them  something to do and to
think  about, and  they will seek  meat only when
hungry.   But leave them idle and listless,  and eat-
ing will become their chief subject of contemplation.
   In a matter so important as the rearing  of chil-
dren, one  would imagine that  every  mother and
nurse  Avould be anxious  for instruction on the na-
ture, functions, and wants of the being committed
to their fostering care.   And yet. it is notorious how
rarely either one or other  of them possesses any
but the crudest notions of the animal economy, or
can give reasons for the practices they recommend,
or modify them in any degree to suit modifications
of circumstances  and  constitution.  In reality the
wonder comes to be, not that so many children die,
but  that so many survive their early mismanage-
ment.

   From the age of six or seven years up to that of
puberty, when the animal activity is at its height,
growth in  full progress, and the nutritive functions
in their greatest vigour, a larger proportion of ani-
mal food, and a more generous diet, become neces- 
244       ERRORS OF  DIET  IN YOUTH.
sary to the enjoyment of health  and vigour;  but
they must still be accompanied by ample exercise
and" free exposure, otherwise they will tend only to
clog and impede the functions of life.  At that  age
the teeth  and other organs concerned in digestion
have become developed and fit for the assimilation
of a richer aliment, and  the  rapid growth  Avhich
takes place renders an abundant  provision of  the
latter in a  manner indispensable. It is then that  the
healthy youthful appetite demands quantity as Avell
as quality, and that digestion goes  on with an ease
and vigour which the dyspeptic parent contemplates
with a covetous and regretful eye.
  At that age, indeed, the nutritive functions are so
predominantly active for the purpose of carrying on
groAvth, and supplying the rapid waste caused by
youthful activity, that if the natural craving for  ex-
ercise  in  the open air be freely indulged, and due
attention be given to the development of the bod-
ily frame, the young may be  very safely left to
choose for themselves both the quality and quantity
of their food.  In  such circumstances, the. natural
taste inclines  so essentially to the preference of
plain substantial nourishment, that  there is very lit-
tle risk of excess being committed.  But where  the
parents are intent only on the intellectual advance-
ment of their children, and accustomed to subject
them  daily to many successive hours of confine-
ment and study, with only an hour or  so of relaxa-
tion in the open air, as is too commonly the case
both with those educated at home and with those in
boarding-schools, an artificial state of being is indu-
ced, which makes the rule no longer applicable, and
renders necessary a more careful attention to die-
tetic regimen.
  Among  the higher classes of society  the  unre-
stricted use of the most exciting kinds and prepar-
ations of animal food,  and the daily  use of  wine,
are the means generally resorted to for the removal 
ERRORS  OF DIET IN YOUTH.      245
of the delicacy thus engendered; but when we con-
sider the real state of the case, no remedy can seem
more  preposterous.  The evil to  be  corrected  is
imperfect nutrition and the want of strength.  The
imperfect nutrition, however, is caused, not by de-
ficient food,  but by impaired powers of digestion
and assimilation, and these suffer only because the
lungs are denied  the free air, the muscles their ne-
cessary exertion, the brain its cheerful recreation,
and the circulation the healthy stimulus which these
united conditions infallibly produce.  Instead, there-
fore, of oppressing a weakened stomach by admin-
istering stronger food than it has the power of di-
gesting, the natural way of proceeding would be to
prescribe at first a milder and less stimulating diet,
—to improve the tone  of digestion by fulfilling the
conditions  above referred to,—and then, in propor-
tion as the stomach was strengthened, to adopt a
more nourishing diet,  suited to the  increased effi-
ciency of  all the animal functions.
   By running counter to this method, and using high-
ly stimulating food improperly, many young people
of the  wealthier classes incur  as much suffering
from imperfect nutrition, and the diseases to which
it predisposes, as if they were really the victims of
an empoverished diet.  Dr. Clark, after making some
very judicious remarks on the influence of bad di-
gestion in  inducing the consumptive constitution of
body, expresses  himself strongly on the evils to
which 1 have just alluded.   " Food  in  excess," he
says, " or of a kind too exciting for the digestive
organs, may also  induce tubercular cachexia,—a cir-
 cumstance which is not sufficiently attended to,—I
 may say, not generally understood, even by medical
 men; nevertheless, I hold it to be a frequent cause
 of scrofula, and believe that it produces  the same ef-
 fect on the  system as a deficient supply."—" The
 imperfect  digestion and assimilation in the one case,
 and the inadequate nourishment in the other, being 
246      ERRORS OF DIET IN  YOUTH.
equally injurious ; the form and general characters
which the disease assumes may differ, but the ulti-
mate  result will be the same  in both cases.  The
adaptation of the food, both in quality and quan-
tity, to the age of the individual, as well as to the
powers of the digestive organs, is too little  consid-
ered ; and the evil consequences of this neglect are
often  evident in the children of the wealthy  classes
of society, who are allowed an unrestricted use of
the most exciting kinds of animal  food."*
  The opposite error, of not providing a sufficiently
nourishing diet for the young, is, from mistaken
views, much more prevalent  than it  ought to be,
particularly in  female boarding-schools, where, as
already mentioned, the system of diet is often in-
sufficient for due sustenance and growth; and Avhere,
consequently,  the  natural expression of  impaired
health, if not actual disease, is  a marked feature in
the aspect of most of the pupils.   So defective, in-
deed, is  the common school management  in this
and other respects, that Ave have the best authority
for considering it as a rare exception for a girl to re-
turn home in full health after spending two or three
years at an ordinary English boarding-school.f
  It is true, that much of this result is owing to
excessive confinement, neglect of cheerful exercise,
ill-ventilated sleeping apartments, and other  depres-
sing influences; but to these, that  of an insufficient
diet may often be added ;  and when it does exist, it
acts with  double force from the impaired digestion,
which seldom  fails  to ensue  where  the  laws of
health are so widely outraged.
  I have  seen some striking instances of incurable
scrofulous disease induced by the depressing  influ-
ence  of misfortune, added to the want of a sufficient
supply of nutritious food.  After the  mercantile dis-

  * Clark on Pulmonary Consumption and Scrofula,  p. 230.
  t Dr. Forbes in Cyclop. Pract. Med., vol. i., p. 698,foot-note. 
   ADAPTATION OF DIET TO CONSTITUTION. 247

asters of 1825-6, many cases of this  kind occurred,
especially in families whose  sensitive feelings in-
duced them to  shrink from public observation, and
to suffer the severest privations rather than allow
their situation to become known.  In these  cases,
the tone of the general health first became reduced,
and then local  disease  was easily excited by any
trivial cause.  In one, the  structure of the bones
and joints became disorganized, and amputation of
the limb preserved life,  but could not prevent other
parts of  the osseous  system from being attacked.
In another, caries of the bones of the foot ensued,
but the constitution itself was so thoroughly tainted
that no operation could be performed with even mo-
mentary  success, and,  after  much  suffering,  the
patient died.  The  same  causes undermined  the
health  of another member of the same family, and
led to  his  death, from  consumption,  at an  early
age.
   In regard to the diet best adapted to different con-
stitutions in mature age, I have already confessed
that I have little information to offer.  In determin-
ing the question, several other circumstances besides
the mere temperament require to be  considered.  A
more  or  less laborious  mode of life,  for example,
will require a more or less nutritious diet, whatever
the original habit of body may be.  In like manner,
if any  temperament  be  in excess, and we wish to
repress  its  predominance,  the same  kind of food
which is suitable for  it  in a lower  degree will no
longer  be applicable.  Thus,  when  the lymphatic
constitution is  predominant, and our  object is  to
diminish  its ascendency, and stimulate the system
to greater vigour, a larger proportion of solid nour-
ishing food, combined with increased exercise, will
be more  proper than if there is no such excess.
Where, on  the other hand, the nervous or sanguine
temperament preponderates, a plainer and less ex- 
248 ADAPTATION OF DIET TO CONSTITUTION.

citing regimen will be necessary than %vhere 'he con-
stitutional tendencies are more equally balanced.
  The power we possess of modifying the constitu-
tion by well-directed regimen is very great, and only
requires to be investigated  and made known to have
due importance assigned to it in conducting physical
education.   This is well exemplified in the  art of
training, where diet and exercise are reduced to a
practical science for the attainment  of certain re-
sults, and with remarkable  success.  In the  hands
of a trainer, the breathless and oppressed frame  of
a person overburdened with lymph and fat, speedily
becomes converted into an active, firm, and Avell-
conditioned organization, exhibiting a promptitude
of action of both  mind and body the  very opposite
of its  former  manifestations ; and if such a change
can be effected  by rigid adherence to rules, in the
course of two or three months, we may easily con-
ceive the degree of improvement which Avould follow
the uniform observance of proper regimen and diet-
etic precepts in ordinary society.   In improving the
moral  and intellectual, as well as physical condition
of the working classes, the influence of food, air,
and exercise will  soon be  discovered to possess a
degree of importance of which at present scarcely
a suspicion is entertained.  They constitute, in fact,
the very foundation of a systematic education ; and
mere intellectual cultivation will fail to produce  its
full beneficial results, till the organization by which
the mind operates be itself improved by a treatment
in harmony with its own constitution.
  If it be impossible for me to communicate suffi-
cient information to enable each of my readers at
once to determine the  kind of diet which  is likely
to suit him best, it  will give him at least some satis-
faction to know, that, by observing personally what
kind of food agrees best with his stomach and con-
stitution, he may soon obtain  the necessary inform-
ation for himself.   When we refrain from eating too 
       VEGETABLES SLOW  OF DIGESTION.    249

much, and at unseasonable hours, and are not con-
scious of any undue oppression or discomfort after
our meals, but, on  the  contrary, feel light and re-
freshed, and, after a time, ready for renewed exer-
tion, we may rest assured that the food which we
have  taken is wholesome and suitable for us, what-
ever be its nature  and  general effects.   Whereas,
if, without committing any excess or other dietetic
error,  we  experience  the opposite  sensations of
oppression, languor, and uneasiness, we may be just
as certain that our food, whatever its general char-
acter  for  lightness  and  digestibility, is  not  Avhole-
some  or  suitable for us under  our present circum-
stances.   So that, Avith a little care and trouble, we
shall rarely be at any loss to find out what we ought
to eat and what to avoid ;  and, accordingly, it is
notorious that indigestion from a wrong choice of
food is induced  at  least nine times by wilful indul-
gence, for once that it occurs from errors originating
in ignorance alone.   If  the proper quantity of food
be not exceeded,  and the other conditions of diges-
tion be carefully fulfilled, the risk of mischief from
an erroneous choice of  aliment will  be greatly
diminished.

  After the full exposition of the laws of digestion
given  in  the  first part of this work, I need hardly
add, that  although  there are very few articles of
diet, which a person in health,  and leading a suffi-
ciently active life, may not eat with impunity, there
are nevertheless  some which ought to be preferred,
and others which ought  to be avoided,  by those
whose digestion is impaired.   Thus, vegetables  are,
generally  speaking,  slower of digestion than animal
and farinaceous  aliments, and  consequently, when
digestion is feeble, are liable to remain in the stom-
ach till acetous fermentation takes place, and give
rise to acidity and flatulence.  Fat and oily meats
are nearly in the  same  predicament,  and  hence 
250      SOUPS KAD FOR DYSPEPTICS.
both form unsuitable articles of diet for dyspeptics.
Soups and liquid food  are  also objectionable, both
because  they are ill  adapted  for being  properly
acted upon by the gastric juice and by the muscular
fibres of the  stomach,  and  because they afford in-
sufficient  nourishment.  From the  former cause
they frequently impair  the digestive functions; and
from  the  latter,  they  induce  diseases of debility
Avhich it is difficult  to subdue.   Daily experience
furnishes examples of stomachic disorder from eat-
ing soups, especially as preliminary to an otherwise
substantial dinner ;  and  the fatal epidemic which
prevailed a feAv years ago in the Milbank Peniten-
tiary, was distinctly ascertained to have been partly
caused by an insufficient and too liquid diet.  It is
common, indeed, to  see  heartburn and indigestion
of recent origin cured simply by giving up soups
and  vegetables,  and diminishing the quantity  of
liquid taken at breakfast and tea.
  When, from the state of health or other causes,
chicken-tea, beef-tea, veal-broth,  or other kinds  of
soup require to be given,  their digestibility will gen-
erally be promoted by the addition of bread or rice
to give them  consistency, and by taking little or  no
other food along with them.   Even vegetables, when
taken alone,  are  sometimes digested without diffi-
culty, where, if  mixed with other substances, they
disorder the stomach.  Dr. Abercrombie mentions
a very remarkable instance of this kind in  a gentle-
man who "had  been for many years a martyr  to
stomach complaints, seldom a day passing in which
he did not suffer greatly  from pain in his stomach,
with flatulence, acidity, and the usual train of dys-
peptic symptoms; and, in particular, he could not
taste  a bit of vegetable  without suffering from it
severely.  He had gone on in this manner for years,
when he was seized with  complaints in his  head,
threatening apoplexy,  which,  after being relieved
by the usual  means, showed  such a constant ten- 
         VEGETABLES  CAUSE ACIDITY.     251

dency to recur that it has been necessary ever since
to restrict him  to a diet almost entirely of vegeta-
bles, and in very moderate quantity.   Under  this
regimen, so different from his former mode of living,
he has  continued free from any recurrence  of the
complaints in his head, and has never been known
to complain of his stomach."*  In this case, how-
ever, the very  moderate quantity  of vegetable food
to which the patient restricted  himself had perhaps
no small share in the subsequent improvement of
his digestion.
  Dr. Beaumont mentions, as a general result from
his experiments on  St.  Martin, that vegetable food
is sIoav of digestion; but it is much to be regretted
that he  gives  the particulars of only  one or two
trials, which lead to no very important  results.  In
one  of  these,  St. Martin ate " nine ounces of raw,
ripe, sour  apples, at 2 o'clock 35  minutes.   At  3
o'clock  30 minutes the stomach was  full of fluid
and  pulp of apples, quite  acrid,  and irritating  the
edges of the aperture, as is always the case when he
eats acescent fruits or vegetables"^  In another in-
stance  ten ounces of raw cabbage were given, and
in two  hours not a particle of it was  to be found
in the stomach; while on  a third occasion, half  a
pound of raw  cabbage, cut  fine,  and  macerated in
vinegar, disappeared in little more than one hour
and  a half!  If in the latter experiments  the  cab-
bage was really digested, and not merely propelled
out of the stomach into the intestine,  we shall be
forced to admit that we  have still much to learn
concerning the digestibility of  different kinds of
food, for the result  is contrary to all generally re-
ceived  opinions.  When vegetables are  allowed,
great stress  is commonly laid upon the necessity
of their being thoroughly  cooked; and  yet, accord-

  * Abercrombie  on Diseases of the Stomach, &c, 1st edit.,
p. 73.
   + Beaumont's Experiments and Observations, &c, p. 243. 
252 FAR1NACECUS FOOD GENERALLY SAFE.

ing to. these experiments, raw cabbage is very nearly
as digestible as soft boiled rice or sago ! It is strange
that Dr. Beaumont should not have  remarked this
anomaly, Avhich  he seems not to have done, since
he neither attempts to explain it nor  alludes to it as
any thing extraordinary.  My own suspicion is, that
the cabbage Avas not entirely digested, but had
merely passed through the pylorus into the intestine.
  Dr. Beaumont's testimony .in favour  of  farina-
ceous vegetables is, however, more precise and sat-
isfactory.   In some of his  experiments,  St. Martin
digested completely a full meal of boiled rice, season-
ed with salt, in a single hour.  Soft custard and boil-
ed rich sago, sweetened Avith sugar, and taken in quan-
tities  of  a pint  each time, were disposed of Avith
nearly equal despatch, " and there Avas no acrimony
of the gastric contents, or smarting of the edges of
the aperture during their chymification, as is usual
in most vegetable and farinaceous aliments;" on the
contrary, the sago " seemed peculiarly grateful to the
surface of the stomach, rendering  the  membrane
soft, uniform, and healthy."*  In these instances, it
ought to be  remarked, nothing else was eaten at the
same time;  so that the stomach was not oppressed
by quantity.
  In early life, when digestion is vigorous, the sys-
tem excitable, and  the habits peculiarly active, a full
proportion of vegetable and farinaceous food is prop-
er and salutary.  Morning and evening meals of this
description,  prepared with milk, or  taken  along with
it, are very useful—animal food being reserved for
dinner alone.  But as age advances and excitability
diminishes, and perhaps, also, as habits  of activity
and exposure to the open air are changed, the same
proportion of vegetable and farinaceous food can no
longer be digested so easily, and therefore ought not
to be continued.

  * Beaumont's Experiments and Observations, &c, p. 249. 
          PLAIN ANIMAL FOOD USEFUL.      253

  Pastry, rich  cakes, puddings, and other articles
containing much fatty or oily matter in their com-
position, are perhaps the most  generally indigesti-
ble of all  kinds of food, and  consequently ought
never to be  eaten when the tone of the stomach is
impaired.  There are states, however, in which oily
articles seem to agree better than lean.  I have seen
very fat fried  bacon,  for  example, digested Avith
ease at breakfast, where  even a small potato Avould
have disordered the stomach.  It is very difficult to
afford any explanation of the fact, Avhich,  hoAvever,
is  not  uncommon.   Perhaps it is dependant on a
peculiar state of the biliary secretion, for Dr. Beau-
mont often  remarked that the  presence  of bile in
the stomach facilitates the digestion of fat and oily
aliments, and that, even out of the stomach, gastric
juice dissolves suet faster Avhen a little  bile is added
to the mixtufe than when the  juice is pure.   He
mentions, moreover, that he never found bile in the
stomach, at least during health, except when food
of an oily kind  had been eaten; and, in accordance
with this, I have generally noticed that fried bacon
agrees best Avith what are called " bilious" subjects.
Still, however, the quantity must be small, othenvise
it Avill prove injurious.
  Plain, well-cooked animal  food, not  too recently
killed, and eaten in moderate quantity, with bread,
rice, or roasted potatoes, forms one  of  the most
easily digested meals which can be devised for a
Aveak stomach.   Sometimes, hoAvever, potato   in-
duces  acidity and flatulence, and ought  not to  be
used.  Venison and most kinds of game are very
suitable in the same circumstances.
  In some conditions of the system, where the con-
dition is irritable, and the  mode of life not sufficient-
ly active, red,  highly animalized meat proves  too
stimulating, although easy of digestion. The same
happens  during recovery from  illness; and hence
fish, chicken, and other Avhite meats, which excite
                       Y 
254      EXPOSITION OF PRINCIPLES.
less and are digested more slowly, are often alloAv-
able where beef, mutton, pork, &c. cannot be taken
Avith impunity.  For the  same reason, Avhite and
young meats are the best adapted for the excitable
systems of the young.

  It would be easy to fill many pages with disquisi-
tions about the preference due to  individual articles
of food, were such the purpose which I had in view.
But books devoted to this branch of the subject
abound, and are already in general circulation; and
as I have  nothing neAv to  add to what is contained
in them, it would be making a needless demand on
the patience of the reader merely to repeat what is
to be found in so many other works.   My object is
the exposition of practical principles rather than
of minute details; and  my  great aim  is to enable
every intelligent person  to understand, not only
what digestion is, but the  laws by which it is regu-
lated, so that he  may knoAV at once why it is for his
advantage to adhere to one course  of conduct in
preference to another in regard to it—why, indiffer-
ent situations, diet requires to be modified in order
to adapt it more  effectually to the varying wants of
the system—and, lastly, the circumstances or rules
by which such modifications ought to be determined.
If I have succeeded in the attempt to explain any or
all of these principles sufficiently to render them sus-
ceptible of a practical application by the reader, not
only I shall be greatly pleased, but the advantage to
him will  speedily convince  him  that  I have  acted
judiciously in forsaking the beaten path, and drawing
his attention  to truths of still greater importance to
his welfare than those which  are most commonly
treated of under  the title of dietetics. 
LAWS OF ORGANIC  ACTIVITY.      255
                  CHAPTER  IV.

   CONDITIONS  TO BE OBSERVED BEFORE  AND AFTER
                      EATING.

General laws of organic activity apply to the stomach as well as to
  other parts.—Increased flow of blood towards the stomach du-
  ring digestion.—Hence less circulating in other organs.—And
  consequently less aptitude for exertion in them.—Bodily rest
  and mental tranquillity essential to sound digestion.—Rest al-
  ways attended to before feeding horses.—Hence also a natural
  aversion to exertion immediately after eating.—Mischief done
  by hurrying  away to business  after meals.—Severe thinking
  hurtful at that time.—Playful cheerfulness after dinner con-
  ducive to digestion.—The mind often the cause of indigestion.
  —Its mode of operation explained.—Also influences nutrition.
  —Illustration from Shakspeare.—Importance of attending to
  this condition of health enforced.

  Having now discussed the principles by which the
number, quantity, and quality  of our meals ought to
be regulated, Ave have next to consider the  condi-
tions required for the healthy performance of diges-
tion after the aliment has reached the  stomach, and
to deduce from  them such practical rules as shall
tend to facilitate the accomplishment  of the pro-
cess.
  Among the circumstances which favour digestion,
the observance of bodily rest and mental tranquillity
for  some time before and  after  every meal  is per-
haps the most important; its influence  depends on a
well-known  law of the animal  economy,  already
frequently alluded to, but  to which, that it may be
fully understood, I must again  shortly refer.
  Whenever any living part is called into vivid ac-
tion, an increased flow of blood and of nervous
energy towards  it immediately commences, to ena- 
256     LAWS OF  ORGANIC  ACTIVITY.

ble it to sustain the requisite degree of excitement,
and continues till some time after the activity has
ceased.  In accordance with this law, whenever food
is  swallowed, the lining membrane of the stomach
becomes suffused  with blood, and, owing  to the
greater distension of its vessels, its colour changes
from a pale pink to a deep red hue.  After digestion
is  completed, and the unusual supply of blood is no
longer required, the vessels again diminish, and the
colour returns to its original tint.  In St. Martin's
stomach, these changes were so often seen by Dr.
Beaumont, as to render their occurrence as fully
demonstrated  as any circumstance  with which we
are acquainted.  Even had they  never been seen,
the simple examination of the structure of the stom-
ach would lead us directly to the inference  that it
receives an additional supply of blood when engaged
in  digestion; for the very  act  of its distention by
food'renders the course of its blood vessels less tor-
tuous, and the flow of blood  through  them  conse-
quently more easy and rapid.  In the case  of the
stomach, indeed, the increased circulation is  doubly
required;  not only, as in other parts, to enable it to
act with greater vigour, but also to supply the very
copious secretion of gastric  and mucous fluids ne-
cessary for digestion, and Avhich we have seen to
commence the moment food touches the mucous
coat.  The quantity of gastric juice actually secreted
at  each meal cannot easily be  determined;  but as
more than an equal weight of it is required for the
solution of food out of the stomach, its amount must
be very considerable.   Indeed, Ave  know that, on
one  occasion,  when  St. Martin  dined  on broiled
mutton and bread  without any liquids, the gastric
secretion  was so copious, that half an hour after-
ward the " stomach was as full of fluids as when he
drank a pint immediately after eating ;"* and, as the

 * Beaumont's Experiments and Observations, &c, p. 185. 
         LAWS  OF ORGANIC ACTIVITY.     257

whole of this must have been derived directly from
the blood  circulating  through the vessels of  the
stomach, they must necessarily have received a very
large supply to enable them to furnish it.
  It is obvious, however,  that the grand afflux of
blood which takes place towards the stomach and
intestines during digestion, cannot occur without a
corresponding diminution in the quantity circulating
on  the surface and in other distant  parts of  the
body, attended, of course, with a diminished poAver
of action in them.  Hence, for some time after a full
meal, there is  an  inaptitude for  vigorous  thinking
and bodily exertion, a depression of respiration, and,
in delicate persons, a degree of coldness or chill felt
over the whole body.   But, under ordinary circum-
stances, this depression is not of long continuance.
After the  requisite secretions have been  provided
for the solution of the food and the formation of the
chyle, a reaction and change in  the distribution of
the blood, now partially renewed by the admixture
of nutritive chyle, ensue, and, by the stimulus which
they afford, soon  fit the person  for the active  re-
sumption of his ordinary duties.
   That this impaired activity of the other functions
after a full meal is  natural, and intentionally arranged
by the Creator, is plain, both from its  universality
among all kinds of  animals, and from  the mode in
which it is produced.  Among the lower creatures,
the sluggishness induced by eating increases in  pro-
portion to the degree in which  they gorge them-
selves with food.  The boa constrictor, after a plen-
tiful repast, slumbers  for a week; and the glutton
of our own species, in similar circumstances, drops
into a stertorous sleep of several hours.   If active
exertion  immediately after a full meal be rendered
compulsory by any external cause, such as the pres-
ence  of danger urging to flight, the  aliment often
remains for hours  in the stomach undigested. Again,
                       Y2 
258  QUIET  BEFORE AND AFTER EATING.

the very distention of the stomach inseparable from
a hearty meal, necessarily  impairs  the activity of
several  of the functions, by directly pressing upon
the vessels which supply their organs with  blood,
and consequently diminishing the stimulus essential
to their activity.
  The obvious practical inference  to  be deduced
from  a  consideration of the principle under discus-
sion is, that rest of body and tranquillity of mind
for a short time both before and after eating are ne-
cessary, and conducive to healthy digestion.   If we'
have  been engaged in severe and fatiguing bodily
exertion, or  anxious meditation, just before sitting
down to a meal, the blood which Avas flowing  copi-
ously through the  vessels of the  muscles  or the
brain to keep up their unusual action, still continues
to do so, because a sufficient interval has not elapsed
to allow the excitement to subside,  and a  new dis-
tribution to take place towards the organs concerned
in digestion.  The consequence is, that the stomach
does  not receive blood enough  to  carry on its in-
creased action, and furnish gastric juice with suffi-
cient rapidity, or in sufficient quantity, to  mix with
the whole of the food; and that the nervous energy,
already partially exhausted by over-excitement in
the remoter organs, is imperfectly supplied  to the
stomach, the tone and action of which are thus so
far impaired  as to render it no longer able to carry
on digestion with its usual success.  Accordingly,
when we are fatigued with mental or bodily labour,
we are  naturally impelled to seek repose before sit-
ting down to table;  and if we yield to this instinct-
ive prompting, and  refresh ourselves by a rest, we
not only enjoy better what we eat, but also digest it
with an ease and comfort unattainable by swallowing
our food the moment our labour is at an  end; and
hence the wisdom and advantage of appropriating
half an  hour to any light occupation, such as  dress- 
REST  BEFORE EATING.         *259
mg, before sitting down to dinner.  If, however, we
have previously been engaged only in very moderate
exercise, an interval of repose is not required, be-
cause then there is no undue excitement elsewhere
to retard the necessary flow of blood and nervous
energy towards the internal organs.
  The practical rule of avoiding serious exertion of
mind  or body  immediately after eating, which is
directly deducible from the physiological law above
explained,  has  long been acted upon in our treat-
ment of the lower animals ; and no one who sets any
value on the lives of his horses or dogs, ever allows
it to be disregarded with respect to them.  And yet
the same man who would unhesitatingly dismiss his
groom for feeding his horse immediately after  a
fatiguing chase or a gallop home, would probably
think nothing of walking into the house and ordering
dinner to be instantly served for himself in  similar
circumstances.   In the army, the difficulty of man-
aging recruits, on a march, in this respect, has often
been remarked. Fatigued with the day's exertions,
they are impatient for food, and, Avhen they get it,
can scarcely refrain so long from devouring it as to
admit of its being even moderately cooked.  They
consequently labour under the double disadvantage
of eating before the system is in a  sufficient state
of repose to benefit by the supply, and of having the
food itself in  a condition unfit  for easy digestion.
The old campaigner, on  the other hand, instructed
by former experience, restrains his appetite, syste-
matically kindles his fire, cooks  his victuals, and
makes his arrangements for the night, with a cool-
ness of deliberation which surprises the recruit;
and he is amply repaid for his temporary self-denial,
by the greater enjoyment and support which he de-
rives from  the very same materials Avhich the impa-
tience of the other has caused him in a great meas-
ure to waste.
  Let any one who doubts the advantages resulting 
260  ANIMALS  INACTIVE AFTER EATING.

from attention to this  rule, consider for a moment
its universal and scrupulous  observance by post-
masters and jockeys,  and think whether these are
persons likely to throw away time and trouble on a
useless  ceremony.  When a horse is taken out of
harness, an interval of repose is always  allowed,
that the excitement of the system may have time to
subside ; and then not only an eager appetite but an
active digestion  are sure to follow.  Many a valu-
able horse has been killed by being prematurely fed
after fatiguing exercise, and man himself is no ex-
ception  to the  rule.   He not only enjoys a meal
with superior relish, but digests it better, when due
repose has removed the fatigue and excitement  of
exertion.  Even  after continued activity of mind, a
period of tranquillity or of gentle bodily exercise is
eminently conducive to the healthy action of the
stomach, precisely because it favours the new dis-
tribution of the circulating blood which that process
requires.
  In accordance  with this law of digestion, there is
throughout the whole animal creation a   marked
aversion to activity for some time after a full meal,
although man, eager in the pursuit of  gain or the
gratification of other passions, often  sets it at defi-
ance, and  engages in  bodily or mental labour both
immediately before and after meals: but, in return,
he receives his  reward for despising the authority
of nature, in a severity of  suffering from which the
animals whom he treats so  much better than him-
self, are by his care entirely exempted.  Nowhere,
for example, does man hurry off to business so im-
mediately as in the United States of America, and
nowhere does he bolt his  food so much as if run-
ning a race against time.  The consequence is, that
nowhere do intemperate eating  and dyspepsy pre-
vail to the same enormous amount.  Even  in  Eng-
land, according to Dr. Caldwell, the extent  of trans-
gression cannot be compared with Avhat is witnessed 
      REPOSE  REQUIRED  AFTER EATING.   261

among our transatlantic brethren;  and the result
shows, that if  we in Britain suffer from indulging
our fondness for good things, the comparatively de-
liberate way in which we set about enjoying them,
serves as a partial safeguard, and exempts us from
a  portion of  the  punishment which our brethren
bring down  upon  themselves, by the hurry with
which they first devour their food and then set off
to work.   Rapid eating almost invariably leads to
overloading the stomach; and when to this is added
a total disregard of the quietude necessary for diges-
tion, what can be expected to follow but inveterate
dyspepsy 1
  The reason why Avounds, bloodletting, bathing,
and other circumstances which tend  to disturb the
regularity of the circulation, are so hurtful after a
full meal, will  now be  apparent.  The  effect  of
wounds and bloodletting is to give rise to an instan-
taneous change in  the distribution of the blood, and
to deprive the stomach of that which is now doubly
required.  Bathing, whether hot or  cold, has an
analogous effect;  and so, indeed, have all violent
and sudden bodily  or mental shocks.
  It must not, however, be imagined that the period
of repose necessary to ensure healthy digestion ex-
tends over the whole time of the continuance  of
food in the  stomach.  After a moderate  meal,  and
in ordinary  health, the  concentration of  the vital
powers in that organ,  and their proportionate  de-
pression  in other parts of the body, rarely continue,
at least in a very marked degree, beyond the period
usually allotted to  the siesta, or  sleep after dinner,
in warm climates, and  even in Italy and Spain—
namely, an hour or an hour and a half.  When  the
meal  has not exceeded the bounds of moderation,
a sufficient quantity of gastric juice for the digestion of
the  whole is  secreted generally within the first hour;
after Avhich  time, consequently, the same quantity
of blood is no longer required to be directed towards 
262 NERVOUS ENERGY DURING  DIGESTION.

the stomach, but may beneficially  be distributed to
such other parts, as from their activity more imme-
diately require its aid.   If the muscular system is
to be employed in labour or locomotion, the blood
can now be spared to sustain its  activity; if the
mmd is to be engaged in intellectual pursuits, it can
be sent to the brain without robbing the  stomach.
The same principle of course applies to all the other
organs; and it is  therefore chiefly during the first
hour, till all the gastric juice be provided  and the
chymification of the food be fairly commenced, that
tranquillity of  mind and inaction  of body are so
essential.
  As already mentioned, the reality of increased cir-
culation in the vessels of the stomach during diges-
tion has been established by ocular demonstration,
as Avell as by analogy.   The increase in the supply
of nervous energy which takes  place at the same
time is, however, scarcely less certain,  although
from its nature incapable of being seen.   It is the
almost characteristic feature of the nervous system
to be excited  by  stimulus to increased action;  and
we formerly saw that when the nerves of the stom-
ach are cut, and  the flow  of nervous influence is
arrested, digestion instantly suffers.  But the same
principle holds in  the nervous as in the  circulating
system.  Energetic action cannot be kept up in two
distant parts of the body at  the same time.  If the
intellect be intently  occupied in profound  and ab-
sorbing thought, the nervous energy will be concen-
trated  in the brain, and any demands made on it by
the stomach or muscles will be very imperfectly at-
tended to.  If, on the  other hand, the stomach be
actively engaged  in digesting a full meal, and some
subject of thought be then  presented to the mind,
considerable difficulty will be felt in pursuing it, and
most probably both thought and digestion will be
disturbed.  If the mental effort required  be  easy
and agreeable,  and the meal be a very temperate 
     NERVOUS ENERGY DURING DIGESTION.  263

one, there will be much less difficulty in simultane-
ously proceeding with both, because comparatively
little  nervous  energy will  then suffice  for them.
Still, however, each  will go on  more efficiently if
not interfered with by the other.
  When the  mind is active and vigorous, and prop-
erly exercised in all its departments of feeling and
affection as well as of intellect, the nervous influ-
ence  which  the brain produces  is not only more
abundant, but of a more healthful and invigorating
quality.  Hence the  well-known preservative and
restorative influence of cheerful dispositions and
gratified activity of mind, and hence the depressing,
morbid, and  often fatal eflects of corroding care,
grief, or apprehension, on every organ of the body.
Hence, too,  the weak digestion and  sallow com-
plexions of  literary men and hard students,  who
suffer  severely from  transgressing this law of the
animal economy by habitually engaging  in occupa-
tions  requiring much exertion of mind, not  only
soon after, but even during the very act of swallow-
ing their meals.  Ignorant of the  connection subsist-
ing between  the different functions, and of their laws
of action, few can be convinced  in time  of the im-
portance of  observing this condition, even after its
operation has been  explained to  them.   In the con-
clusion, however, experience teaches many whose
reason is insufficient for their guidance, and forces
them to a closer conformity with the dictates of
nature, when obedience is almost too late to be of
benefit.
  The prodigious influence of the nervous system
on digestion is familiarly and unequivocally exhib-
ited in almost every case of dyspepsy which each
succeeding day brings under the notice of the phy-
sician.  He  knows  well from experience that the
diet may be  selected with every care, its quantity
duly  proportioned,  and exercise  rigidly  practised,
and yet all his curative treatment fail even to  re- 
264  NERVOUS ENERGY DURING DIGESTION.

lieve, unless his  patient be at the same time freed
from the pressure of care, and due attention be de-
voted to the observance of mental and bodily repose
after every meal.  The heavier the meal the greater
is the desire for  absolute rest, and the  less advan-
tageously can active  exertion  be  encountered.
When the stomach is  loaded, the whole vital ener-
gies seem to  be  concentrated in it to enable it to
cope with the task imposed upon it.   But when we
eat temperately,  there is less necessity for entire
quietude of mind  and body.  Accordingly, if we do
not experience the same dislike to exertion after  a
light forenoon lunch, Avhich we do after a heavy late
dinner, the reason is simply, that less gastric juice,
less nervous energy, and less vigorous action in the
stomach, are required to digest in the one case than
in the other.
  Among  operative manufacturers, who are much
within doors, and who are allowed only a few min-
utes for meals, indigestion is very prevalent.  Ordi-
nary labourers are better treated in this respect, as
they are allowed one hour for breakfast and  another
for dinner.  To most of them the walk to and from
their own  houses  is almost as good as, if not better,
than absolute rest, because it varies their position, is
taken leisurely, and costs no effort.
  Those who are compelled by circumstances to
active exertion immediately after a meal, or whose
minds are intently occupied  in thought or emotion,
will find their only safety in eating less than when
differently  situated.   The  stomach, having  less
labour imposed upon it, will require less blood and
less nervous energy, and consequently less of  both
will be abstracted from the other organs, which are
also in activity, and  requiring  their  assistance.
Travellers, literati, and other actively engaged men,
know this rule by experience, and some of them
have specially noticed  its  importance.   Richard
Cumberland,  for example, in speaking of his  own 
           INFLUENCE OF THE MIND.        265

habits, says: "Nature has given me the hereditary
blessing of a constitutional and habitual temperance,
that revolts against excess  of any sort, and never
suffers appetite to load the frame.  I am accordingly
as fit to resume my book or my pen the instant after
my meal, as I was in the freshest hours of the morn-
ing."*   This compatibility of temperate eating with
activity did not escape the  acute observation of Hip-
pocrates.
  The state of the mind,  indeed, exerts a powerful
influence not only on the stomach,  but on the whole
process of nutrition, and greatly modifies the quan-
tity which may be safely eaten.  If the mind be gay
and  joyous, appetite will be comparatively keen,
digestion effective and rapid, and nutrition complete.
Examples  of this kind abound in childhood, and
among an easy-minded, well-fed peasantry. Whereas
if the mind be harassed by care and anxiety, or de-
voured  by grief, envy, jealousy, or other troubles
and  disquieting passions,  the healthy calls of appe-
tite  will be scarcely known, and digestion and nu-
trition will be equally impaired.  This fact is exem-
plified on a large scale in every commercial country,
and especially in times of public distress and political
change.  Shakspeare obviously had the principle in
view when he made Caesar exclaim—

    " Let me have men about me that are fat,
     Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights.
     Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
     He thinks too much: such  men are dangerous.
       Antony. Fear him not, Caesar, he's not dangerous,
     He is a noble Roman, and well given.
       Caesar. Would he were fatter : but I fear him not:
     Yet if my name were liable to fear,
     I do not know the man 1 should avoid
     So soon as that spare Cassius.  He reads much.
     He is a great observer, and he looks
     Quite through the deeds of men; he loves no plays,

         * Cumberland's Memoirs, vol.  ii., p. 204
                        z 
26'5       INFLUENCE OF  THE MIND.

     As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music,
     Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
     As if he mocked himself, and scorned his spirit
     That could be moved to smile at anything.
     Such men as he be never at heart's ease
     While they behold a greater than themselves,
     And therefore are they very dangerous."

  Even experience  must have taught every one
with what  zest we sit down to enjoy the pleasures
of the table, and how largely we incline to eat, when
the mind is free, unburdened, and joyous, compared
with the little attention  we bestow on our meals
when we  are overwhelmed with  anxiety, or have
the whole  energies of the  mind  concentrated on
some important scheme.  There cannot be a doubt,
indeed, that  the  over-exertion and  excitement, or
absolute inertness of mind,  in which  sedentary
people are  generally immersed, contributes greatly,
along with the want  of muscular exercise  in the
open air, to impair the tone of the  digestive organs.
In this way, as it is not less justly than forcibly re-
marked by  Dr. Caldwell, " dyspepsy commences, per-
haps, as often in the brain as in the stomach.  Pos-
sibly oftener.  That  this  is true of the disease in
Europe will scarcely be denied, after a fair examina-
tion of the facts  connected with it.   It is there
almost exclusively a complaint of the studious and
the scheming, who, over-tasking their brains, injure
them by toil.  Among the husbandmen of England,
who steadily pursue their tranquil mode of  life, re-
gardless of the fluctuations of stock, the bickerings
of  party,  the fate of political measures, and the
changes of place, dyspepsy is almost a stranger."
" In the cities, the same is  in a great measure true
of merchants, manufacturers, and mechanics,  who
are engaged in a regular and well-established busi-
ness, which is fully understood by them, where the
risk is  slight and the profits sure, and no disquieting
anxiety attends it.  Such individuals  have  a good 
          INFLUENCE  OF THE  MIND.       267

digestion, and bear the marks of it.   But with liter-
ary men, officers of state, dealers in scrip, daring
adventurers,  and anxious and ambitious projectors
of improvements, with these and every other brain-
worn class of persons,  the case is different.  Dys-
pepsy is their torment, and they exhibit deep traces
of it in  their lean frames and haggard countenances.
Yet are they  much more select in their diet, both as
respects quantity, quality, and cooking, than the
classes  to whom dyspepsy is unknown.   This  fact
is notorious, and has been so for centuries.   Nor
can it be attributed, I think, to any other cause but
excessive and deleterious  cerebral irritation in the
one case, and an exemption from  it in the other;
and  this cause  seems  sufficient to  solve the pro-
blem."*
   In denouncing active exertion of mind or body
immediately  after eating, as inimical to digestion, it
is not meant that we should go to sleep, or indulge
in absolute listlessness.   A weak constitution  may-
require  something like complete repose, but a person
in ordinary health may indulge in a leisurely saun-
ter or pleasant conversation, not only without injury
but with positive benefit; and  perhaps  there is no
situation in which digestion goes on so favourably,
as during the cheerful play of sentiment in the after-
dinner  small-talk of  a  well-assorted circle.  The
nervous stimulus sent to the stomach is then of the
most  healthful  and  invigorating  description;  and
even the dyspeptic, if on his guard against a heavy
meal, forgets  his woes amid the unwonted vigour of
his functions.
   It  is  true that thousands who  habitually neglect
the observance  of the  condition here  adverted to,
continue to live  and digest for years without appear-
ing to suffer much from  their conduct.   But it is not
less  true that  there are  many more who bring

    ' Caldwell's thoughts on Physical Education, p. 34. 
 268 ADVANTAGES  OF FULFILLING THE LAWS.

 wretchedness and disease upon themselves and their
 offspring, in the vain attempt to counteract the  in-
 tentions of nature, and that there are comparatively
 few, even of the former, so happily constituted as to
 escape  entirely unscathed.  Most  frequently the
 evil consequences are only accumulating, and when
 they are summed up at the end of years, the victim
 finds  himself more severely punished than he had
 ever expected  to be.  In this  respect, the conse-
 quence  resembles that arising  from breathing in a
 vitiated atmosphere.  The effect may not be per-
 ceptible for a time ;  but if God  has  ordained a pure
 air to be best adapted  for respiration,  we have the
 infallible authority of his omniscience for believing
 that one Avhich is vitiated must be less wholesome,
 although his beneficence has so constituted us, that
 the injury resulting from it is gradual in its infliction,
 for the very-purpose of giving us time to escape.  In
 like manner, if bodily and mental relaxation are
favourable to digestion, we have the same infallible
 guarantee that every departure from them must be in
so far hurtful, however slowly the effect may devel-
ope itself. 
RULES  FOR GRATIFYING THIRST.    269
                   CHAPTER V.

                     ON DRINKS.

Thirst the best  guide in taking  simple drinks.—Thirst in-
  creased by diminution of the circulating fluids.—The desire
  for liquids generally an indication of their propriety.—Much
  fluid hurtful at meals.—Most useful three orfour hours later.—
  The temperature of drinks is of  consequence.—Curious fall
  of "temperature in the stomach from cold  water.—Ices hurt-
  ful after dinner.—Useful  in warm weather, when digestion is
  completed and caution used.—Cold water more dangerous
  than ice when the body is overheated.—Tepid drinks safest
  and most refreshing after perspiration.—Kinds of drink.—Wa-
  ter safe for  every constitution.—Wine,  spirits, and other
  fermented liquors, too stimulating for general use, but bene-
  ficial in certain circumstances.—Test of their utility.

  On the subject  of drinks two questions  naturally
occur.   When ought we to drink 1  and, What ought
we to drink 1  On both I shall offer a few very brief
remarks.
  In the first part of this volume  I endeavoured to
show that the sensation of thirst is  given to us for
the express purpose of impelling us  to take liquids
whenever the wants of the  system require them,
and that, in all ordinary circumstances,  we  cannot
have a better or a safer guide.  Such is the general
case ; but exposed as we are to numerous deviations
from the intentions of  nature  in our  ways of living,
a few precautionary observations may not be without
use.
  The quantity of fluid separated from the blood
and thrown  out  of the system,  in the  course  of
twenty-four hours, by  perspiration, exhalation  from
the lungs, the urinary discharge,  and the various
                        Z2 
270   RULES  FOR  GRATIFYING THIRST.

other secretions, is very great; and  were  not the
loss as regularly supplied by the ingestion of liquid,
either as food or as drink, the blood would speedily
become so thick as to be unfit for circulation.  This
actually  happens in  Asiatic cholera, in which the
watery portion of the blood is drained off through
the bowels with frightful  rapidity, and in which,
consequently, the urgency of thirst is almost ahvays
excessive.  In the healthy state, however, the loss
of fluid is never too  rapid  unless under severe ex-
ertion or exposure to a very high temperature, both
being circumstances in which it is well known that
thirst becomes  urgent in proportion to the necessi-
ties of the frame.
  In proof of the sensation of  thirst  being greatly
dependant upon the quantity of fluid  circulating in
the vessels, Professor Dunglison of Maryland refers
to the fact, mentioned by Dupuytren, that he " suc-
ceeded in allaying the thirst of  animals by injecting
milk, whey, water, and other fluids into their veins;"
and to Ornla's statement, " that, in his toxicological
experiments, he frequently allayed, in this way, the
excessive thirst of animals to which he had admin-
istered poison, and which were incapable of drink-
ing, owing to the oesophagus having been tied.   He
found, also, that the blood of animals was more and
more deprived of its watery portions  as  the absti-
nence  from liquids   was more prolonged ;"*  and
hence the greater thirst naturally experienced under
such circumstances.
  As a general rule, then, the desire  for liquids will
in itself  be an indication of their  propriety; but in
gratifying  it, we  should be careful not to drink so
fast as either to distend the stomach beyond proper

  * See Professor Dunglison's  Elements of Hygiene, p. 324,
in which the reader will  find a great variety of very useful in-
formation on all the branches of  the subject.   The remarks on
the different kinds of food and drink are among the best which
I have met with. 
        RULES FOR GRATIFYING THIRST.    271

bounds, or to  disturb the progress  of digestion by
undue  dilution too  soon after eating.  Many  per-
sons, from habit rather  than  thirst, impair the tone
of the stomach by drinking largely during or imme-
diately after meals, and thus relaxing the mucous
coat, and probably affecting the quality of its secre-
tions.   If the  gastric juice be greatly  diluted by
extraneous fluids, it is natural  to suppose  that its
solvent power must be diminished;  but whether
this  explanation be sound or not, the practice of
drinking frequently is certainly hurtful, and there-
fore  we ought to avoid it.
  Experience  proves that  a  moderate quantity of
liquid during a meal is  beneficial; and if we drink
little at a time, the risk  of exceeding the  proper
limit will be  very  small.  Dyspeptics, however,
ought to be on their guard against taking too much,
as they are apt to be misled by uneasy sensations in
the region of the stomach, which are relieved for
the moment, but afterward aggravated, by the free
dilution of the food.  Those, also, who live well,
and are in the habit of taking wine daily, whether the
system requires it or not, often fall into the error of
excessive indulgence in liquids to mitigate the thirst
and irritability which the unnecessary use of stimu-
lus never fails  to induce, especially at night.  The
continual  dilution, however,  adds to the mischief,
by increasing  the debility of the stomach, and, as
pointed out in the chapter on thirst, the only effect-
ual remedy is to adapt the  diet and regimen to
the real wants of the constitution.  Except in dis-
ease, a continually recurring thirst must proceed
from mismanagement, and  it is to be satisfied by an
improved  and rational regimen, and not by oceans
of fluid, which only weaken the stomach still more,
and aggravate the craving they are meant to cure.
  The opinion is very prevalent, that  mild  drinks
may be taken with most advantage about three or
four hours after a solid meal; and, certainly, the al- 
272      TEMPERATURE OF DRINKS.

most universal  use of tea or coffee about that time
appears to  sanction its  soundness.   Theoretically,
too, we might  expect this result; for digestion is
then nearly over, and  any  food  remaining in  the
stomach is already in a fluid state.   Many objec-
tions, however, have been made to both  tea and
coffee  as an  evening beverage; but  most of them
seem  to me to apply to their undue quantity and
strength rather  than to their temperate use.  When
made  very  strong, or taken in large quantity, espe-
cially late  in the evening, they not  only ruin the
stomach, but very seriously  derange  the  health of
the brain and nervous system.
  The question of drink is of little importance as
regards breakfast.  During the  night, the chief ex-
penditure of the system—by perspiration, urine,
and exhalation from the lungs—is of  a fluid nature,
and hence there is a marked and general preference
of fluids as a part of our first meal.  In this coun-
try, accordingly, tea, coffee, and  chocolate are in
almost  universal use for breakfast,  and  no other
liquid is required merely as drink.   If, from the
mode  of life or other causes, thirst be excited in the
forenoon, no valid objection  can  be  urged against
its moderate and reasonable gratification.
  The temperature at which  liquids are taken is a
matter of perhaps greater consequence than it is
usually considered.   As regards the teeth, we have
already seen that either very cold or very hot sub-
stances coming in contact with them are apt to be
injurious.  As regards the stomach, the same prin-
ciple holds  true; and when we consider the multi-
tude and intricacy of its nervous connections with
other vital organs, we cannot be surprised at even
sudden  death being frequently caused by drinking
ice-cold water when the body is weakened by pro-
fuse perspiration.  Of the various subjects connected
with digestion on which Dr. Beaumont has thrown
light by his experiments on St. Martin, this is one of 
TEMPERATURE OF DRINKS.      273
the few which he has omitted to investigate with
his usual diligence and accuracy; a circumstance
which is the more remarkable, because an inciden-
tal observation of his own seems, from its singularity,
to have been well calculated to direct his attention
to its consideration.   On  the occasion alluded to,
when a gill of water, at  the temperature of 55°
Fahr., was received  into the empty  stomach,  in
which the thermometer previously indicated a heat
of 99°, Dr. Beaumont remarked that it immediately
diffused itself over the interior surface, and brought
down the temperature to 70°, at which it stood for a
few  minutes, and then began again  to  rise very
slowly.   It was not till thirty minutes had elapsed, and
all the water been for some time absorbed, that the mer-
cury regained its former level of 99°.   This is an
important fact, and it  is curious that Dr. Beaumont
did not think of following it up by a regular series
of experiments, to ascertain the effects of cold and
hot drinks on the progress of digestion and on the
general system.  It  is well known, for example,
that a copious draught of cold water, taken in a state
of perspiration and fatigue, is often instantly fatal;
but its operation has never been satisfactorily ex-
plained.  The above  experiment, however, throws
some light on it;  for if a single gill of Avater at 55°
(which is not by any  means a low temperature)  is
able to reduce the heat of the stomach in  a moment
by no less than twenty-nine degrees,  when neither
fatigue nor perspiration is  present to add to its ef-
fect, the influence  of a large quantity, such as  is
usually drunk  by harvest labourers and others who
die of it, and at a still lower temperature, must un-
doubtedly be much more powerful and permanent,
especially when the bodily  energies and  means of
resisting the shock are impaired by previous labour
and  exhaustion under  a  burning sun.  In these
cases the shock  necessarily arising  from  such  a
sudden and extensive fall of temperature is greatly 
274    ICES  HURTFUL  AFTER A MEAL.
increased by the position of the stomach in the very
centre of the vital organs, to all of which it is most
intimately linked by the numerous nervous connec-
tions given for the express purpose of extending the
range and directness of its sympathies.
  Keeping in mind the great depression of temper-
ature  caused by swallowing so small a quantity of
cold water, and also the ascertained  fact that a heat
of about 100° is requisite  for healthy digestion, we
shall have no difficulty in accounting for the frequent
injurious consequences arising from considerable
quantities of ice-cream being hastily eaten, as they
often  are, at the end of a substantial dinner.  The
immediate effects of the rapid  abstraction of heat
to which they give rise in the stomach, are the  in-
stantaneous contraction and diminished action of its
blood vessels, the  consequent stoppage of the gas-
tric secretion, diminished sensibility of its nerves and
muscular fibres, and,  lastly, disturbance of  the heart
and neighbouring vital organs, both by sympathy
and by the direct abstraction of their heat.   Such,
at least, are  the consequences Avhich flow  from  the
application of cold to parts exposed to observation,
and partially verified by Dr. Beaumont in the case
of the stomach; and if the analogy holds  through-
out, as there  is every reason  to believe, we cannot
wonder that the free use of ice-cream at the end of
a good dinner or supper should  retard and even ar-
rest digestion in a person delicately constituted.
  In thus condemning the  free use  of ices at  the
end of a substantial meal, I do not,  however, mean
to say that a few teaspoonfuls of them, eaten slowly,
and allowed to  acquire a higher temperature before
reaching the  stomach, Avill do permanent  injury to
a person in  health and in  the enjoyment  of  sound
digestion.  Many eat them in this way and are  lit-
tle the Avorse ;  partly from the  subsequent reaction
being sufficient  to counteract the depressing influ-
ence,  and partly from  a person in vigorous health 
       ICE USEFUL WHEN  PROPERLY USED.   275

being able to throw off causes of disease from which
those who are less robustly constituted suffer se-
verely.   My belief, however, is, that the tendency of
ices,  taken  in such circumstances, is  to produce
mischief.  A healthy person, for example, may pos-
sess vigour enough to escape injury from immersion
in cold water, caused by the ice giving way when
skating; but as well might it  be  inferred, on that
account, that a similar immersion would be general-
ly innocuous, and even salubrious, as that  all may
safely eat ices freely because a given individual has
done  so with impunity.    Dr.  Beaumont's experi-
ment with the cold water shows  clearly that the
effect is  to lower the vital tone of the stomach; and,
such being the case, those whose digestion  is weak
ought to be careful against impairing it still further
by the use of ices.  In some instances, however,
it is not  improbable that they help to neutralize the
bad effects of hot soup, and  other dishes eaten at
too high a temperature.
  The use of cold or iced water in hot weather and
in warm climates, when digestion is not going on and
exhaustion is not present, is so far from being neces-
sarily hurtful, that with proper caution it may prove
both grateful and refreshing.  In Italy, accordingly,
ice is considered  so much a necessary of life  in
summer, that  in Naples and other places the  con-
fectioners are punished by a fine if they allow their
supply to fall short.  In Virginia, too, where, we
are told by Professor Dunglison, it was very com-
mon some years ago for the labourers in the  har-
vest field to be killed by drinking copiously of spring
water while overheated,  cases  of death have be-
come extremely unfrequent since the custom  was
introduced of supplying them with  ice.   When
Avater was taken,  it was  always  hastily  and  in
large  quantity, so that the immediate  effect on the
system was greater than could possibly arise from
the small quantity ^f  ice Avhich  is required for 
 276  TEPID DRINKS SAFE AND  REFRESHING-

 quenching thirst.   The very slowness, indeed, with
 which ice melts, not only prevents much being taken,
 but causes the water procured  from it to reach a
 higher and safer temperature before it arrives at the
 stomach.*  Hence, when  ices are taken, the  more
 slowly they are eaten  the more refreshing and sa-
 lubrious  will they  become, because the less violent
 will be their action upon the nerves, blood vessels,
 and membranes of the stomach.  From the  close
 sympathy  existing between the stomach and  the
 skin,  a single  teaspoonful  of ice-cream  suddenly
 swallowed when the body is weak and perspiring,
 will produce as instantaneous a  sense of chill as a
 pail of cold water  dashed over the surface; and on
 account of this very power over  the vital  actions of
 the stomach, ice  has of late  been cautiously and
 beneficially prescribed  to subdue  inflammation  of
 that organ.
  Liquids, such as soup, tea, and coffee, taken at a
 very  high temperature, also are injurious, but  not
 in the same degree.  They relax the mucous mem-
 brane and Aveaken the action of  the muscular coat,
 and in so far tend  to  impair digestion. The fittest
 temperature for both solid and liquid food is perhaps
 about the natural heat of the body, or a little above
 100°.   Dr. Dunglison,  however, and  some other
 physiologists, regard hot fluids as stimulating to  the
 stomach, and therefore conducive to digestion ; but
 he admits that debility is their ultimate effect.
  When  great thirst has  been  excited  either by
 bodily labour or by external heat, it  will  generally
 be more  effectually as well as safely quenched by
 drinking  moderately of tepid than of cold fluids.
 A tepid draught—a cup of tea  for example—pro-
 duces no disturbing action in the stomach, and, being
 immediately absorbed,  supplies  the deficiency  of
liquid without  changing the balance of the circula-

       * Dunglison's Elements of Hygiene, p. 331. 
          DIFFERENT KINDS OF DRINK.      27T

 ting fluids, thus  relieving  thirst  very much  in the
 same  way as Dupuy tren did by injecting tepid water
 into the veins;  whereas cold drink, by the sudden-
 ness of its impression, disturbs  the balance of the
 circulation, and excites a degree of reaction which
 increases the original discomfort.  If the system is
 at the same time  weakened by fatigue, cold drinks
 are always injurious.
   Of late years a change in the treatment of horses
 in this respect has taken place.   Formerly it used
 to be considered dangerous to give water to a horse
 in a state of perspiration.  Now,  however, it is a
 common  practice  to  allow post and  stage-coach
 horses a little water before their run is completed,
 however warm they may be:  but, in the first place,
 the quantity allowed is small, and is always given
 before the strength is exhausted;  and, in the second
 place, the excitement of  the subsequent  exercise
 prevents any considerable disturbance in the balance
 of circulation, and  thus ensures the safety of the
 animal.  If even the same moderate quantity were
 given  at the end of the stage, and the horse were
 then allowed to rest, inflammation would almost in-
 evitably result.
  The same  principle  applies to the human frame,
 and affords an easy explanation  of the  occasional
 instances  we see of persons  heated  by  exertion
 drinking cold  water without injury,   If the exer-
 tion have  been merely sufficient  to produce excite-
 ment without fatigue, and  heat without  debilitating
 perspiration, and especially if it be resumed after the
 draught, little or no harm will ensue.   But if ex-
 haustion or  fatigue  have been  induced,  and  the
 individual be  allowed to  drink freely of the cold
 water and then rest, the probability of mischief re-
sulting from  it will be greatly increased.   Many
accidents result from losing sight of this distinction,
and from  acting  alike in circumstances so essen-
tially different.
                      Aa 
 278    EFFECTS OF FERMENTED LIQUORS.

   On the subject  of the kind of drink which ought
 to be taken  a great deal might  be said, were it
 necessary to  discuss here the qualities of all  the
 liquors  that are in use.   But as my purpose is very
 different, a few general remarks wld be enough.
   Water is a safe  drink  for all constitutions, provi-
 ded it be resorted to in obedience to the dictates of
 natural  thirst  only, and  not of habit, and with the
 precautions already pointed out;  but unless the de-
 sire for it is felt, there is no occasion for its use during
 a meal, for the mere purpose of obeying a general
 rule.  Toast and  water, Avhey, beer, barley water,
 aerated and soda water, and other liquids of a simi-
 lar kind, which are little stronger than pure water,
 may be used,  according to the same general princi-
 ple, by those who  prefer them and find them agree-
 able to the stomach.  But with regard to  such fer-
 mented liquors as porter, ale, spirits,  and wine,
 much greater restriction is necessary, because much
 good  or evil may be done by them when properly
 or improperly administered.
  The primary effect of  all distilled and fermented
 liquors is to stimulate the nervous system and quicken
 the circulation.  In all conditions, therefore, in which
 the action of those requires to be increased or sup-
 ported, they are calculated to be useful; and, on the
 contrary, where it  requires to be soothed and abated,
 they are sure to be prejudicial.   To show the utility
 of this principle as a standard, we shall notice a few
 of its applications.
  Among the  higher classes, it is  common to give
 children an allowance  of wine every  day from a
 very early age.   To determine the propriety of
doing so, let us examine what is then their constitu-
 tional state.
  In infancy and childhood the circulation is rapid
and  easily  excited,  and the  nervous system  is
strongly acted upon even by the  slightest exter-
nal impressions.   Hence slight causes of irritation 
   WHEN ARE FERMENTED LIQUORS USEFUL? 279

readily excite febrile and convulsive disorders.  The
object of the parent, therefore, is  not to stimulate,
but  rather to abate nervous and  vascular  action.
Wine, accordingly, is  not  only unnecessary, but
positively detrimental to  children, and it is wrong to
accustom them to it.  There are individual children,
no doubt, who are so imperfectly constituted as to
require some stimulus to rouse the system to healthy
action, and to whom wine is beneficial as a medi-
cine.   But these are the exceptions  to the general
rule,  and to them  it should be given only under
medical sanction.
  In youth the natural tendency  of the constitution
is still to excitement; and consequently, as  a  gen-
eral rule, the stimulus of fermented liquors is inju-
rious.  During  rapid growth, however, the  animal
functions are sometimes so enfeebled  by the great
demands made upon them, that not only a full  sup-
ply of nourishing food, but also an allowance of
wine or malt liquor is required for a time to sustain
their  energy.  In this case the beneficial influence
of the fermented drinks is apparent, by their giving
tone to the  system  without raising the pulse or in-
creasing  nervous sensibility; but whenever any of
these effects is produced, their  employment ought
to be  discontinued.
  In  mature age, when digestion  is good and the
system in full vigour, if the mode of life be not too
exhausting, the nervous functions and general circu-
lation are in their best condition, and  require no
stimulus  for  their support.  The bodily energy is
then easily sustained by nutritious food and a regular
regimen,  and consequently artificial excitement only
increases the Avasting  of   the  natural strength.
Where, however, the system has been long accus-
tomed to the use of wine,  it will,  in  general, be
better to leave it  off  gradually than to make a
sudden change.   In old age, Avhen the powers of life 
280    WINE PREFERABLE TO  SPIRITS.

begin to fail, moderate stimulus  may be used wun
evident advantage.
  If it be said that this  doctrine amounts to a vir-
tual prohibition of wine and stimulant liquors, I ad-
mit at once that, where the whole animal functions
go on healthfully and energetically Avithout them,
their use is, in my opinion, adverse to the continu-
ance of health.   But there are many constitutions
so  inherently defective  in  energy,  as to  derive
benefit from a moderate  daily allowance of wine ;
and there  are  many  situations in which even the
healthiest  derive additional security from its occa-
sional  use.   If,  for example, a  healthy person  is
exposed to unusual and  continued exertion  in the
open air, or to the influence of anxious and depress-
ing watchfulness, a  moderate  quantity of  wine
along  with  his  food may become  the means  of
warding off actual disease, and enabling him to bear
up uninjured, where without it he would have given
way.   This preservative influence has been so often
experienced, that it is impossible to deny its reality.
  While,  then,  I consider stimulating  liquors  of
every kind as both useful and hurtful, where with-
out them  the  system is  healthful and  energetic, I
can see no reason why their temperate use in cir-
cumstances of an opposite nature  ought to be denied.
Many  weak  constitutions and many invalids are
benefited by wine, and all that  can  reasonably be
demanded is, that it shall not be abused.
  Continued and severe exertion, whether of body
or of mind, often exhausts the system  so much  as
to render the temporary  use of wine, and  even of
spirits, not only innocuous, but positively beneficial;
but in these cases they should be  considered  as
medicines, and care  ought to be  taken not to carry
the stimulus too far.   That, in some circumstances,
stimulus is really required, is accordingly shown  by
the ease with which the system bears  its  effects.
I have known  a delicate lady, during  recovery from 
WINE PREFERABLE TO SPIRITS.    281
 fever, take to the extent of a bottle of Madeira in
 twenty-four  hours, without producing the least un-
 due excitement of either the mind or the pulse, but
 rather the contrary—it soothed the mind and reduced
 the pulse ;  and this  I take  to be the true test of its
 propriety in all circumstances.
   The same  principle explains the well-known fact
 that many sportsmen, who, while living a sedentary
 life in town, are easily  effected  by even a small
 quantity of spirits, yet bear triple the quantity, with
 apparent impunity, under the influence of inspiriting
 exercise in a pure mountain air.   On resuming their
 former habits, the spirits again affect them as  readily
 as before.
  As a support to the system in cases which require
 it, wine is  in general far preferable to spirits of any
 description.  The former, when seasonably used,
 communicates  a  more  healthful  and permanent
 tone to the  frame;  while  spirits  impart  a  strong
 and  unnatural  stimulus, Avhich  is  sooner or  later
 followed by collapse and  debility—and hence the
 incessant craving for more when the  system has
 once  been accustomed  to  them.  Ardent  spirits,
 therefore, ought to be  used only as a medical rem-
 edy.   At present, however, this is so far from being
 the case, that they are resorted to on all occasions,
 afflictive  and  convivial, as  if they were a specific
 against every evil.  Among the poor, especially,
 whiskey or gin is considered a  sovereign remedy
for every disease.   Even to infants it is adminis-
tered with a recklessness which savours strongly of
barbarism, and the consequences are as might be
expected—deplorable.  Among the higher classes,
too, brandy and strong stimuli are in more frequent
use than they ought to be ; and medical men  should
 be on their  guard  against  directly or indirectly
encouraging,  in their patients, a practice so utterly
destructive to both physical and moral happiness.
For, in some instances, it is to be  feared that the
                     A a2 
 282   EFFECTS OF WINE ON THE  STOMACH.

 stimulant bitters and anti-spasmodics, so generally
 had recourse to in indigestion and nervous diseases,
 have had  an unsuspected share in the formation of
 a habit of intemperance.
  Of late years, great exertions have  been made,
 both in this  country and  in America, to warn the
 public  against indulging in the use of ardent spirits ;
 and powerful medical  as  well as  moral facts and
 arguments have  been  adduced to  demonstrate the
 unspeakably  greater advantages  of temperance.
 These  efforts have been followed with astonishing
 success,  and  the  good which has  been already
 effected is immense. It seems to me, however, that
 much  more might be accomplished, if  we did not
 confine ourselves so exclusively to the  mere incul-
 cation  of abstinence from intoxicating  liquors, but
 concerned ourselves more  in improving the general
 character, as the surest road to reformation, and in
 providing resources by means of which the reforma-
 tion, when once effected, might be  fully confirmed.
 The temperance which is produced by elevation of
 mind, and an improved state of moral feeling, will be
not only much more beneficial in its consequences,
but infinitely more proof against temptations, than
that which is observed merely in fulfilment of avow;
 and unless something be made to come in the place
of the  enjoyment  which is withdraAvn, the danger
of a relapse will continue to be great.  The impor-
tance  of this principle is  perhaps  not  sufficiently
 recognised in the otherwise valuable labours of
 temperance societies.
  Many persons imagine that spirits, taken in mod-
 erate quantity, cannot be injurious,  because they feel
no immediate bad effects from their use.   If the fun-
damental principle which I have advanced is sound,
 and if  all the functions of the system are already
 vigorously executed without  the  aid  of  spirits,
 their use  can  be  followed by only one effect—
morbid  excitement;  and it is in vain  to contend 
    EFFECTS OF SPIRITS ON THE STOMACH.  283

against  this obvious truth.   The evil attending
their unnecessary use  may not  be felt at  the mo-
ment,  but nevertheless it  is there;   and  for  de-
monstrative proof of  the  fact,  we  are again in-
debted to Dr. Beaumont.  On examining St. Martin's
stomach  after  he had been indulging freely in
ardent spirits for several days, Dr. Beaumont found
its mucous membrane covered with erythematic  (in-
flammatory) and  aphthous  (ulcerous)  patches,  the
secretions vitiated, and the  gastric juice diminished
in quantity, viscid,   and unhealthy;  although St.
Martin still complained of nothing, not even of  im-
paired appetite.   Two days  later, when the state of
matters was aggravated, " the inner membrane of the
stomach was unusually morbid, the erythematic appear-
ance more extensive, the spots more livid than usual;
from the surface of some  of them exuded small drops of
grumous blood; the aphthous  patches were larger and
more  numerous,  the  mucous  covering  thicker than
common, and the  gastric secretions much more vitiated.
The gastric fluids  extracted  were mixed ivith a large
proportion of thick ropy mucus,  and  a considerable
muco-purulent discharge slightly tinged with blood, re-
sembling the discharge from the bowels in some  cases of
dysentery.   Notwithstanding  this diseased  appear-
ance of the  stomach,  no very essential aberration of
its functions was manifested. St. Martin complained
of no symptoms indicating any general derangement
of the system,  except  an uneasy sensation  and a
tenderness at the pit  of the  stomach, and some ver-
tigo, Avith dimness  and yellowness  of vision, on
stooping down and rising again; had a  thin yellow-
ish-brown coat  on his tongue, and his countenance
was rather sallow; pulse uniform and regular, ap-
petite  good; rests quietly, and sleeps as usual." *
  I have marked  part  of this quotation in  italics,
because it cannot  be  too attentively considered by

  * Beaumont's Experiments and Observations, &c., p. 237. 
284     STATE OF STOMACH  IN FEVER.
those who contend that the stimulus of spirits is not
injurious to the stomach or general  health, unless
where the mischief shows itself by palpable exter-
nal signs.  Here we have incontestible proof, that
disease of the stomach was induced, and going on
from bad to worse, in consequence of indulgence in
ardent spirits,  although  no  prominent  symptom
made its appearance, and  St. Martin  was  in  his
general  habits a healthy and sober  man.  And if
such be  the results  of a few days of intemperance
in a person of a sound constitution, it is impossible
to deny that continued indulgence must be followed
by more  serious evils, whether  these show them-
selves from the first by marked external signs or not.
  After a few days  of low diet and the use of mild
diluents,  the coats of St. Martin's stomach were
seen to  resume their healthy appearance; the  se-
cretions became natural, the gastric juice clear and
abundant, and the  appetite  voracious.  Dr. Beau-
mont adds, that, in the course of his experiments,
diseased  appearances of a similar kind  were fre-
quently observed—generally, but not always, after
some  appreciable cause.  " Improper indulgence in
eating and drinking  has been the most common pre-
cursor of these diseased conditions of the coats of
the stomach.  The free use of ardent spirits, wine,
beer, or  any intoxicating liquor,  when continued for
some days,  has  invariably  produced   these  morbid
changes.  Eating voraciously or to excess, swallowing
food coarsely masticated or loo fast," " almost invari-
ably produce similar effects, if repeated a number of
times in close  succession."—(P. 239.)  These  ob-
servations require  no comment; their  practical
bearing must be obvious to all who  are willing  to
perceive  it.
  Dr. Beaumont had also  frequent occasion to re-
mark,  that,  when  stomachic  disorder,  attended
with  febrile  symptoms, was present,  the  mucous
coat of the stomach presented distinct appearances 
       FERMENTED LIQUORS CONSIDERED.   285

of disease.  He frequently saw it, for example, red,
irritable, and dry; and on the food touching  it,  no
gastric juice exuded, and consequently any food taken
lay long undigested.   But after the diseased action
was subdued by regimen and medicine, the gastric
juice again flowed readily, and digestion went on as
vigorously as before.   Even anger and*violent men-
tal  emotions  sometimes  produced  these  appear-
ances,  and gave rise to  temporary  indigestion.
These observations shoAv the  futility, not to say
mischief,  of administering  food  during fever and
other diseases by Avay of supporting the strength,
when, from the deficiency of the  gastric juice, it
cannot be digested, and can only add to the existing
irritation.  In this state, however,  bland fluids are
appropriate; because  they allay irritation, and are
almost  entirely absorbed without  requiring  to  be
digested.
  The condition of the  stomach above described,
and the consequent failure and vitiation of the gastric
secretion, induced by drinking ardent spirits, and by
general intemperance,  explain at once the miserable
digestion and  impaired appetite  of the habitual
drunkard; and it would be well for those who are
in danger of becoming  the victims of the habit, were
they early impressed  with some of these striking
and important truths.

  If it be  asked whether I  go the length of pro-
scribing all fermented  liquors, from table beer up-
ward, I answer that I do not ; I merely  mean, that,
where the general health is perfect without  them,
they ought not to be taken, because then their only
effect  is  to produce  unnatural excitement.    But
wherever the constitution or health  is  so deficient,
or the exertions required by  the mode of life  are so
great, that the system  cannot be sustained in proper
vigour  without some  additional  stimulus, I  would
not only sanction but  recommend the use of either 
286
EFFECT OF DRAMS.
Avine or such  other fermented liquor as should be
found by experience to support the strength, without
quickening the  circulation, exciting the mind,  or dis-
ordering the digestive functions.  If, however, any of
these effects  be produced, I would consider its
occurrence as  a proof that  the stimulus is inappro-
priate,  and cannot be too soon  discontinued, or  at
least diminished to  such a  quantity as  shall be
consistent with  the ordinary action  of  the  animal
functions.
  It may be alleged that a  glass of brandy after a
heavy  dinner  facilitates digestion,  and therefore
cannot do harm.  I admit at once,  that, when  we
eat too much,  or fill the stomach with indigestible
food, a dram of brandy, from its temporary stimulus,
enables  us to  get rid of the load sooner than we
could do without it.  But it seems to me, that a far
wiser plan would be, to abstain from eating what we
know to be oppressive to the stomach ;  and that, by
this means, we shall attain our end infinitely better,
than by first eating a heavy meal and then taking a
stimulus, the  efficacy of which  is  diminished by
every repetition of its use.   If we were compelled to
exceed the bounds of moderation in eating, there
would be some apology for our conduct. 
REGULATION OF THE BOWELS.
28*
                 CHAPTER  VI.

     ON THE PROPER REGULATION OF THE BOWEI.SJ.

Functions of the intestines.—The action of the bowels bears a
  natural relation to the kind of diet.—Illustrations.—And also
  to the other excretions.— Practical conclusions from this.—
  Different causes of inactivity of bowels.—Natural aids to in-
  testinal action.—General neglect of them.—Great importance
  of regularity of bowels.—Bad health from  their neglect-
  Especially at the age of puberty.—Natural means preferable
  to purgatives.—Concluding remarks.
                   if
  Having now taken a general vieAV of the  objects
nature, and laws of digestion, and of the structure
and mode of action of the various organs concerned
in its performance, and made  ourselves acquainted
with the principles on which our conduct ought to
be  regulated, so  as  to  second the  intentions  of
nature for our welfare and happiness, I have only
to add a few practical remarks on the proper man-
agement of the bowels, and then conclude.
  The proper uses of the intestines are, as we have
seen, to serve, 1st, for the performance of chylifi-
cation ;  2dly,  for  the absorption of  the  nutritive
chyle; and, 3dly, as a reservoir for the indigestible
residue of the food, and an outlet for both it and the
effete matter which  requires to be  thrown out of
the general system.   The processes of chylification
and absorption  having been treated  of in a former
chapter, it is in the last capacity only we have now
to consider the intestinal canal.
   Besides the bowels, there are several other chan-
nels by which the  waste materials of the body pass 
288     regulation of the bowels.
out.  The  most important of these are the skin,
the lungs, and the kidneys; and in  certain circum-
stances, where the action of the one is impaired or
repressed,  the natural  alliance subsisting  among
their respective functions, enables the rest to come
to its assistance, and even for  a time to  supply its
place.  Thus when, by continued exposure to cold,
the exhalation  from  the  skin  is much diminished,
the blood is thrown in upon the  internal  organs in
larger quantity, and,  as a consequence, the urinary
secretion  and  the exhalation  from  the  lungs  are
both increased, and full relief to the system is tem-
porarily obtained.    During hot weather,  on  the
other hand, when the skin is  in high action, and
perspiration flowing freely, the urinary secretion is
greatly  lessened.    The same principle  applies
equally to  the case of the bowels ; and  hence the
sudden application of cold  to the  surface  of  the
body, and  consequent suppression  of perspiration,
often increase the intestinal secretions to such  an
amount  as  to  induce  bowel  complaint.    On  the
other hand, the excited action of  the bowels  by
laxatives,  tends equally to diminish the activity of
the skin;   and hence, indeed, one  source of  the
cooling effect of saline purgatives administered in
fever and inflammations.
  The bowels being thus the outlet of the indigest-
ible portion of the  food, and of waste matter from
the system, it follows that, in  health, their action
ought to bear a relation to the  kind of aliment used,
and to the  state of the other  excretory functions ;
and consequently, that what may constitute healthy
action at one time,  and  in one individual, may be
very far  from  presenting the same  character  at
another time, and  in a different  individual.  If, for
example, a  person be fed chiefly on milk,  rice, or
farinaceous aliment, which is almost entirely appro-
priated to the purposes of nutrition and leaves very
little residue, the bowels, having little to throw out, 
REGULATION or THE BOWELS.
289
will naturally act seldomer and less fully than when
the diet  consists chiefly of bulky and innutritious
vegetables, which leave a  large portion of indigest-
ible  matter to be evacuated.   Most persons  are
aware of the difference of effect between the two
kinds of diet, but, from not being  acquainted with
the principle on which it depends, are apt to con-
clude that,  because  in  the  first case the bowels
act less, therefore they ought  to be assisted by
laxatives.  The inference, however, is by no means
necessarily sound; because the diminished  intes-
tinal action consequent on an exclusively farinaceous
diet is then the natural and healthy result; and  ac-
cordingly,  where such diet  is  required,  the  mere
costiveness is attended with no injury to  the con-
stitution.   The proper conclusion to be drawn from
it is, that the permanent and exclusive use of con-
centrated food is not in harmony with the structure
and functions of our digestive and assimilating or-
gans, and that, therefore, instead of continuing their
use,  and merely resorting  to purgatives to excite an
action for the removal of a residue which does not
exist, reason requires that we should select a diet
better adapted to the constitution  and laws of the
organization by which it is to be acted upon.
  The  same remark  applies to those who are ac-
customed to dine chiefly on animal food, and rice or
bread, without any sufficient admixture of herbace-
ous or other innutritious substances.  If, in such  cir-
cumstances, the aliment is almost entirely converted
into  nourishment  and  absorbed,  it  follows, as  a
matter of  necessity, that  little will  remain to be
thrown out of the body, and that the bowels will act
less  than with a different kind of diet.   If the state
of the constitution at the time be such as to require
the exclusive use of this kind of aliment, forced
action of  the  bowels  by purgatives will not be
needed, because their slowness will be  natural  and
healthy.   But if it be not, then the proper remedy 
 290      REGULATION OF THE BOWELS.

 is not to excite the bowels by irritating purgatives,
 but to remove the cause of the intestinal inactivity
 by changing the system of diet.
   It may be answered to this, that there are  many
 instances in which the stomach is unable to digest
 any vegetable or innutritious food, and in which,
 conseqently, the diet cannot be altered without in-
 jury.  I admit that, in the present state of society,
 cases of this  kind are common; but their number
 would be greatly reduced  if a proper mode  of life
 were systematically adopted, and that regard paid
 to the conditions of health which their intrinsic im-
 portance deserves.  There are very few individuals
 who,  when in health, and with the aid of a proper
 regimen, cannot digest aliment suited to the natural
 constitution of the stomach and bowels;  and when
 such  cases do  occur, they constitute exceptions  to
 the general  rule, and must,  of course, be treated
 either by the use of laxatives, or such other reme-
 dies as the circumstances  may require.
   As  the frequency and amount  of the  intestinal
 evacuations may thus vary according  to the nature
 of the diet, without necessarily involving any dis-
 turbance of health, so may they also vary accord-
 ing to the state of the other excretions ; and hence,
 again, is evident the absurdity of considering the
 same  standard as  applicable alike  to all  persons,
 times, and circumstances.  If, from continued ex-
 ertion, perspiration is kept unusually active, the ex-
 cretion  from  the  bowels  may  be proportionally
 diminished, not only without injury, but even with
 advantage to the health;  because, if the same waste
were  to go on by the bowels  as before, and the in-
creased  exhalation from the  skin also to continue,
 the system  would speedily become reduced.  In
consumption, for example, exhausting bowel com-
plaint and profuse perspiration are frequently ob-
served to alternate, and whatever remedy is given
to check the one generally aggravates the  other 
         CAUSES OF INACTIVE BOWELS.      291

But if both were to run their course together, instead
of singly, how much more rapidly would the system
be undermined!
  From this relation between the different excretory
functions, it follows, that when sluggishness of the
bowels  is induced by excess in another excretion,
the first step ought to be to remove or diminish the
unnatural  stimulus which has occasioned that ex-
cess, before attempting, by means of purgatives, to
force the bowels to  act.  If the  cause which  has
produced the deviation from the due proportion of
the excretion be left unabated, the only  effect of
strong laxatives will be, not  to relieve,  but to irri-
tate and weaken.
  The mere fact of the bowels not being emptied so
frequently  as usual, is therefore, when taken by
itself, no evidence that they ought to be stimulated
by medicine.  Before coming to this conclusion, we
ought to determine clearly whether the  diminished
action results from morbid sluggishness of the in-
testinal canal, or  is the natural result  of an acci-
dental change of diet,  or temporary excess in the
other excretions ; because the remedy which is ap-
propriate and efficacious in  the one case, may be
altogether  inapplicable to the other.   Where it
arises entirely from the aliment leaving little resid-
ual matter to be  thrown out, the  health may suffer
from the diet being inappropriate, but it will not suffer
merely from the diminished action  of the bowels.
Whereas, when the diet is of  the  ordinary mixed
kind, and the costiveness proceeds from morbid in-
action,  then general derangement of the system
will be  induced, unless the bowels be attended to,
and their natural action restored.  This distinction
ought never to be lost sight of.
  Judging from the prevalent notions on the subject,
from  the  universal reference of  all kinds of  bad
health to derangement of the stomach  and bowels
as their source, and from the scarcely less universal 
292     CAUSES OF INACTIVE BOWELS

use of purgatives as remedial agents, one would be
apt to suppose that, to ensure health and long life,
nothing more was required than to procure, no
matter by what means, an intestinal evacuation re-
gularly every day; and the inference Avould, to  a
certain extent, be confirmed by the  acknowledged
extensive  utility of laxative medicines.  The real
state of the case, however, is not quite so simple;
and as it is of importance that it should be under-
stood, I shall attempt to explain it as clearly as  I
can.
  We have  seen that inactivity of  the  intestinal
canal may arise  from the use of too concentrated
aliment, and  from  excess in the  other excretions.
In the great majority of cases, however, the  cause
is very different.  In general, the  diet is sufficiently
varied and abundant, and the balance of functions suf-
ficiently equal to leave a considerable quantity of ali-
mentary residue and effete matter to be thrown out by
the bowels; and if it is not regularly expelled, some
obstacle of a different kind must exist, which, in the
first place, ought to be removed, before we  can ex-
pect to succeed in restoring the natural action.  To
learn how we may discover what  that obstacle is,
let us turn our attention for a moment to  the natural
means by Avhich  the  intestinal   evacuations  are
effected.
  The progress of the intestinal contents along their
canal depends, first, on their affording the necessary
stimulus to excite the contraction of the muscular
coat;-secondly, on  the assistance derived from the
free action of the  abdominal and respiratory mus-
cles, not only during respiration,  but during  every
kind of bodily exercise ; and, thirdly, on the inner
surface of the intestine being duly lubricated with the
mucous secretion.  If  any or all of these conditions
be unfulfilled, the  inevitable result will be morbid
sluggishness  of the intestinal  action, and the vari-
ous consequences dependant on it; and hence,when 
          AIDS TO INTESTINAL ACTION.      293

the evil  exists, the first point to be determined is
the nature of the cause by which it is produced.
  As already remarked, farinaceous and other con-
centrated aliments do not afford the requisite stim-
ulus to the muscular fibres of the intestine ; because
they are  in a great measure absorbed, and  leave
little to be thrown out.  If, therefore, concentrated
food be the cause of costiveness, the proper remedy
is to alter the diet, and to  have recourse  to  other
means only where that proves insufficient.
  Where, however, as most frequently happens, the
constipation arises not so much from an inappropri-
ate diet as from the absence of all assistance  from
the abdominal and respiratory muscles, the first
step to be taken is  again to solicit their  aid—first,
by  removing all  impediments to  free respiration,
such as stays, waistbands, and belts ; and, secondly,
by resorting  to  such  active  exercises as shall call
the muscles  into full and regular action: and the
next  is to proportion the  quantity of food to the
wants  of the system, and to the condition  of the
digestive  organs.   If we employ these means sys-
tematically and perseveringly, we  shall rarely fail
in at last  restoring the healthy action of the bowels
with little aid from medicine.  But if we set these
natural conditions  at  defiance, we may go on for
years, adding pill to pill and dose to dose, without
ever attaining the end at which we aim.
  How, indeed, can it be otherwise T If the Creator
has so constituted us  that the free play of the lungs
and muscles is indispensable to  proper intestinal
action, it  is in  vain for us  to struggle against the
arrangement, and expect to substitute beneficially
the stimulus  of purgatives  for  that of the natural
play of the muscles.   Either we must give up our
own obstinate adherence to sedentary pursuits and
conform to the Divine laws, or  we must submit to
the punishment inseparable from disobedience, and
B b 2 
294     AIDS TO INTESTINAL ACTION.

merely endeavour to  mitigate its severity by such
partial remedies as lie within our reach.
  Where bodily weakness, or any other cause, ab-
solutely prevents us from engaging in active bodily
exertion, continued kneading and rubbing over  the
region of the bowels, when used  daily and perse-
vered in till the strength is restored,  is of great
service  in promoting their healthy action.  Where
great sluggishness of the bowels exists,  and no ex-
ercise can be taken, the rubbing generally requires
to be continued for an hour or more daily, or even
twice a day.
  The observance of a proper adaptation between
the  quantity of the food and the state of the diges-
tive organs and mode of life, is not less essential to
the  proper action of the  bowels than to that of the
stomach.  If the quantity be too great, the bowels
become oppressed and weakened by their load ; and
it is in  such circumstances  that  purgatives afford
immediate relief by the removal of the superfluity,
and, by blinding the individual to the real nature of
the  evil, tempt him to recur too  frequently to  the
use of medicine.
  Sometimes intestinal inaction proceeds from de-
fective  mucous  secretion on the  surface  of the
internal coat, caused either by errors in diet or by
local irritation.   When costiveness is  excited  in
this way, a mild diluent regimen  will generally re-
move it.  It is in such cases that saline medicines,
which act by increasing the mucous secretions, are
often very useful; while aloetic and other stimulant
purgatives increase the evil by aggravating the ir-
ritation.
  Such being the mode of action of the bowels, and
such the natural agents by which it is  carried on,
we  can now appreciate the folly of seeking to apply
the  same remedy  to every kind of costiveness, no
matter from  what cause  it  proceeds   If a clerk 
     REGULARITY OF BOWELS IMPORTANT.   295

who sits  motionless all day in an office, who in-
dulges his appetite, and has no bodily exercise to fa-
cilitate respiration and give a natural impetus to the
bowels, begins after a time to complain of constipa-
tion, it is not difficult to tell what is required for his
cure.   The  first  step which a  knowledge  of the
animal functions suggests, is to diminish the quantity
of food ; the next, to use such a diet as is calcula-
ted to excite the  muscular coat  of the intestine to
healthy activity; the third, to seek the natural aid
arising from exercise  of the abdominal and respira-
tory muscles; and the last of all, to have recourse,
when necessary,  to such  medicine as  may be re-
quired for a time  to restore the tone of the bowels.
and enable them  to act without further assistance
The course  usually  adopted, however, is widely
different from that here described.  From ignorance
of the laws of organization, the  patient is not aware
of the extent to which he infringes them in his con-
duct, and consequently rests satisfied with lamenting
his hard fate in possessing such a  bad constitution,
and resorting to strong medicines to force that action
which he feels to be  essential to health, but Avhich
he  will not  consent  to elicit by  the means  with
which nature has furnished him.
  Among the middle and higher classes, very many
females act on the same erroneous plan, and with
equally unfortunate results.  In them the evil is
aggravated by the tightness of their clothing impe-
ding almost entirely the descent of the diaphragm,
and the free play  of the abdominal muscles, in  res-
piration.
  From this view of the nature  and causes of cos-
tiveness, it will be evident, that, as a general rule,
the bowels are perfectly competent to the discharge
of their functions, when the conditions essential for
their healthy action are duly fulfilled.   And hence
whenever they become morbidly inactive, we may 
296  REGULARITY OF ROWELS IMPORTANT.

rest assured that, in some point or  other, our own
management  is  or has  been defective ;  and the
surest way to remedy the evil is, not to have in-
stant  recourse to  medicine,  but to begin  by dis-
covering and amending  the  defect.   In the  rare
occurence of constipation among children and other
actively employed persons, we have ample proof of
the fundamental principle that the bowels  do not
naturally stand in need of the stimulus of medicine,
but require only  to be properly treated to fit them
for the office  with which  they are charged.
  While, then, I  entirely agree with public opinion
in attaching great importance to the proper regula-
tion of the bowels, and in tracing much suffering to
their neglect, I am only the  more anxious that we
should, as far as  possible, follow nature  in our ar-
rangements and  reap the benefit of her aid.  If we
do so, we shall not only be less frequently obliged
to have recourse to medicine,  but, by our knowledge
of  the causes of  the deficient action, be greatly
assisted in our selection  of an appropriate kind of
laxative, and thus avoid forcing the constitution too
far.   It sometimes happens, for example, that, from
debility of the muscular coat, the peristaltic motion
is insufficient to  propel the  contents  of the intes-
tines  even with the aid of proper diet and exercise.
In such cases, small doses of aloes or rhubarb, or
other laxatives  which act chiefly by exciting the
muscular contraction, will be sufficient to clear the
bowels, especially when any mild tonic is conjoined
with them : while saline laxatives, which act chiefly
on the mucous coat, may be given freely, and even
cause numerous watery evacuations,  and yet  the
real  or  solid contents of the intestines continue
unremoved.  In practice this often happens; and
hence the frequent mistake of supposing that there
is proper passage from the bowels, when in  reality
there is no such thing. 
      REGULARITY OF BOWELS IMPORTANT.  297

   The period of life at which intestinal inactivity
 is attended  with the most serious consequences, is
 at and for a few years  after puberty.  At that age a
 sudden change is  often made from the restless ac-
 tivity of youth to  all  the stillness of a sedentary
 profession,  without  any  corresponding alteration
 being made in the quantity of food consumed.  The
 vigorous appetite,  Avhich is perfectly natural during
 a  period of  growth  and  great bodily activity,
 remains at first unimpaired, and impels the individ-
 ual to eat an amount of food far beyond the present
 necessities  of the system.  The consequence is a
 tendency, not  only  to fulness from excessive nu-
 trition, but  to  severe digestive  disorder from the
 stomach and intestines being weakened both by want
 of exercise and by excess of food.  I  have known
 many  instances  of  dyspepsy,  constipation,  and
 mental  affection, and  even of active inflammation,
 thus produced.  In one case, four years of contin-
 ued bad health in an otherwise  sound constitution
 were the penalty inflicted before the real cause was
 accidentally discovered.  During all that time, too,
 temporary relief invariably followed the use of pur-
 gatives,  and seemed in some measure to point to
 the truth;  but, from the mind never having been
 directed to the principles, its practical bearing was
 overlooked, and now the individual wonders  that
 the cause did not,  even at first sight, arrest the at-
 tention of his medical advisers.
  In cases of this description, however, it ought  to
be observed, it is not  the mere constipation which
injures the health and requires to be removed.   It
is  in reality to the mode of life which  induces  it that
we ought to direct  our attention;  for, unless that be
amended, all our efforts to  preserve the health by
merely removing the effect will prove insufficient.
  In the natural and healthy state, under a proper
system  of diet, and with sufficient exercise, the 
298  REGULARITY  OF BOAVELS IMPORTANT.

bowels are relieved regularly once every day.  In
some constitutions, however, the ordinary period is
shorter  or longer than this—tAvice a day, or only
once in two days ; but such differences are unimpor-
tant when they do not proceed from morbid causes,
or in any Avay disturb  the health.  Habit, in this, as
in other operations under the influence of the nerv-
ous system, is powerful in modifying the result, and
in sustaining healthy action  when once fairly es-
tablished.   Hence the obvious advantage of observ-
ing as much regularity in relieving  the  system as
in taking our meals, and the impropriety of attempt-
ing to break through the habit when once formed.
Sleep seems  to be  favourable  to the progress of
nutrition,  and it is apparently during the night that
the assimilation of the daily food is completed, and
its  residue prepared for being expelled  along with
the other  excretions.  Hence  there is a natural
tendency in the bowels to act in the  morning, and
we ought  therefore to encourage it by a voluntary
effort.   Even the reception of breakfast  into  the
stomach seems to act as a  stimulus to intestinal
contraction, and in consequence many persons  ex-
perience the  inclination immediately after their
morning repast, and  suffer  if they are prevented
from yielding to it.
  Where  either from  constitutional weakness,  se-
dentary occupation, or other unavoidable  causes,
the bowels are  unable to act sufficiently to relieve
the system without  assistance, we have, of course,
no choice  but to select that which is most suitable
to the circumstances and most  gentle in its oper-
ation ; because, if assistance be  not afforded,  the
health will assuredly  suffer.  Numerous examples
of this  kind  are met with every day;  and, Avhen
treating them, we should always be  careful to aid
nature as  far as possible by an appropriate diet and
regimen, and not trust to medicine alone for recti- 
            CONCLUDING REMARKS.        ri(J9

fying the consequences of the patient's misconduct.
We ought, in short, never to lose sight of the great
truth, that, if the bowels were originally constituted
by the Creator with power to act sufficiently on the
application of their own stimulus, food, there must
necessarily  be  a wide  departure from his laws in
some part of our conduct to cause the loss of that
power;  and therefore, whenever we find the bowels
unable to act Avithout medicine, our first  business
ought to be to  discover  and rectify the error into
which we have fallen—and  recourse should be had
to medicine only in  so far as it shall be necessary
to remedy the consequences which the transgression
has brought upon us.

   As the sole  object of the present volume is to
make the reader acquainted with the natural laws
of the  animal  economy, and Avith the means  by
which aberrations  from them may be prevented and
health preserved, I shall not enter at all upon the
discussion either  of the morbid conditions of the
bowels, or of the  remedies by which these may be
cured ;  and consequently shall  say nothing further
of the use of purgative  or  other medicines.  The
consideration of these matters is not only foreign to
the  subject, but would  require an extent of detail
much beyond my present limits.
   Perhaps  some persons may think, that, before
concluding, I ought  to apologize for having intro-
duced to the notice of the general reader such topics
as those discussed in this and some of the former
chapters.  In doing  so, I have  been actuated by  a
deep sense of the misery arising from the prevailing
ignorance on subjects which, although in themselves
as interesting  and important as any to which  the
human  mind can be directed, have nevertheless been
passed  over in silence, partly from not  the least
suspicion being generally entertained of their real 
300          CONCLUDING REMARKS.
bearing on our health and happiness, and partly also
from  false notions of delicacy diverting  attention
from  their calm  and deliberate  examination.   In
endeavouring, therefore, to unfold what I  conceive
to be  useful truths, in the language of reason, I con-
fess that I feel no apprehension that any  well-con-
stituted mind will receive contamination  from the
perusal of what is contained in these pages. 
INDEX.
Abercrombie, Dr., quoted on intemperate eating, 204, 250.
Absorbents of the bowels, 153.
Absorption most active before breakfast, 179.  Rapid absorption
  of liquids from the stomach, 47, 81, 113, 180.
Acids, in what cases they promote digestion, 103.
Ages, different, require different kinds of food, 227.
Americans intemperate eaters, 202, 260.
Animal food more digestible and nutritious than vegetable, 132.
  Cause  of its greater  digestibility, 134. Also more stimula-
  ting, 135.  Whv apparently more binding, 171.  Improper for
  infants, 234.
Anxiety impedes digestion,  263, 265.
Aorta, 162.
Appetite, its necessity as a  warning that  nutriment is required
  25, 26, 198.  See Hunger.  Thirst.
Arrow-root, 120,132.

Beaumont, Dr.,  quoted  on Mastication,  59.  His observations
  on the stomach of a patient named St. Martin, quoted, 89,109,
  131, 138, 251,  256, 272, 283.   Summary of inferences drawn
  from his experiments, 140.   Quoted on the quantity of food
  proper to be eaten, 198.
Bile secreted by the liver, 163.  Account of it, 164.   Not found
  in the stomach during health, 165.  Its presence there facili-
  tates the digestion of fat  and  oily food, 253.
Birds, gizzard of granivorous, 57.
Bladder, 162.
Blood circulated in the stomach increased by its action, 80, 255.
  Breathing necessary for  the  conversion of chyle into blood,
  157.  Fulness of blood, 219.
Bloodvessels of the stomach, 79.
Boarding-schools, insufficient food often given there, 224, 246.
Bowels described,  145.   Their different coats—the peritoneal,
  147; muscular, 149; and mucous, 151. Action of purgatives
  on the, 149,153.  Contain air, 151.  Their sympathy with the
  skin, 152.  Excretion and absorption of the, 152.  Conditions
  essential to their perfect action, 159.  Their vermicular or
  peristaltic motion. 149.169.   Why most open when vegetable 
302
INDEX.
  food is used, 171,288.  Their uses, 287; as an outlet of wast*
  matter, 287.  Their action bears a relation to the kind of food
  288.  Causes of their inactivity considered, 291-92.   Natural
  aids to their action, 293.   General neglect of these, 294. Bad
  health thence arising, 297.  Their regularity important, 298.
Bowel-complaint frequently produced by chill of the skin, 152,
  153, 288
Brachet, his experiments showing that hunger is an affection ot
  the brain, 28.  Quoted on hunger, 33.
Brain the seat of the sensations of hunger and thirst, 27.   Should
  not be overtasked in childhood, 239.   Influence of its state
  upon digestion, 263-7.
Breakfast, proper time  for, 178.  Labour before it  improper
  without refreshment, 181.

Caldwell, Dr., quoted on intemperate eating in America, 202,
  260 ; on the influence of the state of the brain as a source of
  indigestion, 266.
Carnivorous animals have small organs of digestion, 72, 133,
  138. Their gastric juice, 100.
Cassius, his leanness, as described by Shakspeare, 265.
Cheerfulness promotes digestion, 263.
Chewing, 48.  See  Mastication.
Chicken, 253.
Children, great importance of regulating their diet properly, 209.
  Prevalent error of over-feeding them, 210, 230.  Suffer also
  from deficiency of food, 233,  236.   Animal diet not to be
  given them too early, 234.  Impropriety of tasking and confi-
  ning them too much at school, 239.   Dull children often be-
  come talented men, 239.  Whether they ought to be allowed
  wme, 278.
Cholera, loss of the  fluid parts of the body in, 47, 153, 270.
Chyle, 66.  Its composition the same, from whatever food deri-
  ved, 63-65.  Chylification described, 144.  This subject rather
  obscure, 145.  Converted into blood in the lungs, 157.
Chyme, 66.
Clark, Dr., on the great importance of the proper regulation of
  diet in youth, 236, 237, 245.
Clarke, Adam, a dunce at school, 240.
Climate ought to modify food, 136.
Coagulation of milk and albumen by gastric juice, 99, 113.
Coecum,  168.
Coffee, 190, 272, 276.
Colon described, 168.
Condiments, 142.
Constitution, food ought to vary according to, 226.  Susceptible
  of being greatly modified by regimen, 247.
Consumption, pulmonary, how productive of leanness of the 
INDEX.
303
  body, 158.   Often the result  of mismanagement  of diet in
  childhood, 236, 245.
Costiveness, causes of, 150, 214, 289.   How removable, 293.

Deglutition.of food, 60.
Dietetics, principles of, viewed in relation to the laws of  diges-
  tion, 173.
Digestion vigorous and rapid  in proportion to the quantity of
  nourishment required by the body, 35.   Organs of, described,
  63, et seq.  Its wonderful power of reducing the most opposite
  varieties of food to the same substance, 63.  Nervous energy
  essential to, 62, 258, 285.   Different  theories of,  106.  Is a
  chemico-vital process, 108.  Conditions requisite for it—1.  A
  sufficiency of gastric juice, 108 ;  2.  A temperature  of 98°
  or 100°,  115 ;  and, 3. Gentle agitation of the contents  of the
  stomach, 116.  Aided by laughter and-cheerfulness, 121,203,
  265.  Ill performed when previous meal remains in stomach,
  124.  Comparative digestibility of different kinds of food, 127.
  Time  required for digestion of  the same article different  in
  different states of the body,  131.   Animal food more digestible
  than vegetable,  112, 114,  132,  249, 251 ; and why, 134.   A
  proper selection of food not the only requisite of good diges-
  tion, 174.  Vigorous in youth,  243.   Retarded by bodily  or
  mental exertion immediately before or  after eating, 258.  In-
  tellectual vivacity  diminished while digestion  is going  on,
  262.  Influence of the mind upon  digestion, 263, 265.
 Dinner, proper time  for, 183.  Late fashionable dinner-hours,
  188.   Relaxation necessary after dinner, 190.  Drams at, 286.
 Dressmakers, an improvement in the regulation of their estab-
  lishments suggested, 207.
 Drink necessary to supply the waste of the  liquid portions of
  the body, 46,270.   Bad effects when withheld, 46.  Absorbed
  directly from the stomach  into the system, 47, 81, 113, 180.
  Temperature  of drinks considered, 272.  Water as a drink,
  278.  Wine, 278.  Fermented liquors, 278.    Spirits hurtful,
  282.   Sudden changes of its temperature hurtful to the teeth,
  55.  See Liquid.   Thirst.
 Duodenum, 66,  71,160-3

 Eating ought not  to  be too rapid, 118, 260.   Times of, 173.
  Eating too much a prolific source of disease, 200, 260.  Con-
  ditions to be observed before and after eating, 255.   See Food.
  Meals.
 Epiglottis, 61.
 Excrement,  167.
 Etcretion of waste matter into the bowels, 154, 287
 Exercise renders appetite keen,  33, 35, et seq.   Prevents cos-
  tiveness, 150. 169,295. 
304
INDEX
Farinaceous food, 132,252, 293.
Fat and oily food, 166, 249, 253.
Fermentation and digestion different processes, 107.
Fever, loss of appetite during it a wise arrangement, 42.
Fish, 253.
Fluids.   See Drink.  Liquid.  Thirst.
Follicles of the stomach, 80.
Food necessary to supply waste of the substance of living be-
  ings,  20.   Requisite  quantity varies according to circum-
  stances, 22, et seq.  Warning given  by hunger when  food is
  required, 25, 26, 33, 198.   Most necessary during growth, 34,
  198 ; and when the life is active, 35, et seq.   Error  of eating
  too much, 36, et seq., 200, 260.  Thirst varies in intensity ac-
  cording to the kind of food, 46.   Mastication, 48 ; insaliva-
  tion, 56 ; and deglutition  of food, 61.  Its quality modifies the
  amount of saliva  secreted, 59.  The most opposite kinds of
  food reduced by digestion to the same substance, 63.  Differ-
  ent stages through which food passes between its  reception
  into the stomach and  its assimilation, 66.  Size of the stom-
  ach Varies according to its quality, 71.  Sudden and extreme
  changes  of diet injurious, and why, 101.  Ought not to  be
  rapidly swallowed, 117,  260.   Thoroughly  mixed  with the
  gastric juice  in the stomach, 119.  Concentrated food,  why
  digested with difficulty, 120, 135, 289. Ought not to be taken
  till previous meal is digested, 124.   Comparative digestibility
  of different kinds  of, 127.   Animal food,  more  digestible
  and nutritious  than vegetables, 112, 114, 132, 249,  251; and
  why, 134.  Farinaceous  food,  132, 252, 293.   Soup, 133, 250.
  Injection of food into the bowels,  155.  Times of eating, 174.
  Quantity to be eaten,  197.   Bad effects of eating too much,
  204, 250'.  Are  mixtures  of food hurtful ? 205.  Food of chil-
  dren, 209.  Food of the poor too scanty, 221, 236.   Errors of
  over-feeding  and  under-feeding children, 210, 223.  Proper
  food of man,  225.  Different kinds of food suitable  in differ-
  ent climates,  136; for different constitutions, 226; and at dif-
  ferent ages, 227.  See Meals.  Eating.

Gall-bladder, 164.  Gall-stones, 165.
Game, 253.
Gastric juice, 66, 88, 140.   Secreted only when there is food in
  the  stomach, 94.  Its chymical composition, 96.  Acts  only
  upon dead  inorganic  substances,  97.  Its power of coagula-
  ting milk  and albumen,  99, 113, 212.  Its antiseptic quality,
  100, 107.  Adapted  in different animals to the  nature of the
  food, 100.   Modified in the same individual  according to the
  wants of the system, 102.  On which of its elements does its
  solvent power depend ? 102.  The amount secreted always in
  proportion to the quantity of aliment required by the body, 
index.                     305
   103, 199.  Its secretion retarded by disagreeable mental emo-
   tions and fevenshness, 104, 285.  Indispensable to digestion,
   108.  Thoroughly mixed with the food  in the stomach, 119.
   Adaptation of food to its qualities in different individuals, 137.
   Quantity secreted at each meal, 256.
 Gizzard of granivorous birds, 57, 74.
 Grief enfeebles digestion, 121, 263,265.
 Growth, periods of, require an increased supply of food in vege-
   tables, 23 ; and animals, 24, 34, 200, 203.
 Gruel, 132.
 Gullet, 61.

 Head, Sir Francis, quoted on the quantities of cold water drunk
   at the brunnens of Nassau, 180 ; and on the prejudicial effects
   of intemperate eating, 200.
 Herbivorous animals have large organs of digestion, 72,133,138.
   Their gastric  juice, 100.  The digestion of their food  partly
   effected in the intestines, 170.
 Hippocrates, his theory of digestion,  107.
 Horse, digestion of the, 170.  Never fed immediately before or
   after a journey, 260.  May sometimes drink  a little though
   perspiring, 277
 Hufeland quoted on the beneficial influence of laughterin aiding
   digestion, 121.
 Hunger, necessity of the sense of, as a warning that food is re-
   quired, 25, 198.  An affection of  the brain, 27.  Allayed by
   narcotics, 29, 30.   Influenced  by  mental emotions, 30.  By
   what condition of the stomach is it excited? 31.  Felt keenly
   when the body is in need of repair, 33, 106.   Sharpened by
   muscular exercise, 33, 35.  Its absence during fever a wise
   arrangement, 42.  Susceptible of being trained, 42.  Error of
   confounding it with taste, 43.  Morbid  cravings  of hunger
   when food is  not required, 44.  Instances of extraordinary
   voracity, 45.
 Hydra, stomach of the, 68-69.

Ices and ice-creams hurtful after a  meal, 274.  Ice useful in
   warm weather when used with caution, 275.  Examples  in
  Italy and Virginia, 275.
Ileum, 167.
Indigestion, why prevalent among sedentary persons, 37.  In-
  jures the teeth, 55.   Often beneficial in warding off more se-
  rious diseases, 206, 215.  Caused by grief, anxiety, and over-
  study, 262-7.
Infants, food proper for, as indicated by the state of their teeth,
  53, 228.   Diet of, 209, 227.  Prevalent errors in the treatment
  of, 212.   Proper time for weaning  them, 233.
Infection, why most easily caught before breakfast, 176.
                             Cc2 
306
INDEX.
Injection of food into the bowels, 155.
Insalivation of food, 56.
Intemperate eating a prevalent cause of disease, 200.   Drink-
  ing, 283.

Jejunum, 167.
Jelly, 120.

Lacteals, 67, 154.
Laughter aids digestion,  121, 265.
Laxatives",  150, 153, 214,  290.
Lent, rapid recovery of the sick in Catholic countries during it,
  202.
Liquid food,  113, 120, 133, 250.  Too hot injurious, 276.  Dif-
  ferent kinds in use, 278.
Liver, its function, 166.
Londe, Dr., quoted on the diet of infants, 211.
Luncheon, 186.
Lungs, how wasting of the  body is produced by their disease,
  158.   See Consumption.
Lymphatics,  155.

Mastication, process of, described, 48.  Its apparatus various in
  different  animals according to the nature of their food, 56.
  Purpose  of, 59.  Bad effects when mastication is incomplete,
  60, 117.
Meals, at what times and after what intervals they ought to be
  taken,  174, et seq.   Relaxation necessary after them, 190.
  Principles on which their times and number ought to be fixed,
  193.  Conduct proper  before and after meals, 255.   Inapti-
  tude for  bodily and mental exertion after them, 257.  Rest
  and tranquillity then necessary, 257.   See Food.   Eating.
Meconium, 213.
Menstruation ceases during pregnancy and suckling, 233.
Mesenteric glands, 157.
Mesentery, 148.
Mesocolon, 149.
Milk coagulated in the stomach by the gastric juice, 99, 113,
  212.  Digested with ease, 132.  The natural food of infants,
  209, 228.  Causes of its vitiation in mothers, 232.
Milliners, an  improvement in the management of their estab-
  lishments suggested, 207.
Mind, its influence on  appetite for  food, 30.   Deteriorated by
  defective nutrition, 223.  Its efficiency depends on the health
  of the body, 240, 248.  Ought to rest during digestion, 2<52.
  Its influence on digestion, 263, 265.
Mirth promotes digestion, 121, 263, 265.
Mixtures of food, whether prejudicial, 205. 
INDEX.
307
Montegre's opinion of the use of the saliva, 60, 98.
Morning, exposure before breakfast often dangerous, 178.  Vi<*.
  our of the system then least, 182.
Mortality of children, 209.   Mortality greatest among the poor,
  222.
Mothers generally ignorant of the  rational mode  of treating
  children, 209, 235.  Their duties in relation to suckling, 231.
Mucous or villous coat of the stomach, 78 ; and  intestines, 151.
Muscular coat  of the stomach, 76 ;  and intestines, 149.  Mus-
  cular exercise.   See Exercise.
Mutilation of animals, unsatisfactory nature of experiments so
  made, 84.

Napoleon not a bright schoolboy, 240.
Narcotics allay hunger, 29, 30.
Nerves of the stomach, 82.
Nervous energy essential to digestion, 85, 258, 262.
Newton, Sir Isaac, a  dull schoolboy, 240.
Nursing of children,  212, et seq., 228.  Nurses ought not to be
  over-fed, 232.
Nutrition required to repair waste of substance in living beings,
  20.   See Food.
                              0
CEsophagus, 61.
Opium allays hunger, 30.

Pancreas, 66, 166.
Paris, Dr., an opinion of his controverted, 136.
Pastry indigestible, 253.
Peristaltic motion of the bowels, 149, 169, 296.
Peritoneum, 76, 147.
Philip, Dr. Wilson, an opinion of his controverted, 122.
Pneumogastric nerve, 83.
Poor have larger stomachs  than the rich, 71.  Their food  too
  scanty and innutritious, 221, 236.  Their minds thereby  de-
  teriorated, 223.
Precocity of talent little to be desired, 239.
Purgatives,  their  mode of action,  150, 153.  Not required  by
  nature, 214, 289.  When improper, 291.
Putrefaction, digestion different from, 107.
Pylorus, 71.   Allows only digested food to issue from the stom-
  ach, 126.

Quantity of food proper to be eaten, 197.

Rapid eating improper, 117, 260.
Respiration, use of, 67.   Digestion aided by, 121, 169.  Neces-
  sary for the conversion of chyle  into blood, 158. 
308
INDEX.
Rice, 132,252.
Roget, Dr., quoted on nutrition, 38 ;  on varieties of food, 64.
Rumination of animals, 50, 57, 74.  Stomach of ruminants de-
   scribed, 72.

Sago, 132, 252.
Saliva, secretion and purpose of, 56, 57.   Its amount greatest
   when food spicy, 59.   Different in quality from gastric juice,
   98.
Salt meat, how productive of thirst, 46.
Sanguification, 67, 157.
Satiety,  199.
Schools, children too much confined  and tasked in, 239.   See
   Boarding Schools.
Scrofula frequently the result of a penurious  diet, 236; also of
   too exciting food, 245.
Sedentary habits, how productive of indigestion, 37 ; and  cos-
   tiveness, 150, 169, 297.   Less food required by sedentary than
   by active persons, 205.
Sheridan a dunce at school, 240.
Siesta, 261.
Skin, its sympathy with  the bowels,  152, 288.
Soldiers, private, why inferior^n strength and health to officers,
   223.   Ought not to eat immediately after a march, 259.
Soup, digestion of, 113, 120, 133, 250.
Spirits, their indiscriminate use hurtful, 280.
Spittle, 56.   See Saliva.
Spleen, 163.
St. Martin, Alexis, remarkable case of, 89.  See Beaumont.
Stomach, peculiar to animals, 22.  By what state of it is hunger
   excited ? 31.  Its sympathy with the rest of the  body, 32, et
   seq.  Described, 68, et  seq.   Stomach in the lowest class  of
   animals, 68.  In man, 69.  Various in size, according to qual-
   ity of food, 71.  Stomach of ruminating animals described, 72.
   Coats of the stomach—external, 75; muscular, 75 ; and  mu-
   cous or villous, 78. Its muscular action, 76.   Its bloodvessels
   and follicles, 79, 80.  Its sanguineous circulation increased du-
   ring digestion, 81,256.  Its  power of absorbing fluids, 47, 81,
   113,180.  Its nerves, 82.  Contracts when each morsel is intro-
   duced, 118.   Its motion during digestion, 121.  Is its temper-
   ature then increased '( 138.   Contains no bile in  the health .'
   state, 165.  Training of the, 176.  Numerous diseases unju* .
   'y laid  to its charge, 217.
Supper, in what cases proper, 192.
Swallowing, process of, 60.

Tartar on the teeth, 53.
Tasso, his genius precocious, 240. 
INDEX.
300
Taste, error of confounding it with appetite, 43.   Its gratifica-
  tion proper, 58.
Tea,  190, 272, 276.
Teeth described, 49.  Modified in different animals to suit their
  habits of life, 50.   Milk-teeth, 52.  Changes of the condition
  of the teeth indicate the propriety of certain kinds of diet, 53,
  228, 238.   Necessity of keeping them  clean, 54.   Impaired
  by indigestion, 54.  Sudden changes of temperature hurtful
  to them, 55.
Temperaments, different, require different kinds and  quantities
  of food, 225.  May be greatly modified by regimen, 248.
Temperance in eating may be carried too far, 224.   In drinking,
  282.
Temperature  necessary  for digestion, 115.   Whether that  of
  the stomach is thereby increased, 138.  That of drinks con-
  sidered, 272.
Thinking, intense, impeaes digestion, 262.
Thirst necessary as a  warning when drink is required by the
  system, 25, 47, 269.  Nature of, 27, 45   Greatest when body
  in need of liquid nourishment, 46.  Varies in intensity accord-
  ing to nature of the food, 46.   Consequences of its craving not
  being gratified, 47.  See Drink.
Thoracic duct, 67, 157.
Time in which the digestion of an article is effected varies with
  circumstances, 130, 143.  Times of eating,  173.
Tobacco allays hunger, 30.
Tooth-powders, 53.
Travelling before breakfast frequently improper, 181.  Diet  in
  travelling, 196.
Trituration, digestion not effected by, 107.

Vegetables, continual waste of  their substance, 19.   How re-
  paired, 20.  Quantity of nourishment  requisite for them varies
  with circumstances,  22.  Principle of forcing their growth,
  23.
Vegetable food less  digestible than animal, 112, 114, 132, 249
  251 ;  and why, 134.  Also less nutritious, 132.  Its digestion
  effected to some  extent  in  the  intestines, 171.  Why more
  laxative than animal food, 171, 288.
Venison, 253.
Vermicular motion  of the bowels, 149,  169, 296.
Villous  or mucous coat of the stomach, 78 ; and bowels, 151.
Vomiting, inverted action of the gullet in, 62.  Vomiting of bile,
  165.
Voracity, remarkable instances of, 44.

Waste universally the attendant of action, 17. Food the means 
310
INDEX.
  of repairing it in living beings, 20.   See Food.  Waste mat-
  ter excreted into the bowels, 152, 287.
Water safe as a drink, 278. Cold spring-water dangerous when
  person overheated, 275.  Effects of on stomach, 272.
Water-brash, 80.
Weaning of infants, proper time for, 233.
Wine, how productive of thirst, 46.   Circumstances in which
  its use is proper and improper, 278.
Worms  in the bowels, 153.

Youth, period of transition from youth to manhood a critical
  season, 208.   Diseases of the stomach and bowels why then
  common, 297.
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