464 REHFUSS— THE NORMAL GASTRIC SECRETION. 



We found this " residuum " of the empty stomach one of the 

 lightest fluids in the body with an average specific gravity of 1.0056 

 and an average cryoscopic index of — 0.470 which when compared to 

 the index of blood — .0560 seems to indicate a tendency for osmosis 

 of material to take place from the blood into the lumen of the 

 stomach. We found bile in almost one half the normal residua, and 

 this phenomenon may be present or absent in the same individual 

 without any subjective phenomena whatsoever. 



We then made an investigation of many substances in the stomach 

 of the normal healthy subject and used for that purpose water, meat 

 extracts, tea, toast and since that time many of the various food- 

 stuffs concerning which we shall have more to say in the future. In 

 a convincing series of experiments on water it was immediately evi- 

 dent that water is a strong gastric stimulant and while it may be true 

 that the bulk of the liquid leaves the stomach in the first twenty 

 minutes along the " rinne " of the lesser curvature, we found that 

 water either cold or warm is a strong gastric stimulant, yielding an 

 acidity in certain instances of over 100 in less than twenty minutes. 

 In the normal individual on many occasions water produced fully as 

 great stimulation as an Ewald meal of toast and tea so that it became 

 a serious question as to whether or not the stimulative eft'ect of an 

 Ewald meal was not due to its water content, but the dry toast in- 

 duced a very definite characteristic secretion. 



In our studies we were unable to demonstrate two essential points 

 which have previously been considered as belonging to the phe- 

 nomena of digestion. It was impossible to demonstrate any " latent 

 period" for the human gastric glands, as Pavlov demonstrated in 

 animals and secondly — it was impossible to demonstrate any glandu- 

 lar fatigue which Foster and Lambert attempted to point out. In 

 the water series despite any possible dilution of the water introduced 

 we obtained figures of from 50-120 (0.18-0.44 per cent. HCl) with 

 an average of 'j'j (0.28 HCl) considerably over that ordinarily con- 

 sidered normal for man. It is probable that the juice secreted at the 

 height of digestion is distinctly higher than that usually considered 

 and the contention of Umber, Bickel, Sommerfeld, Hornberg and 

 others that the gastric juice of man is very similar (0.4-0.5 per cent.) 

 to the gastric juice of the cat and dog is true. 



