EFFECT UPON THE DIGESTION. [Footnote: The medical value of alcohol in its relations to digestion is not discussed in this book. The experiments of Dr. Henry Munroe, of Hull, published in the London _Medical Journal_, are here summarized as showing that the tendency to retard digestion is common to all forms of alcoholic drinks. _______________________________________________________________________ Finely Minced | | | | Beef | 2d Hour | 4th Hour | 6th Hour | _______________________________________________________________________ I. | | Digesting | | Gastric Juice | Beef | and | Beef much | and _water_. | opaque. | separating. | loosened. | _______________________________________________________________________ | | Slightly | Slight | II. | No alteration | opaque, but | coating on | Gastric Juice | perceptible. | beef | beef. | with _alcohol_. | | unchanged. | | _______________________________________________________________________ III. | | Cloudy, | beef | Gastric Juice | No change. | with fur | partly | and _pale ale_. | | on beef. | loosened. | _______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Finely Minced | | | Beef | 8th Hour | 10th Hour | ______________________________________________________ I. | | | Gastric Juice | Beef | Broken up | and _water_. | opaque. | into shreds. | ______________________________________________________ | | Solid on | II. | No visible | cooling | Gastric Juice | change. | _Pepsin_ | with _alcohol_. | | precipitated. | ______________________________________________________ III. | | No digestion | Gastric Juice | No further | _Pepsin_ | and _pale ale_. | change. | precipitated. | ______________________________________________________] --Experiments tend to prove that alcohol coagulates and precipitates the pepsin from the gastric juice, and so puts a stop to its great work in the process of digestion.