'60 Dr. Hastings oji the 



sionally been divided in mistake ; still further, the eighth pair 

 of nerves may have been divided, but care not being taken to 

 prevent their divided ends coming in contact, partial union may 

 have taken place, and thus the functions of the stomach would 

 be partially performed. This once happened in my ovi^n experi- 

 ments. After dividing the nerves, I found digestion of the food 

 •went on, and I was at a loss to account for the circumstance 

 until, on examining the nerves, the divided ends were found 

 united together. The same thing has been noticed by others. 

 Dr. Macdonald, in his Thesis de Ciborum Concoctione, observes, 

 " Insuper in experimento 30"°° animal necatum fuit, horis viginti 

 quinque et quadraginta quinque minutis post pastum, et horis 

 viginti quinque septemque minutis post nervos vagos persectos. 

 In 60 exemplo, nervus, ubi discussus fuerat, fibrina sanguinis 

 efFusa quodammodo conglutinatus reperiebatur ; necnon indicia 

 qusedam chymi et chyli in duodeno observabantur ; et (quae sane 

 res memoria dignissima est) vesicula fellis non turgida et dis- 

 tenta fuit, ut in experimentis 1 9""" et 20""", ubi pare vago di- 

 viso, concoctio cibi prorsus impeditaet suspensa fuit; sed, e con- 

 trario, hsec vesicula quodammodo flaccida et vacua erat; non 

 aliter ac si cibus, inter coquendum, earn contrahere et humorem 

 suum expellere stimulasset." p. 41. Thus the conclusion which 

 Mr. B. wishes to draw from the eighth experiment is by no means 

 free from suspicion of error. 



Neither are the experiments on the three horses at all favour- 

 able to this gentleman's views. In the oth experiment the horse 

 expired too soon to admit of any observation on the contents of 

 the stomach. In the 14th, the animal lived fifty hours, and hay 

 was found in the stomach in a masticated state ; but, as the 

 account says, considerably less than the horse had eaten. It 

 will be admitted, that this indefinite mode of stating the result of 

 an experiment can never be satisfactory. We cannot be certain 

 that the quantity of food found in the stomach was less than 

 that which was eaten, unless the food and the contents of the 

 stomach had each been weighed. The only result, therefore, 

 that can now be certainly known is, that there was some masti- 

 cated hay in the stomach, and that the duodenum was empty ; 



