200 Miscellanies. 



Indeed his experiments were so varied and numerous, having been 

 performed upon such a variety of animals, as well as upon man ; and 

 were attended with such uniform results, as to be scarcely capable of 

 evasion. There are also the experiments of Dr. Stevens, performed at 

 Edinburgh in 1777, which appear to have been strangely overlooked 

 by many inquirers upon this subject, entirely confirming those of 

 Spalanzani, in regard to the solution of aliment in the gastric juice 

 both within and out of the stomach. Notwithstanding the weight 

 of these facts, there were physiologists who denied entirely the pecu- 

 liar agency of the gastric juice in the production of chyme ; and 

 more who denied that this agency, if it existed at all, was exerted 

 in accordance with chemical laws. All question upon this subject 

 we consider as entirely settled by the experiments of Dr. Beau- 

 mont. These have been so numerous and varied, as to leave no 

 room for doubt or cavil. If our limits permitted, we should be glad 

 to insert the most striking of his experiments upon this branch of the 

 subject. As it is, we are restrained to a brief statement of the man- 

 ner in which they were performed, with their results. 



Alimentary matters, of a great variety of kinds, were suspended 

 in the stomach, both uncovered and inclosed in such a manner as 

 only to admit a fluid to come in contact with them. They were uni- 

 formly found, when the stomach was healthy, to be in a short time 

 partially, and in a longer, entirely dissolved, and removed from what- 

 ever contained them, and a portion of chyme was formed. 



Alimentary matters, of the same kinds, were placed in the Gas- 

 tric juice out of the stomachy and the same result followed with the 

 same uniformity. 



Alimentary matters of the same kinds, were placed, at the same 

 time, in the stomach, and in the gastric juice out of the stomach, and 

 were examined at regular periods. The changes which took place 

 in each of them were precisely the same. 



Alimentary matters, partially digested in the stomach, were with- 

 drawn from it and placed in an additional quantity of gastric juice, 

 and the changes were found to be the same in this, as in the portion 

 left in the stomach. 



Experiments of this kind were made, not upon one or two substan- 

 ces only, but upon nearly all the common articles of food. In all the 

 result was the same. 



To bring about artificial digestion, it was only necessary that the 

 aliment and the gastric juice should be kept at the natural temperature 



