DIGESTION AND FOOD. 



two or three hours after eating, and is caused by the ineffect- 

 ual effort of the stomach to convert the indigestible food into 

 pulpy chyme, and the resistance of the valve to its passage 

 outward. 



55. But after a painful struggle of the stomach to get rid 

 of that which it cannot master, and of the valve to hold back 

 that which ought not to pass, the food is at length forced into 

 the intestinal canal. There it is a strange matter; it is 

 no more suited for this organ than it was for the stomach. 

 These organs were made to receive, the one masticated and 

 digestible food, and the other the chyme, or the food digested 

 and reduced to a fine pulp. All other matters are foreign to 

 them, and create disturbance and cause pain. The natu- 

 ral and healthy work of the stomach is preparatory to the 

 work of the intestinal canal; and, unless j,he first organ has 

 done its proper work upon the food before it enters the sec- 

 ond, the last can do little, and generally it can do nothing 

 with it. It has no more power over food that is not digested, 

 than the other had over food that could not be digested. As 

 long as it remains, then, in the body, it irritates the sack 

 which contains it, and gives distress to the whole system. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Time required for Digestion in the Stomach. 



56. DIGESTION commences in the stomach as soon as the 

 food is swallowed, and continues from one to five hours 

 varying according to the kind of food, and the health of the 

 person. Dr. Beaumont found that the various articles of diet 

 differed very much as to the time required for their solution 

 in the stomach. Pigs' feet and tripe soused were changed 

 to chyme in one hour, while roasted fresh pork was not dis- 

 solved in less than five hours and a quarter. Other articles 

 required various periods, ranging between these extremes. 

 The average and usual time required for the complete diges- 



