158 DIGESTION. 



and afterwards finish the process of mastication at 

 their convenience. It is received in the coarse state 

 into the first stomach and, after being masticated 

 anew, passes successively into the others. The little 

 pellets we see them throwing up into their mouths 

 every few minutes, when they are lying down, are 

 the forage they are quietly and leisurly taking up from 

 the receptacle which they had been employed in re- 

 plenishing. 



T. Among all the curiosities of this organ, how- 

 ever, you have said nothing of the wonderful agent 

 by which, principally, our food is digested. 



A. The food is converted into a soft pulpy sub- 

 stance, chiefly by means of a chemical liquor called 

 the gastric juice, which is continually secreted from 

 the inner membrane of the stomach. It dissolves the 

 contents of the stomach with astonishing rapidity. 

 Soft and hard, flesh and vegetables, equally yield. 

 The most solid bones cannot withstand its action. 



B. I cannot conceive how it can be safe to have 

 a liquid in our stomach, which is so very powerful as 

 to dissolve bones and flesh ; for the stomach itself is 

 flesh, and one would think it would dissolve this also. 



A. So any one would naturally imagine. We 

 only know it will act upon dead, but not upon living 

 flesh. Why this distinction what produces it is 

 yet a secret. No chemist would think of pouring a 

 liquid upon his hand, sufficiently powerful to dissolve 

 a bone in the course of a few hours, without expect- 

 ing his flesh would be instantly consumed. Within all 

 the compass of his art, he knows of no chemical sub- 



