Salt Lake Tribune | 1902-05-04 | Page 39 | The Size of a Swallow

THE SIZE OF A SWALLOW Notwithstanding that the lip of the rfongue is a cry sensitive organ of touch Is a fact familiar enough It has remained for a German scientist to discover one specially I important use for thin provision of nature which Iso Is I so he says to determine the size of food articles in the mouth before one ventures to swallow them While chewing goes on the tongue Is constantly con-stantly moving about in the mouth and estimates for itself the swallow ability of morsels Swallowabillty Is tho word used by this German savant who has ascertained Incidentally I I some curious facts about the size of bites and of the pieces into which such bites are divided di-vided by chewing before they are allowed al-lowed to pass down the red lane It appears that an ordinary bile In i about threetcnths of a cubic Inch in size and the chewing of it requires half a minute Strange to say the time of chewing does not vary much with the kind of food A mouthful of any solid food requires about lo seconds sec-onds for complete mastication no matter whether It Is cheese or beefsteak beef-steak If that is to say one possesses a good set of teeth Now when tho mouthful has been complelely chewed there remains in It a limited number 01 particles exceeding exceed-ing threetenths of an Inch in diameter the number of hem depending de-pending on the nature of the food The smalletit particles In the same mouthful with normal mastication are 1linO of an inch In diameter The largest pieces ordinarily swallowed swal-lowed do not exceed half an Inch in diameter If larger than that they will nol go down without choking a person more or less The tongues Judgment aa to swallowablllty Is helped by sensations through the teeth and gums The foods chiefly used by the learned gentleman In his experiments were hardholled eggs and mnccaroni Vegetables Vege-tables it Wilt found were more thoroughly thor-oughly chopped by the teeth than animal ani-mal foods an important recommendation recommenda-tion In behalf of the former from the viewpoint of dyspeptics