Show FOOD IX THE BODY How the Action of Foods In the Stomach IS Being Studied BY DU J3LGJ5NK MURRAY AARON Each year marks an advance in the importance given by medical men to the science of digestion Oh every hand the realization Increases in force that there is little use in relying on drugs while imprudence or even intemperance in-temperance in food and liquid is allowed al-lowed In a word medical oversight is gradually being taken frmn the drugstores drug-stores and given to the meat markets and groceries The anatomy of the digestive machinery i ma-chinery which at first glance appears i to be very complicated is in reality i comparatively simple when the amount of work exacted of it is considered No inventive chemist would attempt to construct a single mechanism in which solids and liquids of so many and widely separated sorts were to be disIntegratedtheir useless pOrtions pOr-tions rejected their valuable properties I combined to usein the manufacture Of blood the various secretions such as saliva tears perspiration J digestive diges-tive fluids etc and to generate the necessary animal heat and especially to do this with so few and simple parts j i In brief this mechanism consists simply of a grinding mill the teeth fitted with lelecting apparatus the tongue and palate which choose or reject re-ject the material placed in the mill and with oiling vessels the salivary glands which secrete the saliva of a strong membraneous canal the oeso phagus which carries the ground food from this mill to another mill the stomach where the most Important work Is accomplished by the aid of acids and juices and such other assisting I as-sisting mechanisms as the liver kidneys kid-neys and intestines which supplement the stomachs work in separating the materials needed and in absorbing them into the system I But it is in the stomach that the main work of digestion and selection is carried on and It Is there that the medical man has had to search for the most important facts thus far discovered discover-ed by actual examination in this field The first decisive investigations into the action of the stomach and of the gastric juice within the stomach were made during a period of seven years on a young Canadian boatman Alexis i St Martin by Dr Beaumont of our army I A musket accidentally discharged but i a few feet from St Martin had torn away the lower part of the lower chest opened the cavity of the body and made a wound which extended into the stomach After these wounds had been healed under the greatest care an opening about threequarters of an inch in diameter remained which led into the left side of the stomach and through which its contents could be extracted for examination at any time Realizing that such a case wis extremely ex-tremely rare unheard of at that time in fact Dr Beaumont for seven years continued a series of observations which have contributed more than any other to our present knowledge of the stomachs part in building and sustaining sustain-ing the body I Twentyfour years after this gunshot wound had thus laid his internal machinery I I chinery open to the gaze of the medical I world Alexis St Martin was still able I to exhibit himself and Prof Smith of the University of Pennsylvania made still further researches with his aid Later the case of a girl in Germany in whom a local Infiammaton had caused an abscess opening into the stomach but who was otherwise ar like St Martin in good health was investigated byProf SchmMt To these three observers we are mainly indebted for our present knowledge knowl-edge although that knowledge bids fair to be considerably extended within a short time j I Two physicians now resident in Peru one a native both graduates of northern north-ern medical schools of the first rank are now experimenting in the same field Through a friend in New York I they inserted in several of the leading papers an advertisement about as follows fol-lows I I > WantedA man under thirtyfive I years in perfect health and without i i l any family ties who in exchange for I 5000 is willing to go to South America I I to undergo a serious but not necessarily neces-sarily dangerous surgical operation I t Much to the surprise of all can I cerned there were several hundred I applications from all sorts and conditions I condi-tions of men and finally a man was I I chosen who had sufficient general information I I in-formation to thoroughly understand I the risk he was running and who cornIng corn-ing from the prizefighting fraternity and anxious to obtain the 5000 to set himself up in the liquor business was I quite willing to take great chances I This case is now under examination 1 and if all does well i Should in the i light of the advancement of medical science In the past thirty years add I greatly to the sum of our knowledge of the stomachs workEr work-Er m observations and experiments I in theKcases1 mentioned we know that t Xf SsJrt v a w > I the active agent in digestion Is an acid fluid secreted from the walls of the stomach that this fluid is secreted only when needed during digestion and that i will have about the same effect on foods outside the stomach i kept in glass bottles and at a temperature of 100 degrees This fluid known as th gastric juice is thirtynine fortieths water the remaining onefortieth being composed of the phosphates of icon magnesium and lime the chlorides of ammonia calcium potassium and so so dium together with free acid and pep sin The latter constitutes threefifths threeffts of all the solids of the gastric juice Pepsin is now extracted from the gas tric juice of the calf and other young animals and used in the many medical compounds which bear its name The observation of St Martini stomach and the others have taught us how long is the time required fop the digestion of the various foods iij common use and as a consequencou have illustrated how necessar conSquencO proper cooking and thorough grinding in the first mill of the gnding mi dIgestve machinery ma-chinery Also they have taught us that certain foods require much moce gastric juice than others for their proper pro-per preparation for the uses of the body and as gastric juice is an article of limited supply the excessive secre tion of which is a strain on the sys tem that it is better to abstain from the frequent indulgence in these foods which consume an undue proportion of itThe The time required in a healthy person per-son for the entire disappearance of food from the stomach varies from one to five and onehalf hours according to both the quality and quantity that is to be dealt with Three hours is about the average time that stomach stomach digestion requires in the human sub ject If it be properly prepared and well chewed food that has been taken in if however i be uncooked meats gulped down in pieces of some size from nine to twelve houre are required re-quired The gastric juice having performed its duty after a meal is not lost to the system but by a very simple arrangement ar-rangement is reabsorbed into the blood from the digestive tract and thus used over and over again while i carries with i into the blood the dissolved nutritious substances mixed with i But its resecretion depends on several things principal among which is the healthy condition of thQ brain and nervous system I Alexis St Martin was out of sorts as we say or if he was or bad just been in a fit of temper the secretion secre-tion of the juice was much decreased or altogether stopped Annoyance worry excitement hurry all for time take away the systems power to secrete an abundance of gastric juice hence it is wise always to keep a cool and even temper and to refrain from the foolishness of rushing out to lunch as our city men appear to Imagine Im-agine to be necessary There are other departments of thE digestive mechanism of much Importance Import-ance but none of them are quite equal in that respect to the stomach and in none of them has it been possible to make the same sort of actual observations observa-tions in the human subject The liver I may say in closing has very important work to do work that is made much more difficult if the stomach does not do its work well I this is the case i is able to retaliate upon the stomach for the tetters neg lect for if I is overworked i at nee telegraphs that fact to the brain where ill nature moroseness a fit of the blues or some equally serious effect ef-fect is the result and thus the stomachs stom-achs supply of gastric juice Is cut short in turn Hence It behooves usa us-a to take heed what manner of material ma-terial we feed Into the grinding mill if w would keep alf the rest of the mechanism free from clogging breakdowns break-downs and even a premature smashup I smash-up |