The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-03-13
THE HUMAN STOMACH.
A Much Abused and Little
Understood Organ.

Some New and Common-Sense Truth
About the Stomach That Should Be
of Peculiar Value to Thousands,
From the Boston Herald, Feb. l8, 1897.
The most important thing in the
world is health. Health means more
than the absence of disease; it means
strength, will, energy, zeal, happiness
the power to do and enjoy things.
Perfect health is so rare that we re-
gard it as special gift. Nature in
tended that disease, not health, should
be rare. We are just finding out that
1t is natural to be well, and learning
what it is that makes people well and
keeps them well.
The idea that the source of all health
and strength lies in the stomach is not
new, but to prove this beyond doubt,
and to make the knowledge of practi-
cal use, is one of the latest services of
science. The real functions of the
stomach, and their relations to per-
feet health. are just being learned.
Important results will follow. A new
science of medicine may result; per-
haps, in time, we can do away with
medicine altogether. People, as rule,
know very little about the stomach.
They ought to know more, for the
knowledge is of vital importance. The
following information ought to be
worth to many all that health is
worth: The human body is an auto
matte, self-repairing, self-adjusting
machine, that would probably run a
hundred years or more, If proper ma
terials were supplied to it through the
stomach. The burning of fuel in the
fire-boX of an engine is a rough illus
tration of the function of digestion.
The burning of the fuel is chemical
action. This action produces energy,
and the energy is converted into me-
chanical force.
The same odd transformation is TAX
ing place in your stomach all the time,
but it is only one of the things the
stomach is called on to do. Our bodies
require electrical energy, heat energy,
and mechanical energy. They also re-
Quire materials for growth and repair.
The source of all this is the food, and,
through the work of the stomach, the
food is converted into the various kinds
Of force required to keep US alive, and
into the elements needed for the re-
pair of the everyday wear and tear.
If we are unable to digest enough food
to take the place of the material con-
stantly destroyed, our organs and It's
sues must suffer, and host of all
tcs a ~ 10 10 0lr nj
repair.
Disease cannot possibly come unless
invited by some internal weakness. If
you will remember this, and, also, re-
member that as long as digestion and
nutrition are perfect, there can be no
weakness, you will know the secret of
health The remarkable functions of
the stomach can, perhaps, be better
understood through an illustration of
the power it produces.
Most of the energy in the food we eat
goes to keep tn blood at an even tenn
perature. If the heat energy, developed
every day by our stomachs, were con-
verified into mechanical energy, there
would be power enough produced to
lift our bodies directly up into the air
to a height OF eight miles. In addition
to producing this heat. the stomach
must constantly supply new tissues
and furnish the power for all our men
tai and physical activity.
In this connection it will be well to
tell something Of the structure of the
stomach, and explain, briefly, the pro-
cess of digestion. Reference to the
drawing here shown may help in I'M
derstanding the matter.