The peritoneum, when in health, secretes only enough fluid to keep its surface lubricated so that the bowels may move freely and smoothly on each other and on the other viscera.  In disease this fluid may increase in amount, and the abdominal cavity may become greatly distended.  This is known as ascites or dropsy.

[23] The human bile when fresh is generally of a bright golden red, sometimes of a greenish yellow color.  It becomes quite green when kept, and is alkaline in reaction.  When it has been omited it is distinctly yellow, because of its action on the gastric juice.  The bile contains a great deal of coloring matter, and its chief ingiedients are two salts of soda, sodium taurocholate and glycocholate.

[24] Nansen emphasizes this point in his recently published work, Farthest North.

[25] We should make it a point not to omit a meal unless forced to do so.  Children, and even adults, often have the habit of going to school or to work in a hurry, without eating any breakfast.  There is almost sure to be a fainting, or “all-gone” feeling at the stomach before another mealtime.  This habit is injurious, and sure to produce pernicious results.

[26] The teeth of children should be often examined by the dentist, especially from the beginning of the second dentition, at about the sixth year, until growth is completed.  In infancy the mother should make it a part of her daily care of the child to secure perfect cleanliness of the teeth.  The child thus trained will not, when old enough to rinse the mouth properly or to use the brush, feel comfortable after a meal until the teeth have been cleansed.  The habit thus formed is almost sure to be continued through life.

[27] “If the amount of alcohol be increased, or the repetition become frequent, some part of it undergoes acid fermentation in the stomach, and acid eructations or vomitings occur.  With these phenomena are associated catarrh of the stomach and liver with its characteristic symptoms,—­loss of appetite, feeble digestion, sallowness, mental depression, and headache.”—­James C. Wilson, Professor in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.

“Man has recourse to alcohol, not for the minute quantity of energy which may be supplied by itself, but for its powerful influence on the distribution of the energy furnished by other things.  That influence is a very complex one.”—­Professor Michael Foster.

[28] “When constantly irritated by the direct action of alcoholic drinks, the stomach gradually undergoes lasting structural changes.  Its vessels remain dilated and congested, its connective tissue becomes excessive, its power of secreting gastric juice diminishes, and its mucous secretions abnormally abundant.”—­H.  Newell Martin, late Professor of Physiology in Johns Hopkins University.

“Chemical experiments have demonstrated that the action of alcohol on the digestive fluids is to destroy its active principle, the pepsin, thus confirming the observations of physiologists that its use gives ride to the most serious disorders of the stomach and the most malignant aberrations of the entire economy.”—­Professor E. C. Youmans, author of standard scientific works.