DIGESTION AND RELATED FUNCTIONS. 795 



3. "Perforated Stones from California," by H. W. Henshaw. Pp. 34, 16 cuts. 

 "Washington, 1887. 



4. "Bibliography of the Eskimo Language," by J. 0. Pilling. Pp. v-115. 

 Washington, 1887. 



5. "Bibliography of the Siouan Language," by J. 0. Pilling. Pp. v-87. "Wash- 

 ington, 1887. 



6. "Indian Textile Fabrics of Ancient Peru," by "W. H. Holmes. 



7. "Problems of the Ohio Mounds," by Cyrus Thomas. 



8. " Bibliography of the Iroquoian Language," by J. C. Pilling. 



The three by J. C. Pilling are separate and extended parts of a work which 

 Mr. Pilling first published as proof-sheets of a " Bibliography of the Languages of 

 the North American Indians." 



DIGESTION AND RELATED FUNCTIONS.* 



By WESLEY MILLS, M. D., 



PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY IN MCGILL UNIVERSITY. 



IT is a matter well recognized by those of much experience in 

 breeding and keeping animals with restricted freedom and 

 under other conditions differing widely from the natural ones — 

 i. e., those under which the animals exist in a wild state — that the 

 nature of the food must vary from that which the untamed ances- 

 tors of our domestic animals used. Food may often with advan- 

 tage be cooked for the tame and confined animal. The digestive 

 and the assimilative powers have varied with other changes in 

 the organism brought about by the new surroundings. So much 

 is this the case, that it is necessary to resort to common experi- 

 ence and to more exact experiments to ascertain the best methods 

 of feeding animals for fattening, for work, or for breeding. In- 

 ferences drawn from the feeding habits of wild animals allied to 

 the tame to be valuable must always, before being applied to the 

 latter, be subjected to correction by the results of experience. 



To a still greater degree does this apply to man himself. The 

 greater his advances in civilization, the more he departs from 

 primitive habits in other respects, the more must he depart in his 

 feeding. ■ With the progressive development of man's cerebrum, 

 the keener struggle for place and power, the more his nervous en- 

 ergies are diverted from the lower functions of digestion and as- 

 similation of food ; hence the greater need that food shall be more 

 carefully selected and more thoroughly and scientifically pre- 

 pared. Not only so, but, with our increasing refinement, the prog- 

 ress of digestion to successful issues demands that the senses of 

 man be ministered to in order that there be no interferences in 

 the central nervous system, and every encouragement given to 



* From advance sheets of a text-book on " Animal Physiology " in press of D. Apple- 

 ton & Co. 



