Vegetable Albumen, Fat atid Starch. 327 



evidence in favour of this position, and it might be strength- 

 ened, if necessary, by the results obtained by other experi- 

 menters. The contents of the stomach of a dog which had 

 been fed on porridge made of oatmeal and water, and which 

 afforded an acid reaction with litmus paper, were mixed with 

 distilled water and filtered. On exposing the distilled liquor 

 to the heat of an open fire in a retort, a fluid passed over pos- 

 sessing an acid reaction, and becoming opalescent on the ad- 

 dition of a solution of nitrate of silver, and without disappear- 

 ance in contact with nitric acid ; a result plainly indicative of 

 the presence of chlorine in some form in the liquor of the re- 

 ceiver, but, as appeared by the subsequent inquiries, to be ex- 

 plained by the iact that muriate of ammonia must have been 

 carried over by the vapour of water in consequence of the 

 excess of heat. 



To determine in a satisfactory manner therefore the presence 

 of a volatile acid, it is necessary to distil the fluid contents of 

 the stomach in a water-bath. With this consideration in view 

 the following experiment was made. June 1844, a pig was 

 fed on potatoes and greens, and was killed in half an hour 

 after the food was swallowed. The stomach was slit open, 

 and as much of the fluid contents as possible were poured off; 

 the solid contents were then digested in cold distilled water. 

 Both fluids were filtered and mixed, each previous to being 

 united being found to exhibit an acid reaction with litmus in- 

 fusion. To ascertain whether the statement made by a French 

 physiologist (Blondlot) is correct, viz. that the acid of the 

 stomach cannot be saturated with chalk, a quantity of pure 

 carbonate of lime was prepared by dissolving Irish limestone 

 in hydrochloric acid, precipitating a small portion of phosphate 

 of lime and iron which it contains with caustic ammonia, and 

 then throwing down the lime with carbonate of ammonia, col- 

 lecting the precipitate on a filter, washing it well with distilled 

 water, and heating it to redness in a platinum crucible. An 

 excess of this chalk was then added to the filtered fluid of the 

 stomach, and the mixture was allowed to remain for twenty- 

 four hours, disturbed only by frequent agitation. It was then 

 filtered, and found to have been completely neutralized. Ha- 

 ving often repeated this experiment on various specimens of 

 gastric fluid with the same effect, I can only account lor the 

 different result obtained by Blondlot, by supposing that he had 

 attempted to complete his neutralization of the fluid while it 

 was in a heated state, and that possibly, if acetic or lactic acids 

 were present, these acids might resist neutralization at an 

 elevated temperature, since it has been found by manufac- 

 turers of pyroligneous acid that they cannot succeed in form- 



