Part 13

Articles of Diet. Mode Time required of for Preparation. Digestion. H. M. Rice, Boiled, 1.00 Sago, do. 1.45 Tapioca, do. 2.00 Barley, do. 2.00 Milk, do. 2.00 Do. Raw, 2.15 Gelatine, Boiled, 2.30 Pigs’ feet, soused, do. 1.00 Tripe, soused, do. 1.00 Brains, do. 1.45 Venison steak, Broiled, 1.35 Spinal marrow, Boiled, 2.40 Turkey, domestic, Roasted, 2.30 Do. do. Boiled, 2.25 Do. wild, Roasted, 2.18 Goose, do. 2.30 Pig, sucking, do. 2.30 Liver, beef’s fresh, Broiled, 2.00 Lamb, fresh, do. 2.30 Chicken, full-grown, Fricassee, 2.45 Eggs, fresh, Hard boiled, 3.30 Do. do. Soft do. 3.00 Do. do. Fried, 3.30 Do. do. Roasted, 2.15 Do. do. Raw, 2.00 Do. whipped, do. 1.30 Custard, Baked, 2.45 Codfish, cured, dry, Boiled, 2.00 Trout, salmon, fresh, do. 1.30 Do. do. Fried, 1.30 Bass, striped, fresh, Broiled, 3.00 Flounder, do. Fried, 3.30 Catfish, do. do. 3.30 Salmon, salted, Boiled, 4.00 Oysters, fresh, Raw, 2.55 Do. do. Roasted, 3.15 Do. do. Stewed, 3.30 Beef, fresh, lean, rare, Roasted, 3.00 Do. do. dry, do. 3.30 Do. steak, Broiled, 3.00 Do. with salt only, Boiled, 2.45 Do. with mustard, &c., do. 3.30 Do. fresh, lean, Fried, 4.00 Do. old, hard, salted, Boiled, 4.15 Pork, steak, Broiled, 3.15 Do. fat and lean, Roasted, 5.15 Do. recently salted, Boiled, 4.30 Do. do. Fried, 4.15 Do. do. Broiled, 3.13 Do. do. Raw, 3.00 Do. do. Stewed, 3.00 Mutton, fresh, Roasted, 3.15 Do. do. Broiled, 3.00 Do. do. Boiled, 3.00 Veal, fresh, Broiled, 4.00 Veal, fresh, Fried, 4.30 Fowls, domestic, Broiled, 4.00 Do. do. Roasted, 4.00 Ducks, do. do. 4.00 Do. wild, do. 4.30 Suet, beef, fresh, Boiled, 5.03 Do. mutton, do. 4.30 Butter, Melted, 3.30 Cheese, old, strong, Raw, 3.30 Soup-beef, vegetable,} Boiled, 4.00 and bread, } Do. marrow bones, do. 4.14 Do. bean, do. 3.00 Do. barley, do. 1.30 Do. mutton, do. 3.30 Green corn and beans, do. 3.45 Chicken soup, do. 3.00 Oyster soup, do. 3.30 Hash, meat and vegetable, Warmed, 2.30 Sausage, fresh, Broiled, 3.20 Heart, animal, Fried, 4.00 Tendon, Boiled, 5.30 Cartilage, do. 4.15 Aponeurosis, do. 3.00 Beans, pod, do. 2.30 Bread, wheaten, fresh, Baked, 3.30 Do. corn, do. 3.15 Cake, corn, Baked, 3.00 Do. sponge, do. 2.30 Dumpling, apple, Boiled, 3.00 Apples, sour and hard, Raw, 2.50 Do. do. mellow, do. 2.00 Do. sweet, do. do. 1.30 Parsnips, Boiled, 2.30 Carrots, orange, do. 3.15 Beets, do. 3.45 Turnips, flat, do. 3.30 Potatoes, Irish, do. 3.30 Do. do. Roasted, 2.30 Do. do. Baked, 2.30 Cabbage, head, Raw, 2.20 Do. with vinegar, do. 2.00 Do. do. Boiled, 4.30

As a general rule, animal food is more easily and speedily digested, and contains a greater quantity of nutriment in a given bulk, than either herbaceous or farinaceous food; but, apparently from the same cause, it is also more heating and stimulating. Minuteness of division, and tenderness of fibre, are shown, by Dr. Beaumont’s experiments, to be two grand essentials for the easy digestion of butcher-meat; and the different kinds of fish, flesh, fowl, and game, are found to vary in digestibility, chiefly in proportion as they approach or depart from these two standing qualities.

Farinaceous food, such as rice, sago, arrow-root, and gruel, are also rapidly assimulated, and prove less stimulating to the system than concentrated animal food. Milk seems to rank in the same class, when the stomach is in a healthy state.

Animal food, it is true, affords a more stimulating nutriment than farinaceous and other kinds of vegetable aliment, and hence it is avoided in diseases of excitement. But it seems to me that this stimulus is owing, not only to its own inherent properties, but also to its more highly concentrated state, and to the much greater quantity of chyle which is derived from it, than from an equal bulk of vegetable aliment.

Before concluding his experiments on the agents employed in digestion, Dr. Beaumont made many observations, with a view to ascertain whether any increase of temperature took place during that process. By introducing a thermometer with a long stem, at the external opening into St. Martin’s stomach, both before and during the chymification, he succeeded in obtaining very accurate information on this point. In two or three of the experiments, the heat of the stomach seemed to be increased after taking food; but in by far the greater number, the temperature remained the same. It appeared, however, that the variations of the atmosphere produced a sensible change on the heat of the stomach--a dry air increasing, and a moist air diminishing it. The ordinary temperature may be estimated at 100 Fahrenheit, and in several instances it was higher at the pyloric than at the cardiac end. On one cloudy, damp, and rainy day, the thermometer rose only to 94 degrees, and on another to 96 degrees; whereas the next day, when the weather was clear and dry, it rose to 99 degrees; and on that following, when the weather was both clear and cold, to 100. On several occasions, it rose as high as 102 degrees, and once to 103 degrees; but these were after exercise, which was always observed to cause an increase of two or three degrees. We have already seen that artificial digestion is entirely arrested by cold.

INFERENCES FROM DR. BEAUMONT’S EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS, GIVEN IN HIS OWN WORDS.

1. That hunger is the effect of distension of the vessels that secrete the gastric juice.

2. That the processes of mastication, insalivation, and deglutition, in an abstract point of view, do not in any way affect the digestion of the food; or, in other words, when food is introduced directly into the stomach, in a finely divided state, without these previous steps, it is as perfectly digested as when they have been taken.

3. That saliva does not possess the properties of an alimentary solvent.

4. That the agent of chymification is the gastric juice.

5. That the pure gastric juice is fluid, clear, and transparent; without odor, a little salt, and perceptibly acid.

6. That it contains free muriatic acid, and some other active chymical properties.

7. That it is never found free in the gastric cavity; but it is always excited to discharge itself by the introduction of food or other irritants.

8. That it is secreted from vessels distinct from the mucous follicles.

9. That it is seldom obtained pure; but is generally mixed with mucous, and sometimes with saliva. When pure, it is capable of being kept for months, and perhaps for years.

10. That it coagulates albumen, and afterward dissolves the coagulæ.

11. That it checks the progress of putrefaction.

12. That it acts as a solvent of food, and alters its properties.

13. That, like other chymical agents, it commences its action on food as soon as it comes in contact with it.

14. That it is capable of combining with a certain and fixed quantity of food; and when more aliment is presented for its action than it will dissolve, disturbance of the stomach, or “indigestion," will ensue.

15. That its action is facilitated by the warmth and motions of the stomach.

16. That it becomes intimately mixed and blended with the ingestæ in the stomach, by the motions of that organ.

17. That it is invariably the same substance, modified only by admixture with other fluids.

18. That the motions of the stomach produce a constant churning of its contents, and admixture of food and gastric juice.

19. That these motions are in two directions--transversely and longitudinally.

20. That no other fluid produces the same effect on food that gastric juice does; and that it is the only solvent of aliment.

21. That the action of the stomach and its fluids is the same on all kinds of diet.

22. That solid food, of a certain texture, is easier of digestion than fluid.

23. That animal and farinaceous aliments are more easy of digestion than vegetable.

CATALOGUE OF HERBS, MEDICINAL PLANTS, &c.