298 DIGESTION. 



Nevertheless, the general opinion was, with Haller, 1 that in 

 vomiting, the stomach was emptied chiefly by convulsive 

 contractions of its intrinsic muscles. 



An excellent review of the experiments on the mechan - 

 ism of vomiting, anterior to the memoir of Magendie, is con- 

 tained in the report of the commission from the Institut, to 

 which the subject was referred. The first observations on the 

 subject were those of Bayle, made in 1681 ; 2 these were fol- 

 lowed by the confirmatory experiments of Chirac, in 1686, 

 the later experiments of Schwartz, and many others. 8 The 

 experiments of Bayle consisted in giving animals emetics in 

 solution in water, and making an incision into the abdomen, 

 so that when the animal made efforts at vomiting, the finger 

 could be introduced and placed upon the stomach. "When 

 this was done, it became evident that the stomach did not 

 contract during the act by which its contents were expelled ; 

 and when the abdomen was largely opened, so that the stom- 

 ach could not be compressed between the diaphragm and the 

 abdominal muscles, vomiting was impossible. That these 

 experiments had been recognized by physiologists, is shown 

 by the passage just quoted from the works of Hunter. 



"We can give no better idea of the actual mechanism of 

 vomiting than by a brief analysis of the memoir of Magendie, 

 with the various experimental facts by which the views 

 advanced by him were supported. The first two experi- 

 ments were merely repetitions of those performed long before 

 by Bayle and Chirac. After having caused a dog to swal- 

 low six grains of tartar emetic, when nausea had been ex- 

 cited, an incision was made in the median line and the finger 

 was introduced into the abdominal cavity and placed upon 



1 HALLER, Elementa Physiologies, Bernse, 1764, tomus vi., pp. 281, 282. 



2 MAGENDIE, Memoire sur le Vomissement, lu d la premiere classe de Vlmtilut 

 de France. Suivi du Kapport fait a la classe par MM. Cuvier, Huinboldt, Pinel, 

 et Percy, Paris, 1813, p. 27. 



8 HALLER, op. cit., tomus vi., p. 228. Schwartz went further than his prede- 

 cessors, and showed that the cardiac opening of the stomach was relaxed during 

 vomiting. 



