O'SHEA — ASPECTS OF MENTAL ECONOMY. 141 



subject is required first to abstain from all food for ten or twelve 

 hours ; and lie is then given to eat a bowl of Granose, a dry 

 wheat product, He is not allowed any fluids at this test meal. 

 After one hour the contents of the stomach are extracted and 

 subjected to physical and chemical examination. The chemi- 

 cal examination reveals, to begin with, the amount of chlorine 

 present in different forms, which determines the acidity of the 

 stomach and so the power of proteid digestion. This analysis 

 reveals three main types of digestive disorder, — hyperpepsia, 

 hypopepsia, and apepsia. Speaking in a general way, hyper- 

 pepsia denotes an excessively acid stomach, hypopepsia a stom- 

 ach in which there is not enough of acid for proper digestion, 

 and apepsia a stomach in which there is almost no native power 

 of proteid digestion. These types of stomachs are indicated in 

 the charts by the different colored areas, the red denoting the 

 hyper-acid stomach, so to speak, and the blue the sub-acid stom- 

 ach. 



The test for chlorine in its different combinations shows, in 

 the first place, the total acid condition of the stomach, which 

 is denoted in the chart by A. Taking a given quantity of stom- 

 ach fluid, usually 100 cubic centimeters, it has been determined 

 that the normal amount of acid ranges from .180 to .200 grams. 

 This is indicated in the chart by the purple area, denoting that 

 a stomach containing this proportion of acid is normal in its 

 digestive power. Then the figures above and below the normal 

 area denote the relative proportion of excess or lack of acidity. 

 The column headed H denotes the amount of free hydrochloric 

 acid which has been found in the quantity of stomach fluid ex- 

 amined. It is calculated that the normal amount in 100 cubic 

 centimeters of stomach fluid ranges from .025 to .050 ; all quan- 

 tities above this amount are excessive, those below are insuffi- 

 cient for proper digestion. The column headed C denotes the 

 amount of combined chlorine; that headed A' indicates the 

 amount of free hydrochloric acid and combined chlorine taken 

 together. A' represents the quantity of work, without refer- 

 ence to quality, which the stomach does. 



