DIGESTION. Doctors Disagree in Regard to What May be Intrusted to It.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 160, 10 July 1886, Page 1

DIGESTION. Doctors Disagree in Regard to What May be Intrusted to It.

Most authorities are of opinion that cheese is indigestible, yet even on this point doctors cannot agree. A distinguished French chemißt has suggested that, to render cheese digestible, a quarter of an ounce of potash should be added to every pound of cheeee ; while a German chemist has experimented upon several kinds — such as cheese, meat, milk and eggs — and •he boldly declares that cheese is no more indigestible than meat and many other articles of diet. . Suppers are also usually condemned. Some doctors assert that suppers are not only unnecessary, but positively harmful ; that sound sleep cannot be obtained after them ; and that three meals a day are sufficient. On the other hand, others are of opinion that a light supper is necessary to procure sound sleep. After a meal, they say, blood is drawn towards the .stomach to supply the juices needed in digestion, j Hence the brain receives loss blood t^an during fasting, becomes pale, and the powers became dormant. Sleep therefore ensues. A doctor says that recently he wap called at two a.m. to a lady that as «ured him tha£ she was dying, The body was warm, he says, the heart doing honest work. To her indignation, he ordered buttered bread to be eaten at once. Obeying, the "dying" woman was soon surprised by a return of life and a desire to aleep. Milk ii generally considered a peculiarly nutritive fluid- indeed, a perfect food—one therefore suitable for persona of all ages, when it agrees with their stomachs ; yet no leu an authority than Sir Henry Thompson .states that "for us who have long ago achieved our full growth, and can thrive on solid food, it is altogether superfluous, and mostly mischevous as a drink." He also said that the primary objeot of drinking is to satisfy thirst, and that water is mora powerful to this end when employed free from admixture with ' any solid material.

Chocolate, thick cocoa, or even milk, are therefore not bo efficacious in allaying thirst as water. "So plentiful is nutriment," he adds, "that the 1 very last place where we should seek the quality is in drink, which accompanies the ordinary meal." In this respect, at any rate, Sir Henry Thompson is at one with the vegetarians. — " All the Year Round."