178 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



tunity to see the effects of their gastric liquor. The whole external surface of 

 the frog was acted upon, the muscles having, superficially, quite lost their 

 texture; some parts of the backbone were bare, the spinous processes of which 

 were quite soft. Upon introducing a forceps, a second time, the hinder parts 

 of a second frog were found, which shewed the effects of their fluids in a still 

 greater degree : the muscles of the thigh were reduced to a complete jelly, though 

 still retaining their form; some parts of the bones that were covered with flesh 

 were quite soft and flexible. Upon extracting the contents of the stomach of the 

 second frog, it was found to contain a field mouse, about a third larger than our 

 common mouse: its whole surface was quite soft, having entirely lost its 

 texture ; the fore legs were nearly disconnected from its body, the bones of which 

 were soft; the bones of other parts of the body were also examined; they were 

 all soft. But what was most surprising, the teeth of this animal did not escape; 

 the incisors were, as Dr. Jacobs witnessed, soft and flexible, having the appear- 

 ance of a piece of half dried tendon. Neither the frog nor the mouse had any 

 acid or putrid smell. 



It appeared very evident from the preceding experiment that the fluids of 

 these animals acted upon bones; but in order to ascertain whether they could 

 dissolve them completely down, the following experiment was performed. The 

 head and all the bones of the mouse were cleared of their flesh, and forced into 

 the empty stomach of one of the frogs; he was then put into a jar of water. 

 In two days, the bones were all discharged in the form of a mortar; by rubbing 

 it between the fingers, small pieces of bone were distinguishable. This will 

 serve to shew us the powerful action of an apparently inert fluid on an animal 

 matter, sparing not bones, nor even the teeth of animals. 



Being desirous of knowing the length of time they would require to dissolve 

 down a small frog, the following experiment was performed. A packthread was 

 tied to the hind legs of a living spring frog; its head was then put into the 

 mouth of one of the large frogs; as soon as he felt it move it was swallowed 

 greedily. In five hours it was drawn up by means of the thread; the skin and 

 external surface of the muscles were tender. It was again introduced; in the 

 space of seven hours, it was drawn up a second time; the abdominal muscles 

 were now dissolved, and the intestines had protruded; the bones of the feet 

 were soft, and separable from the leg by the least force; in a word, the whole 

 was a complete dissolved mass. It was swallowed a third time, and attempted 

 to be drawn up in six hours afterwards; but it had so far lost its texture that 

 the two legs, to which the thread was tied, could only be brought up; the bones 

 of these were soft and flexible, as before mentioned. Many experiments of this 

 kind were made to see the effects of their gastric menstruum : in many cases, 

 after giving them small frogs, the trunk and head of these animals were drawn 

 out of their stomachs complete skeletons, but the bones were always soft, and 

 felt like tender cartilage. In all the half-digested substances which were at 

 different times taken from their stomachs, as frogs, veal, beef, etc., an acid was 

 constantly found present: they were seldom examined before two hours after 

 being swallowed; at this short interval when their surfaces were touched with 

 litmus paper, it was turned red. 



Snakes, like the large frogs, also swallow their food without mastication: 

 many experiments were therefore also made on them, by forcing frogs, lizards, 

 etc., into their stomachs, to see the effects of solution: they agreed in every 

 respect with what has been said of frogs, like them perfectly dissolving down 

 entire animals. The only difference between them was, that the solution of 

 snakes went on only about half as fast as that of the large frogs. 



