this; it has been shown that meat extracts have a definite chemical effect upon the gastric glands, arousing them directly to activity. A hot, well-flavored soup at the beginning of a meal is a great aid to digestion, both because it tends to arouse us to active enjoyment of the meal and also because of the chemical influence it exerts directly upon our gastric glands. Cheerful conversation at table is an aid to digestion, because it contributes to our enjoyment of our food. Heated or angry discussion is to be avoided because of the danger that unfavorable emotional disturbances may be aroused, hampering or even putting a stop to the digestive activities. We have here a powerful argument in favor of good cookery; some may be inclined to think that food is food and that one kind is about as nourishing as another. Not only theoretically, but in practice, food that is attractive both in appearance and in flavor benefits the body more than unattractive and badly cooked food. Of course, we must recognize that no statement of this sort has absolutely general application. The old proverb which says that “hunger is the best sauce” continues true. Hard-working manual laborers and actively playing children enjoy and digest food that is indifferently attractive. Brain workers and people of moderate health are better for an attractively prepared dietary. We have now traced the food into the small intestine and will remember that up to this point the actual act of digestion has not gone very far. The enzyme of saliva has decomposed part of the starch, or perhaps all of it, into a complex sugar; the enzyme of gastric juice has split some of the very complex proteins into simpler ones. Of the final products of digestion none has yet been formed; their formation is the work of the small intestine. Into the upper end of it, as we have already seen, pancreatic juice and bile are poured from the pancreas and liver respectively. The pancreatic juice contains three enzymes; one of them is identical with that of saliva and completes the decomposition of any starch that the saliva has failed to act upon; the second is an enzyme which acts upon proteins, differing from pepsin of gastric juice in that it carries the splitting of proteins to completion; the third is the enzyme which acts upon fats. Fats are the most troublesome of all the foodstuffs from the digestive standpoint, because they are insoluble in water. Not only do they themselves offer difficulty, but they smear over the other food masses and make it hard for the digestive juices to get at them. Although the enzyme for digesting fat is secreted by the pancreas, its successful working depends on the presence of bile from the liver. If there is an obstruction of the bile passages, so that bile cannot be poured out into the small intestine, the digestion of fats stops and, along with it to a considerable extent, all the other digestive processes of the intestine. There is a familiar common