THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



will contribute to the changes that ordi- 

 nary articles of diet undergo in the hu- 

 man body. 



In this connection it is proper to men- 

 tion foods that from their nature, are 

 most easily taken up in absorption. 



Volumes of literature in the form of 

 advertisements and otherwise, have been 

 written on this subject. 



The ideal food is unquestionably the 

 milk. 



Milk is digested when nothing else is. 

 It is better than any commercial food or 

 combination of commercial foods. Better 

 than beef tea. Beef tea (and I say this 

 in all gravity) is chemically closely al- 

 lied to urine. Attention was first called 

 to this point by the late Austin Flint, 

 professor of practice of medicine, at Belle- 

 vue. 



There is now no longer any doubt 

 about it. v 



Milk contains all the classes of articles 

 ot nutrition mentioned above. It even 

 contains iron. 



A case that most strikingly illustrates 

 this, came under observation recently. 



A man presented himself for treatment, 

 who for a period a little short oi eleven 

 years, had lived entirely on milk. He 

 was well nourished, and of considerable 

 muscular development. 



Yet, nothing had passed his lips in all 

 these years but milk, of which he drank 

 about five quarts during every every 

 twenty-four hours. 



Albumenoids are also most readily 

 changed and undergo absorption more 

 easily than the sugars and fats. 



Still, stomach digestion is not by any 

 means the most important. The stomach 

 covered like the mouth, largely assits in the 

 preparation of the food for further changes 

 that take place in the small intestine. 



Millions of dollars have been spent in 

 the preparation of pepsin. Still it is of 

 questionable utility. It is of use only in 



antacid [medium, and ["acts only on o ne 

 class of food, namely, the albumenoids. 

 By tar the greater proportion of albume- 

 noids are converted into peptones by the 

 pancreatic juice, and this is an alkaline 

 secretion, pepsin never reaches the small- 

 er intestine, and would be of no great 

 service if it did. 



Pancreatin does not exist as a digest- 

 ive ferment. Whatever its alleged use- 

 fulness may be, it would be necessary to 

 give it in such form that it is not acted 

 on in the stomach, but skips, as it were, 

 this organ and then gets to work in the 

 intestine. (It is claimed that this can 

 be done by coating a pill with certain 

 agents.) In any case it certainly does 

 not emulsify fats, for the reason that this 

 function is a mechanical, not a chemical 

 one. 



The chemist has indeed succeeded in 

 preparing articles of diet that lessen the 

 labor of the digestive organs very great- 

 ly. In the predigested foods (for in- 

 stance, Kumyss), there are a large num- 

 ber of these preparations now in the 

 market, and they all have their restricted 

 fields of usefulness. 



The pharmacist has also contributed 

 his share to the general good work. 



The most distressing accompaniments 

 of defective digestion are fermentation 

 and decomposition. There are many 

 pharmaceutical preparations that tend to 

 lessen these. 



Resorcin and salicin, which are solu- 

 ble, act well in the stomach. 



Napthaline and the bismuth prepara- 

 tions are useful, as they pass into the in- 

 testines. Of the latter dermatol, or 

 bismuth subgallate, is perhaps the most 

 useful. 



If we are to rely alone on the phar- 

 maceutical preparations that are sup- 

 posed to effect those changes in articles 

 of diet that they normally undergo in 



