Bfoughton on the Nervea. 323' 



Philip and his tyro. The reader is informed that in the whole, 

 or the greater part of my experiments no alteration in the food 

 was observable, but in its different degrees of brownness. 

 Whereas, the case really stands thus : not wishing to fatigue 

 my readers with a repetition of the same detail of appearances 

 after every experiment separately and in succession, I contented 

 myself, having once named the appearances after death, with 

 stating that no deviation in them was observed, in the succeeding 

 experiments, f7'07}i those noticed antecedently, excepting the brown 

 tint of the parsley ; thereby obviously meaning to imply, that 

 similar appearances shewed themselves in the succeeding experi- 

 ments to those of the preceding. How then can Dr. Hastings 

 venture to state, as a man of veracity, that in a large majority 

 of my experiments, nothing appeared in the food and the 

 stomach when examined, but the brownish colour of the former, 

 and thence argue that the food was unaltered ? How can he 

 suppose that 1 should be incautious enough to bring forward 

 such evidences in proof of the continuance of digestion, if it 

 were as he represents it ? I regret that I am compelled to 

 lengthen these remarks, but I must injustice to my own repu- 

 tation, and to the cause I have espoused, contradict the follow- 

 ing assertions : — 



First, that I did not compare animals fasted and fed, but 

 not operated upon, with those similarly prepared and operated 

 on. My answer is, that I did so and have mentioned it. 

 Secondly, that I did not observe after death whether the eighth 

 pair of nerves in the dog, were divided. I again answer that I 

 did so, and have mentioned it in this, and every other case. 

 As to the objection that this dog may have vomited up his 

 milk at night, since it does not appear that I watched him all 

 night ; I certainly did not feel it necessary that I should keep 

 watch, but I took care to place him under such circumstances, 

 as would have rendered it impossible for me not to have per- 

 ceived it, if he had rejected any more milk after the last he 

 took. Moreover how else came the whey to be found in the 

 stomach, and the curd disappeared, but from the decomposition 

 of the milk by the gastric fluid, and digestion of the cnrd? 



