The Red Cloud chief., 1879-07-31
4 Ossstien Of Eating.

II has losy bca considered. ~ ~
conman cou-rn; , as O! health. LAal
~ foo! shoald - eaten slowly. ro<
swallowed urtil weil fnas.tcz,ed.
Some ob.e-ya.sons and experiments.
however. have sesn recently made -hicb
Indicate strongly that this rnnciPls 81
slow eating. AS far - health 10 corc-rr.
Ell. Is not true with respect 20 a. vare-
ties II food.
Animals IN = s.s,r ~ n.,ure. ~ . zen.
orally recognized. tend "a accoumoiAtc
themselves IN ihc most favorable nan
ner 10 their conditions Il = COW nAturNl-
" r~umina'es, why should dog natural
IL take n chunk Of msa, =, = s~slio~
without stopping - chew f' Is may
~ said tbs; The ruminani hiss = special
digestive apparatus, be; the fac; &c
mains that the food i ens.n - Is bes;
suited 20 Il. and the dog. following IA
ture, does wha, i. best for him, or, 10
other words, II !, disagreed with his d.
gestion 10 eat rapidly. be would reform
and take II slowly. Follo~ing 90,
THIS idea experiments were made upon
4 dog. with the following results II
the meat, before being fed 10 the dog.
was reduced Ia a hash. 90 n into dne
pieces, the digestion was =, best iup"r-
feet, = considerable portion - the urdi-
gested or imperfectly diges..d meat b.
ing found IN the exrreta. II, urder The
same conditions, meat was fed 20 the
dog in large pieces. Il was bottled ~ II
gulp, with the result that little, II any.
passed through u~ndigcs,sd; compared
with the result from the chopped meat,
IL could be called 4 perfect digestion for
the coarse form, a. compared with y de-
ciiedly imperfect digestion for the hBe
fern. So far rs simple experiment;
goes, this must be pretty conclusive for
the dog; but can the same hold true
with respec, Ia the human subject2
A brief review Of the first portion Of
the digestive process, so far a. under
TODD with re ard to man, will help in
answering this; and first 20 be consid-
cred is the mouth and chewing appa-
ra'us. SAYS Foster: "The chief u
pose served by the saliva in digestion j.
10 moisten the food. and 80 assist in
mastication and degluti;ion. -.
In man. il has a specific solvent action
on some of the food stuff. On fats II
has only a slight emulsifying action,
and on proteids none. Its character
istic property is that Of converting starch
INTO grapr-sugar." According to
Wundt, "the mouth secrc,ions possess.
besides mechanical, chiefly a chemical
action-the changing over If the starch
and glycogen contained ia the food into
The ferment body, which pro
duces this transformation, ptyaline, is
not a specific element If the mOuth-se-
c~retion, since, aside from the intestinal
secretions, all tissues and fluids Of the
contain stsrch-ferment."
From this it will be seen that no di-
gestive action OF meat or animal food
takes place before reaching the stomach.
and that, for vegetable food even, the
action Of the manifestations is far
all-important.
As 20 the mechanical action Of the
mouth in preparing the food for deglu-
this is not specially necessary for
Of meat Of the ordinary size in
PRODUCED into the mouth, while for a
Iarge portion of the vegetable or plant
products eatcn-and il is upon these
hat h saliva exerts its chemical action
.mastication Is necessary before they
be swallowed. The meat foods are
IN themselves sufficiently moist, while
many dried fruits, breads, and the like,
N endless variety, first need thorough
reduction.
A piece of jelly the size Of n walnut
give little trouble in swallowing,
vince il is moist aud Of a Welding char
.cter, while few can swallow a pill the
'ize Of n pea without distress. Teeth
chewing, then, have their purpose,
)ut with the exception of the iHcisOrs
occasionally, that purpose does not in
meat unless it has become dried;
his is with respect 10 the food before IL
the stomach, but, of course, the
then arises: Would il not be- a
,e.ter condition for digestion if it had
been thoroughly masticated?
The food on reaching the stomach is
Kept in a rotary motion by the muscular
walls, and only after a time does il be-
rim 10 pass the pyloric %oriiice, and then
,nly by degrees, since the digestion far
her on is a much finer operation, and
IAN go on bat slowly. The length If
ime that the digestion properly takes,
$, according TO the present knowledge
# the subject, several hours-iu fact,
omewhat longer than has generally
'een supposed. Now, if the meat is
wallowed fine cut, it begins 10 pass
through very quickly, and before it has
'een fully acted upon by the gastric
uice. This action rs regards meats {
in ''dissolving the sarcolemma ,
rom the muscular iibers, and dissolying
'roteid matters and converting them in i
o peptones- . @. = On starch, gastric I
nice has per sc no effect watever. .
grape-sugar and cane-sugar healthy 4,
juice has no effect" In iats i
lone it has a slight emulsifying effect, ,
ut If still in the tissue il is dissolved i
Milk il accordingly acted on by ,
first curdled on Ie tchingthe s,om- ,
ch. after which if is leisurely dissolved {
gain in the desired form. I
The rotary movement Of the contents +.
I the stomach is 20 facilitate the action c
( the gastric juice-to bring the various .
and Jumps of the entire mass
lto contact with it as il exudes frcmthe Q
tomach's walls. Ii the material has
ONE from the mouth finely ground mp,
considerable portion goes over into z
duodenum before it has been prop
rly acted upon; but, il il has come i
in coarse Jumps, these begin C
to dissolve, passing into a more
r less fluid condition, and this can be q
sken care of with about the same rapid r
y by the digestive apparatus following; /
y this arrangement no portion of the >
'od would be allowed to pass from the I
'omach unprepared for the next step
the digestive process. All portions, I
len, even the finest tbers, of a meat :
let, must be acted upon by the gastric @
lice before passing on and this action C
rogresses best by slowly wearing off 5
lie outside of the morsels.
Prof. Ludwig has made some general 8
apartments as to the truth Of this theo- :
J upon himself, eating coarsely cut 5
leat at one time and fine at another, r
ithout at least being able 10 detect any :
effects whatever from morsels as Z
rye as it was convenient to swallow. 9
ANY w~orkingmen, business men, and 4
hers, almost bolt their food without q
IS Of excellent digestion; we should r
Ear in mind, of course. that they have y