SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH by David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 25, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 52.

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SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson ✦ W. S. Sadler

A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS

(Continued)

BILE

The liver is the largest gland in the body, and weighs several pounds. Under diseased conditions it may be so enormously enlarged as to weigh nearly twenty pounds. It is one of the most important digestive organs, as it has many and varied functions. In the light of modern investigations, the old idea that the liver has little or nothing to do but make bile, has had to be largely modified. While the action of the pancreatic juice upon fat is a strictly chemical one, that of bile is purely mechanical, as it simply tends to emulsify the fat. Inasmuch as human milk contains four per cent of fat, we should naturally expect that bile would be secreted at birth, and it has been ascertained that the process of forming bile is begun several months before the infant is born (Bunge’s Physiological Chemistry, 214).

Another important function of the liver is that of acting as an inspecting officer for all the digested food, with the exception of fats. The circulation of the blood from the abdominal organs is such that it must pass through the liver, and the liver possesses the remarkable property of destroying, neutralizing, or temporarily retaining various poisons that may have been accidentally or purposely taken into the system with the food, or formed as the result of fermentation and putrefaction during the digestive process. Experiments have shown that a large percentage of cocaine, nicotine, and morphine is thus destroyed.

When human beings indulge in the average Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, it is due to the patient and faithful work of the liver that serious results do not more frequently follow. When rabbits are hung up in the market place until they have so putrefied that their heads are almost severed from their bodies, or when meat has been kept in a refrigerator for weeks, or even months, to become tender, which is simply a process of decay; when large quantities of tea, coffee, or other poisonous substances are freely poured into the stomach,—the only thing that stands between the person and the grave is the power of the liver to retain and destroy poison. But sometimes the much-abused liver becomes weary, and then it is called “torpid.”

To correct this condition, powerful drugs are frequently put into the system to stir it up, instead of instituting vigorous dietetic reform, which would give the liver a much-needed rest. The liver is a closed door to keep poisons from entering the general circulation. As the result of unnatural dietetic habits, the liver sometimes becomes an open door, allowing the system to become loaded with poison; and the result of this same abuse is that the kidneys become so crippled that they also allow poisons to accumulate in the system, thereby hurrying the unfortunate sufferer to the tomb.

Another important function of the liver is that of storing up sugar in the form of glycogen, and dealing it out to the blood stream as it is needed. It does not, however, have the power of holding all the sugar, and undoubtedly the muscles to a certain extent also act as storehouses for glycogen (Schaffer’s Physiology, 917). This last-mentioned fact accounts for the phenomenon of hibernating animals. In the summer, a large amount of glycogen is stored up in the animal’s muscles and liver; then during the winter, all the functional activities are slowed down to a minimum, and the animal’s life is maintained by the glycogen previously deposited in the system. And were it not for a similar provision, man could not take unusual physical exercise in an emergency, without sitting down and eating more food to replenish the immediate waste.

Quantity.—The quantity of bile secreted in twenty-four hours has been variously estimated at from one to three pints (Bunge’s Physiological Chemistry, 217).

How Stimulated.—Bile is poured out to a certain extent during the entire twenty-four hours, and is partially stored up in the gall bladder, although investigations made by accidental openings in the abdominal wall show that bile is more largely secreted several hours after a meal, or about the time when the digested food products are passed from the stomach into the small intestine. One investigator has found that a hot enema will cause an increased flow of bile.

How Hindered.—While the liver will undoubtedly submit to more abuse and wrong treatment than any other digestive organ in the body, yet the same general violation of natural law, as related to digestion, has a corresponding influence upon the liver. The overwhelming of the liver by poisonous so-called foods, and by substances that promote intestinal decomposition and putrefaction, is one of the most potent causes that cripple its usefulness and activity. The wearing of tight clothing, which tends to compress it, and in some instances even to crowd it out of place, is productive of untold harm to this faithful digestive organ.

Activity Ceases.—The activity of the bile gradually ceases as it passes along the intestinal tract, partially because a large percentage of it is absorbed and carried back to the liver to be used over again—a very economical arrangement of nature.

INTESTINAL JUICE

A large share of the intestinal digestion is undoubtedly due to the presence of pancreatic juice, which has been carried on with the food substances. There is no positive proof that the intestinal juice has any definite action on any food substance other than cane sugar. It has, however, been found that from four to sixty per cent of cellulose ordinarily disappears in the intestinal canal. This is, however, probably due to the action of germs, which ordinarily inhabit this portion of the alimentary tract. Until recently, it has been supposed that germs acted an important part in the entire digestive process; but definite experiments have demonstrated that stomach digestion is better and more successfully carried on without the presence of germs. Nuttall

and Thierfelter, two German scientists, assisted a mother guinea-pig to give birth to her young, by performing an abdominal operation, thus taking them from the abdominal cavity under aseptic precautions. They were afterward placed under a bell jar, and arrangements made for their feeding so as entirely to exclude all germs. It was found at the end of a certain number of days, when they were killed, that the contents of the alimentary canal were entirely free from microbes, and the guinea-pigs had grown faster than those not having the privilege of this germ-proof rearing. This demonstrated that germs are in no way essential to the digestion, growth, and health of an animal.

In the intestinal juice is a ferment known as invertin, which changes cane sugar back to maltose, the form into which saliva and the pancreatic juice transforms starch.

Quantity.—It has been very difficult to determine absolutely the quantity of intestinal juice produced, but by experiments upon animals it has been estimated that man secretes about five pints in twenty-four hours (Schaffer’s Physiology, 557). Under abnormal conditions, the ability of the intestines to secrete fluid is great. In cholera morbus nearly all the fluid in the body can be drained off in this way, thus producing death in a remarkably short time.

How Stimulated.—Rapid changes of temperature, in the form of hot and cold external applications, have the power of increasing the flow of intestinal juice.

How Hindered.—The secretion of the intestinal juice is hindered by food that contains but little bulk, which is largely free from cellulose; also by a sedentary life, thus giving rise to obstinate constipation. Its reaction is generally alkaline, although when a large number of germs are present, it may, on account of the fermentations produced, become acid.

CO-OPERATION AND UNITY IN THE CAUSE OF GOD — A LESSON FROM DIGESTION

The saliva acts upon just one element of the food that is to be transformed into living material—the human temple. The gastric juice likewise acts upon a single element, and this is also true of the bile. The pancreatic juice, however, is able to transform a larger number of food elements, and thus prepare them for suitable material in the construction of the body-temple. This co-operative process of the various digestive juices is a beautiful object lesson of the sympathy, co-operation, and mutual encouragement that should exist among Christian laborers in the many departments of the cause of God. Various forms and diverse methods of labor are required to effect that transformation in the hearts of sinful men which is spoken of as translation from the realm of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Like the saliva, some departments of God’s work are calculated to reach in a special manner but a single class, while other departments, like the pancreatic juice, may be able to act upon and influence a number of the various elements that go to make up human society.

Looking from a different standpoint, we see still another lesson: The food is acted upon step by step, one digestive juice after another performing its characteristic work in preparing the food for assimilation. So the human intellect must be led on step by step, line upon line, precept upon precept, no new light contradicting light formerly received, no new truth undermining truth formerly learned. In conditions of health the various digestive juices co-operate, the presence of one always stimulating the other to activity, as illustrated in the tendency of the saliva to stimulate the flow of gastric juice. And so one truth has a tendency to create hunger and thirst for another truth; and thus, if medical missionary work, the educational work, the canvassing work, the religious liberty work, and various other branches of work are properly related as a whole, representing the great work of transforming fallen men, thus rendering them fit for a place in the heavenly building,—if all these departments of work are properly related, then one will stimulate the other whenever and wherever they come in contact. As the different digestive juices are especially adapted to act upon different food elements, so it will be found that the different lines of work in the cause of God are in a special sense adapted to reach different classes in society. The stomach does not complain of the saliva as doing too much work, neither does the saliva complain of the stomach. It is the work of each of the digestive juices and organs to co-operate one with the others; God has arranged that they shall be a means of mutual stimulation.