The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1877-12-13
Our DigestfOns.

When proper, natural, simple food is
taken into the healthy stomach, no more
is felt OF it. If it be of the nature of
soup or beef tea, it is absorbed, as it
were, by the coats and veins of the
stomach. If it be meat, it is by the
movements of the stomach carried round
and round its cavity, and mixed up with
the gatric juice, which OOzes into the
stomach whenever food is put into it.
This gastric juice is a clear, cCIorIess, acid
fluid, which flows freely into the stomach,
as we have said whenever food is taken
into it. The free acid present in the
gastric juice cot the dSg) is Tactic acid
The gastric juice has very slight tendency
to putrelaCtiOn, and may be kept for an
indefinite length of time in common
glass bottle without developing any
putrescent OdOr. The peculiar property
of this fluid is that it dissOlves meat,
boiled white of egg, and such like sub
stances. 1t does 50 even outside of the
body, but it does 30 best inside the body,
assisted by the high temperature Il of the
stomach and by its peculiar movements.
Gastric juice does net dissolve all kinds
of food il does not dissolve fat, nor
starch, nor oil. Its proper duty Is TO
dissolve meat, gluten (the most nutritious
| part of bread), caseine (the most nutri,
tiOus part of milk, albumen (white oi
| egg, etc.
It is supposed that about fourteen
pounds of gastric juice are poured daily
| into the stomach. Of course it is not
! seCreted all at once; the stomach would
not hold so much. What happens is
/ this: when animal or albuminous food is
| taken, gastric juice flows out into the
stomach and dissOlves a portion OF food
! Having dissolved the food, il is absorbed
sucked gp, as it Were-at once into the
! blood, with the food it has dissolved
| then another portion Is poured out tC
| dissolve more of the food and to be ab
I s0rbed; and SO on, until all that kind Ot
/ food which it dissOlves is taken ap from
the stomach into the system. This viii
be the work of some hours That portion
! of food which the gastric juice is not able
to dissOlve-sUch as fat, starch etc
| passes on into the intestine, and is there
digested by other juices and secretiOns
The chief of these are the pancreatit
iuice, the bile, and the intestinal score
ton, all contributing in one way or Othe
to the solution of the food, and tCwarC
making it into a sort of emulsion which
Is favorable to its being absorbed into thu
system.
! IL may Dc OllllCGlG " CAdrEllJ AJ BC pbidsH
but it is easy to state the general cOndi
tions on which good digestion depends
Who are the people that are always talk
ing about their digestion and their dys
pepsia? Not sailors, nor agriculture
/, iaborers, nor mechanics, nor boys an
girls, nor, for the most part, men; i
other words, not those who live much j
the open air and use their limbs an
{ muscles. But who are the people tbs
are half afraid of their meals, and hav
miserIbly TO consider what we shall nC
eat and what we shall not drink The
, are indoor sort Of people-tailOrs an
shoe-makers, nElliners, clergynlen Ii
' erary men, anG nervous, fdgety peOpl
2 who are always worrying themseive
= Then there are people that veal e the
E stomachs by things which they take
: not only by too much beer and sPirituoI
= drinks, but by living too much on L
4 and taking too much tobacco.