Lesson xxxvin.j CONCOCTION; 287 



the design of the SUPREME CONTRIVER has 

 evidently been to grind and dissolve the aliment, 

 and to incorporate it with a large quantity of 

 animal juices already prepared, in such a manner 

 as to reduce it at last to the very same substance 

 with our blood and humours. How wonderfully 

 and completely this design has been executed, my 

 young readers will presently be able to judge. 



In the first stage of Concoction, by a curious 

 configuration of parts, and action of muscles, 

 adapted to their respective functions, our food is 

 ground small by the teeth, and moistened by a 

 copious saliva in the mouth. It is in the next 

 place swallowed, and conveyed down the gullet, 

 where it is farther mollified and lubricated by a 

 viscid unctuous humour, distilled from the glands 

 of that canal. From thence it slips into the 

 stomach, where several causes concur towards its 

 complete dissolution. It is diluted by the juices, 

 swelled and subtilized by the internal air, and it is 

 macerated and dissolved by iheheat which it meets 

 with in the cavity, ft is also agitated and attenu- 

 ated by the perpetual friction of the coats of the 

 stomach, and the pulsation of the arteries there; 

 by the alternate -elevation and depression of the 

 diaphragm or midriff in breathing; and hy the 

 compression of the strong muscles of the belly. 

 After a proper stay, it is gradually propelled into 

 the intestines, in- the form pf a thick, smooth, 

 uniform, ash-coloured fluid. 



When our aliment, thus prepared, arrives at the 

 intestines,, it is there mixed with three different 



sorts 



