The Sun

THE MASTICATION CURE.

German Scientist's Remedy for Indigestion on the Gladstonian Principle.

Mastication is the latest cure for the ills which afflict mankind, says a writer in the Brooklyn Eagle. A German scientist has discovered that indigestion and all the complaints arising from it can be either prevented or cured by obliging patients to bite up thoroughly everything that enters their mouths. Even liquids, such as water, must be chewed to some extent, and soup must receive as much mastication as if it were composed of dirty bread crumbs. According to the scientist who advocates this method, 85 per cent. of the stomach troubles of mankind are caused by improper methods of consuming food and drink. The human mouth, he points out, is neither a mere receptacle for food, nor is it designed solely for tasting. It is as much a digestive organ as the stomach itself. More than half of the process of digestion, he says, should take place in the mouth. It is when the work which should have been performed by the teeth is thrown upon the stomach that indigestion and other troubles ensue. Animals do not have indigestion, says the German discoverer, because those which have been given ruminant teeth never think of bolting their food, as mankind does. The dog bolts its food and does not suffer from indigestion simply because nature has provided it with a digestive apparatus which renders chewing more or less superfluous. Nature, however, stopped with the animals. No man yet investigated has been found to possess the dog's digestive abilities.