53 PHYSIOLOGY AND HEALTH. 



much animal and vegetable food for a wager, affirmed that, 

 since distending her stomach so much, she had never felt 

 herself satisfied with food, and had in general taken twice 

 as much at a meal as she had been accustomed to before she 

 ate so much for a wager." * 



101. This is an extraordinary instance of extreme disten- 

 tion of the stomach ; but it is not unusual to find similar 

 conditions, though in a less degree, produced by smaller er- 

 rors of the same kind. This unnatural state of the stomach 

 comes oftener from a long and gradually-increased indul- 

 gence in great eating, amounting sometimes to gluttony, than 

 from a single gormandizing, as in the case of the woman 

 stated in the last section. But it is an error that creeps on 

 very insidiously, and with a seemingly good cause; and one 

 who begins to trespass in this way is in danger of repeating 

 the mistake, and of increasing the evil continually, without 

 suspecting he is doing any more than obeying the natural 

 laws of his sensations, and supplying his proper wants. 



102. As soon as any of the food is digested and reduced 

 to chyme, and sent into the duodenum, the innumerable ab- 

 sorbents commence their work of absorbing or taking up the 

 chyle the nutritious portion and carrying it to the veins. 

 They continue this work for several hours, more or less, ac- 

 cording to the fulness of the storehouse of nutriment; and 

 during this time, they replenish the waste of the blood, and 

 enable it to supply the wants of the whole body. After a 

 varying period of some hours, the quantity of chyle is ex- 

 hausted in the alimentary canal, and can furnish no more 

 material for the blood, and the blood can no longer meet the 

 demands of the wasting flesh. Then there is a want of 

 more and new nutriment a craving for food in the stomach, 

 and a consequent sensation of hunger, and we need to eat 

 again. 



103. The period for the return of appetite, or the proper 

 interval between the hours of eating, depends upon many 

 circumstances and conditions, such as the temperament, the 



* Zoonomia, Vol. II., p. 107. 



