Is There Any Other Secretions Found In The Intestines That Affect Digestion?

"There are numerous small glands throughout the intestinal canal. These secrete an alkaline fluid but so far as has yet been determined they have no other use except to convert starches into sugar and perhaps aid in keeping the contents of the intestines from becoming excessively acid through fermentative processes."

I Don't See What Is To Be Gained About All This Talk About What Goes In The Intestines?

"Then you don't care to know how to keep alive. That is why a good many people don't live, they merely exist, at least they must have constant assistance from their doctor."

Then, What Is To Be Learned By This?

"First, that there is a limit to the size of the humps the coarseness of the food that can be properly disposed of by the stomach."

Suppose This Is Violated, What Is The Effect?

"Very likely cramps or inflammation which will probably cause serious injury and even death. The second thing to be taken notice of is that 25 feet of intestines require something to incite their action; i. e., waste matter sufficient to give them something to do."

Suppose The Diet Does Not Furnish The Necessary Waste What Will Be The Result?

"It would seem from the construction of the intestines having folds almost their entire length, that it would be difficult to get anything through them."

Can You Explain How This Is Accomplished?

"By activity - peristaltic movement."

What Is That?

"The peristaltic movement of the intestines is a wavelike movement similar to that of a caterpillar in motion."

I Perceive If There Be So Much Movement There Must Be Freedom?

"Now you have struck a great point. Tight waist bands and tight corsets hinder peristaltic action of the intestines, and the man or woman who reduces the size of a natural waist (which a very large per cent of women do) deserves to be called an artist with more vanity than sense."

Does Any Digestion Take Place In The Large Intestines?

"Not in the sense that it does in the small ones. The processes of the large intestines are those of decay and it is believed that particles of food that have not previously been acted upon are to some extent dissolved by the action of bacteria, a fermentative process."

How Is The Digested Food Taken Up By The System?

"The entire length of the intestines contain little tongue-like projections called villi, which are attached to the folds of the mucous membrane. These take up the digested particles by a process called osmosis or absorption from without, and they are carried into the circulation."

Do They Immediately Become Blood?

"Some portion of the food so absorbed immediately enters into circulation as part of the blood, while other parts enter either the lymphatics or lymph glands or portal vein, and carried to the liver and probably modified to some extent by that organ from which it is taken upas needed."

"Doctor, will you kindly sum up the important things to remember about digestion."

"First, food must be properly prepared; second, it must be thoroughly masticated, ground fine and thoroughly mixed with saliva, especially if it contain starch; third, no fresh food should be taken into the stomach during the period of digestion; fourth, food should be properly proportioned, con-taining the different elements required for the purpose of sustaining life."

Doctor, You Have Not Mentioned How Often One Should Eat?

"That is somewhat a matter of habit. The savage tribes eat when they are hungry or when they can get food."

Would You Advise People To Be Guided By Their Appetites?

"Not by any means. It is better to have fixed habits, although if there be cause for hunger and need for food, this feeling should be gratified within reasonable limits."

What Do You Mean By Cause For Hunger?

"Hunger may be either normal or abnormal, that is, it may come because one eats but little food, and takes a large amount of exercise, while abnormal hunger, which is even a more intense craving for food, results from disease, or excessive stimulants such as condiments or alcohol."

How Can One Tell Whether The Appetite Is Normal Or Abnormal?

"By amount of food eaten and amount of exercise taken."

How Often Then Should One Eat?

"That is difficult to say, for it depends on habit, ability to digest food and the activity of the person."

"Then a uniform practice of eating three times a day is not always best."

"No, many persons would remain in better health when eating four or five times daily, but ordinarily three meals a day are sufficient, and some even claim that two meals agree better than three. This is especially true of brain workers. The two meals should be at the beginning and end of the day."

What Class Of Persons Should Eat More Than Three Times A Day?

"Persons of very weak digestion as convalescents from acute diseases, or people who are very fat."

Won't This Have The Tendency To Make Them Take Too Much Food?

"On the contrary, the inclination is to take much less. Weak stomachs need food in very small quantities, and eating often satisfies the appetite."

Can You Give General Rules?

"Yes, no one in active labor should go longer than six hours without food."

You Say Appetite Should Be Considered, In What Way?

"In this way, if you were to eat a very light breakfast at six or seven o'clock in the morning and have active exercise, it would not be unnatural to be hungry at 10, and it would then be better to eat something than to wait until 12 for the regular meal."

"I have always heard that it is bad practice to eat between meals, now you advise that under some circumstances it be done."

"The objection to eating between meals is not well understood. What is meant by the general outcry against it, is that no food ought to be taken into the stomach while what has been previously eaten is in process of digestion."