Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-05-30

"a corresponding delay In digestion. The
best temperature for drinking water Is
about 60 degrees F."
He warns against the drinking of Ice
water when one is overfatigued. however.
Another idea is that food in the stomach
swims around in the water drunk with
meals and will not digest.
IF the human stomach were constructed
'of concrete or copper an aquatic smile
might hold" writes Dr. Hawk in the same
book. Fortunately. however, most stom
achs are not so constructed. Instead the
lining OF the stomach is n very delicate
membrane studded with little workshops
(glands) where the gastric fluid or Juice
Is manufactured. Certain things will
stimulate these glands to greater activity
and cause them to make the gastric fluid
more rapidly. Water is one OF the most
important Of these. In fact, one-fifth of a
glass of water, under proper conditions,
Will cause the outpouring of a consider
able volume Of a very active gastric juico
from the lining OF the stomach. Conse.
quently tho subsequent digestion of the
food proceeds moro satisfactorily than
would have been the case had no water
been drunk"
Most people believe that drinking milk
slowly Is better than drinking II rapidly.
becausc. they think. that milk taken very
slowly curdles in small curds In the
stomach, and that these are more easily
digestcd than what are supposed to be
large curds Of rapidly drunk milk. or
this DR.. Hawk writes:
This line Of reasoning sounds logical
enough. but. unfortunately, it Is wholly
false. Our experiments have clearly dem.
onstrated that curds formed in the
stomach when the milk Is drunk slowly
are fully as large as those which follow
rapid milk drinking. This point was
nicely shown by test upon our regurgita.
tor. One day he drank a pint Of milk In
ten seconds, and on the next day at the
same hour he drank the same volume Of
milk In ten minutes. In each instance we
examined the contents Of his stomach at
the end of half-hour Not only were tho
curds larger when the milk was drunk
slowly. but the total weight Of the COM
b!ned curds was greater than when the
milk was passed into the stomach with
maximum speed. The curds were Of prac-
lIcaiy tho same consistency In each case
we may conclude, therefore. that the rapid
urlhklhg OF mix IN no way 1nterferes with
It's proper digestion In the stomach"
Then there Is the old belief that hot
bread causes indigestion.
NO" eXclaims Dr. Hawk. cit has be.
come pretty well established In the scien-
tiNc and lay mind that fresh bread IL
VIGOROUSLY indgestible,' and leading
books on dietetcs have emphasized this
view. Our tests, however, failed to show
this notorious indgestibility.' We fed
bread direct from the oven and so hot that
The steam rolled out In clouds when the
loaf was cut. Then two days later we fed
bread from tho same batch to the Same
men. and failed to find any marked differ
cnce in the stomach digestion of the
breads We did note, however. that the
hot bread generally left the stomach some
what more slowly than the bread which
was two days old. We could secure no
evidence OF tho formation of 'doughy
mass in the stomach after the hot bread
was fed. In fact, the samples OF tho
stomach contents withdrawn at short in
'ervals while the hot bread was In the
stomach were very similar in character to
those withdrawn after the 'twoday' bread
was eaten.
Hot bread has very pleasing flavor.
and II the bread he properly chewed there
is no reason why 1t should not be eaten"
Hard-boiled eggs are supposed TO be in.
oigestible. In his volume DR.. Hawk de-
clares they are not. They are digesled
more slowly. He found that 1t takes tho
stomach thirty minutes longer to empty