No. 149.] 211 



on reaching the stomach immediately undergoes a chemical 

 change, which is called digestion ; this change is produced by the 

 gastric juice, which is secreted about the internal region of the 

 stomach, and is different in every respect from any other liquid ; 

 it consists by analysis of liydrocholoric acid, gastric mucus and 

 water ; and by its extraordinary solvent power, reduces aliment 

 to a paste of a gray color, called by chemists chyme, this chyme 

 in its passage through the digestive organs meets with sundry 

 secretions known as bile, these change it into a fluid called chyle, 

 this is taken up by tlie lacteals, and after undergoing several 

 changes is conveyed to the blood, and through it carried to eve- 

 ry part of our animal economy ; thus continually renovating and 

 renewing our nature. Therefore you will readily perceive that 

 upon the nature of our food, and the mode of preparing it, de- 

 pends the action of our digestive organs, and consequent 

 strengthening of our corporeal frame, although the substances 

 used by man as food seem to be almost infinite, whether animal 

 or vegetable, still chemistry finds them composed of not more 

 than fifty-four elementary ingredients ; and each animal or veg- 

 etable substance contains from two to five or six of these ingre- 

 dients united in one, and as they cannot be farther separated 

 they are called elementary substances. Formerly the learned 

 men declared that the elements forming all bodies were only 

 four, viz : water, fire, earth and air. This doctrine is now known 

 to be erroneous, from the fact that earth, water, and air have 

 been found to be compounds. All animal and vegetable mat- 

 ter used in our animal economy as food are principally composed 

 of four elements, and they are nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and 

 carbon, consequently we are composed of precisely the same, 

 like produces like, showing us how to judge of the value of 

 the class of aliment we can employ most judiciously to sus- 

 tain and renew nature ? The first step towards civilized 

 life was the raising of vegetables, herbs, roots, and fruits, 

 which have been multiplied and improved to a most extraordi- 

 nary degree, and the domestication of animals. The gardener 

 and the agriculturist have contributed extensively to the com- 

 fort of man, and they in their turn have been taught much by 

 chemistry, for instance the chemist has proved to us that whole- 

 some aliment can be extracted from dry bones ; that saw-dust 



