498 OF FOOD, AND THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS. 



a. Dr. A. Combe's commentary on the above passage is too apposite to be omitted. 

 " Many persons who obviously live too freely, protest against the fact, because they feel no 

 immediate inconvenience, either from the quantity of food, or the stimulants in which they 

 habitually indulge; or, in other words, because they experience no pain, sickness, or head- 

 ache, nothing, perhaps, except slight fulness and oppression, which soon go off. Observa- 

 tion extended over a Mifh'cient length of time, however, shows that the conclusion drawn is 

 entirely fallacious, and that the real amount of injury is not felt at the moment, merely be- 

 cause, for a wise purpose, nature has deprived us of any consciousness of either the exist- 

 ence or the state of tile stomach during health. In accordance with this, Dr. Beaumont's 

 experiments prove, that extensive erythematic inflammation of the mucous coat of the sto- 

 mach was of frequent occurrence in St. Martin after excesses in eating, and especially in 

 drinking, even when no marked general symptom was present to indicate its existence. 

 Occasionally, febrile heat, nausea, headache, and thirst were complained of, but not always. 

 Had St. Martin's stomach, and its inflamed patches, not been visible to the eye, he too might 

 have been pleased that his temporary excesses did him no harm; but, when they presented 

 themselves in such legible characters, that Dr. Beaumont could not miss seeing them, argu- 

 ment and supposition were at an end, and the broad fact could not be denied." 



b. The observations of Dr. Beaumont have been confirmed by those of M. Blondlot (Traite 

 Analytique de la Digestion), and of M. Ch. Bernard (Archiv. d'Anat. Gen. et de Physiol., 

 Jan. 1S4G); which were made upon Dogs, in whose stomachs fistulous openings were main- 

 tained for a length of time. They found that, although a slightmechanical irritation, applied 

 directly to the mucous surface of the stomach, excites at once an abundant flow of gastric 

 fluid, yet if this irritation be carried beyond certain limits, so as to produce pain, the secre- 

 tion, instead of being more abundant, diminishes or ceases entirely; whilst a ropy mucus is 

 poured out instead, and the movements of the stomach are considerably increased. The 

 animal at the same time appears ill at ease, is agitated, has nausea, and, if the irritation be 

 continued, actual vomiting; and bile has been observed to flow into the stomach, and es- 

 cape by the fistulous opening. Similar disorders of the functions of the stomach result from 

 violent pain in other parts of the body; the process of digestion in such cases being sus- 

 pended, and sometimes vomiting excited. When accidulated substances, as food rendered 

 acid by the addition of a little vinegar, were introduced into the stomach, the quantity of 

 gastric fluid poured out was much smaller, and the digestive process consequently slower, 

 than when similar food, rendered alkaline by a weak solution of carbonate of soda, was in- 

 troduced. If, however, instead of a weak solution, carbonate of soda, in crystal or in pow- 

 der, was introduced into the stomach, a large quantity of mucus and bile, instead of gastric 

 fluid, flowed into the stomach ; and vomiting and purging very often followed. When very 

 cold water, or small pieces of ice, were introduced into the stomach, the mucous membrane 

 was at first rendered very pallid ; but soon a kind of reaction followed, the membrane be- 

 came turgid with blood, and a large quantity of gastric fluid was secreted. If, however, too 

 much ice was employed, the animal appeared ill, and shivered; and digestion, instead of 

 being rendered more active, was retarded. Moderate heat, applied to the mucous surface of 

 the stomach, appeared to have no particular action on digestion; but a high degree of heat 

 produced most serious consequences. Thus, the introduction of a little boiling water threw 

 the animal at once into a kind of adynamic state, which was followed by death in three or 

 four hours; the* mucous membrane of the stomach was found red and swollen, whilst an 

 abundant exudation of blackish blood had taken place into the cavity of the organ. Similar 

 injurious cHivis resulted in a greater or less degree, from the introduction of other irritants, 

 Mich ;is niinitc of silver or ammonia; the digestive functions being at once abolished, and 

 the mucous surface of the organ rendered highly sensitive. 



659. The food which is propelled along the oesophagus, enters the Stomach 

 through its cardiac orifice, in successive waves: and it is immediately sub- 

 jected to a peculiar peristaltic movement, which has for its object to produce 

 the thorough intermixture of the gastric fluid with the alimentary mass, and 

 also to aid the solution of the latter by the gentle trituration to which it is thus 

 subjected. The fasciculi composing the muscular wall of the human stomach, 

 are so disposed as to shorten its diameter in every direction ; and by the al- 

 ternate contraction and relaxation of these bands, a great variety of motion is 

 induced in this organ, sometimes transversely, and at other times longitudi- 

 nally. "These motions," Dr. Beaumont remarks, "not only produce a con- 

 stant disturbance or churning of the contents of the stomach, but they compel 

 them, at the same time, to revolve about the interior from point to point, and 

 from one extremity to the other." In addition to these movements, there is 



