The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-20
AT THE UNIVERSITY.
PROF. WHITING TELLS HOW
THE BODY is SUPPORTED.
The Lecture Was Very Interesting
and Thoroughly Appreciated
Miss Babcock to Give Reading
Next Tuesday Night.

, The usual weekly lecture at the uni
: versity was delivered last evening by
Professor c. a. Whiting on the sub
ject, How the Body is Supported. -
| The subject is one with which the
genial professor seems peculiarly at
home, and his interesting treatment of
it was thoroughly appreciated. The
lecturer Illustrated the various parts
of the digestive apparatus with a
manikin and other physiological mod
els. short summary only of the lee
ture is here given:
y food is a substance which, when
taken into the alimentary canal, is
already soluble, and hence dialyzable.
or which, when acted upon by the di-
geStiVe fluids, becomes soluble, and
which contains some of the constitu-
ents necessary to build up the human
body or to replace the matter which
has been received from it.
Foods may be divided into four gen.
eral classes-proteids, hydrocarbons,
carbohydrates, and mineral foods.
The proteids are represented by cheese,
lean meat, peas, beans and the gluten
of wheat. This class of food is digested
for the most part in the stomach by
which pepsin appears to be the active
principle, although it is now an ac-
! knOWledged fact that the pancreatic
! juice may exert, and possibly normally
| does exert, a considerable digestive IN
! fuence upon proteids. The hydro-car-
! bonS, or hydro carbonaceous food, is
/ represented by the various forms of
fats, and oils, butter, etc. The hydro
! cartoons are not digested to any appre-
| clable extent in the stomach, but their
| digestion takes place almost entirely
| in the small intestine, and the princi-
pal digestive fluid which acts upon this
kind of food is the pancreatic Juice
In digestion of food by the pancreatic
juices, the food appears to be broken
up into two cOnStituents-one a fatty
acid and the other common glycerine
The glycerine is absorbed directly into
| the blood, while the ultimate destna-
ton of the fatty acid is not positively ]
known although it is proba BILE that it
undergoes decomposition and is then
absorbed. The digestion of the carbo-
hydrates, foods which are represented
by. starch and sugar, begins in the
mouth, under the influence of the sa-
Iva. In this fluid there is a ferment
known as ptyalin. Ptyalin by it's ac-
ton upon ordinary cane sugar, forms
it into glucose and also converts starch
into glucose, although the quantity of |
starch converted into glucose in the |
mouth is very small. The starchy |
foods undergo little or no change in |
the stomach. but after leaving the |
stomach and coming into contact with |
the pancreatic juices, the conversion of 1
starch into glucose sugar again begins,
and eventually all the starch taken
into the body is converted into that |
form of sugar. and in that form is alb
sorbed into the blood.
While it is highly probable that most
n q IF 4
ried forward by the regular digestive
fluids, secreted either by special glands
or in the walls of the digestive organs
a vast amount of evidence is accumu-
lated to show that bacteria perform a
perceptible part in the digestion of
foods, and that, if it were not for the
presence of bacteria in the alimentary
canal, several kinds of food would be
very imperfectly, if at all, digested.
Blood NAV be defined as the one
liquid tissue of the body, and the tissue
which contains the necessary constitu-
ents for the upbuilding of all the other
tissues of the body. Two of the several
constituents of the blood, the white
and the red corpuscIes, may be re-
garded as of vital Importance White
corpuscles are in fact undifferentiated
tissue and one of their principal func-
tons is TO build UP such parts of the
body as stand inrneed of nourishment
So far as is known the matter which
may enter into structure of the nerv-
Gus system does not in the slightest I
degree differ from the matter of a
corpuscle which may become part
OF muscle or any other part of the
pody. Aside from their use as tissue
formers there is no doubt but that the !
white corDuscles are useful in the de-
OF bacteria. There is reason
TO believe that bacteria capable of
r,T
ous diseases are widely disseminated {
through the air and are almost con-
SANITY inhaled, but unless the num- {
Der inhaled become too great or unless l
he white corpuscles are too diminished [
n number. the disease germs are nor |
naly EMBODIED by the white corpuscles |
Ind used by them as a source of nOl1r- q
shment and thus destroyed. So any,
hing which tends to diminish the num- l
Der OF white corpuscles tends to pre-
'are the body for disease, and aside
rom insufficient or improper food, per-
laps there is no way in which they c
re more constantly diminished in c
numbers than by too little sleep. 8
While the red corpuScleS act as car I
iers of oxygen over the body, it is c
uite certain that they do not absorb u
urlng the waking hours as much oxy- Il
zen as is needed for the support of the
ody, and if the body were to depend
or It's supply solely upon that which .
5 taken in by respiration during the e
Taking hours, it would suffer from a -
ack of that necessary food. 1t is dur
ng the period OF sleep that the prin-
lpal quantity of oxygen needed for >,
ne support of the body is taken in and u
tored away in the various tissues. and .
is in part at least upon this extra :.
upply of oxygen that the white cor -
uscles are dependent for their exist a
nee and power of reproduction. Hence ~
ne intimate connection between a "
thoroughly healthy body and regular -
nd sufficient hours of sleep. IL :,
Next Tuesday night the lecture plat 81
orm will be occupied by Miss Maud =,
lay Babcock, who will give a reading
The Merchant of Venice. !.
uevI.tt Rros, TNra. Co., W
re nut nm in quarter boIs one ond I'll