OBIGIN OF THE INTESTINAL GASES. 413 



testine except by decomposition of some of the articles of 

 food. Hydrogen and its compounds are always found in 

 quantity in the small and the large intestine. Chevillot, 

 who made a number of researches into the composition of 

 the gases of the alimentary canal in patients dead from dif- 

 ferent diseases, submitted various alimentary substances 

 taken from the digestive organs to a temperature equal to 

 that of the body. In a certain number of instances, but not 

 in all, hydrogen was evolved. 1 



It is said that gas is sometimes found in the intestines 

 of the foetus, and that it may be generated in a loop of intes- 

 tine in a living animal, after a portion of the canal has been 

 drawn out, isolated by ligature, freed from its liquid and 

 gaseous contents, and returned to the abdomen. In some 

 diseased conditions also, it is very common for the abdomen 

 to become rapidly tympanitic, the gas being generated so 

 quickly that its presence is not easily explained by supposing 

 it to be evolved by decomposition of the ingesta. It has, in- 

 deed, been supposed that the intestinal mucous membrane is 

 capable of secreting gases as well as liquids ; but in support 

 of this view there does not appear to be any positive demon- 

 stration. No doubt some of the gases which may be formed 

 in the intestine are capable of absorption. It is impossible 

 to say, however, that even the gases normally held in solu- 

 tion in the blood, namely, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic 

 acid, are exhaled from the blood into the intestinal cavity. 

 Oxygen is never given off in this way, for this gas has only 



1 CHEVILLOT, Recherches sur les Qaz de VEstomac et des Intestins de THomme 

 d Veldt de maladie. Journal de Physiologic, Paris, 1829, tome ix., p. 310. 

 Magendie (Precis filementaire de Physiologic, Paris, 1836, p. 117) states that 

 Chevillot collected the contents of the small intestine, which he allowed to fer- 

 ment for a certain time at the temperature of the body, obtaining exactly the 

 same gases which were found in the intestine. The reference to the paper of 

 Chevillot is given above, and it is there simply stated that hydrogen is sometimes 

 given off from the contents of the small intestine. Chevillot proposed at some 

 future time to give the full results cf his experiments on this subject, but as far 

 as we know, this has never been done. 



