ORANGE SEEDS | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1888

ORANGE SEEDS.

Now that oranges are plentiful again it may be well to speak of the danger resulting from swallowing the seeds. The cæcum or "blind intestine" is at the extremity of the small intestine, where it terminates in the colon. It has but one opening, and hence is called "the death-trap," as seeds lodged here find no way out, and cause inflammation and death. A man prominent in business in New York a few years ago died of the inflammation that followed one grape seed lodged in the cæcum. A lad of our acquaintance died of two or three orange seeds lodged in the cæcum. In the herbivorous animals the cæcum is large and secretes an acid fluid which assists digestion. In man the use of the cæcum is unknown. It is an outrage upon the stomach to swallow anything that it cannot readily digest. Whatever goes through the œsophagus should first be thoroughly ground in the ivory mill, placed at the entrance of the alimentary canal. Those who will swallow orange seeds should first chew them fine.—Selected.