MEAT EXTRACT A CHEMICAL EXCITANT. 97 



the secretory process in the stomach. From this it seemed natural to 

 conclude that the actual substances which produced the result men- 

 tioned must also be contained in the peptone of Chapoteau. 



The experiments carried out with the above products, especially 

 with solutions of meat extract, are already to be numbered by tens 

 (Dr. Lobassoff}. I give one as an example : 150 c.c. of water in which 

 1 grms. of Liebig's Extract were dissolved, were injected through the 

 fistula into the large stomach of a dog. The first drop of juice appeared 

 thirteen minutes after the introduction of the fluid. In the course of 

 the first hour 5'3 c.c. of juice with a digestive power of 4'25 mm. were 

 secreted ; in the second hour 2'6 c.c. with a digestive power of 4'0 mm. 

 In many cases, these experiments were carried out on sleeping animals, 

 for which purpose the funnel and india-rubber tube for pouring in the 

 fluid naturally had to be connected beforehand with the fistula. The 

 exact nature of the chemical excitant remains as yet unexplained. 

 The reality and significance of the fact, is however, in no way thereby 

 diminished. The individual extractives, such as kreatin, kreatinin, 

 &c., were found to be ineffective. Up to the present we only know, 

 from the experiments of Dr. Lobassoff, that when Liebig's Extract is 

 digested with absolute alcohol, the active bodies for the most part 

 remain behind in the residue. We venture to hope that a more com- 

 plete analysis of the constituents of meat extract will finally bring us 

 on the track of this undiscovered chemical stimulus of gastric secretion. 



Thus, in addition to water, we have at present only found one other 

 chemical excitant, viz., in the extractive materials of fle.sh. Milk and solu- 

 tion of gelatine were, however, also found to be direct chemical stimuli 

 to gastric secretion. What the effective agency in each of these cases is, 

 remains wholly obscure ; whether some exciting constituent is actually 

 present in the substance itself, as in the case of meat, or whether the 

 effective agent must first be formed during the course of digestion, 

 after the water has started a secretion, or finally, whether the material 

 comes into existence under the influence of some other alteiation, 

 remains undecided. One must bear in mind, however, that egg- 

 albumen contrasts with the constituents of milk and with gelatine, 

 in possessing a greater degree of stability, and possibly the secretion 

 excited by water is not sufficient to alter it to such an extent as to 

 render it capable of exciting the gastric glands. 



The remaining food-stuffs, such as starch and fat, proved in 

 Dr. Chigin's hands not to have any exciting effects. Starch, whether 

 boiled or unboiled, and mixed in different proportions with water, had 

 no greater effect, but rather less, than water alone. The same applies 

 to grape-sugar and cane-sugar. The inactivity of starch as a chemical 

 stimulus was made the basis of the following interesting investigation 



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