ADDITIONS AND NOTES TO VOL. II. 503 



weight of its body 50 grammes of flesh containing 10 grammes of 

 dry albuminates ; hence the gastric juice secreted by the dog would 

 only suffice for the digestion of half of the albuminates necessary 

 for the nutrition of the dog, a result which, paradoxical as it may 

 appear in connexion with the preceding view regarding the 

 digestion of albumen, stands in the most perfect accordance with 

 other observations presently to be described. 



(9) Note to bottom of p. 60. [Gruenewaldt* and Schroederf 

 have recently published excellent Theses on the human gastric 

 juice, the former taking up its physical and chemical characters, 

 and the latter investigating its digestive powers. Their observa- 

 tions were conducted at Dorpat, under the superintendence of 

 Bidder and Schmidt, on an Esthonian peasant, Catharine Kiitt, 

 in whom there was a gastric fistula (the origin of which they could 

 not ascertain) in the left side, at the lower border of the mammary 

 gland, between the cartilages of the ninth and tenth ribs. 



The following are the most important results of Gruenewaldt's 

 observations : 



For every kilogramme of bodily weight there are 264 grammes 

 of gastric juice secreted in the 24 hours, the mean daily quantity 

 secreted by this woman being 14*016 kilogrammes, or about 

 31 Ibs., a quantity somewhat larger than that deduced by Schmidt 

 from his experiments on dogs. 



The sarcina was frequently observed in this fluid obtained 

 from the fistula, both when the stomach was empty and when full, 

 the woman being apparently in perfect health. Hence Gniene- 

 waldt agrees with Virchow,J that this organism must not be 

 regarded as a special symptom of a peculiar form of disease. 



In relation to the chemistry of this fluid, he found that, when 

 obtained from the empty stomach, it was never acid, but always 

 neutral or slightly alkaline. He gives the particulars of three 

 analyses which were made by Schmidt. In all these cases the 

 secreted fluid was of a very pale reddish tint, moderately acid, 

 formed coagula when boiled, and gave indications of the presence 

 of much sugar, by Trommer's test. When heated it yielded the 

 odour of butyric and metacetonic acid. The spec. grav. of the 

 first specimen was 1*020. 



* Sticci gastric! human! Indoles physica et chemica, etc. Dorp. Liv. 1853. 

 t Succi gastric! human! Vis digestiva, etc. Dorp. Liv. 1853. 

 J Arch. f. pathol. Anat. Bd. 1, S. 268. 



