Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1887 — Physiology of Digestion. [ARTICLE]

Physiology of Digestion.

The physiology of digestion has been so thoroughly investigated of late years that it would seem that there could be very little opportunity for difference of opinion on most of its leading principles, and yet we find that authorities are on some points very much at variance. We are told that nothing can be more prejudical than the habit of chewing gum, supposed to be so common among school children. The salivary glands are so naturally excited, and pour forth so much saliva in the act, that when food is masticated they are not able to respond as fully as is necessary for the proper insalivation of the food. We are also informed that food should not be eaten just before retiring; that thoroughly refreshing sleep requires perfect repose of all the organs; and that, if we go to sleep with a more or less full stomach, sleep will be disturbed and unsatisfactory. The authorities of Amherst College evidently do not agree with these views. In the instructions which they give to their students to guide them in their gymnastic exercises, after specifying the kind and amount of physical exercises, they recommend sleeping for half an hour after dinner and supper, if possible, and, if sleepless at night from brain work, to eat a few graham crackers before retiring, to draw the excess of blood from the brain to the stomach. In reference to the practice of chewing gum this statement is made: Chewing gum daily before eating and between meals increases the flow of saliva, and so aids the digestion of fat-making foods. It also indirectly stimulates the secretion of the digestive juices of the stomach. We have no means of knowing, but we presume that Professor Hitchcock, of Amherst, who is himself a physician, is largely responsible tor this advice, and have no doubt that he has given it after mature conside ation. We fully agree with what is said in the instructions about the usefulness of food in cases of sleeplessness, and believe that many a person has been kept awake at night from a mistaken idea of abstemiousness before retiring. This, of course, does not mean that late suppers are under all circumstances to be recommended, but a few graham cr ;ckers can never do harm, and will oft ndo good. In regard to the chewing gum we do not feel so sure. Besides being a practice which is from an a sthetic point of view not to be encourged, it is very doubtful whether, under the most favorable circumstances, it is really a benefit to digestion, and, until there is some guarantee as to the composition of what is called chewing-gum,we should hesitate before recommending it in such unqualified terms. — Science.