Part 17

ELMER: First, the passage, which is the mouth, down the steep stairs or gullet, through the stomach kitchen, through the serving room, the eating room, or small intestine, and from there straight to the heart, or else by another road through the liver to the same place.

MOTHER: Very good. Now what juices make the bread ready to become blood.

PERCY: First, the saliva in the mouth.

AMY: And gastric juice in the stomach.

HELEN: Then bile from the liver, and pan-cre-at´ic juice from the pancreas.

ELMER: The last was the in-tes´tin-al juice.

MOTHER: That is right, and let me tell you that in our bodies about twenty pounds of juices are made every day. Now I think we can remember that the food passes through five rooms, and it takes five juices to make it into blood. Two of the juice family, which have the long names, in-tes´tin-al and pan-cre-at´ic, are willing to work on all parts of the food. The others work chiefly on one part only. Saliva digests starch. Bile works on fats. Gastric juice takes the part which is called al-bu´men.

“Behind the bread, the snowy flour; Behind the flour, the mill; Behind the mill, the growing wheat Nods on the breezy hill; Over the wheat is the glowing sun, Ripening the heart of the grain; Above the sun is the gracious God, Sending the sunlight and the rain.”

FOOD AND FUEL

MOTHER: See that engine. Can you tell me what gives it the power or strength to draw its heavy load?

HELEN: Steam gives it power.

MOTHER: And what makes the steam?

ELMER: The fire in the furnace makes the water boil, and steam comes from the boiling water.

MOTHER: Then the engine can do nothing unless it has fuel to burn and water to boil. It might be the best ever made, and yet do no work and have no power even to move itself. Do you suppose the engineer is careful to take plenty of the best fuel he can get, and to have a good supply of water, when he has a long journey and a heavy train?

PERCY: I am sure he would be. I have read that it is counted one of the worst things an engineer can do to let his boiler get dry.

MOTHER: Well, in some ways our bodies are like the engine. Can you guess what the fuel is we must have?

AMY: Oh, I know! It is the food we eat.

ELMER: And we must have water to drink, too.

MOTHER: Yes; but what would you think of an engine driver who would fill the furnace of his engine with stones or sand, and fill the boiler with beer or whisky?

PERCY: I think he wouldn’t have much steam, and his engine would soon be ruined.

MOTHER: Then what shall we say about food and drink for the body, which is a hundred times more perfect in all its parts than the best engine men ever built, and so is much more apt to be injured?

HELEN: We ought to give it the very best food and drink we can get.

MOTHER: I think so, too. You know an engine works several hours, and is then sent to an engine house to be made ready for another trip, and, while it is running, the driver steps out at every station, almost, with his oil-can in one hand and something to clean with in the other, and he keeps cleaning it, oiling it, feeding it, and letting it drink till he comes to the end of his journey. Can you think how the body is different from this?

ELMER: When the body-machine starts running in the journey of life, it never stops to rest till it is worn out and can work no more.

MOTHER: Yes, and we must remember that some parts work night and day, summer and winter, as long as we live. Yet they are wearing out all the time, and must be fed and cleaned and cared for while they are working. There are some railroads made with tanks or ditches between the rails, and the engine takes water without stopping. So our bodies must take food, drink, and all they need without stopping the living machinery. It is true some parts must rest every day; but others never stop working till we die. We should study, then, to know what we ought to eat and drink to make up the waste and keep the body well. Some kinds of birds and animals live on flesh. Others eat only grass and grains. The squirrel and the monkey eat nuts and fruits. Can you tell me some of the different things that men use as food?

AMY: They eat flesh, grains, and fruits.

ELMER: And we eat other things, such as salt, sugar, and milk.

MOTHER: Yes, while people can eat all these things, yet all of them are not the very best food, and, like the careful engineer, we should learn just what is good for the human machine, and give it only the best of what it can use. What do you think was given to men to eat at first?