In using cold substances, it is found
that a certain degree of warmth in the stomach is indispensable to
their digestion; so that, when the gastric juice is cooled below this
temperature, it ceases to act. Indulging in large quantities of cold
drinks, or eating ice-creams, after a meal, tends to reduce the
temperature of the stomach, and thus to stop digestion. This shows the
folly of those refreshments, in convivial meetings, where the guests
are tempted to load the stomach with a variety such as would require
the stomach of a stout farmer to digest; and then to wind up with ice-
creams, thus lessening whatever ability might otherwise have existed
to digest the heavy load. The fittest temperature for drinks, if taken
when the food is in the digesting process, is blood heat. Cool drinks,
and even ice, can be safely taken at other times, if not in excessive
quantity. When the thirst is excessive, or the body weakened by fatigue,
or when in a state of perspiration, large quantities of cold drinks
are injurious.
Fluids taken into the stomach are not subject to the slow process of
digestion, but are immediately absorbed and carried into the blood.
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