58 Dr. Hastings on the 



layer of it covered the parsley, which was* of a brownish 

 colour. In most of these experiments, particularly in the third, 

 this chyme was only found about the cardiac portion of the 

 stomach, and was wanting in the pyloric portion ; moreover, it 

 never seems to have been found in the duodenum. In fact, if 

 the relation of the experiments be correct, this chyme was 

 almost peculiar to the cardiac portion of the stomach, and, 

 according to experiment 1, was mucus. Therefore, according 

 to these experiments, chyme is like mucus, and is very 

 abundant in the cardiac portion of the stomach ; although it 

 seldom appears in the pyloric portion. We are, however, 

 usually taught, that chyme is the food which has been taken 

 into the stomach, and altered there by the action of the gastric 

 juice ; and that it is usually found in the pyloric portion of the 

 stomach, ready to pass into the duodenum, where it is se- 

 parated into chyle, and excrementitious matter. We also find 

 that this substance, which, by Mr. B., is called chyme, is 

 described by Dr. Wilson Philip*, as a semi-fluid, which is 

 usually found covering the contents of the stomach, whether 

 the nerves have or have not been divided. The reader, there- 

 fore, may judge how far the presence of this matter is any 

 proof of the digestion of the food. 



Another proof, adduced by Mr. B. of digestion having gone 

 on after the division of the nerves in the neck, is that of 

 parsley assuming a brown colour ! In seven of the experiments 

 on rabbits, the parsley remained in the stomach from fifteen 

 to twenty hours, and no other alteration was observed in it 

 than this change of colour ! ! Now, had a healthy animal been 

 similarly fed with one of those operated on, and killed at the 

 same time with it, a complete chemical change would have been 

 found to have taken place in the parsley after so long a fast ; 

 and the contents of the cardiac portion of the stomach would 

 have been in a semi-fluid state. It is to be regretted, that 



* " It deserves notice that, although the eighth pair of nerves have 

 been divided, the food is found covered with the same semi-fluid which 

 we find covering the food iu a healthy stomach."— Wjlson Philip on (he 

 Vital Functions, p. 124. 



