orking the food much as a baker kneads dough. This is
done to mix the gastric juice with the food.

~6.~ After an hour or two the stomach squeezes the food so hard that a
little of it, which has been digested by the gastric juice and the
saliva, escapes through the lower opening, the pylorus, of which we have
already learned. As the action of the stomach continues, more of the
digested food escapes, until all that has been properly acted upon has
passed out.

~7. Intestinal Digestion.~--We sometimes eat butter with bread, or take
some other form of fat in our food. This is not acted upon by the saliva
or the gastric juice. When food passes out of the stomach into the small
intestine, a large quantity of bile is at once poured upon it. This bile
has been made beforehand by the liver and stored up in the gall-bladder.
The bile helps to digest fats, which the saliva and the gastric juice
cannot digest.

~8.~ The pancreatic juice does the same kind of work that is done by the
saliva, the gastric juice, and the bile. It also finishes up the work
done by these fluids. It is one of the most important of all the
digestive juices.

~9.~ The intestinal juice digests nearly all the different elements of
the food, so that it is well fitted to complete the wonderful process by
which the food is made ready to enter the blood and to nourish the body.

~10.~ While the food is being acted upon by the bile, the pancreatic
juice, and intestinal juice, it is gradually moved along the intestines.
After all those portions of food which can be digested have been
softened and dissolved, they are ready to be taken into the blood and
distributed through the body.

~11. Absorption.~--If you put a dry sponge into water, it very soon
becomes wet by soaking up the water. Indeed, if you only touch a corner
of the sponge to the water, the whole sponge will soon become wet. We
say that the sponge absorbs the water. It is in a somewhat similar way
that the food is taken up or absorbed by the walls of the stomach and
intestines. When the food is absorbed, the greater part of it is taken
into the blood-vessels, of which we shall learn in a future lesson.

~12. Liver Digestion.~--After the food has been absorbed, the most of it
is carried to the liver, where the process of digestion is completed.
The liver also acts like an inspector to examine the digested food and
remove hurtful substances which may be taken with it, such as alcohol,
mustard, pep