FOOD OF MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS. 129 



3 h. Custard baked, 2 h. 45 m. Codfish, salted, and 

 boiled, 2 h. Trout, salmon, boiled, 1 h. 30 m. do. fried, 

 same time. Bass, striped, 3 h., flounder and catfish, 

 each 3 h. 30 m. Beef fresh and lean, rare roasted, 3 h. 

 do dry roasted, 3 h. 30 m. Salt beef boiled, 2 h. 45 m. 

 do. with mustard, 2 h. 30 m. Beef steak broiled, 3 h. 

 Pork, fat and lean roasted, 5 h. 15 m. Pork, recently 

 salted and boiled, 4 h. 30 m. Do. fried, 4 h. 15 m. do. 

 raw, 3 h. Mutton fresh, roasted, 3 h. 15m. Veal, 

 broiled, 4 h. Fowls, domestic, boiled and roasted, 4 L 

 Chicken soup, 3 h. 



Of vegetables, wheat bread fresh baked, required 3 

 h. 30 m. Corn bread, 3 h. 15 m. Sponge cake, 2 h. 

 30 m. Green corn and beans, 3h. 45 m. Apple dump- 

 ling, boiled, 3 h. Apples, sour and mellow, 2 h. Do. 

 sweet and mellow, 1 h. 30 m. Parsnips, boiled, 2 h. 

 30 m. Potatos boiled, 3 h. 30 m. Do. roasted, 2 h. 

 30 m. Cabbage head raw, 2 h. 30 m. Do. with vine- 

 gar raw. 2 h. Do. boiled, 4 h. 30 m. 



With respect to the experiments with the gastric 

 fluid in vials, they present little interest when compared 

 with those made on the living animal. We may how- 

 ever state that it requires from three to six times as long 

 for the digestive solution to be completed in this way as 

 in the stomach. 



Among the inferences which Dr. Beaumont draws 

 from all his experiments on this subject, are the follow- 

 ing. 



1. That animal and farinaceous aliments are more 

 easy of digestion than vegetables. 



2. That digestion is facilitated by minuteness of divis- 

 ion and tenderness of fibre. Hence the importance of 

 thorough mastication in case of weak stomachs. 



3. That the ultimate principles of aliment are always 

 the same, from whatever kind of food they may be ob- 

 tained. The chyle therefore from vegetable and animal 

 food, consists of exactly the same elements, being elab- 

 orated therefrom by the gastric action. 



4. That the quantity of food generally taken into the 

 stomach is greater than the system requires. 



5. That solid food of a certain texture, is easier of 

 digestion, than fluid. 



