ACTION OF THE GASTRIC JUICE UPON ALBUMEN. 259 



had mostly disappeared, and a light-colored sediment 

 sided to the bottom." * If white of egg be mixed with equal 

 parts of pure water and be gently stirred with a glass rod, 

 the same small white flocculi will make their appearance, 

 and the mixture will become opaque and whitish. This is 

 due to the disengagement of shreds of the membranes in 

 which the clear albumen is contained ; these being invisible 

 in pure white of egg, from the fact that the two substances 

 have the same refractive power. A very different appear- 

 ance is presented when water containing even a small quan- 

 tity of nitric acid is added to the albumen. True coagula- 

 tion then takes place ; and the mixture becomes immediate- 

 ly filled with large dense clots ; or the mass may become 

 nearly solidified, if the acid be added in sufficient quantity. 

 Longet and Schiif injected a filtered watery mixture of al- 

 bumen into the stomach of the dog through a fistulous open- 

 ing, and found that no coagulation took place. 2 



The action of the gastric juice upon uncooked white of 

 egg .is to disintegrate its structure, separating, and finally 

 dissolving the membranous sacs in which the pure albumen 

 Is contained. It also acts upon the albumen itself, forming 

 a new fluid substance, called albuminose, or albumen-pep- 

 tone, which, unlike albumen, is not coagulated by heat or 

 acids, but is precipitated by alcohol, tannin, and many of 

 the metallic salts. 



The digestion of raw, or imperfectly coagulated albumen, 

 takes place with considerable rapidity in the stomach. 

 Beaumont gave St. Martin the white of two eggs when the 

 stomach was empty, and found that it had been completely dis- 

 posed of in an hour and a half. 3 The digestion of albumen 

 in this form is more rapid than when it has been completely 

 coagulated by heat, 



Coagulated white of egg is almost, if not entirely dis- 

 solved by the gastric juice. If a cube of albumen in this con- 



1 BEAUMONT, op. cit., p. 148. 2 LONGET, op. cit., p. 220. 



3 Op. cit., p. 149. 



