Los Angeles Herald, Volume 26, Number 40, 18 November 1886 — Essentials of Easy Digestion. [ARTICLE]

Essentials of Easy Digestion.

A curious controversy is in progress as to the need or value in "biting one's food," Strangely as it may appear there are some who should he authuritii.s ready to affirm that it ia futile to take tho trouble to uae the teeth with which trSfure has provided man in common with most other nnimuls, apparently for tho special purpose of grinding his food. Littlo, if any weight is attached to the evidence of facts ill this dispute. The existence of the dental apparatus counts for nothing. Nor does it go for much that move i.ents of the jaw promote the iuaalivation of the food. In short, mouth digestion ia treated as a myth or little better. What are we to understand by all this? Is it one or the enrly fruits of that attempt to popularize the science of physiology whioh haa been so persistently aud unselfishly made by the medical profession iv the supposed interests of public health rank the prevention of disease? We do not incline to mingle iv the fray just at present at least. Let (he dispute go on aud be fought out to tha bitter end! Meanwhile we counsel all who care for their comfort, and who do not desire to develop the worst form of dyspepsia, to continue the practice of mastication as before. As a matter of feat and experience, a lib.n-al use of tho teeth in feeding ia one of the essentials of easy digestion, and though we are uot prepared to assert that it ia neoessary t_> bile each nior3el of meat just twenty-five times, it ia better to err on the side of masticating too much than ou that of net nmßticating enough—first, to divide the food and crush its fibers anil particles gener ally, and, secondly, to mix it in so thoroughly with the secretion from the sailvary glands that uot only shall the act of deglutition be rendered easy, hut tbat the food when it enters the stomach shall have been properly prepared for digestion in the gasrtio juice.—[The I.meet.