PURE AND IMPURE FOODS. 



397 



ficial digestion experiments were also 

 made, using gastric juice removed from the 

 man's stomach. Although these investiga- 

 tions were carried on long before the theo- 

 ries and methods of physiological chemis- 

 try now accepted were known, so much 

 care was taken in making the experiments, 

 and in recording the experimental data, 

 that the work has never ceased 'to be of 

 great value as well as interest. However, 

 it should not be forgotten that Dr. Beau- 

 mont studied only digestion in the 

 stomach ; his work throws no light on di- 

 gestion in the intestines. This is of spe- 

 cial importance in the case of starchy 

 foods, as the digestion of starch, which is 

 begun by the saliva, ceases in the stomach 

 but is resumed in the intestines. The ex- 

 periments reported include tests of the 

 length of time required to digest eggs, hard 

 and soft boiled, fried, roasted, and raw. 

 The raw eggs were sometimes whipped and 

 sometimes not. In all the tests fresh eggs 

 were used. Hard boiled and fried eggs 

 each required 3 l / 2 hours for digestion in 

 the stomach, i. c, for the formation of 

 chyme ; soft boiled eggs required 3 hours ; 

 roasted eggs, 2*4 hours ; raw eggs, not 

 whipped, 2 hours ; and raw eggs, whipped, 

 i l /2 hours. When tested by the methods 

 of artificial digestion followed by Dr. 

 Beaumont, which approximated bodily 

 conditions as closely as he was able to 

 make them, the hard boiled eggs required 

 8 hours for digestion ; soft boiled eggs, 6]/ 2 

 hours ; raw eggs, not whipped, 4^2 hours ; 

 and raw eggs, whipped, 4 hours. The 2 

 methods gave results which agree in the 

 relative length of time required for the 

 digestibility of the different samples, 

 though not in the actual time required. 

 Similar results were obtained by the 2 

 methods with the greater part of the large 

 number of foods studied. One of Dr. 

 Beaumont's general deductions was that 

 most of the common foods require 2 to 4 

 hours to digest in the stomach. He says 

 further : 



"The time required for the digestion of 

 food is various, depending on the quantity 

 and quality of the food, state of the stom- 

 ach, etc. ; but the time ordinarily required 

 for the disposal of a moderate meal of the 

 fibrous parts of meat, with bread, etc., is 

 3 to 3^2 hours." 



As regards the time required for diges- 

 tion in the stomach, it will be seen that in 

 this investigation eggs compare favorably 

 with other common foods. It must be re- 

 membered that digestion continues in the 

 intestine, and that no data are furnished 

 by these experiments for judging of that 

 factor. This is an important matter, as 

 food material which escapes digestion in 

 the stomach may be thoroughly digested 

 later in the intestine. This fact seems to 



have often been overlooked in the discus- 

 sion of Dr. Beaumont's work. 



SOLANIN POISONING FROM POTATOES. 

 Although under ordinary circumstances 

 potatoes are a wholesome food for most 

 persons, illness is sometimes caused by 

 eating them. There are undoubtedly some 

 persons in health with whom potatoes do 

 not agree, just as there are those who can 

 not eat strawberries without distress. Thio 

 is due to personal idiosyncrasy and not to 

 the harmful character of the food. Refer- 

 ence can not be made here to the condi- 

 tions of ill-health in which potatoes or oth- 

 er starchy foods are forbidden, since this is 

 a subject which pertains to the practice of 

 medicine rather than the subject of diatet- 

 ics. Cases of actual poisoning by potatoes 

 are by no means unknown. As far as can 

 be learned, the abnormal symptoms in such 

 cases were caused by the presence of so- 

 lanin in the potatoes. Several years ago, 

 357 soldiers in a battalion of the Austrian 

 army showed symptoms of solanin poison- 

 ing. The potatoes used for food were ex- 

 amined. Those which were fresh contained 

 a small amount of solanin, while those 

 which had sprouted contained much more, 

 still larger amounts being found in the 

 sprouts than in the tubers themselves. The 

 potatoes undoubtedly caused the poisoning 

 in that case. Potatoes a year old, which 

 have lain in a cellar and shriveled, and 

 small potatoes which have sprouted with- 

 out being planted, are considered specially 

 dangerous, and should not be eaten. If 

 perfectly fresh potatoes contain any so- 

 lanin, the amount is so small that it does 

 not cause harm. 



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