Mary Roach Quote

Experiment 1 began at noon on August 1, 1825. I introduced through the perforation, into the stomach, the following articles of diet, suspended by a silk string: . . . a piece of high seasoned à la mode beef; a piece of raw salted fat pork; a piece of raw salted lean beef; . . . a piece of stale bread; and a bunch of raw sliced cabbage; . . . the lad continuing his usual employment about the house. On the very first day of his research career, Beaumont’s work dealt a bruising blow to Fletcherism*—seventy-five years before it was invented: 2 p.m. Found the cabbage, bread, pork, and boiled beef all cleanly digested and gone from the string. No chewing necessary.* Only the raw beef remained intact.

Mary Roach

Experiment 1 began at noon on August 1, 1825. I introduced through the perforation, into the stomach, the following articles of diet, suspended by a silk string: . . . a piece of high seasoned à la mode beef; a piece of raw salted fat pork; a piece of raw salted lean beef; . . . a piece of stale bread; and a bunch of raw sliced cabbage; . . . the lad continuing his usual employment about the house. On the very first day of his research career, Beaumont’s work dealt a bruising blow to Fletcherism*—seventy-five years before it was invented: 2 p.m. Found the cabbage, bread, pork, and boiled beef all cleanly digested and gone from the string. No chewing necessary.* Only the raw beef remained intact.

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About Mary Roach

Mary Roach (born March 20, 1959) is an American author specializing in popular science and humor. She has published seven New York Times bestsellers: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003), Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005), Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008), Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (2010), Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013), Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (2016), and Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (2021).