DIGESTION 



CHAPTER IX. 



Digestive Process wonderful. We are responsible for the Selection 

 and the Preparation of our Food. Healthy Digestion comforta- 

 ble. Hunger not owing to Emptiness of Stomach. Brain and 

 Nerves must be sound, to perceive Hunger. 



78. THIS digestive process, which effects so great a 

 change, is wonderful, as well as interesting. The food, 

 which was of every sort, meat, fish, bread, vegetables, and 

 fruit, mere lifeless matter upon our tables, is now changed 

 into chyle, that is homogeneous, and almost endowed with 

 life. It was at first the food for the stomach ; it is now nu- 

 triment for the blood. This change is a vital one ; at least 

 it is effected by the fluids which are within the living body, 

 and which are the product of vital or living organs. By 

 what unseen agency these fluids obtain this power, is known 

 only to the all-wise Creator. It is not revealed to us, nor 

 need it be. Enough is revealed for our government, to 

 show us our duty in regard to food and digestion. 



79. In this work, man has much to do. He is to provide 

 food of suitable kinds, and must prepare it in a suitable 

 manner. He is to determine the quality, and measure the 

 quantity, which he shall eat. The times of his eating, and 

 the intervals between his meals, are left to his discretion. 

 The work of the mouth is under his control. But all the 



commence at different points of the alimentary canal, they afterwards go 

 on simultaneously in the small intestine ; and the changes which take 

 place here, and which constitute the process of intestinal digestion, form 

 at the same time one of the most complicated, and one of the most 

 important, parts of the whole digestive function." Human Physiol- 

 ogy, p. 15G. 



