368 THE WORK OF THE DIGESTIVE GLANDS. 



could be observed day by day or hour by hour from the very beginning 

 to the end, while everything pursued its usual course in other 

 portions of the digestive canal, without the intervention of compli- 

 cations of any kind, either from consecutive trouble in neighbouring 

 parts of the digestive apparatus or from disturbances of general 

 nutrition. The latter are excluded, since the miniature stomach takes 

 no part in the general work of digestion. It acts upon no food, and no 

 stimulus takes origin in it which reacts either on the large stomach or 

 on the intestine, since it is always empty. An exception is, however, to 

 be made of the short interval when the unusual stimulus, the pathogenic 

 influence, operates on the walls of the small cavity. This might reflexly 

 afiect the remaining parts of the digestive canal. But in these experi- 

 ments we are almost wholly concerned with a study of the patho- 

 logical conditions of the peptic glands themselves, that is, of their cells. 

 When, however, the large stomach is acted upon by noxious agencies, 

 we are able on the one hand to see the reflex effects in the small 

 cavity as well as to observe the disturbance provoked by a general dis- 

 order of digestive activity on the other. In this way it is possible to 

 separately investigate the diseases of the reflex transmitting part of 

 the surface of the stomach, as well as those of the glandular layer. 



Our results were as follows : When powerfully acting substances, 

 such as absolute alcohol, a 0'2 per cent, sublimate solution, a 10 per 

 cent, solution of nitrate of silver, or a strong emulsion of oil of mustard, 

 were introduced for a few minutes into the small stomach, they pro- 

 duced a more or less considerable, indeed, in many cases an enormous 

 secretion of mucus. (Experiments of Dr. J. C. /Saiurieiv.) One might 

 think this was a serious pathological condition, an acute mucous 

 catarrh. Is it, however, a condition of disease ? In extreme cases, 

 more than one hundred times the normal amount of mucus was 

 secreted by the irritated surface. At times, only mucus instead of 

 juice was obtained during the whole period of secretion, and yet I 

 ask again, is it a morbid state? Often, after the lapse of an hour or 

 two, the more or less copious secretion of mucus, which immediately 

 appeared upon the application of the irritating substance, had wholly 

 exhausted itself ; or an enormous flow of mucus, which on the day of 

 the experiment had completely suppressed the normal secretion of 

 gastric juice, may, on the next day, to one's utter astonishment, have 

 disappeared without leaving a trace behind. The contrast between the 

 intensity of the phenomenon and its short duration is really striking. 

 One cannot resist the idea that in the cases described no morbid con- 

 dition had as yet been established, but rather that the pathogenic 

 influences had been successfully battled with and conquered before our 

 eyes. Has not the true physiological function of the surface epithelium 



