ACTION OF THE GASTRIC JUICE UPON THE STOMACH. 275 



as a guide, the following may be taken as a summary of what 

 is known regarding the facility with which different articles 

 are disposed of in the stomach : 



Milk is one of the articles digested in the stomach with 

 greatest ease. Its highly nutritive properties and the varie- 

 ty of principles which it contains make it extremely valuable 

 as an article of diet, particularly when the digestive powers 

 are impaired, and when it is important to supply the system 

 with considerable nutriment. Eggs are likewise highly nu- 

 tritious and are easily digested. Raw and soft-boiled eggs 

 are more easily digested than hard-boiled. 'Whipped eggs 

 are apparently disposed of with great facility. As a rule, 

 the flesh of fish is more easily digested than that of the 

 warm-Wooded animals. Oysters, especially when raw, are 

 quite easy of digestion. The flesh of mammals seems to be 

 more easily digested than the flesh of birds. Of the different 

 kinds of meat, venison, lamb, beef, and mutton are easily 

 digested, while veal and fat roast-pork are digested with 

 difficulty. Soups are generally very easily digested. The 

 animal substances which were found to be digested most 

 rapidly, however, were tripe, pigs' feet, and brains. Vege- 

 table articles are represented in the table as being digested 

 in about the same time as ordinary animal food ; but a great 

 part of the digestion of these substances takes place in the 

 small intestine. Bread is digested in about the time required 

 for the digestion of the ordinary meats. 



Action of the Gastric Juice upon the Coats of the Stomach. 



Early in the physiological history of digestion, it was 

 asked of those who adopted the view that the stomach se- 

 creted a fluid capable of dissolving many of the articles of 

 food, why, if such a powerfully solvent fluid be thus secreted, 

 are not the coats of the stomach dissolved and digested dur- 

 ing life ? This question was difficult to answer, even after 

 the existence of a solvent gastric juice had been fully demon- 

 strated. That the coats of the living stomach enjoy an im- 



