DIGESTION. 591 



pears that boiled veal is more easily digested than roasted ; and 

 from experiment 6, that cod-fish is much more digestible than 

 either beef or rabbit. From experiment 5th, it appears that 

 cheese is more digestible than meat ; and from experiment 7th, 

 that fat is much more digestible than cheese. Experiment 8th 

 shows us that beef is more easily digested than potatoes. 



Dr Stark made a great number of experiments on himself. He 

 lived a fortnight on bread and water ; and found that during that 

 time the weight of his body had diminished by 3 Ibs. He lived 

 a month on bread, sugar, and water, and during that interval 

 his body became lighter by 3J Ibs. He substituted olive oil for 

 the sugar ; but the change producing purging and injuring the 

 health, he was obliged to give it up. Milk being substituted, 

 for the oil was found to agree better, though he still lost weight. 

 Bread, water, and roasted goose seemed to agree with him per- 

 fectly. He tried bread, water, and boiled beef; stewed lean of 

 beef with gravy and water ; the same with the addition of suet ; 

 flour, oil of suet, water and salt ; flour, fresh butter, water and 

 salt ; yolk of eggs, suet, figs, and water ; flour, oil of marrow, 

 water, and salt ; bread with roasted fowl, infusion of tea and su- 

 gar ; bread, stewed lean of beef with gravy, infusion of tea with 

 sugar ; bread, the fat of stewed beef with jelly, water and salt ; 

 bread, fat of bacon ham, infusion of tea with sugar, &c. These 

 experiments he continued for more than half a year. The con- 

 sequence was the destruction o the tone of the stomach and a 

 fever which speedily carried him off. Scarcely any conclusion 

 can be drawn from these experiments ; except the danger of per- 

 sisting in an aliment which is particularly offensive to the sto- 

 mach ; and the necessity of varying the food if we wish to enjoy 

 good health.* 



From the numerous experiments of Tiedemann and Gmelin, it 

 seems to follow that animal food is more easily digested by dogs 

 than vegetable food.f 



Every body knows that in man and all the more perfect ani- 

 mals the food is introduced into the mouth, where it is commi- 

 nuted by the teeth, and mixed up into a kind of magma or pulp 

 by means of the saliva. 



* The works of W. Stark, M. D. p. 89. 



f" Recherches Experimentales, Fhysiologiques, et Chimiques sur la Digestion 

 i. p. 178. 



