DURATION OF STOMACH-DIGESTION. 273 



time that food remains in the stomach after an ordinary meal 

 may be stated to be from two to four hours. 



Digestibility of Different Aliments in the Stomach. We 

 are indebted to Beaumont for nearly all that is positively 

 known regarding the facility with which different articles 

 are disposed of in the stomach. While it is fully understood 

 that most of the substances experimented upon by him are 

 not completely digested by the gastric juice, and although 

 he was often wrong in assuming that articles of food were 

 digested w r hen they had not become completely liquefied and 

 consequently endosmotic, the table which he prepared with 

 so much care was the result of such conscientious and ex- 

 tended research, that it must always be recognized as of great 

 value. Nearly all of the results given in the table are de- 

 rived loom experiments frequently repeated, and " performed 

 under the naturally healthy condition of the stomach and or- 

 dinary exercise." They show the mean time employed in the 

 digestion, in the stomach, of most of the ordinary articles of 

 food, in the person of a healthy young man of good digestive 

 powers. Of course it must be understood that there are im- 

 portant peculiarities in different individuals, which could not 

 be considered. As many of the alimentary substances exper- 

 imented upon are but slightly acted on by the gastric juice, 

 it has been thought proper, in making the selections from the 

 table, to discard all articles which are mainly digested in 

 the small intestine. 



With these modifications, therefore, the following table 

 may be taken as representing the comparative rapidity with 

 which most of the ordinary nitrogenized articles are acted 

 upon in the stomach; they being either completely dis- 

 solved, and probably directly absorbed by its mucous mem- 

 brane or prepared for the action of the intestinal fluids, pass- 

 ing gradually out at the pylorus. It must be remembered, 

 however, that slow digestion does not always indicate that the 

 process is difficult, and the action of the gastric fluids upon 

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