Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1870-11-11
..MastIcsa.tlOn of Food.

Il is common, but true saying that
STOOD well -chewed is halfdigested" Mas
tication prepares the food for solution in
the stomach, just as mechanical division
out of the body RENDERS substancesmore
easily soluble The whole digestive pro-
cess is deahged, If we neglect the masti-
cation Of our food; this neglect is the most
frequent cause of dyspepsia. There is no
habit SO destructive to the digestive pow
ers, as, our, we might almost say, national
habit Of swallowing our food without
chewing 1t, like so many anacondas. 4.
Go into the common restaurants in our
large cities, where business men snatch q
few moments from their toll for money TO
cram their stomachs with half-chewed
'nleat and bolted vegetables, pies, whose
contents are dyspepsias, and puddingsy
whose clements are the pains of indiges-
tion, favored by tobacco, and perhaps by
alcoholic stimulus,-there you will see the
animals fed at any hour from twelve to
four continually thronging around the
tables at which they remain from ten to
twenty minutes, not having time even to
take off their hats, and literally shovelling
in their food with their knives faster than
the mouth can comfortably dispose of it.
AT such times we are prepared to eX-
claim, with Henry Ward Beecher. "The
mouth is but mill. Therein goes per-
petual grists for grinding" The eye and
the ear have certain nobleness, dealing
as they do with the light of heaven and
| the music in the air; but the mouth is a
strange aperture, into which men cast untold
substance, and it hath never yet been
filed Nor do Fbeieve that any man car
! quietly watch the steps OF. eating, grinding
| (, a al
4 clothed by associations, without feeling
even more disgust than he would at a pig'i
banquet from the noisy trough" o..
J., 1--we do not chew our food, we lose tht
benefit of its mixture with the saliva, which
begins the process of digestion in thu
mouth, acting on the starchy particles anC
! facilitating their conversion into sugar
which the stomach cannot do. The si2
and number of the salivary glands indicate
I the importance of their secretion; TIL
principal ones are the parotid glands, il
i front of the ear 50 often enlarged in mumpS
opening into the mouth near the middle D
the cheeks others are situated under th
tongue and lower jaw, their ducts open
ing also into the mouth, ,g Ui,., d
II The saliva is q transparent, slight,
viscid fluid, usually alkaline in character
the quantity supplied in day fordigcstiv
purposes is nearly three pints; under tn
influence of tobacco and certain medicines
the amount is largely increased, and it
properties considerably changed. Atmea
times it is poured out abundantly, espeC
tally if the-Eeed-is of a savory quality; iti
well known that even the idea of food to.
! hungry person will make his mouth WI
ter or in other words, increase the amour
of saliva poured out. 1t lis greatly il
liuenced bymental emotions, and istveI
nearly suppressed under great fear an
anxiety In animals it sometimes become
exceedingly acrid and poisonous, as
hydrophobiai its introduction into Il
blood being as surely, though not
speedily, nor in the same way, fatal as Il
, Health So o.