A Handbook of Gastronomy Book

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 Excerpt: ...its presence produces makes those intestines constringe which can be moved by the action of will. The caput mortuum obeys these movements, forces the sphincter, moulds itself on its opening, is expelled and does not leave us without a sensation of pleasure, bestowed by Nature on the satisfaction of any want. The intestines are the home of tempests; in them is formed gas, as in the clouds; oxygen is found in them, whilst the fat produces hydrogen and carbon. The foods of the animal kingdom give nitrogen; an unknown process generates sulphur and phosporus, and hence those emissions of sulphuretted hydrogen of which the effects are known by every one, but of which the author is never known. The digestion of liquids is much less complicated than that of solid foods, and may be explained in a very few words. The alimentary part which is found in suspension is joined to the chyme, and undergoes all its vicissitudes. Liquid substances are absorbed by the vessels of the stomach, and thrown into circulation. Thence they are carried by the emulgent arteries towards the kidneys, which filter and elaborate them by means of the ureters, which take them into the bladder in the form of urine. The ureters are two canals as thick as a goose quill that issue from each of the kidneys, and end in the posterior part of the neck of the bladder. Arrived at the last stage, and though also kept back by a sphincter, urine does not stop there long; its exciting action makes a want to be felt, and a voluntary constriction ejects it by well-known canals of irrigation which are never named. Digestion is of a longer or shorter duration, according to the particular disposition of the individual. Nevertheless the average time may be given at about seven hours, namely, a little more than th...