The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-01-13

which nave the power OF contraction
and expansion. and this power does not
depend upon the will at all. After the
food passes the first one, that contracts
against II. forcing it against the next,
which opens and lets it through in the
same way. until the last one pushes il
into the stomach. This opening and
closing of the rings gives a peculiar
worm like motion to the tube, which does
not cease until the bali is safely landed
at its destination
| said this contraction and expansion
did not depend upon the will, and n lit
tie thought will show you that It does
not. When the food is only in the ante
chamber. called, by the wSy. the pha-
rynx, you can recall it into the mouth,
but after the esophagus has fairly seized
it. you may cluster and blow, but all
the same it journeys on, without paying
the least attention to your wishes. 1t is
utterly beyond your reach. beyond re-
call, except by force artiEcially applied.
Sometimes people say they swallow
the wrong way, and they are choked.
In reality they have attempted to talk
or laugh while trying to swallow, and
the ar, which necessarily was forced
out of the lungs by this action, opened
the valve, and crumb dropped in the
wrong place. Or perhaps they swal-
lowed in hurry so great that the air
which had already started out had not
quite time TO escape and let the trap
door down. In either case the result is
the same, and unless the convulsive
coughing which always follows the en-
trance of a substance into those passages
intended only for the air, elects it,
death must ensue. This has nothing to
do with digestion, but it has with the
miserable habit of talking when the
mouth is full of food. That is not only
ill.bred, Tut it is absolutely dangerous.
The last ring OF the esophagus safe
ly passed, it contracts and shuts the
food into the bag called the stomach.
This is an organ in the shape of a bent
pear with the larger part uppermost.
| Its size depends almost entirely upon
what is put into it. Usually, or when
it is properly filled, the space it occu-
pies can be covered by the hand When
more food is needed it begins to con-
tract, and the parts surrounded and sup
ported by it dag upon their ligaments,
and this gives that sensation we call
hunger. If this call is not needed. it
contracts more and more until it be-
comes finally not larger around than a
thimble and only two or three inches
long. People whose stomachs get into
this condition are said to have died Of
starvation. On the other hand. 1t is SO
elastic as to receive a wonderful guam
tity of food, and it might be crowded
so as to press upon the other organs in
a way to cause suffocation. 1t lies in an
inclined position with the larger round
ed end near the heart and the smaller
end pointing downwards toward the
intestines. At this small end is the
pyloric orifice, or the door through
which the food that came in through the
9sophagus must 90 out when it is ready
to bid farewell to the stomach.
The work which this organ does, or
the transformation rather which it eff
fects upon the tall that enters it. is
thought by many to be the most inn
4 portant part of digestion, so that it can
readily be seen that it is OF the utmost
importance to keep it in the best of or
order all through life, and vet there is
no part of the body that people so per
sistently a use They treat it as some
persons do gentle tempered animal
which will 60 on year after year suffer
inc from overwork and lack of care,
until finally, goaded to desperation, il
turns and rends its master, or. over
4 whelmed with fatigue and despair, re.
fuses its task, and lies down to die. The
stomach is wonderfully patient and
long-enduring, but there comes a day
when it enters into open rebellion, and
then woe betides its possessor. 1OtedC
Blade. cow la i..sU