GASTRIC JUICE. 219 



softened. A few years later, the experiments of Reaumur 

 were reproduced by Spallanzani; who caused animals to 

 swallow food contained in perforated tubes and obtained the 

 gastric juice by means of sponges, extending the observations 

 to dogs and cats and in some instances experimenting on 

 his own person. He swallowed, for example, little netted 

 bags of thread, and on one occasion a small perforated 

 wooden tube, filled with food, which he found always passed 

 empty by the anus. 1 



The experiments of Reaumur, Stevens, and Spallanzani 

 demonstrated the existence of the gastric juice. They were 

 followed by the elaborate investigations of Prout, Tiede- 

 mann and Gmelin, Leuret and Lassaigne, and others, by 

 which various of the properties of this fluid were established ; a 

 but our definite knowledge of its most important physiologi- 

 cal properties dates from the observations of Dr. Beaumont 

 on the Canadian, Alexis St. Martin, who had a large fistu- 

 lous opening into the stomach. 3 These observations were 

 commenced in May, 1825, and were continued for a number 

 of years. The first publication of them was in the Phila- 

 delphia Medical Recorder , in 1826. 



Mode of obtaining the Gastric Juice. The ingenious ex- 

 periments of Dr. Beaumont upon the case of St. Martin gave 

 an impulse to the study of digestion, and pointed out the 

 way in which the action of the gastric juice could be inves- 



1 SPALLANZANI, Opuscules de Physique, Animate et Vegetale, Augmentes de ses 

 Experiences mi? la Digestion, traduits par Jean Senebier, Pavie, 1787, tome ii. 

 pp. 431, 483, 619, 642, and 645. 



2 LEURET ET LASSAIGNE, JRecherches Physiologiques ct Chimiques pour servir d 

 VHistoirs de la Digestion, Paris, 1825. These authors give an analysis of the gas- 

 tric juice, which corresponds pretty nearly with the analyses of the more recent 

 physiological chemists. They noted the presence of lactic acid, hydrochlorate of 

 ammonia, chloride of sodium, animal matter soluble in water, mucus, and phos- 

 phate of lime. (p. 113.) 



3 Experiments and Observations on the Gastris Juice, and the Physiology of 

 Digestion, by WILLIAM BEAUMONT, M. P., Surgeon in the U. S. Army, Plattsburg, 

 1833. 



