This is the reason why soups are deemed bad for
weak stomachs; as this residuum is more difficult of digestion than
ordinary food.
Highly-concentrated food, having much nourishment in a small bulk, is
not favorable to digestion, because it can not 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, fruits
and vegetables are mixed with more highly concentrated nourishment.
For this reason also, soups, jellies, and arrow-root should have bread
or crackers mixed with them. This affords another reason 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.
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