O'SHEA — ASPECTS OF MENTAL ECONOMY. 129 



the like digests lower down in the digestive tract than the sub- 

 stances themselves, so that these latter are held in the stomach 

 for a long period, resulting usually in fermentation, and greatly- 

 overtaxing the stomach. 



An examination of the returns from our questionnaire shows 

 that meats, potatoes, eggs, and cakes are as often fried as cooked 

 in any other way; and this cannot but be regarded as a very 

 serious defect in local practice. And I know from personal ex- 

 perience that the frying which is done in some places here ren- 

 ders the food highly indigestible. A breakfast of fried pork, 

 fried eggs, fried potatoes, fried pancakes, and doughnuts must 

 very successfully prevent for several hours vigorous activity in 

 the head of almost any student. There is no danger in saying 

 emphatically that food prepared in this way is unfit for the needs 

 of a student or, in fact, of any civilized being ; and it may not be 

 out of place to observe that the state is bestowing its favors in 

 an unprofitable manner in attempting to educate an individual 

 who habitually regales himself on fried stuffs, and especially 

 such a variety as the landlords in our locality provide for their 

 guests. 



But the cooking of meats, bad as this is even, is not so de- 

 fective in Madison boarding houses, as the cooking of starch 

 foods, — the cereals, bread, vegetables, cake, and the like. It 

 las previously been indicated that starch in order to be incor- 

 porated into the system must become converted into dextrin. 

 This is accomplished in the ordinary process of digestion by in- 

 salivation, wherein the active digestive principle of saliva is 

 brought into contact with the starch granules of food. Starch 

 may, however, be digested in other ways. It is well known, 

 for instance, that the nitrogenous principle, diastase, obtained 

 in malting, possesses the power to carry starch along through 

 several of the stages essential to complete conversion into dex- 

 trin. It is also known that digestive changes may be wrought 

 by the application of dry heat to starch. If you place starch 

 granules in an oven heated to the temperature of 300°, they 

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