from
external cold by several folds of this membrane loaded with fat. This is
known as the _great omentum_.

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