Then You Don't Attach Much Importance To Statements That Certain Articles Of Food Are Digestible In A Certain Time?

"No, although something like an ordinary average might be estimated, for instance, well-done meat should ordinarily be digested in four or five hours, or six at the most, although sometimes it is never digested. Meat properly cooked should be digested in about 3 hours, and experiments with raw meat show that under fair conditions, it will be digested in 2½ hours."

Then According To That, Cooking Meat Makes It More Indigestible?

"As a general rule, it does, and as it is ordinarily cooked, it makes it much more so. The same may be said of eggs. Raw eggs could be digested in about two hours; hard fried eggs, if at all, in four to six hours."

How About Vegetables?

"Peas and beans being very tough require three to four hours. Ordinary bread, if good, about 2½ hours."

Do Liquids Require Much Time For Digestion?

"Water or fats and oils taken on an empty stomach would not ordinarily remain in the stomach but a few minutes."

How About Milk?

"Milk is taken as a liquid but it becomes a semi-solid in the stomach, and requires one-half to two hours for digestion. Of course, as already explained, these estimates are only mere outlines which are varied by many circumstances."

When Digestion Begins, Does The Food Leave The Stomach As Fast As Digested?

"No, although at intervals small amounts of dissolved food are ejected from the stomach, but the greater portion of it remains in the stomach until digestion has been sufficiently completed to allow the food to pass into the in testines."

"Then according to your explanation, the stomach is a sort of a reservoir, in which the food is prepared for further changes in the intestines."

"Yes, it might be called something of a dissolving vat."

Why Is This?

"Well, the intestines are much more susceptible to foreign substances than the stomach."

1 Don't Understand What You Mean?

"1 will explain; the stomach is an organ of considerable size, while the intestines have smaller diameter and greater length."

About How Long?

'the small intestines about 20 feet or more, the large intestines about 5 feet. Where the intestines join the stomach is called pylorus. Where it joins the large intestines, ileo-caecal valve."

What Is Their General Structure Like?

"It is a small tube containing muscular layers running lengthwise and also around the intestines. The blood vessels and glands are very numerous. The inside of the intestine being lined with a mucous membrane similar to that of the stomach, but in the stomach the folds run lengthwise while in the intestines they are crosswise."

What Is The Principal Agent Of Intestinal Digestion?

"Pancreatic juice, which is secreted by the pancreas."

Then According To That, The Pancreas Is The Most Important Of The Digestive Organs?

"Well, the digestive organs act as a unit, each being essential, although the pancreas furnishes the most indispensable part of the digestive fluids, because digestion can go on in the intestines if the food be fine enough, even though there be no preparation made in the stomach, or by the mouth.

What Kind Of An Organ Is The Pancreas?

"It is a long, narrow gland of reddish cream color, but of course the color varies according to circumstances."

Where Is It Located?

"It lies behind the stomach in the rear wall of the abdomen."

In What Way Is It Connected With Other Organs?

"It has two tubes or ducts, emptying into the intestines three or four inches below the lower end of the stomach."

Doctor, You Haven't Explained The General Character Of The Pancreatic Juice?

"It is an alkaline fluid containing many chemical elements."

"How do these elements act in furthering the processes of digestion."

"The pancreatic juice has three distinct properties. It dissolves all preteid foods, such as meat and eggs, also has a very active solvent, which quickly digests starch and it has still another element which splits up or decomposes the fats, splitting them up into extremely small particles making a creamy substance closely resembling soap."

Is There Any Other Digestive Agent Besides What You Have Already Mentioned?

"Yes, there are others. The one most universally known but probably the least important, is bile."

I Have Often Heard People Speak Of Having Bile On The Stomach, Is This True?

"Not ordinarily at least, the bile duct from the liver or gall bladder empties into the intestines several inches below the stomach, and it is only when the proceedings of nature are reversed as in cases of extreme vomiting, that the bile is brought up through the stomach."

Of What Use Is Bile In Digestion?

"The uses of the bile are still a subject of more or less dispute, although it is generally understood that the bile is a very important factor, in connection with the pancreatic juice, in preparing fats for absorption. A number of experiments have been made upon the digestion of animals without bile, and it was found that a large per cent of the fats were not absorbed. This is said to be true also in jaundice where the flow of bile is obstructed or in some way deficient."

Has It Any Other Uses?

"Being strongly alkaline, it arrests the action of the stomach juices and aids in preparing the food as it comes from the stomach for pancreatic digestion; this being an entirely different process from that carried on in the stomach. Bile will dissolve small quantities of fats, and has long been used to remove grease stains from delicately colored fabrics, but its action alone without the pancreatic juice is not very marked."

What Other Uses Has The Bile?

"It is claimed that it will to a certain extent prevent abnormal fermentations or decay of the food in the intestines and there is no doubt but what bile acts as a laxative in the bowels. It also acts as an antidote to poison known as nicotine which is one of the active principles of tobacco. Numerous experiments have demonstrated the fact that it is about the only known substance which increases the flow of bile, although various drugs in a measure accomplish the same result by setting up an activity of the bowels; these are known as cathartics."