The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-29
PRESERVATION OF
HEALTH
EVEN SOUP MUST BE cHEwED
German Scientist Discovers That
Most of the Diseases of Men
Are Due to Imperfect
classification.

ing patients to bite up thoroughly every
thing that enters their mouths. Even
liquids such as water. must be chewed
to some extent, and soup must receive as
much masdcation as If it were composed
of dry bread crumbs.
According to the scientist who advo-
Gates this method, IS per cent of the
stomach troubles of mankind are caused
by improper methods of consuming food
and drink. The human mouth, he points
out is neither mere receptacle for
food nor is it designed solely for tasting.
1t is as much a digestive organ as the
stomach itself More than half of the
process of digestion, he says, should take
place in the mouth. 1t is when the work
which should have been performed by the
teeth is thrown upon the stomach that in
digestion and other troubles ensue. AMI
mails do not have indigestion, says the
German disoverer, because those which
have been given ruminant teeth never
think of boiling their food, as mankind
so often does. The dog bolts its food
and does not suffer from Indigestion
simply because nature has provided 1t
with digestive apparatus which rem
ders chewing more or less superf1uous.
Nature, however, stopped with the ami
mails. No man yet investigated has
been found to possess the dogs digestive
abilities
Psychologists, who have exhaustively
investigated the subject of human diges-
ton, long ago determined that the chief
requisite to perfect digestion was a prop
er amount of mastication. The teeth
are intended to grind UP and separate
the particles of food so that the diges-
tive juices contained in the mouth may
reach every part of the food 1t is in
the mouth, for instance, that starch is
cOnverted-or should be converted-into
sugar. lhis chemical change is perform
ed by a substance known as ptyalin,
which is normally present in considerable
strength in the juices of the mouth. 1t
has long been taught by physicians that
most of the troubles which result i'll
rheumatism. govt, neuralgia and other
nervous diseases, are due to the acid
ity of the blood and this acidity they
now say, is brought about chiefly by in
sufficient mastication.
The normal reaction of saliva is aka
line, and if this is properly mixed with
the food as it would be if mastication
were properly performed-the food is de-
livered to the stomach in a slightly aka
line condition and can then be easily di-
Gested. Food that is bolted, on the other
hand, puts both the mechanical and the
chemical work upon the stomach. The
work of the teeth and of the saliva have
both to be performed by the stomach
The man who bolts his food is acting
logs of wood to a printing press instead
OF paper. Printing paper is made from
wood, but process of maceration, or
mastication, has to be performed first.
In the same way, the doctors saw the
needs of the body are supplied by food,
but nature expects the necessary pre-
paratory work to be properly done.
When it is said that acidity of the
blood is responsible for rheumatism and
other diseases it must not be assumed
that nature intended the food to remain
In an alkaline condition throughout the
digestive process. The contrary is prac-
really the case, for it is only while the
tcod is in the mouth undergoing the
process of mastication that it is alkaline.
1t is only when the food has been prop
erly chewed and mixed with saliva that
the starch contained in the food is con-
NerIed INTO sugar. If it is passed on to
the stomach in the uncOnverted state it
meets an acid reaction. which tends to
disturb all the digestive functions.
These are the basic facts upon which
the German scientist has formulated his
system Of masticatory cure for indi-
Sestlon and other stomach troubles. He
says that perfect digestion is essential
TO perfect health, and that everything
taken into the mouth-whether solid or
Hquld-should be submitted to a thor.
ough mastication. Even water is to he
Kept some time in the mouth, not be-
cause II needs mastication but so that
it may be brought to the BODY TEN
perature and impregnated to a certain
extent with the digestive Juices of the
mouth. When e quantity of cold CATER
j. suddenly poured into the stomach. saws
TINS doctor, it has the effect of chilling
the organ greatly diluting the digestive
1855 90 ana $1ereby retarding the process
u uiSesI<~S II water is swallowed slow
~ and is retained in the mouth mill -
mas become warm it will not do harm
to the patient. moi ~
me functions of the human stomach
says the discoverer of the mas+ica tion
cure, are to secrete gastric iuice-a di-
sesuVe mud to the action of which the
Iooc is subjected after it has entered
N cavity OF the stomach. 1t is also
intended to thoroughly incorporate this
huld with the food by means of its natu-
raj muscular movements while at the
same time 1t absorbs such substances as
are capable of absorption While +ha
stomach is empty and inactive no gastric
Julce is secreted, and mucous. which Is
either neutral or slightly alkaline. COW
ers Its surface. Immediately on the in.
troducuon of food, however, the inner
surface OF the stomach, previously quite
pale, becomes congested and reddened
with the Influx of a larger quantity of
blood; the gastric glands commence Sc
crellng actively and an acid fluid is pour
ed out in minute drops, which gradually
run together and flow. down the walls
OF the stomach, or soak into the suh-
stances within it.
Science owes its first knowledge of the
properties and powers of gastric Juice tn
an accident A man named st. Martin
received a gunshot wound which pene-
trated his stomach so that there existad
an opening leading 6iraptlu ir+o
ach. Through this opening Prof. Beau
ment, of London, was able to watch the
process of excretion and to discover the
way in which the flow was stimulated
Prof. Beaumont found that the introduce
ton of any mechanical irritant into the
stomach, such as the bulb of a thermorne-
ter, excited at once the secretion of
gastric fluid. Quantities of this fluid
We're drawn away by the doctors for
their experiments and exact knowledge
of the methods of digestion resulted. The
quantity of gastric juice secreted daily
has been variously estimated, but the
average for a healthy adult may be as
sumed to range from ten to twenty pints
IN the twenty-four hours. The acidity OF
the fluid is due to the presence of free
hydrochloric acid. In healthy gastric
juice the amount of free acid may be as
much az 2 per cent.
From the foregoing it can be seen how
important 1T is that the first part of the
digestive process should be performed Ii
the mouth, so that enough alkalinity Will
exist in the food to partly neutralizs
what may be an excess of acid in the
stomach. The digestive powers OF tn,
gastric juice, so Psychologists say. de
Ponds on the pepsin and acid contained
in it, both of which are. under ordinar,
circumstances, necessary for the process