of the Eighth Pair of Nerves. 300 



into the cavity of tlie belly, which efForded me a distinct view 

 of its motion. 



I must now observe, in relation to the appearances oi digestion^ 

 that I have not drawn my conclusions without frequent compara- 

 tive observations upon the stomachs of rabbits, (these being the 

 animals which I principally employed), after feeding them with 

 parsley,8ubsequently to some hours* fasting, and killing them at 

 different periods. Such observations on rabbits simply de- 

 stroyed without dividing the par vagum, compared with those 

 on which division of the nerves had been practised, led me to 

 observe that no difference was at all perceptible in the state 

 of the food amongst the rabbits examined and compared, be- 

 yond the greater or less degree of progress which digestion had 

 made in either ; whilst in all which were operated on, the 

 parsley eaten at the time of dividing the nerves chiefly occupied 

 the cardiac portion of the stomach, was more or less moist and 

 brown, and more or less enveloped with chyme; appearances 

 precisely coinciding with those of the rabbits not operated on. More- 

 over, no difference could be detected in the odour emitted from 

 the contents of the stomachs ; and in an animal fed after a long 

 fast, and then immediately killed, the parsley in the stomach 

 exactly resembled that of the oesophagus in ^:he rabbits operated 

 on, being free from a mixture of fluid, and of a bright green 

 colour; being, in fact, nothing else in appearance but simplo 

 chopped parsley, unacted upon to the smell as well as 

 to the eye. If any doubts can exist as to the appearances I 

 have described being any other than those which result from 

 digestion, I appeal to the experiment on the dog, in which a 

 small quantity of whey remained after he had drank a saucer 

 full of milk, and the curd had disappeared. I may appeal also 

 to the experiment of the second horse, in which the animal having 

 eaten of hay freely during twenty-four hours of apparent 

 absence of all symptoms, there was found scarcely any hay in 

 the stomach. In addition to which it is to be observed that 

 this horse, as well as the dog and the rabbits, passed faeces and 

 urine naturally at different periods, after the division of the 

 nerves. 



