On the influence of a digestive habit in the production of tuberculosis. and the indications for treatment drawn therefrom / by David J. Brakenridge.

Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the influence of a digestive habit in the production of tuberculosis. and the indications for treatment drawn therefrom / by David J. Brakenridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    c centres alone that we must look for an explanation of these. As the different constituents of our food are ope- rated upon by the secretions of different organs, the func- tional activity of those which have been most used in digestion will be greatest. Hence, most gastric juice will be secreted by the hunting tribes who consume large quantities of ffesh ; most saliva by the inhabitants of warm countries, a great proportion of whose food is starch ; and most bile and pancreatic juice by the fat-digesters of the Arctic regions. These considerations taken together ex- plain what we here mean by habit. We shall find that these habits are governed by every variety of circum- stance. In no two 2^Hces, perhaps in no two individuals, are they exactly alike; but the most striking differences are to be met with in those who live under the most opposite conditions. Each nation has a dietary, more or less peculiarly its own, originating in the demands set up in the system by permanent surrounding agencies, and modified from period to period by the customs of the people and the alimentary resources of the country. The food of each country is preferred and most easily digested by its own inhabitants ; on the other hand, disturbance of the digestive organs is usually the result of a change of country and diet. This holds true with regard to com- paratively slight as well as to great changes. For illus- trations of great difference in diet let us take the two following :—We have the Esquimaux habitually consum- ing large quantities of fat, and showing a great dislike for starchy food,—a typical digester of fats and non-digester of starch; and, on the other hand, we have the Hindoo living on rice and avoiding the rich hydrocarbons,—an habitual non-digester of fats and digester of starch. In these, as in all other cases, we see that the desire for, and digestion of, different kinds of food are evidently regu-