3846. The food should be eaten slowly, so that it be well masticated and mixed with the saliva.
3847. Animal food is sooner digested in the stomach than vegetable; but it is more stimulating or heating to the system. Flesh that has been long salted, dried hams, beef, &c., are less easily digested and less nutritive than fresh meat.
3848. Farinaceous and vegetable food, generally, is slower of digestion than animal, but it is less heating; many kinds of vegetable food are very nutritive.
3849. Solid food, or food of a certain fibrous or pulpy consistence, is more fitted for digestion in the stomach than rich soups, jellies, and all highly concentrated sauces. The latter are rendered more digestible by the addition of bread.
3850. Fish are not so nourishing as the flesh of land animals, and with many stomachs entirely disagree. The white fish, when in season, are generally lighter, and less apt to disagree with the stomach than the red.