Newspaper Page Text
fc'Ofjrigbt' 1013. by the tttai Company.
Great Britain Bights Ueserved.
What Digestion,
Assimilation
and Metabolism
Really Mean
By EUGENE CHRISTIAN, F.S.D.
I F you were to see a fireman throwing small pieces
of dynamite, soggy wood, tin cans, mud and some
coal into his furnace you would know he was a poor
fireman. You would also know that he could not get
up much steam, and that he would soon clog things up
go that he would put his power plant out of business.
This is just what many so-called Intelligent people do
when they mix whiskey, coffee, starches, acids, sweets
and a lot of mushy, greasy things in their stomach
I have recently received thousands of letters which
convince me that the vast majority of people do not
really know what digestion, assimilation and metabo
lism are, therefore, I am going to explain these things
in as simple language as possible to show the reader
that everything he eats should be carefully selected and
for a specific purpose.
What we call appetite is not a good guide, for people
have appetites for whiskey, tobacco, various kinds of
Your Stomach Needs
drugs, sweets and coffee, all of which goes to show that
the appetite cannot be trusted. (Everything one puts
into'their stomach that can be converted into energy,
bone, brain or tissue, dogs the digestive organe and the
2,000 miles of small tubing through' which the blood
circulates, so that he probably gets out of his body only
about 50 per cent of its efficiency.
Digestion is merely the process of preparing food to
lie taken into the tissues. The various steps of diges
tion are as follows:
Food is sub-divided or grouud fine by mastication.
Nature pours into the mouth a fluid called saliva, which
is chemically called an alkali. The principle purpose
of an alkali is to dissolve and prepare starches, sweets
and many other things for digestion, therefore, mastica
tion should be very thorough. The more food is masti
cated the finer it will be pulverized or sub-divided, and
the more thorough the saliva will act upon its various
atoms.
A careful study of this first process of digestion will
also show that one should not eat foo many soft, mushy
foods, but that each meal should be composed of a lib-
era! portion of coarse foods that require considerable
mastication, for in the process of mastication the
salivary glands are filled and pour their contents into
the mouth, and thus the requisite amount of saliva is
furnished to aid in preparing food tor final digestion.
The second process of digestion takes place in the
stomach.
The stomach is the first stopping pface or depot, as it
were, for our f ood. In the stomach walls there arc
thousands of little cells or receptacles which secrete a
fluid called gastric juice. This is the second digestive
Ihe RIGHT FOOD, Just as a Furnace Needs the RIGHT FUEL
ALKALI
alkacTT (),
o ACID
four Steps in Digestion: A) Mouth,
Alkali; (B) Stomach, Acid; (C)
Doudenum, Alkali, and (D) Pan-
creas, Acid.
fluid, and is a strong acid, called in the leading medical
works, hydrochloric acid. When one is not hungry
these little gastric cells are empty, but when hunger
appears they fill up with gastric juice, and when we
take food into the stomach they empty their contents
and mix it with the food so as to dissolve all such things
as could not be dissolved by the saliva.
In the third step in digestion the food from the stom
ach passes into the doudenum, where it comes in con
tact with the third fluid of digestion, which is called
bile. Bile is secreted by the liver and is slightly alkaline,
like the saliva.
In the fourth step in digestion the pancreas, which
is a gland that lays just behind and slightly below the
stomach, secretes a fluid called pancreatic juice, which,
like the gastric juice, is slightly acid. This juice is
emptied into the duodenum just above where it con
nects with the small intestines. If any food matter
has not been dissolved by the action of hydrochloric
acid it will be acted upon by the pancreatic juice.
From this it will be seen that the four digestive
fluids above described alternate—first an alkali and
then an acid. This is so arranged that any atom of
food not dissolved by one will be caught by the other
and reduced to solution.
Assimilation is the act of absorbing the nutrition
after it has been prepared by the various digestive
steps above referred to. The process of assimilation is
the absorption or passing of the dissolved food ma
terial into the circulation through the thousands of
little canals which lead out from the intestines.
Food material was once considered thoroughly as
similated when it had been passed into the blood, but
later research has rather changed the definition of
assimilation to mean the complete action of the blood,
not only in receiving the nutrition from the intestinal
tract, but in carrying and depositing this material into
the various cells throughout the body.
Assimilation in its broadest sense means the picking
up of all the nutritive material that has been sub
divided into its several elements by the digestive juices
and making it into one mass and depositing it in the
blood.
Metabolism means all the changes that foods pass
through from the time they enter the body until they
are changed into energy or tissue or cast out as waste
or ashes. Technically speaking, It means the construc
tive processes, and the destructive processes, which in
other words mean the process of building up tissue by
assimilation of food, and the processes of tearing down
tissue by work or activity; thus the formation of mus
cular tissue from the proteid matter we eat would be
a process of construction, while the conversion of car
bohydrates (starch and sugar) into carbon dioxide
would be an example of destruction. The process of
construction absorbs energy or heat from the digested
food, while destruction produces heat as a result of
oxidation, as do ordinary fuels. This explains why mus
cular work warms the body.
If any intelligent person would set aside one week
out of every two months and eat plain, simple, pure
foods, study and keep a record of the results, they
would soon learn how to select, combine and propor
tion their food according to their age and the work
they do.
The results would be so good that it would stimu
late their interest so much that eating would not only
become a very great pleasure but it would become
one of the most interesting studies in life, for there
is nothing so fascinating as to study and experiment
with a thing with which we can get results and get
them quickly.
Just When and How You. Should Feed Your Dog
T OO many people who are really fond of dogs pay
no attention to how they feed them, thinking
that so long as they are fed sometimes they will
be all right. “Feed him anything,” is the common say
ing, but, to keep a dog healthy and worth having care
should be taken both in what he is fed and when.
It seems to be a general custom in the household
where a dog| is kept to give him what is left of the
morning cereal. It would seem that this soft grain
food, generally with milk over it, could not harm a
dog. but It generally will. The reason is that a dog
bolts his food. He will “boll” great pieces of nmat
without injury to himself, hut his stomach is not fitted
to handle soft foodB so well. He wilt swallow great
lumps of cereal, and, this being a starchy food, will
not easily digest when !( is in lumps in the stomach
and the result is frequently indigestion and inflamma
tion of the dog’s stomach.
The city dog has little chance for exercise, and for
that reason should not be overfed. The country dog
that is running through fields and pastures all day can
more, easily digest a quantity ol food Puppies and
youug growing dogs require frequent feeding, but 1
when the dog is full grown one meal every twenty-
four hours is sufficient. If the dog is weak or has been
ill, a saucer of warm sweet milk in the morning is all
right The dog's big meal should be in the evening,
to be followed by the sleep that ail animals prefer
after eating.
Never let a dish of food stand A dog is just as
likely to become diseased through germs as man and
his food should be clean. A mixed diet is best Many
dogs have been killed because, in the country, they
would eat the hens’ eggs from the nests They are
not to be blamed, as they demand a mixed diet and
frequently this is their only means of securing it
Meat should form the basis of the grown dog's
meals, but it should be cooked and never given with
out some other food—dog biscuit crusts of bread, eggs
and milk. Boiled rump beet is extremely good tor
dogs, andjt should not he too dry a little of the water
it is boiled in is good Save the bones; do not feed
them to your dog at his regular evening meal time,
but let him have a good bone during the day, as he )
enjoys ft and it aids his digestion, keeps his teeth t
clean and breaks up the long day of fasting between ,
morning and his night meal time. Graham bread is a ’
splendid food to give with meat.
Above ali, always have a clean dish of water where
your dog may drink at any time of day or night. He
needs plenty of water, and it should be as fresh ana {
clean for him as you would want it for yourself. (
Always keep the water dish clean; scald it out every )
few days and keep fresh water in it every day.
According to dealers in dogs and to veterinaries, f
nine-tenths of the pet dogs living in the cities are over )
ted and under-exercised. Many of them never have }
a bone to gnaw, but are given all sorts of foods from >
the ta’olp that man eats, and these are too rich for )
them.
Fresh water always at hand, one big meal every (
twenty-four hours and exercise, together with the j
friendship of man that dogs so dearly love, and your j
dog will live long and healthily and happily.
How Nature Grows
“Germ-Proof” Packages
N ATURE has always been doing what
man has only recently attempted—
that is, delivering many of its eatables
in sterile or germ-proof packages. The best
instance of this is the banana, a fruit that is
only begining to be recognized in this coun
try at its true value.
Many experiments have been made with
the skin of the banana by bacteriologists, and
they have found the skin practically impreg
nable to germs. Furthermore, the inner pulp
of the skin is germ-free or sterile. Bananas
have even been placed in liquids containing
cultures of known organisms, and yet none
of these were able to penetrate into the fruit
itself.
Every one knows how the edible portion
of the banana is packed away in a close-fit
ting covering which very seldom cracks open,
even when dead ripe. This skin not only pro
tects the fruit from the atmosphere and va
rious insects and from bruising to a consider
able degree, but it keeps out all germs.
Dr. E. M. Bailey has made various - bac
teriological examinations of bananas at dif
ferent stages of their ripening, and he de
clares that the inner pulp of ripe bananas is
practically sterile. The probability of infec
tion from bananas Is indeed slight. Cafe
should be taken to have the peel of the ba
nana clean, as anything on the outside might
be transferred to the hands and thence to
the fruit, and so to the mouth, but with this
care taken there is no danger. It is probably
one of the cleanest of fruits.
Some nuts are bored by worms, but nuts
that have no worm-holes are also practically
sterile and no germs get in them. Since na
ture takes such precautions tn many of her
offerings, there seems no reasons why man
should not also take every precaution in pro
tecting other foot), taking pains to put It
not only in handy packages, but in packages
through which germs may not enter.
Why the EARTH Is
Going to DRY UP
S CIENTISTS have-'long declared that the
earth will dry up and become as barren
and dismal as the moon. But there is
no occasion to forry about this, since it will
not occur for more millions of years, proba
bly, than we can count.
In regard -to the present dried-up condition
of the moon, it used to be believed that the
moon at one time had a plentiful supply of
water, but that the great heat developed on
either side as the moon was turned to the
sun on alternate sides fourteen days at a
stretch gradually evaporated the water. This
vapor of evaporation did not fall back to the
moon’s surface, it was claimed, because the
moon's gravity was not sufficient to hold it,
and so the vapor constantly thrown off by
centrifugal motion gradually left the moon
barren and dry.
But the new theory, now held by the great
scientists, is also held to be applicable to
the earth and that what really happened to
the moon will happen to this planet in the
course of time—an almost unthinkable amount
of time.
This theory is that a crystal of any sort, a
Jump af rock salt or quartz or limestone or
granite, contains a great proportion of water.
If these things are heated in a retort the
jvater is recovered and the crystal becomes a
powder. Now if this powder is placed near
water it will absorb, while cooling, quite a
lot of it.
The interior of the moon being at one time
extremely hot, so hot that it was a molten
mass, a cooling process was started then, and
in cooling the natural demand was for water
in order for them to form their crystals The
water seeped down through the crust of ihe
moon and finally it was in that manner all
used up.
This is the manner in which this theory is
applied to the earth. Our great oceans
bring a powerful pressure to bear upon the
earth's crust, and because ol subterranean
volcanoes in various parts of the Pacific
Ocean we know water is gradually seeping
into the heated interior of the earth.
The earth continues to lose its heat by
radiation and this brings about a shrinkage
and cracking of the old crust, as demonstrated
now and then by great earthquakes and vol
canic ' eruptions. This, in turns, makes a
communication between the water of the
earth’s crust and the cooling mass inside,
these things being affinities. And so it is
claimed all the earth s water must gradually
seep into the interior and go into the forma
tion of crystals. Even then it is claimed
there will not be sufficient water to cool and
crystallize all the molten mass inside.
I YOU MIGHT TRY-
) \
J To Remove a Broken Screw.
T O remove a screw with one side of the head broken off, place the
screw driver against one side of the head, and with a small block )
) press firmly against the screw driver, at the same time turning J
the screw driver and the hlock. The screw- will come out almost as /
easily as If the head was intact.
To Stop a Leak.
T O stop a leak, mix whiting and yellow soap into a thick paste with
a little water. Apply this to the place where the leakage is and
it will be instantly stopped. A visit from the plumber will still
be necessary, but there is no special hurry for more radical repairs.
To Preserve Flowers.
D IP the flowers in melted paraffin, withdrawing them quickly. The
liquid should only be hot enough to maintain its fluidity, and
\ the flowers should be dipped one at a time, held by the stem
and moved about tor an inslant lo get rid of the air bubbles. Fresh
\ flowers, tree from moisture, make excellent specimens.
Cleaning Glasses.
T UMBLERS which have been used for milk should always be rinsed
in cold water before they are washed in hot. When this is done
the milk does not stick to the glass, and there is no danger of
their looking cloudy.
Cooking Vegetables.
T O preserve the color of green vegetables, put them on to cook in
boiling water into which a pinch of salt has been dropped.
When SHOP SIGNS
Were FIRST USED
W HEN primitive man first found it
necessary to use weapons there must
have been some men among the clan
who had a greater “knack” or ability in form
ing them than other men, just as some men
have the ability to paint or to chisel statues
to-day. And it naturally followed that these
men soon found all their time occupied in
making weapons for the other men who could
use them skillfully enough, but could not
make them.
As civilization advanced, meagre as was the
advance, there seems no doubt that the
caves or huts of these weapon makers became
veritable shops. Later to indicate which of
the huts contained weapon makers, some
weapons were hung outside the entrance. In
this manner was introduced the first shop
sign.
It would have been impossible to engrave
on a slab of soft stone or burn in a slab of
wood “John Brokentooth, Maker of Spears,”
and stick this over the “shop," for the very
simple reason that there was no alphabet, no
knowledge, of writing or reading and no
written language whatever. But the idea of
hanging up some weapons indicated just as
clearly to primitive man that there was a
man inside who made those things as would
a big sign over a store to-day indicate that
guns and knives and revolvers were sold
inside.
Even as recent as when London was quit©
a village very few men had names. The man
who made pottery hung up some earthen pots.
Later he was called “Potter,” and so the nam o
of Potter came about. But shop signs were
used thousands of years before there was any
writing, and consisted of the articles them-
selves or something that stood for them, such
as the bush over the wine shop door.
No doubt, when characters were first used,
these were used as signs. The first charac
ter writing was decidedly crude, being rough
designs of articles themselves, pictured of
men and of animals and weapons and dishes.
Then, instead of hanging out the articles
themselves, pictures graven in stone or
painted on stone of the articles made and
sold were placed in front of these shops.
From that to the characters that were
without pictures, but which were in reality,
a crude alphabet and told in actual reading a
story, were used as signs. A sort of com-
bination of a picture of a sword, perhaps,
and a few characters which stated that fine
swords were made there.
Then came the days when men had names
and so they put their names on their signs,
together with lettering and pictures, such asr
“John’s Son, Sandals,” together with either A
sandal carved in wood or a crudely painted
sandal on the sign. To-day we see such signs
as “John Smith, Butcher,” on a sign, and
above it a large head of a bull carved and
painted or gilded.
In
Giant Cacti for
Telephone Poles
O UT in southern Arizona, where the
country is full of those very large
cacti that sometimes reach a height of
from twenty to forty feet, the telephone line
men are using the cactus trees for telephone
poles. In some places miles of wire is strung
without any poles being set. and in some sec
tions the poles are scattered along between
the trees.
One difficulty that has been experienced
Is the trouble arising from lightning. The
wires catch the lightning, and the great cacti
trees are good conductors, and quite fre
quently poles have to be planted to take the
place of a destroyed cactus.
The cross arms are fastened to the grow
ing trees, and the sections free from elec-
icai storms are rendering excellent service.
Why a DROP OF WATER Stays in the Ocean 3,640 YEARS
W HEN a drop of water reaches the
ocean it is destined to remain there
3,460 years!
This does not mean that every drop of
water will stay exactly that length of time
in the ocean, for some drops may be drawn
out by evaporation the next day after they
pour into it. Again some drops of water
may wander about in the ocean ten thousand
years before they get out. The average
length of time, however, for a drop of water
to remain in the ocean is 3,460 years.
All this has been figured out by a Uerman
scientist who has made a careful estimate
of the total volume of water that goes into
the ocean every year. He declares that one-
three thousand four hundred and sixtieth
(t-3,460) of the total amount of water in the
world goes into the sea every year and. there
fore. a particle of water before evaporation
lA) Sun Draws Up Water to Clouds (B). Clouds Drift Over Land at (C)
and This Drop Falls in Rain Into the River at (D) and Flows Back
Into Ocean at (E). Where It Wii! Average to Remain for 3,460 Years
has. on the average, stayed 3,460 years in
the ocean.
The life of a drop of water once out of
the ocean is apparently a merry and a busy
one, for after evaporation it will become
again condensed into water in about ten days.
It may fall as rain in the Rocky Mountains
and drift into the Gulf of Mexico or into the
Great I.akes, but its time in fresh water is
short, comparatively speaking, and it will
not be many years before it will have found
its way back to the ocean again, either by
means of rivers, or by evaporation and then
by means of rain from the Great Lakes or
some such place.
But wherever the drop of water lands on
earth, it is not long before one of three
things happens—it falls to earth and gets
back to the ocean by subterranean passages,
it falls into a river and flows back to the
ocean, or it falls into a lake and 4s either
evaporated into the clouds or finally gets into
a river.
i How to Cure
Ivy Fr-' ouin^
A LL sorts of things are Advised for the
cure of poisoning . y »vy. So many
t people are bothered with he common
) “poison ivy” during the Sumntei that there
i are always scores looking for a cure. A very]
simple one has been suggested by Dr. Robert
t T. Morris, of New York. It is as follows:
' “As soon as the symptoms of itching and
) rejjness appear and you know you have ex-
1 posed yourself to the innocent looking but
; poisonous vine, wash the spots thoroughly
\ with green soap, using a brush for the wash-
\ ing, and follow this with another thorough
) washing with 98 per cent grain alcohol.”
| One treatment of this, if taken early enough,
or when the first signs of the poison appear,
I will generally result in driving out the poison
) and effecting an immediate cure.