Madame Young's Guide to Health / Her experience and practice for nearly forty years; a true family herbal, wherein is displayed the true properties and medical virtues of all the roots, herbs, &c., indigenous to the United States, and their combination in all the diseases the human body is heir to; also, an explanation of the human body, its liability to injuries through ignorance of its structure. Dedicated exclusively to her sex.

by Amelia Young

CHYMIFICATION.

Chymification, or the transformation of food into chyme, is the most important step in the process of digestion. The food, after mastication, passes into the stomach; here it is formed into a homogenous mass, partly fluid and partly solid, which is called chyme. What is the exact philosophy of this process, has been a matter of some discussion, into which it is not necessary now to enter; nor is it yet satisfactorily settled, so as to admit of any definite instructions being given. The theory which is now generally received, respecting the manner in which the stomach acts upon food, is, that the gastric juice possesses a solvent power, by which the food becomes reduced to a uniform mass; the solvent power of the gastric juice is very great in a healthy, vigorous stomach, but varies in strength according to the energy of that organ. The solvent power of the gastric juice is evidently controlled by the vital principle of life; while the gastric juice of a healthy stomach acts vigorously upon the hardest kinds of food; yet sometimes, when it comes in contact with anything possessed of the principles of life, its power is stayed—worms, while living, are not affected by it, but when destroyed, are often digested. The gastric juice also possesses the property of coagulating liquid albuminous substances; the stomach of the calf is used for this purpose, by the dairy-woman, in making cheese; and when the infant throws up its milk, because the stomach is too full, that milk will be more or less curdled—and instead of considering this curdling an indication of disease, it should be accounted a symptom of a good, healthy stomach.

The time ordinarily occupied in the process of chymification, when the food has been properly masticated, has been found to be four or five hours; the three first hours of the period, is occupied in the process of intermixing the food, after it enters the stomach, with the gastric juice. After this is accomplished, an alternation of contraction and expansion of the stomach, or a kind of churning motion takes place, and continues until the whole mass is converted into chyme, and conveyed to the first intestines, or duodenum, to undergo another change.