Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1920-02-05
GOOD HEALTH
THE DIGESTIVE TIME TABLE

sidered as divided into four apart
ments, in each of which the food is
retained for time to undergo changes
which are not only essential to the
digestive process, but are i scessary
to prepare the way for the next sue
ceeding series of changes that the
food must undergo before it is alb
sorbed. These four apartments are
the mouth, the stomach, the small in
testine and the colon.
In the mouth, food is reduced to a
soft pulp by the mechanical action of
the teeth, the tongue and cheeks. At
the same time, the food is mixed with
the saliva, which acts upon the starch
converting it into sugar. This action
begins in the mouth and continues for
one or two hours in the stomach after
the food is swallowed.
The Gastric Juice
In the stomach, the food is mixed
with gastric juice, which acting up
on the food after it has been acted
upon by the saliva, reduces it to a
semi-fuid state. The mixing of the
gastric juice with the food is accom-
plished by contraction waves, which
pass along the stomach at the rate of
three to five per minute.
These contraction waves also serve
to pass the digested food into the
small intestine through the pylorus
in spoonful amounts.
The work of the stomach, like that
of the mouth, is preliminary, having
for it's purpose the preparation of
the food for further action by the
digestive juices which it encounters
in the small intestine.
In the small intestine, which is
some twenty-five feet in length, is
performed the greater part of the
work of digestion, and practically the
whole Of the work of absorption. 1t
is only in this part of the digestive
apparatus that digestion is carried to
the point of completion, by the action
of the several quarts of digestive
juices, consisting of gastric juice, pan
create juice, intestinal juice, and the
bile.
The small intestine absorbs the en-
ormous quantity of five or six quarts
of liquid daily. Of the solid matter
taken at an ordinary meal, less than
an ounce finds it was into the colon
Practically all the digestible and
disable portion of the food is absorb
ed from the small intestine.
The total volume of material which
passes from the small intestine into
the colon each twenty-four hours is
less than pint and one-half.
1t is evident, then, that the small
intestine does practically all the work
of digestion and absorption. The work
performed by the stomach, while i'm
portant, can be dispensed with. There
are many persons living whose stom-
achs have been removed and who
have good digestions, and are enjoy
ing excellent health.
Waste Materials
The small amount of matter that
passes into the colon consists of in
digestible food residues, excretory
products and intestinal mucus. These
substances are of no use to the body
and may do much harm if retained
because of the readiness with which
they undergo putrefaction. 1t is the
duty of the colon to receive these
waste matters and dismiss them from
the body.
During transit along the colon, a
little more than half of the water
content of the fecal matters is alb
sorbed, but the amount of absorption
which takes place from the colon rep
resents only about one-twentieth Of
the work of absorption done by the
small intestine.
The colon is about five feet in
length, or less than one-ffth the
length of the small intestine.
A homely comparison may serve to
make clear the special functions of
the several departments of the diges-
tive apparatus and their relations to
each other. The mouth, for example,
may be called the mill, because its
work is chiefly mechanical. The
stomach may be aptly compared to
the kitchen of the home Its chief
function is to prepare the food for the
digestive processes which follow.
The small intestine is the dining
room of the body. Here the food is
completely digested and absorbed
Millions of minute projections, the
Will, hang out into the cavity of the
small intestine and perform a func-
ton similar to that of the roots of a
tree
The food is the soil, the Will are
IL