It may be conceded, therefore, that although there is nothing novel in the practice of effective mastication - which Dr. Harry Campbell considers one of the lost arts - it is quite certain that Mr. Fletcher has forcibly directed the attention of civilised mankind to this intermission of its duty by so emphatically preaching his doctrine. The claim that it encourages the adoption of a low-protein diet is quite intelligible, although for the same reason it should tend to a diminution of the fatty content of the food. The longer carbohydrates are masticated the sweeter they become from the development of saccharine material, but as proteins have no flavour other than that imparted by the extractives with which they are associated, there is no pleasure to be derived from their prolonged retention in the mouth, and the tendency is to reduce their quantity. Obviously the same argument applies to fats, and so it comes that, in common with the herbivora and granivora, poltophagic man tends to become a vegetarian, depending largely on cereals, grains, and fruits.

So far as one can judge from the facts at our disposal, no evidence has been adduced for the existence of any swallowing impulse or reflex other than the ordinary complicated reflex of deglutition so familiar to modern physiological students. Our knowledge of the position of the epiglottis during deglutition has within the last few years undergone a complete revolution from the orthodox teaching that it dropped back over the glottis at the psychological moment to prevent the ingress of any particles into the larynx. It is now pretty well ascertained that the larynx is drawn upwards and forwards beneath the tongue, so that the glottis lies just below the base of the epiglottis, and the posterior surface of the latter is that which comes into contact with the food during swallowing. If this be the case, the glosso-epiglottidean folds will hardly be much in evidence, and it has been proved by experiment that after complete removal of the epiglottis swallowing can be accomplished without any difficulty and without the entrance of substances into the larynx. In any case, I have met no physiologist or dietist who believes in the existence of this new reflex.

Then, again, the weight of evidence is against the removal of all tasteless solid residue left after the "fletcherising" process is complete. It can hardly be a tax upon "available mental and physical power," as it is absolutely necessary to provide some ballast for the entanglement of the essential element of the faeces, viz., that fluid portion excreted from the bowel wall, presumably from the blood. Although Kellogg is a strong supporter of effective mastication, he joins issue with Mr. Fletcher on this point, because he not only teaches that three daily evacuations are necessary, but that on the concentrated and dextrinised nut, cereal, and fruit preparations which are the important ingredients of the fleshless feeder's diet, it is requisite to supply a large quantity of indigestible, insoluble cellulose in the form of agar-agar. This is his own practice, and he testifies that since adopting it he has been cured of undoubted auto-intoxication, which existed when he had to be satisfied with one daily evacuation.

During Cetti's fasts there was always a considerable amount of faeces - to be exact, an average of 22.01 grams daily - and in the light of the above facts we are not surprised to know that the excretion of indol was increased.

We have already seen (see Chapter IV (Low-Protein Theory And Practice).) that Benedict demonstrated by means of the calorimeter that Mr. Fletcher consumed much more than he imagined, so that though there was a diminution of the protein, there must have been an increase of the carbohydrate element, and this is what we find, because his diet consisted of prepared cereal, maple sugar, and milk.

The conclusion, therefore, at which we must arrive is that during health nothing more than ordinarily careful mastication is necessary, and that, if permitted at all, the exaggeration of this function as represented by Fletcherism should be reserved for certain classes of dyspeptics.