Eighth Pail' of Nerves. 57 



the last meal : whereas, in experiments 5 and 6, in four hours 

 after a meal, the contents of the stomachs were found to weigh 

 little more than half as much as the food which had been last 

 taken. The state of the contents of the stomach was also very 

 different. In the healthy stomach the food was chemically 

 altered, and had assumed a fluid form ; whereas, in expe- 

 riment 10 and 11, it remained solid. In the healthy stomachs, 

 four hours after a meal, the duodenum was full of chyme ; the 

 lacteals were distended with chyle ; and the gall-bladder was 

 flaccid ; whereas, in the experiments in which the nerves were 

 divided, the duodenum contained no chyme ; the lacteals were 

 empty; and the gall-bladder was distended. 



These facts, which are afforded by the experiments above 

 detailed, and supported by previous authority, are so diame- 

 trically opposite to the conclusion to which Mr. Broughton has 

 come from a similar set of experiments, that an indifferent 

 observer might at first smile at the fruitless endeavours of the 

 physiologist to extend the boundaries of his science ; and 

 might, if such were the instability of the laws of nature, justly 

 ridicule all attempts to investigate her wayward operations. 

 But nature is ever the same, her laws alter not ; although her 

 interrogators,. by mistaking her replies to their inquiries, often 

 give an appearance of inconsistency to them. 



Thus, in the case before us, it will, I think, appear, that 

 Mr. Broughton has mistaken, and consequently mis-stated, the 

 replies to his interrogations. On this subject, however, we 

 shall be enabled to judge more correctly when the facts related 

 by Mr. Broughton are brought forward, and compared with 

 those of other writers. 



One of the proofs of digestion which, according to Mr. B.'s 

 representation, was invariably present in the stomachs of rab- 

 bits, in a greater or lesser degree, after the division of the 

 eighth pair of nerves, was a quantity of chyme, which, in some 

 cases, was very abundant towards the cardiac portion of the 

 stomach*. This chyme very much resembled mucus, and a 



* See Experiments 1, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 1), 13, 13, 15. 



