Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1857-05-23


perfect as all the rest of natures handi.
work; and it is not until the pampered and
unnatural appetite of individuals have, by
overloading it, and by eating and drink
ing improper things, rendered itweak and
incapable Of performing all the work
thrust upon it, that the stomach, or rather
its contents, become foul.
Cooked (melted or drawn butter or
lard used in shortening pie-crust is not di.
gested at all. 1t is seen swimming upon
the surface ofthe contents of the stomach
in the form of yellow or light colored
grease, and itfnalIy passes off undigested,
The skin fall fruits never digest, neither
do the stones or pits of plums, cherries,
&c. The vanilla seasoning of ice cream
is found to act as an irritating substance
upon the stomach, and it greatly retards
digestion. In both of these respects, also,
the coloring matter of candies is seen to
be still worse. These facts are settled,
simply by looking into the stomach with
the naked eye, and viewing all the pros
cesses or stages through which different
articles of food must pass in the act of d.
gestion.
Hot bread never digests Bear this ia
mind reader, if you are accustomed to eat
the light tempting biscuit at tea, or the
warm loaf that looks so appetizing upon
your dinner table. Hot bread never di-
gests at all. It will, after a long season of
tumbIing and working aboutthe stomach,
begin to ferment; and it will eventually be
passed out of the stomach as an unwel-
come tenant of that delicate organ, but
never digests-never become assimilated
to or absorbed by the organs that appro-
pirate nutrition to the body. 1t is, how
ever, first-rate dyspepsia producer.
Chopped meat, moistened, introdu~
ced through this bullet hole into the
mans stomach, is found to nourish
him just as it would if taken at the
mouth. All that the patient requires,
in that case is to be allowed 10 show u
piece of chewing gum, merely to salts
fy the habit of chewing, we suppose,
and he gets along as if he had eaten
his dinner. 1t is undoubtedly better,
however, that the food should first be
masticated, and this can only be done
through the proper agency appointed
for that purpose by nature.
Yenison digests in an hour; cooked
oysters in two hours and half; raw
oysters contrary to our previous inn
preston three hours and half; beef
steak, two hours and q half fat pork,
four hours; lean pork, little more
than three hours. Probably this rule
would not apply to all persons. Diff
ferent articles Of food are digested diff
ferentlv in differedt stomacls; but the
general principle here illustrated un>
doubtedly holds good in the great ma
jority of cases.
Calomel taken into the healthy
stomach, according to DR.. Bunting's
experiments, is found to irritate it,
MirthfulnesS at and after meal facili-
tates digestion wonderfully. Take
St. Martin to theatre for instance, af>
ter hearty evening meal, and let him
enjoy a good comedy--the result is
astonishing; digestion spromoted to
surprising degree. "Laugh and grow
fat" is an adage now seen ODE founded
upon a physiological truth.
But make this man angry under the
above circumstances, and presto
what change The whole process
of digestion is at once arrested
brought to sudden stop, as if by the
stroke Of an electric shock; and it does
not again go on as well as before until
the emotion which caused the inter>
ruption has died away.
Water is the first thing taken up
and absorbed by the stomach, and this
must be done before the food is acted
upon, even if the water be taken SUBJ
to the food. Eating and
drinking freely alternately at meals, as
a habit, is not sanctioned by the rev.
elation made through the bullet hole
i'm st. Martins stomach. Another bad
practice is the habit of eating between
meals and at all hours. The custom,
according to the disclosures heremade,
is a most pernicious one. Regularity
above all things is to be observed both
in quantity Of food and time ofeating
it.
Black pepper is much worse for the
than red or cayenne pepper.
1t infames the coating of the stomach.
A niece of meat tied to a string has