FOOD OF MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS. 123 



re digested. The result of these inquiries show that 

 of the meats, pork is that which passes most rapidly 

 through the digestive process ; next to this, mutton, then 

 veal, and lastly beef, which, by these experiments, ap- 

 pears to be the least digestible food of these four kinds of 

 meat. 



363 By other experiments, he found that Jjsh and 

 cheese are substances of very easy digestion, and that the 

 potato passes through the process with facility, though 

 with less rapidity than the others. Its skin is entirely 

 indigestible. These experiments were chiefly made on 

 dogs. 



364. Some of these results accord with the general ex- 

 perience and prejudices of dyspeptics and gastronomies, 

 while others do not. There is, however, a great difference 

 in the action of different stomachs, which often appears to 

 depend entirely on preconceived opinions and prejudices. 



365. There is an intimate connexion between the gas- 

 tric organs and the brain, and in consequence of which, 

 an opinion formed with respect to the capability of the 

 stomach to digest a given substance, is often found an 

 experiment to be realized. Let a sedentary dyspeptic, for 

 instance, get the opinion firmly rooted in his mind, that he 

 cannot digest pork, or beef, or white bread, or any other 

 article, and let him try by way of experiment any of these, 

 and the opinion previously formed will undoubtedly be 

 confirmed. 



366. On receiving such diet, the man begins to examine 

 nis feelings ; he places his whole mind on his stomach : 

 and whether it be so or not, imagines the thing lies heavy, 

 and finally actually becomes distressed, for fear he should 

 be so. The consequence is, that the process of digestion 

 really becomes suspended, and this, on the long-estab- 

 lished and well-known principle, that fear and anxiety by 

 operating through the nervous system produces universal 

 debility. 



367. Dr. Beaumont's Experiments. But the most com- 

 plete and satisfactory series of experiments ever made on 



What were the results of Sir A. Cooper's experiments with respect to 

 the digestion of different kinds of meat ? What is said of the influence 

 of prejudice on digestion? 



