SECRETION OF THE GASTEIO JUICE. 231 



of fluid required to digest a certain weight of food, and esti- 

 mating from this the quantity necessary to dispose of all the 

 food taken during the day. Both of these methods are mani- 

 festly incorrect. In the first, the intermittency of the secre- 

 tion is not taken into account ; and in the second, it is incor- 

 rectly assumed that digestion out of the body is accomplished 

 precisely as it takes place in the stomach. 



Dr. Beaumont was sometimes able to collect, in from ten 

 to fifteen minutes, two ounces of pure gastric juice, simply 

 by the stimulation produced by the gum-elastic catheter nsed 

 in the operation ; but he expressly states that in this case 

 only a part of the mucous membrane is excited to secretion, 

 while the flow is very much increased by the introduction 

 of food by the mouth, which produces a general excitation 

 of the secreting membrane. Assuming that two ounces can 

 be collected, under the most favorable circumstances, in ten 

 minutes, and that stomach-digestion continues for two hours, 1 

 the quantity secreted during the digestion of an ordinary 

 meal would amount to twenty-four ounces. When we con- 

 sider that the natural stimulus of food produces a general 

 secretion, amounting to at least three or four times that pro- 

 duced by the simple introduction of the catheter, and that it 

 is manifestly impossible to collect all that is secreted, even 

 when nothing but the catheter has been introduced, it is 

 evident that the entire quantity of gastric juice secreted 

 during the digestion of a single meal must be very large ; 

 amounting, at a very moderate estimate, to from eight to 

 ten pounds. Estimates, therefore, like those of Bidder and 

 Schmidt, which put the quantity of gastric juice secreted in 

 twenty-four hours by a healthy man of ordinary size at six 

 thousand four hundred grammes, or about fourteen pounds, 2 



In the latest published observations on St. Martin, by Professor F. G. Smith, 

 of Philadelphia, it is stated that in no case does the food remain in the stomach 

 more than two hours. (Experiences sur la Digestion. Journal de la Physiologic, 

 Paris 1858, tome i., p. 146.) 



2 LEHMAKX, Physiological Chemistry, Philadelphia, 1855, Vol. ii., p. 520. 



