August, 1912 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS xil1 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE TABLE 
HEN customs become so univer- 
sal,” writes Dr. R. S. Levison in 
the California Medical and Surgical Re- 
ports, “as to have those of the civilized 
world in regard to the composition of the 
daily meal and the order of the various 
courses comprising it, they no longer excite 
our curiosity. Were one asked for the 
reason for our practices in the composition 
of an ordinary dinner he would probably 
state that custom had established the rou- 
tine and would not for a moment think 
that there is good physiological reason for 
it. There nevertheless is. The discoveries 
in the physiology of digestion during the 
past dozen years have shown that there is 
scientific basis for our habits in the taking 
of food and that we have unconsciously 
established a routine of courses in the din- 
ner that takes thorough cognizance of the 
physiological principles upon which diges- 
tion is founded. 
“In more elaborate affairs than the ordin- 
ary dinner there is seen to be on analysis 
a purposiveness in our practices that 
may on casual observation seem to be en- 
tirely without physiological significance. 
Take, for instance, the elaborate gowns 
worn by the women and the evening suits 
by the men, the floral decorations, and the 
music. 
“There is no doubt that each of these 
serves the function of composing a gener- 
ally favorable stage setting as it were for 
digestion. It has been abundantly shown 
in recent years that a person’s mood is of 
the greatest significance in the performance 
of the digestive functions. If one is in 
a happy state of mind, free from cares and 
worries of his professional commercial sur- 
roundings, digestion proceeds as it nor- 
mally should; on the other hand, worry, 
angeh, and anxiety are potent factors in 
destroying the normal progress of the di- 
gestive functions. There can be but little 
doubt that such practices as we have men- 
tioned tend to dispel any of these unfavor- 
able moods that may be the relics of the 
care-laden day, and produce a frame of 
mind conducive to the normal progress of 
digestion. 
“Coming now to a consideration of the 
composition of the meal itself, think how 
frequently the first course consists of some 
article of food which appeals forcibly to 
our sense of smell, as caviar, sardellen, 
anchovies, or smoked salmon. This prac- 
tice is of course in accord with the princi- 
ples of digestion first thoroughly investi- 
gated by Parlow, who showed in his 
wonderful series of experiments that the 
most potent factors in the production of 
a favorable flow of gastric juice are stimuli 
which appeals to the various special senses, 
chiefly smell and taste. Moreover, the taste 
of these articles as well as others commonly 
employed as one of the introductory courses 
of a meal, such as oyster, lobster, clam, or 
crab cocktail, salads, and the various rel- 
ishes, is such as to appeal forcibly to the 
sense of taste and thus produce an abund- 
and flow of ‘psychical’ gastric juice. The 
importance of the psychical influence of 
these articles of food will, I think, be at 
once appreciated by most individuals if 
they but think for a moment of such arti- 
cles and note the ready flow of saliva 
which ensues. Though without any note- 
worthy amount of nutrative value, such 
foods are of great importance in digestion 
on account of their influence in inaugurat- 
ing the flow of gastric juice. 
“The second course in the usual dinner 
menu is soup, and here we again find sub- 
stantial physiological reasons for its being 
placed where it is. Here also we are in- 
debted to Parlow for the discovery of the 
fact that the only other stimulus to the 
flow of gastric juice besides the various 
appeals to the special senses, is a chemical 
one, and the most potent factors inducing 
this flow of chemical gastric juice are the 
meat extractives, which of course are the 
principal components of broths and soups. 
We thus see that there is a definite physio- 
logical reason for the introduction of broths 
and soups into the early stages of the meal, 
“The entree which usually follows the 
soup apparently serves the rather nega- 
tive purpose of merely consuming time 
for the acid gastric juice to be secreted in 
sufficient quantities to be in readiness for 
reception of the next, and, from the gastric 
standpoint, the most important course of 
the meal, the meat course; so far as gastric 
digestion is concerned, proteids, as repre- 
sented by meat, are the most important 
articles of the meal, and it is the digestion 
of these for which we may consider the 
previous gastric activity to have been in 
preparation. 
“Dessert is usually composed of entirely 
different food stuffs than are the earlier 
courses. Carbohydrate preparations of 
frozen foods composed chiefly of milk or 
cream, water, fruit flavors and sugar, com- 
pose the desserts usually found on the mod- 
ern menu. Here again physiological 
research gives us an excellent reason for 
the placing of these articles at the end of 
the meal. Unutil within recent years the 
general medical as well as lay view of the 
stomach was a large hollow organ which 
by a vigorous churning movement mixed 
together all of the food stuffs introduced 
into it, and when this was sufficiently 
churned and mixed, expelled it into the 
duodenum. To-day we know that this 
is quite incorrect. Instead of there being 
a general admixture of all the matter taken 
into the stomach there is a layer-like ar- 
rangement in which the material first intro- 
duced takes a peripheral position next to 
the gastric muscosa, that subsequently in- 
troduced taking a more and more central 
position. Only the material which lies next 
to the gastric mucous membrane is acted 
upon by the gastric juice; when the latter 
agent has sufficiently acidified and pepno- 
tized this, the slow wavy peristalsis of the 
fundus moves this peripheral portion into 
the pyloric antrum and thus the next layer 
comes into contact with the mucosa. 
“According to this process, the food last 
taken into the stomach is thus placed most 
centrally and is in this way protected from 
the action of the acid gastric juice for as 
long as several hours. It is this fact which 
gives us the reason for the carbohydrate 
food stuffs being placed at the end of the 
meal. It is well known that the gastric 
secretions contain no ferments which act 
upon starch. Such a ferment, however, is 
contained in considerable quantities in the 
saliva, the so-called amylopsin. In the pro- 
cess of mastication and insalivation of the 
food, the amylopsin comes into intimate 
contact with the food particles and, given 
favorable surroundings, is able to effect a 
considerable degree of starch digestion, for 
quite some time after the food leaves the 
mouth. This favorable surrounding the 
carbohydrate dessert finds in the central 
position that it takes in the stomach con- 
tents, where it is well protected from the 
action of the acid gastric juice which, a: 
is well known, would immediately destroy 
the activity of amylopsin, which is able to 
act only in an alkaline medium. 
“We thus see that there is sound physio- 
logical reason for the arrangement of the 
meal as composed in civilized countries. 
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