DIGESTION AND FOOD. 65 



long as there is any of this gastric juice unoccupied by food, 

 or until the inner coat of the stomach has poured out as 

 much as it can give at the time. So long as this sensation 

 continues, there is a call for more food, and more can be 

 digested. We may safely eat, then, until this natural appetite 

 ceases, provided we throw the food into the stomach no 

 faster than the digesting fluid is ready to dissolve it. Mr. D. 

 (<$ 43, p. '27) did not even eat until his hunger ceased ; and 

 yet he ate more than his gastric juice could dissolve. 



135. In order, then, to adapt the food to the wants of the 

 system and the power of digestion, we must eat slowly ; we 

 must masticate each morsel patiently and thoroughly in the 

 mouth, waiting, in this manner, before we swallow this, until 

 the previous morsel has had time to combine with the gastric 

 juice in the stomach So doing, we can determine whether 

 that organ wants or is prepared for another ; and. when that 

 demand ceases, we can suspend the eating. Then we shall 

 have eaten all that is needed for nutrition, and no more than 

 the stomach can digest. 



136. This will require us to eat, not to fulness, as is 

 unhappily too commonly done; nor even to satiety, for that 

 would overstep the wants of nature ; but merely until the 

 demand for nutrition ceases. Dr. Beaumont says, " There 

 seems to be a sense of perfect intelligence conveyed to the 

 brain, which, in health, invariably dictates what quantity of 

 aliment, (responding to the sense of hunger and its due satis- 

 faction) is naturally required for the purposes of life, and 

 which, if noticed and properly attended to, could prove the 

 most salutary monitor of health and effectual preventive of 

 disease. It is not the sense of satiety ; for this is beyond the 

 point of healthful indulgence, and is Nature's earliest indica- 

 tion of an abuse and overburden of her powers to replenish 

 the system. It occurs immediately previous to this, and may 

 be known by its pleasurable sensations of perfect satisfaction, 

 ease, and quiescence of body and mind. It is when the 

 stomach says, Enough. It is distinguished from satiety by 

 difference of sensation; the latter says, Too much." 



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