142 OLEOMARGARINE. 



that some people experience distress after eating eggs boiled just hard, 

 but none after eating them soft boiled, or after being boiled for some 

 time, when they become ' mealy.' The difference in the digestion of an 

 egg is again felt when eaten raw without beating, and when it is beaten. 

 The beating mixes the albumen with the air, rendering it porous. 



"The artificial butter made from animal fats, although the olein and 

 palmitin are separated as much as possible by pressure, will not 

 liquefy at the stomach temperature, as is demonstrated by the follow- 

 ing experiments: We placed in an oven kept at a temperature of from 

 100 to 104 F. four beakers containing, respectively, pure butter, oleo- 

 margarine butter, oleomargarine oil (commercial), and lard oil, about 

 20 drams of each, and which were all of the temperature of about 60 

 F. when taken. At the expiration of thirty-five minutes, and the tem- 

 perature at 100, the butter presented a clear, limpid appearance, but 

 the others remained solid, being but very little affected; and at the 

 end of five hours, the temperature being from 101 to 104 F. , they 

 were in a semisolid condition, the oleomargarine oil being most soft- 

 ened, the oleo butter next, and the lard the least softened. 



" These insoluble fats, then, must interfere with digestion in two 

 ways first, by not being acted upon themselves by the gastric juice, 

 and, second, by being thoroughly mixed with the other foods in the 

 mouth, they form an impervious covering to them, thereby preventing 

 the gastric juice from coming in direct contact with them. 



"Randolph says that 'a further reason that the fats, especially when 

 cooked with other foods, are frequently found to be unwholesome, is 

 that in the process of cooking they so surround and saturate the tissues 

 of the substance with which they are combined that it is rendered 

 nearly inaccessible to the action of the saliva and gastric juice, and at 

 times digestion is in so far delayed that the fried substance does not 

 become entirely freed from this more or less impervious coating of 

 fat until subjected to the action of the pancreatic juice.' 



"This retards digestion and prevents that increased flow of gastric 

 juice which follows the absorption in the stomach of the first portion 

 of food digested, as is shown to be the case by Heidenhains experiment, 

 and also deprives the proteids of that aid in their digestion which fats 

 are declared to render. 



"In experimenting with gastric festulse on different dogs, for 

 example, we have found in one instance, like Dr. Beaumont, that the 

 gastric juice was always entirely absent in the intervals of digestion; 

 the mucous membrane then presenting invariably either a neutral or 

 slightly alkaline reaction. In this animal, which was a perfectly healthy 

 one, the secretion could not be excited by any artificial means, such as 

 glass rods, metallic catheters, and the like, but only by the natural 

 stimulus of digested food. Tough and indigestible pieces of tendon 

 introduced through the fistula, were expelled again in a few minutes, 

 one after the other, without exciting the flow of a single drop of acid 

 fluid, while pieces of fresh meat introduced in the same way produced 

 at once an abundant supply. 



"After food has been changed by the act of digestion it is required 

 to enter the current of blood before it can fulfill its office of nourish- 

 ing the body. In order to do this it must pass through the walls of the 

 alimentary canal, which passage constitutes the process of ' absorption.' 



"While absorption may take place through any part of the body 

 containing blood and lymph vessels and not covered with a hard, 



