68 PHYSIOLOGY AND TEMPERANCE. 



likely to be deficient. Strong emotions will also check the 

 flow. 



16. Absorption. The length of time required for the 

 digestion of food varies, some articles being more quickly 

 digested than others. Liquid food and drinks are quickly 

 taken up by the absorbents in the coats of the stomach. 

 Speaking generally, after the food has been in the stomach 

 from an hour and a half to two hours, portions of it will, 

 have undergone the necessary changes to convert it into 

 chyme. The pylorus relaxes sufficiently at intervals to allow 

 this soup-like, grayish-colored fluid, which has found its way 

 to that end of the stomach, to pass out into the intestine. 

 In succession, portion after portion is digested and passed on, 

 until all the food which the stomach is capable of digesting 

 is disposed of. Then the pylorus, having retained everything 

 as long as necessary, freely relaxes, and the indigestible bal- 

 ance passes into the intestine, to be further acted upon. 



17. The Intestines. The process of digestion is by no 

 means complete when the food, changed into chyme, is" poured 

 into the intestines. Further changes here take place, and 

 the food advances in the vitalizing process of being converted 

 into blood. 



The alimentary canal, from the stomach onward, is divided 

 into the large and small intestines. The total length is about 

 twenty-five feet. This tube is so coiled and doubled upon 

 itself as to fit snugly in the abdomen. The coats of the 

 intestines are the same in number as those of the stomach. 



The small intestine, about twenty feet in length, com- 

 mences at the stomach. It is largest at the beginning, being 

 nearly two inches in diameter. This first part is called the 

 duodenum, because it is about the length of twelve fingers' 

 breadth. Where the small intestine joins the large, it is 

 little more than an inch in diameter. The large intestine is 

 from one and a half to two and a half inches in diameter, 



