THE CENTRIFUGAL GASTRIC NERVES. 49 



convincing records of positive results received no attention in the loud 

 chorus of confident denial, and this all the more because the experimental 

 ai-rangeuients were similar in all these contradictory investigations. 



Quite alone, amongst the records, stands the experiment of two 

 French authors,* who stimulated the vagus of a decapitated criminal, 

 and still saw drops of gastric juice forming on the inner surface of the 

 stomach, forty-five minutes after the execution. I must here remark, 

 however, that this was possibly only an expression of gastric juice out 

 of the glands, such as one may well conceive might occur from the 

 contractions of the stomach-wall set up by the nerve excitation. 

 Later we shall adduce facts which make the appearance of a true 

 secretory activity but little likely under the experimental conditions of 

 these authors. 



It is interesting to observe how differently the question of secretory 

 innervation of the stomach has been treated by German and French 

 physiologists. While the German physiologists, demanding precise and 

 constant results, have maintained till recent times a rigidly dogmatic 

 attitude against secretory innervation of the organ, one can always 

 find related by the French authors this or that apparently convincing 

 experiment, or at least may happen upon forms of expression which 

 assume the existence of such an innervation to be probable. 



Attempts with the sympathetic turned out to be equally negative; 

 consequently, the first two forms of experiment which I have named 

 the division a.nd the excitation of nerves have not yielded results when 

 applied to the gastric glands, or at least not such as have convinced the 

 majority of physiologists. The third method of procedure was, how- 

 ever, strikingly productive. 



In the year 1852 Bidder and Schmidt t had observed that, under 

 certain circumstances, one needs only to excite a dog by the sight of 

 food in order to call forth a secretion of gastric juice. Although some 

 authors could not verify this statement, the majority have been able 

 to convince themselves of its truth. In recent times the French 

 physiologist Richet J has had the opportunity of making observations 

 on a patient on whom the operation of gastrotomy had been perfoi med 

 for an incurable stricture of the oesophagus. Soon after the patient 

 took anything sweet or acid into the mouth, Richet was able to perceive 

 a secretion of pure gastric juice. Bidder and Schmidt's experiments 

 and Richet's observations prove that the nervous system exerts an 

 influence on the secretion of gastric juice, be this direct or indirect. 

 This fact must, therefore, form the point of departure for new researches 



* Regnard et Loye, "Experiences sur un Supplicie," Progr&s Med.. 1SS.V 

 t F. Bidder u. C. Schmidt, Die Verdauungssafte, &<_., 1852. 

 f Journal de I'Anatomie et de la Physiologic^ 1878. 



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