462 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
first concoction.” As to sleep after dinner, Dr. Chambers 
declares it retards digestion, and allows the distended stomach 
to act injuriously on the circulation of the brain. “It is proper 
only for very aged persons, or invalids, and not always for them.” 
Concerning a “‘tea dinner,” writes Ian Maclaren, “it is the 
most loathsome meal ever invented ; and we'll never have it at 
the Free Manse. A certain number of tea dinners would make a 
man into a Plymouth Brother! it’s merely a question of time.” 
Bouchard has shown that if food is retained in the stomach 
longer than for five hours, the changes which then take place 
therein are fermentative and putrefactive, rather than digestive. 
Flatulent discomfort occurs chiefly during the latter part of a 
slow, and over-burdened digestion, when the food mass has 
reached the large intestines, wherein it sluggishly ferments. 
When it enters the small intestines at first, certain residual bacteria 
preserve it from fermenting there ; but further on in the larger 
bowels most of the liquids are absorbed, and the production of 
antiseptic acids ceases, so that putrefactive gases are generated 
therein, giving rise to distension, and to remorse for over-indul- 
gence at table. The liver exercises a poison-destroying power 
by the bile, and the kidneys will eliminate intestinal microbes. 
‘ Olim erat anxia anus, valde anxia; quid tibi visum est ? 
Potando tantum, tantum si pavit edendo ! 
Et quanquam potu vivebat plurima, et esu 
Ipsa erat zternum fulmen, lis, jurgia, clamor.” 
“ There was an old woman, and what do you think ? 
She lived upon nothing but victuals and drink : : 
And though victuals and drink were the chief of her diet, 
Yet this restless old woman could never keep quiet.” 
MEATS. 
ANIMAL food in the form of meat, or the flesh of ox, calf, sheep, 
lamb, pig, and other animals, consists mainly of muscular 
substance, proteid, meat juices, and fat, being the highest kind 
of sustaining nutriment for man. It may be taken sometimes 
raw, under special conditions of deficient health, but is almost 
always sent cooked to table, either roasted, boiled, broiled, 
baked, or stewed. Full particulars as to meat constituents, 
and the methods of preparing them, are to be found explained 
in Kitchen Physic. Great care should always be exercised as 
to the quality, and soundness of meats which are to be served, 
as well for persons in good robust health, as for the weakly, and 
