Digestion Assisted

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DIGESTION ASSISTED.—

No branch of chemistry has of late years made greater progress than that relating to the functions of the human body. By the analysis of the blood we learn that it contains iron and soda. The brain yields phosphorus; the hair contains sulphur. It is obvious therefore that these materials play a certain part in our well-being, and that if they are not supplied to the frame by our daily food, the result will be a derangement of our organisation, which will exhibit itself in the shape of a disease of some kind or other. Imperfect digestion is one of the commonest diseases of a sedentary life. Now it has been shown that the stomach of a man in good health who "earns his meal before he eats it," always contains lactic acid. By analogy lactic acid would assist digestion in those persons who suffer from dyspepsia; and experiments have confirmed the truth of is​ theory. No sooner is lactic acid administered to a patient troubled with dyspepsia (indigestion) than the stomach resumed its labor. Further to illustrate this fact, the process of digestion can be exhibited out of the stomach. Pieces of butcher's meat, fowl, fish, &c., being put into a solution of lactic acid and maintained at the temperature of the body, completely dissolve and become fluid, forming an artificial chyme ready for the absorbent vessels. Lactic acid takes its name from lacte, milk, becuase it is the acid found in sour milk. No wonder then that people who drink buttermilk are never troubled with indigestion, for buttermilk is little else than a week solution of lactic acid (sour milk).