The chewing of our food is a subject of more or less interest to all of us. Beginning with the precept inculcated in every nursery, we are constantly admonished throughout life that thorough mastication is a prerequisite to health; while a rather recent school of thought contends that the whole process of bodily nutrition is markedly affected by the preliminary treatment of food in the mouth. Mastication is an entirely voluntary act, while the performance of swallowing is a complicated reflex movement, which may be initiated voluntarily, but is, for the most part, completed independently of the will. Under normal conditions the presence of moist food on the tongue seems essential to the completion of this act, and I might add that a pleasant taste, coupled with a favorable mental attitude, still further facilitates the passage of food down the esophagus. Too rapid eating, or tachyphagia, is a frequent fault,