TEE PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION 183 



food, which being exposed to their vessels is taken up; but the fluid thus taken 

 up can not be imitated by any mixture of earth and water, any more than we 

 can imitate chyle by combining aliments with the fluids of the alimentary 

 canal. As we thus have proofs the one is a secretory process, why not admit 

 that of the other to be so also, since the circumstances of each so perfectly agree. 



One hundred years later the obscure importance of the absorbing 

 alimentary tract must still be emphasized. In the words of a popular 

 textbook: the energy that controls absorption resides in the wall of 

 the intestine, presumably in the epithelial cells and constitutes a special 

 form of imbibition which is not yet understood. Thus the dignity of 

 the living structures still remains unchallenged. 



The uncertainty regarding the acidity of the gastric juice which 

 still prevailed twenty years after Young's paper was. published has 

 already been mentioned. Even as late as 1812 Montegre insisted that 

 what was supposed to be gastric juice is nothing but swallowed saliva. 

 An American, Professor Smith, suggested that digestion is performed 

 " by the veins of the stomach, and by the liver." Vague ideas like 

 these, in contrast with modest experimental inquiries illustrated by the 

 monograph which we have reviewed in some detail, led Dr. Beaumont 

 to remark: 



It is unfortunate for the interests of physiological science that it generally 

 falls to the lot of men of vivid imaginations, and great powers of mind, to 

 become restive under the restraints of a tedious and routine mode of thinking, 

 and to strike out into bold and original hypotheses to elucidate the operations 

 of nature, or to account for the phenomena that are constantly submitting to 

 their inspection. The process of developing truth, by patienc and persevering 

 investigation, experiment and research, is incompatible with unrestrained genius. 

 The drudgery of science is left to humbler and more unpretending laborers. 

 The flight of genius is, however, frequently erratic. 



