GASTRIC ANALYSIS 



153 



Until recent years, the consensus of opinion based principally upon 

 the work of the Pawlow school 1 was to the effect that the gastric juice 

 of normal man had an average acid concentration of 0.2 per cent 

 hydrochloric acid, whereas the gastric juice of the dog and cat had an 

 average acid concentration of 0.4-0.5 per cent hydrochloric acid. 

 These experiments were based principally upon the examination of 

 the pure gastric juice of the lower animals as compared with the stomach 

 contents of man. Later experiments 2 have, however, demonstrated 

 that the acid concentration of the freshly secreted gastric juice of man 

 is similar to that of the dog, i.e., 0.4-0.5 per cent. Boldyreff claims 



a 







I20minntes 



Diet :100cx:.oi 0.542 7oHCi at23C 



FIG. 49. INFLUENCE OF ACID INTRODUCED INTO THE NORMAL HUMAN STOMACH. 

 (Spencer, Meyer, Rehfuss and Hawk: American Journal of Physiology, March, 1916.) 



that this initial high acidity of the human gastric juice is normally 

 lowered to the "optimum acidity" of 0.15-0.2 per cent hydrochloric 

 acid by regurgitation of alkaline fluids (bile, pancreatic and intestinal 

 juices) from the intestine. This constitutes what Boldyreff terms 

 " the automatic regulation of gastric acidity." This claim has been 



Pawlow : . The Work of the Digestive Glands. Translated by Thompson, Second Edition 



1910 



2 Babkin: Die Aussere Sekretion der Verdauungsdriisen, Berlin, 1914. 

 Boldyreff: Transactions of nth Congress of Physicians, 'St. Petersburg, 1909. 

 Boldyreff: Quart. Jour. Exp. Physiol., 8, i, 1914. 

 Carlson: Am. Jour. Physiol. , 38, 248, TQI$. 

 Bergeim, Rehfuss & Hawk: Jour. Biol Chem., 19, 345, 1914- 



