354 Formation of the Acetouf Acid in the Siortiach. 



The swelling of my stomach having decreased in conse- 

 quence of the evacuation of the atmospheric air and car- 

 bonic acid, and the acid fermentation having undergone all 

 the usual periods, according to the sourness I iclt on my 

 stomach, I proceeded to follow out n)y experiments. 



■2i.\, It was necessary to ascertain the nature of the acid 

 contained in my stomach ; and for ihis purpose I had only 

 one method, that of vomiting, in order to determine, by 

 future experiments, its specific characters. 



I resolved to take twenty grains of ipecacuanha diluted in 

 three ounces of distilled water, at a single draught: a quarter 

 of an hour afterwards I drank some warm water, to the 

 amount of fourteen ounces, without vomiting; but three 

 ounces more made me throw up, at two vomitings, all I had 

 taken. 



1 weiohed the whole I had evacuated, and had only two 

 ounces less than what I had eaten and drunk. I do not 

 know if the stomach had digested these two ounces of 

 liquid, or if it had been absorbed. 



A minute inspection of what I had thrown up resembled 

 fecuium diUated in water ; which showed that fermentation 

 bad decomposed the nutritive substance I had eaten, and 

 the more so as the smell was strongly acetous : this began 

 to confirm the idea, which I had for a long time conceived, 

 of the formation of vinegar in stomachs of bad digestion, 

 and it encouraged me the more strongly to pursue my ex- 

 periments. 



3. I dipped in the evacuated matter turnsole paper, 

 which was imniediately reddened. I then put in some 

 infusion of violets, which was also reddened. Being 

 certain, from these trials of the re-agents, of tbe existence 

 of an acid in the substance evacuated, I endeavoured to de- 

 termine its nature, and had recourse to the following plan: 



4. I took a glass retort, in which I put all I had vo- 

 mited j I adapted a globe receiver to it, which was furnished 

 with a tube of safety, and with a second tube which entered 

 under a bell-glass filled with vvaicr, placed upon the shelf 

 of the pneumatic tub, in order to receive the gases which 

 might be dissolved in the substances which formed the sub- 

 ject 



