CHAPTER III.

GENERAL QUESTIONS RELATING TO FOODS.

DIGESTIBILITY OF SOLID FOODS.

THE digestibility of various kinds of foods varies very much, as we all infer from our own experience, and as was proved by the experiments of Dr. Beaumont. This physician had a patient, who by a gun-shot wound had an external opening into the stomach through which substances could be introduced and withdrawn. Small silver balls were prepared so that the juices of the stomach could enter them, and being filled with a food were introduced, and allowed to remain until perfectly digested.

The following table contains the results of these experiments, and is of so much value that it should be committed to memory:

Many will be surprised to find that vegetable food requires even longer time for digestion than animal food.

boiled

45

broiled

30

boiled

30

30

0

1

0

do.

do.

baked

30

Certain condiments, as salt, are necessary to health, whilst others as pepper, vinegar, and pickles are agreeable and useful when the appetite fails.

About half an ounce of salt is required daily, but as there is salt in bread and other cooked foods we do not need to eat half that quantity by itself. There are some who do not eat salt separately, and who therefore say that they do not eat it at all, but although the quantity required may vary, it is absolutely essential that some should be taken and particularly with vegetables.

Pepper and mustard are useful to give flavour to tasteless foods, and to stimulate the sense of taste and the flow of saliva and gastric juice. They should, however, be taken in moderation, for they may excite indigestion, and after much use simple foods are not enjoyed. So long as ordinary food is eaten and the appetite is good, the use of these things is unnecessary and becomes simply a matter of habit.

Vinegar is often useful as a food, and particularly in hot weather, when we crave for acids, whether in fruits or otherwise, and as meat is less relished in hot than in cold weather, and does not contain acids, we find vinegar and pickles very agreeable and even useful additions to it.

POISONOUS SUBSTANCES SOMETIMES EATEN. 59

Too much vinegar is, however, very injurious, and by causing indigestion and loss of appetite, makes people thin. Neither pickles nor vinegar are really necessary to those who are well and can obtain various foods according to the season, but on ship-board they are often of the greatest use.

Pickles made very strong with pepper are also much more used in India and other hot countries where the appetite fails than in England.

POISONOUS SUBSTANCES SOMETIMES EATEN.

Many deaths have been caused by eating poisonous mushrooms and puff-balls. It is now said that there are many kinds of mushrooms which may be eaten without danger, but it will be better to eat only the one kind which is known to be not poisonous. They have an agreeable smell and pinkish gills; and those should be preferred which grow in the open field, and not under trees or in a wood. Moreover, the large are not so good as the small. Be sure to smell them, and take care that the gills are not white; and if you have any doubt do not eat them. Many of the very gaily coloured mushrooms are very poisonous. Puff-balls should

not be eaten.

Horse chestnuts are not so agreeable in flavour as the Spanish; and they are also acrid and cause pain in the stomach and bowels, like a poison.

The bulbs or roots of the arum, or as they are called "bulls and cows," should not be eaten.

The berries of the mountain-ash are said to be poisonous. The wild lettuce is poisonous.

The berry of the potato is poisonous.

The black berries of the deadly nightshade in gardens, and of the dulcamara in the hedges, are poisonous.

The root of the aconite or monkshood, which is poisonous, is sometimes mistaken for horse-radish, and is scraped and eaten. The form of the root is not the same in both cases, and the smell and taste are very different. Before eating scraped horse-radish always smell it, and taste a very little.

Two plants, which grow with water-cress in ditches and ponds, are sometimes gathered with it and eaten for it; viz., the veronica and water-parsley, and although not very poisonous are not fit for food. They are distinguished without much difficulty by a slight examination, but when the water-cress has grown to a large size it is less unlike the water-parsley.

Tobacco is sometimes ranked with foods, but can it be beneficial under any circumstances? Many say it can, but we deny it as far as regards people in health. It frequently lessens the appetite, makes the head ache, and weakens the body, which food does not. It contains no nourishment, but, on the contrary, is a powerful poison when the smoke is retained in the body, so powerful that doctors dare not use it. There is much more harm received from smoking than people imagine, and every one in health would be better without it.

It is also a very expensive habit which causes great waste of money and leads to poverty, whilst at the same time it is disagreeable to many and makes clothing and furniture smell very offensively.

It is quite true that many people smoke throughout life and seem none the worse for it, but it is equally true that many others are seriously injured, and unable by reason of it to perform some of the duties of life. No greater foe to the throat and the digestion exists, and many persons by the constant use of it fall into both mental and bodily disease. This is de