The physiology of mastication and kindred studies / by J. Sim Wallace.

  • Wallace, J. Sim (James Sim), 1869-1951
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiology of mastication and kindred studies / by J. Sim Wallace. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    system, is founded upon want of knowledge of the first principles of digestion, and yet, strange to say, the mistaken, indeed mischievous, practice is sup- ported, probably for want of thought, by many who ought to know better.” * A fact of some significance is that very many cases of chronic dyspepsia are due to want of suthicient movement of the stomach or intestines, or both. Here, again, the stimulus of a course and fibrous diet would in the early stages presumably avert the disease. I may here refer to the fact that fre- quently a loose use of certain words give rise to much error. Thus the word “indigestible” 1s frequently used as meaning taking a long time to digest or as giving rise to dyspeptic symptoms accompanied by pain, A patient may pass inert matter almost in the state in which it was swallowed, and it may then be said to be obviously indigestible, meaning ‘“unabsorbable.” The patient is promptly told to avoid eating this substance again, because it 1s ind1- gestible in the sense that it requires a long time to digest. Such foods are, however, ex hypothesz inert, they pass through the body unchanged and exert no action, or at least only that muscular activity of the intestine which is necessary to transmit them. So far, therefore, as regards the necessary innu- tritious matters in the food-stuffs are concerned, the refinement does not appear to be any more bene- ficial from the point of view of gastric digestion than it is premised to be from the point of view of the teeth. Now let us turn our attention more especially to the carbohydrates. Let it be remembered that the starchy matters of the food are to a considerable extent digested by the action of the ptyaline of the * Wood and Feeding,” by Sir Henry Thompson.
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