Digestive juice

“ Nearly all these digestive fluids are also powerful antiseptics and are able to destroy germs when the health of the body as a whole is good. The gastric juice, for instance, acts as an antiseptic, preserving the stomach contents from putrefaction during the digestive process. It is a remarkable fact that the gastric juice, although it is so essential to life, is a deadly poison, which, when introduced into the blood produces insensibility and death.
These digestive juices and organs are able completely to dispose of all the food elements which are introduced into the body, save proteid alone. ”

“ I refer to the production of gastric juice in the empty stomach, as a result merely of the swallowing of food in the so-called sham feeding of an œsophagotomised dog. When one takes into consideration the absolute independence of this factor, and the intensity of the effect, which makes itself evident in the secretion of a large quantity of juice of high digestive power, the exciting agency which brings about such secretion must be recognised as one of the most important and effective processes in gastric digestion. ”

“ It happens, however, that the next of the digestive juices to act upon the food are the pancreatic juice and bile, which are secreted respectively by the pancreas and liver, and are poured into the small intestine by ducts from these organs just a few inches beyond the outlet sphincter from the stomach. In order for these juices to mix well with the food it is important that only a little food come into the small intestine at a time. ”

“ Without doubt, highly spiced foods are undesirable. They tend to weaken digestion, by calling for an undue secretion of digestive juices, which, if prolonged, tires out the glands. A reasonable amount of condiments such as pepper, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, sage, thyme, ginger, mustard, cinnamon, mace, horseradish, vanilla, dill, etc., may be used as appetizers, because the pleasing thought of them may incite the flow of gastric juice; but if one has not cultivated a taste for them this thought will not be pleasing and they are then better omitted from the diet. ”

“ The pancreatic juice appears to have the function of digesting whatever alimentary substance has escaped digestion by the saliva, gastric juice, and bile. It is a clear, viscid liquid of alkaline reaction. It rapidly changes starch into glucose. It converts proteids into peptones and emulsifies fats. While the gastric juice requires an acid medium for the performance of its digestive function, the pancreatic juice requires one that is alkaline. ”

“ Liquid of any kind in large quantity is inimical to digestion, because it delays the action of the gastric juice, and weakens its digestive qualities, and also checks the secretion of saliva. In case the fluid taken is very hot, as tea, coffee, cocoa, or a considerable quantity of soup—it relaxes and weakens the stomach. On the other hand if it is very cold, it checks digestion by cooling the contents of the stomach, and reducing its temperature to a degree at which digestion cannot proceed. ”

“ The mucous membrane of the intestines, also, secretes or produces, a digestive fluid by means of numerous "follicles," or minute glands; this is called the intestinal juice. From experiments on the inferior animals, it has been ascertained that this fluid exerts a solvent influence over each of the three organic food principles, and in this way may supplement and complete the action of the {96}fluids previously mentioned, viz.:—of the saliva in converting starch into sugar, of the gastric juice in digesting the albuminoids, and of the pancreatic juice and bile in emulsifying the fats. ”

“ The gastric juice is partly prevented from secreting and that which is secreted is unhealthy, the ducts of the liver and pancreatic gland are prevented from performing their healthy functions and consequently the food is not taken in due quantity to nourish the system, and what is taken is not properly digested, for the want of a free and healthy action of the digestive functions. ”

“ Now there is no doubt that such digestive vacuoles may burst and so pour out into the polyp’s stomach a digestive juice which will act on food particles outside the substance of the cells, and thus by the substitution of this process of outpouring of the secretion for that of ingestion of food particles into the cells we get the usual form of digestion by juices secreted into a digestive cavity. ”

“ Why does such juice fail as a food? Simply because the antiseptic principle that preserves the juice in the bottle exerts a similar influence in the stomach, and prevents the natural action that is part of Nature’s plan for assimilating food. Our concentrated juice of the grape is absolutely free from all antiseptics, and is Nature’s best food and strength producer for weak and defective digestive organs. ”

“ In the first case, where the food is prescribed in small portions, in addition to preventing the overfilling of a weak stomach, the oft-recurrence of appetite juice, which is so rich in quantity and so strong in digestive power, is of great importance. ”

“ The resistance offered by the living stomach of an animal to the dissolving effect of the juice secreted by the stomach itself has to be explained by immunity. A watery solution of pepsin—the digestive principle of the stomach—acidulated by muriatic acid, and thus, as to composition, corresponding to the digesting juice of living animals, upon addition of pieces of the stomach of any mammal, dissolves them, forming a perfect solution. The stomach of the living healthy animal, on the contrary, does not undergo the least change by the secreted juice ”

“ In short, before we can make an artificial digestive apparatus which will work at all like the natural one, we must know how to construct a living human body! In the case before us, the nervous stimulus, ignored by Mr. Parton, is the most essential factor in the whole process. There is no doubt that a given quantity of undiluted gastric juice will usually perform the chemical process of food-transformation more rapidly than an equal quantity of gastric juice which is diluted. ”

“ Journal, that softening and erosion of the stomach, considered by Broussais and others as always results of inflammatory irritation during life, are generally caused by the digestive action of the gastric juice after death. ”

“ At times there exists a certain condition of inactivity of the digestive organs when the gastric juice is not secreted in sufficient quantity, and perfectly sound food may undergo fermentation and set up an attack. ”

“ When the natural digestive juices are deficient, and the stomach is unable to properly perform its office, those who suffer from this cause may, by employing one of these valuable agents, be supplied with more varied food than they would otherwise be able to digest. During the process of peptonization a slightly bitter taste is developed, but this may be arrested before it becomes too pronounced by bringing whatever is being acted upon quickly to boiling point. ”

“ A great variety of germs are found in drinking water, and no doubt countless numbers are taken into the digestive tract, and the principal reason why pathological conditions do not occur more frequently is on account of the germicidal qualities of the gastric juice. ”

“ The hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice unquestionably plays a very important part in checking the growth and development of many pathogenic bacteria, as well as of less poisonous organisms, which are taken into the mouth with the food. ”

“ Acid and subacid fruit juices do not contain sufficient carbohydrate or protein materials to unduly excite the digestive processes, while on the other hand they are very rich in Nature's best medicines, the mineral salts in organic form. Sweet grapes and sweetened grape juice should not be given to patients suffering from acute, febrile diseases because they contain too much sugar, which would have a tendency to start the processes of digestion and assimilation, to cause morbid fermentation and to raise the temperature and accelerate the other disease symptoms. ”

“ A relish for sugar lessens the inclination for alcohol, and seldom accompanies the love of strong drink.
With young children, cane sugar is apt to form acids in the stomach, chiefly acetic, by a process of fermentation which causes pain, and flatulence, so that milk sugar should be given instead to those of tender years who are delicate, as this produces only lactic acid, which is the main constituent of digestive gastric juice. ”

“ The power to oppose fermentation by the digestive juices ranges all the way from nil to the resistance usual to a man of full health and vigor.
It being the function of the bowels to digest food and overcome fermentation, it stands to reason that to accomplish this function they must be normal—they must have a proper supply of nerve force and the supply of nutrition must be normal or they can not furnish the proper amount and quality of secretions. ”

“ Nor do we at present know what effects are produced by the absorption of the various digestive juices themselves. That such absorption takes place there can be little doubt. It has been demonstrated in the case of the bile, which is absorbed with great rapidity from the intestine and reëxcreted by the liver, so that it does not pass into the general circulation at all. But what becomes of the other digestive fluids, and the ferments they contain? The pepsin finds it way in minute quantities through the liver, and has been discovered in various tissues of the body and in the urine. ”

“ Digestion.—The digestive juices contain certain unorganised ferments, which produce chemical changes in the food. If the food is solid, it has to be liquefied. Even if already liquid it has generally to undergo a chemical change before being fitted for absorption into the body. The alimentary canal is a tubular passage which is first expanded into the mouth, and later into the stomach. As the food passes down, it is acted upon by several digestive juices, and in the small intestine the nutritive matter is absorbed, whilst the residue passes away. ”

“ During this process an increase occurs in the micro-organisms present, and also in their metabolic products and enzymes, but not in the digestive juices originating in the organs of the animal body—the term “digestive juices” being restricted to indicate only such juices as are produced in the course of the digestive tract by the organs and cells of the animal body, in contradistinction to the juices produced by bacteria. ”

“ Such substances are indigestible essentially by virtue of their impermeability to the digestive juices, and they gain in digestibility in proportion as they are comminuted. The indigestibility of new bread would appear to be wholly due, not to any peculiarity of chemical composition, but to its tendency to elude the teeth and form a sodden mass impermeable to the digestive juices, while the more powdery stale bread is more easily broken up both in the mouth and within the stomach. ”

“ When thoroughly cooked the protecting action of the mucilaginous protein is overcome, and the compound starch granules are sufficiently disintegrated to allow the digestive juices to act. In other words, the increased digestibility of the thoroughly cooked cereal is supposed to be largely due to a physical change in the carbohydrates, which renders them more susceptible to the action of digestive juices. ”

“ Many substances which Relation of solution to assimilation will not dissolve in pure water will dissolve in water which contains something else in solution. The blood is water containing many things in solution. The salts of the blood keep the other food elements in solution, many of which would not dissolve if the blood did not contain these salts. The chief work of the digestive juices is to reduce foods to a soluble form so that they can be taken into the circulation by absorption; otherwise they would pass through the alimentary canal practically unchanged. ”

“ The digestibility of food depends largely upon the physical condition of the individual, because the amount of digestive juices poured into the alimentary canal is influenced by this condition, particularly by the condition of the nerves. If sufficient juices, in proper proportions, are not poured into the digestive tract, the foodstuffs are not made soluble for absorption into the blood. ”

“ It is even conceivable that the whole digestion may depend upon the stimulating properties of acids, since the pancreatic juice exerts a ferment action upon all the constituents of the food. In this way acids may either assist digestion in the stomach where too little gastric juice is present, or bring about vicarious digestion by the pancreas where it is wholly absent. ”

“ In a state of health the abundantly secreted gastric juice speedily redissolves the chief part of the curd in the stomach, while when it has passed into the intestine the alkaline bile which there becomes mixed with it, completes its solution, and converts the whole into a fluid which closely resembles one of the chief elements of the blood, is consequently very easily taken up by the minute vessels whose office it is to do so, and thus supplies with nourishment the whole body. ”

“ As chemical factors, water and salts are the two necessary substances for gastric digestion, since the enzymes in the juices cannot act except in their presence.
Alkaline carbonates and fatty foods both check the flow of gastric juice, and retard digestion. The psychic factors which result in a stimulation of the secretory cells in the stomach are exerted through the sight, smell, and taste. One often hears the expression: “The food looked, smelled, or tasted so good that it made my mouth water.” ”