BEAUMONT'S EXPERIMENTS. 203 



are to be expelled from it, in much the same state as they 

 were received, along with the feculent matter. It is manifest 

 then that the term chyme should in particular denote the 

 aliment that has undergone complete solution in the stomach, 

 mingled, however, with the secretions which it has imbibed in 

 the process. If there be any homogeneous substance which 

 the phrase perfect chyme represents, it is, as it would seem, 

 what has been called of late albuminose or peptone that low 

 form of albumen not precipitable by heat or nitric acid, into 

 which the albumen, fibrine, and caseine in the aliment appear 

 to be first converted, previously to being elevated by further 

 elaboration into that condition in which they become fit to 

 repair the blood. In the farinaceous portion of the food the 

 starch has in part been changed into sugar by the saliva, and 

 that sugar is probably absorbed directly from the mucous coat 

 of the stomach into the blood of the portal vein ; but another 

 part most probably still awaits the influence of the digestive 

 agents proper to the duodenum. The oily parts of the aliment 

 undergo little change till transmitted into the duodenum. 



The following are extracts from the work of Dr Beaumont, 

 who performed experiments before referred to in page 201, on 

 an individual who suffered from a fistulous opening in the 

 stomach and the wall of the abdomen, so that aliment could 

 be introduced from without, and the interior of his stomach 

 inspected during the progress of digestion ; while, moreover, 

 gastric juice could be collected directly from the digestive organ. 



" At half-past eleven o'clock, after having kept the lad fasting 

 for seventeen hours, I introduced a gum-elastic tube, and drew 

 off one ounce of pure gastric liquor, unmixed with any other 

 matter except a small proportion of mucus, into a three-ounce 

 vial. I then took a solid piece of boiled, recently salted, beef, 

 weighing three drachms, and put it into the liquor in the vial, 

 corked the vial tight, and placed it in a saucepan filled with 



