When the body will tolerate spirits tasted into it—not poured into it—at all, which is not often when the nutrition is normal (only in damp or cold weather, as a general thing, and then in the case of the writer only at rare intervals, say two or three times a year), the spirit will mix quickly with the saliva and become neutralised sufficiently to excite the Swallowing Impulse. Continue sipping the spirit for a time and you will note that there comes a point where the saliva and the spirit do not mix, do not neutralise; the mouth becomes unduly full of liquid without any relaxation or invitation of the Swallowing Impulse; and the really instinctive inclination will be to spit it out. It is a clear indication that the body-toleration has been fully taxed; there is no longer any bodily need for alcohol—in fact, there is no longer natural toleration—and the secretion sent down into the mouth is evidently mucous for a washing-out process, and is not alkaline saliva for assisting in a utilisation function.
It is quite uncanny to observe the nicety of mouth-discrimination and the consistency of it as related to similar substances under similar conditions, if one learn to read it with precision and intelligence.
With increased ease of digestion, which comes with more thorough attention to solid foods alone, the ordinary observer will think that he has accomplished the whole of the possible benefit. It is only when he gives sufficient time to liquids also, to get the added delight and relief that salivary respect of them brings, that the whole of the beneficence of mouth-service is realised. Follow this discrimination and care to a comparative measurement of the waste of digestion, the solid excreta, and note the increased proportionate gain in assimilation and the value of the economy will be appreciated. Try the different treatments on milk for a month; fifteen days with drinking and fifteen days insalivating (sipping and tasting) the milk to the limit, and keep account of quantity of intake required to satisfy appetite and maintain body-weight; and also note carefully the condition and quantity of the fæces. In the one case you will find the waste to be fæces indeed, and unmistakably worthy of the name; but in the case of sipping, tasting and insalivating the milk to the full satisfaction of the appetite, the digestion-ash will assume quite a different amount and character and deserve a change of name. The proportions of the saving in our own experiments have approximated the difference between three and ten; that is, on a reduction of only one-third the quantity of food commonly ingested, but fully satisfying the sipping and tasting appetite, the quantity of solid excreta was only one-tenth of the other and of quite a different character, æsthetically considered.
While these suggestions do not discredit or affect the value of the purely mechanical side of the treatment as given by Dr. Campbell, and are not intended to be controversial, they are ventured as an amendment to be worked out in regard to liquids, which are, in fact, only an extreme of the pultaceous foods against which Dr. Campbell warns us as being subtly dangerous.
There is another point in our experiences and observations of the largest importance that may appropriately be introduced here: The treatment of all liquids in the manner suggested prevents intemperance of drinking as effectively as it does intemperance of eating.
When food is filtered into the body after having become liquified and made alkaline, or, at least neutral, by saliva, the appetite is given a chance to measure the needs of the body and to discriminate against excess. As soon as the point of complete saturation of any one deficiency is reached, the appetite is cut off, as short as possible to imagine, with no indication of stomach fullness. It will welcome a little of proteid in beans, cheese, eggs, or in some other of its richer forms, and then turn to sugar or fat in some of their numerous forms. Thirst for water will assert itself for a moment, sometimes asking but for a drop and again for a full glass, and afterwards, when near the point of complete saturation, appetite will hesitate for a moment, as if searching around for some rare substance, and may find its final satisfaction in a single spoonful of a sweet or a sip of something in sight.
The appetite satisfied by the infiltering process is a sweetly appeased appetite, calm, rested, contented, normal. There is no danger from the flooding of intemperance, for there is not even toleration of excess either of more food or of more drink, and this contented appetite will remain in the condition of contentment until another need has really been earned by evaporation or destructive katabolism.
In the teaching of this physiology and psychology of alimentation to the children of England, lies the only true solution of the drink question, which is now the curse of the nation.
Dr. Campbell has made such a splendid case for the mechanical side of mouth work, that it is the hope of the writer that he will give equally careful consideration to the chemical and psychological sides, and in a completeness of observation render inestimable service to his country, to science, and humanity. A decade of trial on the inmates of an infant orphan asylum will show the possibilities for the nation in a single generation, if broadly applied. It might lead to an effective intemperance, inhibition, or quarantine, and that is all any nation needs of advantage to make it independent of the world and truly great.—Horace Fletcher.]