is perspiring freely, taking a large quantity
of cold drink has often produced instant death.

Fluids taken into the stomach are not subject to the slow process of
digestion, but are immediately absorbed and carried into the blood. This
is the reason why drink, more speedily than food, restores from
exhaustion. The minute vessels of the stomach inhale or absorb its
fluids, which are carried into the blood, just as the minute extremities
of the arteries open upon the inner surface of the stomach, and there
exude the gastric juice from the blood.

When food is chiefly liquid, (soup, for example,) the fluid part is
rapidly absorbed. The solid parts remain, to be acted on by the gastric
juice. In the case of St. Martin,[F] in fifty minutes after taking soup,
the fluids were absorbed, and the remainder was even thicker than is
usual after eating solid food. This is the reason why soups are deemed
bad for weak stomachs; as this residuum is more difficult of digestion
than ordinary food. In recovering from sickness, beef-tea and broths are
good, because the system then demands fluids to supply its loss of
blood.

Highly-concentrated food, having much nourishment in a small bulk, is
not favorable to digestion, because it cannot be properly acted on by
the muscular contractions of the stomach, and is not so minutely
divided, as to enable the gastric juice to act properly. This is the
reason, why a certain _bulk_ of food is needful to good digestion; and
why those people, who live on whale oil, and other highly-nourishing
food, in cold climates, mix vegetables and even sawdust with it, to make
it more acceptable and digestible. So, in civilized lands, bread,
potatoes, and vegetables, are mixed with more highly-concentrated
nourishment. This explains why coarse bread, of unbolted wheat, so often
proves beneficial. Where, from inactive habits, or other causes, the
bowels become constipated and sluggish, this kind of food proves the
appropriate remedy. One fact on this subject is worthy of notice. Under
the administration of William Pitt, for two years or more, there was
such a scarcity of wheat, that, to make it hold out longer, Parliament
passed a law, that the army should have all their bread made of unbolted
flour. The result was, that the health of the soldiers improved so much,
as to be a subject of surprise to themselves, the officers, and the
physicians. These last came out publicly, and declared, that the
soldiers never