3oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



statement;, and is in complete agreement with the results of gastric 

 examination of fasting animals reported by numerous experimenters. 

 There is no secretion into the empty stomach during the first days of 

 starvation. Furthermore, persons suffering from absence of hydro- 

 chloric acid (achylia gastrica) declare that they have normal feelings 

 of hunger. Hydrochloric acid can not therefore be called upon to 

 account for the sensation. 



Hunger not Due to Turgescence of the Gastric Mucosa. — Another 

 theory, which was first advanced by Beaumont, is that hunger arises 

 from turgescence of the gastric glands. 24 The disappearance of the 

 pangs as fasting continues has been accounted for by supposing that the 

 gastric glands share in the general depletion of the body, and that thus 

 the turgescence is relieved. 25 This turgescence theory has commended 

 itself to several recent writers. Thus Luciani has accepted it, and by 

 adding the idea that nerves distributed to the mucosa are specially 

 sensitive to deprivation of food he accounts for the hunger pangs. 26 

 Also Valenti declared two years ago that the turgescence theory of 

 Beaumont is the only one with a semblance of truth in it. 27 The 

 experimental work reported by these two investigators, however, does 

 not necessarily sustain the turgescence theory. Luciani severed the 

 previously exposed vagi after cocainizing them, and Valenti merely 

 cocainized the nerves; the fasting dogs, eager to eat a few minutes 

 previous to this operation, now ran about as before, but when offered 

 food, licked and smelled it, but did not take it. This total neglect of 

 the food lasted varying periods up to two hours. The vagus nerves 

 seem, indeed, to convey impulses which affect the procedure of eating, 

 but there is no clear evidence that those impulses arise from distention 

 of the gland cells. The turgescence theory, moreover, does not explain 

 the effect of taking indigestible material into the stomach. According 

 to Pawlow, and to others who have observed human beings, the chewing 

 and swallowing of unappetizing stuff does not cause any secretion of 

 gastric juice. 28 Yet such stuff when swallowed will cause the disap- 

 pearance of hunger, and Nicolai found that the sensation could be 

 abolished by simply introducing a stomach sound. It is highly improb- 

 able that the turgescence of the gastric glands can be reduced by either 



24 Beaumont, loc. cit., p. 55. 



28 A better explanation perhaps is afforded by Boldireff's discovery that at 

 the end of two or three days the stomachs of fasting dogs begin to secrete 

 gastric juice and continue the secretion indefinitely. (Boldireff, Archives 

 biologiques de St. Petersburg, 1905, XI., p. 98.) 



28 Luciani, Archivio di fisiologia, 1906, III., p. 54. Tiedemann long ago 

 suggested that gastric nerves become increasingly sensitive as fasting progresses. 

 ("Physiologie des Menschen," Darmstadt, 1836, III., p. 22.) 



^Valenti, Archives italiennes de biologie, 1910, LIIL, p. 94. 



28 Pawlow, loc. cit., p. 70; Hornborg, SJcandinavisches Archiv fur Physiologie, 

 1904, XV., p. 248. 



