Digestion begins in the mouth. The thorough chewing and mixing of the food with saliva is, consequently, one of the principle and important factors in digestion. All foods in a natural state require a great deal of chewing before they can be swallowed, but the various methods of preparing food, by which it is moistened and softened, usually enables one to swallow it with but little chewing. It therefore behooves us to remember this prime ne-necessity for thorough mastication, no matter how soft the food may be. Even soups must be submitted to a certain amount of this chewing process, that the saliva may be thoroughly mixed with it before it is swallowed. Food is not in a fit condition to enter the stomach unless it is first thoroughly masticated and mixed with saliva. The necessity for this is almost universally ignored, and diseases of the digestive organs, both chronic and acute, from which human beings suffer almost universally in civilized countries, is ample evidence of the sins that are being committed against the stomach.

Eating without appetite is unquestionably a serious sin - there can hardly be a greater sin against the digestive organs - but the sin of deficient mastication undoubtedly comes next. In the previous chapter I (Appetite) mentioned the importance of the thorough enjoyment of all food' taken into the stomach - how this ability to enjoy every morsel eaten not only aroused the salivary glands to vastly increased activity, but every one of the juices that assist in the mysterious process of digestion were made to flow more freely under those circumstances. Now, food cannot be thoroughly enjoyed if not thoroughly masticated. Thorough mastication is what produces this enjoyment - is what arouses the sense of taste to its highest capacity, and most delicate acuteness. How much enjoyment does one derive from eating when the food is hurriedly bolted? Practically, none.

He is one of the "duty" eaters. He eats because it is meal time, and because he must keep up his strength, and, apparently, is ignorant of the fact that he is not only actually draining his strength, by this crime against his stomach, but is rapidly wearing out the entire internal organism. The digestive organs of such a person are continually overtaxed. They may adapt themselves to the abnormal habits forced upon them, and make no special sign that they are suffering from this abuse, but the time will come when the penalty for this infraction of Nature's plain law will be paid in full.

Nature's laws cannot be broken with impunity. The penalty of violated human laws is often hinged upon the fact of the transgressor being found out, but there is not even this chance of escaping the just punishment demanded from transgressors of the laws of Nature.

Nature demands that you must enjoy your food to the very fullest extent. The pleasure of eating should be so great that it blots out everything else for the time being. It should literally absorb your entire attention. Every worry in reference to business, or other trouble, should be discarded absolutely from the mind. If you are not able to discard all these interferences with your dietetic enjoyment you are eating without sufficient appetite, and you should immediately cease, and wait for an appetite which will enable you to completely lose all external thoughts in the pleasure of satisfying this natural demand of the body.

Then sit down to feast. Eat very, very slowly. Try to see how much enjoyment you can extract from every mouthful of food. Retain it in the mouth, chewing vigorously all the while, until it is absolutely reduced to a liquid, and until it is swallowed involuntarily. Gladstone's rule of chewing every morsel thirty-two times before swallowing is practically no guide for you. Even the soft foods, like mashed potatoes, for instance, will have to be chewed from thirty to fifty times in order to reduce them completely to a liquid, and to extract all the delicacy of flavor. Dwell on every morsel of food as long as it is possible to retain it without involuntary swallowing. As the morsel is submitted to the chewing process it gradually grows richer in flavor, more delicious to the taste, and the process should be continued until the maximum of this delicacy of flavor has been reached. Not until then is the food ready to be transferred to the stomach - not until then do you really get the richest, most delicious flavor of what you are eating.

All those who swallow their food previous to this point, not only miss the rarest pleasure of eating, but they swallow before the food is ready for the juices of the stomach to begin acting upon it.

"If we masticate - submit to vigorous jaw action - everything that we take into the mouth, liquid as well as solid, until the nutritive part of it disappears into the stomach through compulsory or involuntary swallowing, and remove from the mouth all fibrous, insoluble and tasteless remainder, we will take into the body thereby only that which is good for the body.

"If a bloated, pimpled, bilious tramp, sorely afflicted with two or three internal and intestinal diseases which have been declared to be chronic, can be brought to normal weight, purified in complexion, cured of a craving for drink, and put in possession of natural manhood and an energy for work, without use of medicines, but only with attention to mastication, and all within three months, what may not be the possibilities involved." - Horace Fletcher.

Hygienists and physicians everywhere commend the mixing of conversation, and of other social diversions with the pleasures of table. If eating and masticating, as suggested here, there is no need for such diversion. In fact, conversation is liable to seriously interfere with the proper mastication of the food, and distract the attention from the pleasures of eating, which should be all absorbing for the time being. Of course, I will admit that the entertainment afforded by pleasant and agreeable companionship during meal time is a most decided advantage if one is in the habit of eating in the usual rapid manner; for, diversion of this nature compels one to eat more slowly, forces him to linger more over the various dishes, and holds him back from hurrying through the meal by the gorging process, adopted by so many persons when eating alone, with appetite, or merely from a sense of duty. As stated before, the all absorbing pleasure of eating, of gratifying the sense of taste, should command the entire attention during a meal.

You should make a business of enjoying this particular pleasure in the greatest possible degree, and if this is done properly there will be no chance for the introduction of " table talk."

It is not absolutely necessary that one eat alone. No objection can be made to companions who do not insist upon diverting the attention from the main object of the moment, it would be well to remember that, the commendable rule of "doing whatever you try be engaged in with all your powers," applies to eating quite as forcibly as it does to other habits or pursuits in life.

Much has been said in condemnation of the person who "lives to eat," but the one who really and truly lives so that the greatest possible enjoyment from eating can be secured, will eat practically but one full meal daily, and will dwell on the delectable flavor of every morsel, that this meal may continue from an hour to an hour and a half. The dietetic enjoyment secured by an ordinary everyday Epicure, who eats three meals a day, is as nothing compared to the intensity of that pleasure derived from eating as described. It is like comparing the dulled, transient and intermittent sensations secured from overworked and deadened nerves to those intense emotions aroused in one whose nerves are alive with joy and power of superb physical life.

It would be well, also, to note that the retaining of a normal appetite - of that sense of taste which enables you to discriminate not only as to the character of food needed, but also as to quantity - depends largely on perfect mastication.

"The message of warning which taste gives in connection with eating is: ' That while any taste is left in a mouthful of food in process of mastication or sucking, it is not yet in condition to be passed on to the stomach; and what remains after taste has ceased is not fit for the stomach.' " - Horace Fletcher.

If the food is bolted, if the sense of taste is outraged continually, its power naturally becomes dulled and you are left without a guide, which should at all times clearly indicate the character of the food needed to nourish the body, and which should refuse to recognize any flavor in any food after the needs of the system have been supplied.

One can readily imagine the condition of a man under the circumstances described. He has no definite idea as to what to eat, and his only guide is the feeling of fullness in the stomach.

The importance of good teeth is of course very great and extreme care should be given