92 THE WORK OF THE DIGESTIVE GLANDS. 



lack of nutrition, which has not yet been transformed into a concrete 

 passionate desire. A good example which enables us to differentiate 

 between these two factors is furnished by our dogs with sham feeding. 

 The necessity for food exists in such cases, even before the experiment ; 

 the juice, however, only begins to flow as soon as this need has taken 

 the form of a passionate longing. It is therefore quite possible that in 

 the case of some dogs, and at a certain stage of hunger, the touching of 

 the gastric mucous membrane with any object at hand, its mechanical 

 excitation; its distension by the food mass, may give the impulse which 

 excites tlie appetite; and when the appetite is awakened the juice 

 flows. This is possibly a third reason why, in the old experiment, the 

 mechanical stimulus came to be considered effective. Viewed from 

 this point it may, to a certain degree, lead to a reconciliation between 

 my assertion concerning the inefliciency of the mechanical stimulus anil 

 the generally prevailing belief. I further also admit that mechanical 

 excitation will at times call into play the work of the gastric glands, 

 not however directly by means of a simple physiological leflex, but 

 indirectly, after it has firttt awakened and enlivened the idea of food in 

 the dog's consciousness, and thereby called forth the passionate desire. I 

 hope that the foregoing will in no way lead to a confusion of ideas in 

 your minds, but will assist you to an exact and concrete analysis of the 

 previous simple explanation of the facts. This representation, which 

 bears more or less of a hypothetical character, could, of course, be sub- 

 mitted to experimental proof. For such, it is only necessary to com pa re 

 the influence which sham feeding exercises in an oesophagotomised dog 

 with that in one having a simple gastric fistula. 



