The Physiology of Digestion Considered with Relation to the Principles of Dietetics

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MacLachlan and Stewart, 1849 - 191 pages
 

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Page ix - The Principles of Physiology, applied to the Preservation of Health, and to the Improvement of Physical and Mental Education.
Page 87 - The cooling of the body, by whatever cause it may be produced, increases the amount of food necessary. The mere exposure to the open air, in a carriage or on the deck of a ship, by increasing radiation and vaporization, increases the loss of heat, and compels us to eat more than usual.
Page 88 - ... disease. It is not the sense of satiety, for this is beyond the point of healthful indulgence, and is Nature's earliest indication of an abuse and overburden of her powers to replenish the system. It occurs immediately previous to this, and may be known by the pleasurable sensation of perfect satisfaction, ease, and quiescence of body and mind.
Page 89 - But, to effect this most agreeable of all sensations and conditions— the real Elysian satisfaction of the reasonable epicure — timely attention must be paid to the preliminary processes, such as thorough mastication, and moderate or slow deglutition. These are indispensable to the due and natural supply of the stomach at the stated periods of alimentation ; for, if food be swallowed too fast, and pass into the stomach imperfectly masticated, too much is received in a short time, and in too imperfect...
Page 108 - I observed that in proportion as our strength decayed our minds exhibited symptoms of weakness, evinced by a kind of unreasonable pettishness with each other. Each of us thought the other weaker in intellect than himself, and more in need of advice and assistance. So trifling a circumstance as a change of place, recommended by one as being warmer and more comfortable and refused by the other from a dread of motion, frequently called forth fretful expressions which were no sooner uttered than atoned...
Page 95 - ... and pleasure-gardens — go even to sick-rooms, and you will find it in abundance. You will witness there innumerable scenes of gormandizing, not only productive of disease in those concerned in them, but, in many instances, offensive to beholders. The frightful mess often consists of all sorts of eatable materials, that can be collected, and crowded together; and its only measure is the endurance of appetite, and the capacity of the stomach.
Page 94 - Saals, and then bade adieu to them for ever. Nothing which this world affords could induce me to feed in this gross manner. The pig, who lives in his sty, would have some excuse; but it is really quite shocking to see any other animal overpowering himself at midday with such a mixture and superabundance of food.
Page 42 - ... consisting of powder and duck-shot, waa received in the left side of the youth, he being at a distance of not more than one yard from the muzzle of the gun. The contents entered posteriorly, and in an oblique direction, forward and inward, literally blowing off integuments and muscles of the size of a man's hand, fracturing and carrying away the anterior half of the sixth rib, fracturing the fifth, lacerating the lower portion of the left lobe of the lungs, the diaphragm, and perforating the...
Page 115 - I was suffering horrid tortures (said he), and verily believe that if I had put a bit into my mouth it would have strangled me on the spot, I was so excessively ill; but I made more noise than usual to cover all that, and so they never perceived my not eating, nor I believe at all imaged to themselves the anguish of my heart: but when all were gone except Johnson here, I burst out a-crying, and even swore by that I would never write again.
Page 94 - That these are the main causes of almost every one's illness, there can be no greater proof, than that those savage nations which live actively and temperately have only one great disorder — death. The human frame was not created imperfect — it is we ourselves who have made it so ; there exists no donkey in creation so overladen as our stomachs...

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