132 THE WORK OF THE DIGESTIVE GLANDS. 



be studied in a precise and detailed manner ; that is to say, the altera- 

 tions of secretory activity, the properties of the fluids, and the conditions 

 under which they appear could be examined. On such animals thera- 

 peutic remedies could also be tested, the whole process of healing and 

 the final result experimentally observed, while the conditions of secretory 

 activity during every phase of the healing process could be investigated. 

 It can hardly be doubted that scientific, that is to say ideal, medicine, 

 can only take its proper position as a science when, in addition to an 

 Experimental Physiology and Pathology, there has also been built up 

 an Experimental Therapeutics. A proof that this is possible is furnished 

 by the recent vigorous strides made by the science of bacteriology. 



I have already described one of such pathological therapeutic experi- 

 ments, namely, on the dog whose vagi nerves were divided in the neck. 

 Other similar cases I can also call to mind. Our dog with the two 

 stomachs suffered at one time from a slight and transitory gastric 

 catarrh. It was then very interesting to observe that the pathological 

 process (which we were usually able to wholly guard against) spread from 

 the large to the small stomach. It manifested itself here in an almost 

 continuous slimy secretion of very slight acidity, but of strong digestive 

 power. At the beginning of the ailment, indeed before it became fully 

 established, the psychic stimulation was remarkably effective (that is to 

 say, still furnished juice in appropriate quantity), while local excitants 

 almost completely failed. One may conceive that the deeper layers of 

 the mucous membrane with the gastric glands were still healthy, and 

 thus easily thrown into activity by central impulses, whilst the surface 

 of the membrane with the end-apparatus of the centripetal nerves 

 was already distinctly damaged. I mention these, which I may call 

 impressions rather than precise observations, because I wish to point 

 out what a fruitful field awaits the investigator who wishes to study, 

 with the aid of our present methods, the pathological conditions of 

 the digestive organs and their treatment. Such an investigation is all 

 the more desirable, because clinical study of the same subject (not- 

 withstanding the zeal devoted to it during the last ten years and 

 the results derived therefrom), has to contend with serious difficulties. 

 We must not forget that the sound or stomach-tube, the chief clinical 

 instrument, is more uncomfortable than the ordinary form of gastric 

 fistula which was previously practised on animals, and yet the physiology 

 of the stomach, even with the aid of the latter, made no material pro- 

 gress for many long years. Nor is this difficult to understand. The 

 investigator obtained through the fistula a mixture of substances from 

 which it was difficult, or even at times impossible, to decide anything. 



Hence the exact scientific study of therapeutic questions in this 

 region still belongs to the future. But this does not exclude_the prob- 



