30 THE SECRETIONS: 



precipitates an abundance of sulphate of lime, and oxalic acid 

 precipitates oxalate of lime. 3d. Potass, soda, ammonia, and 

 lime water, produce abundant precipitates of neutral phosphate 

 of lime. 4th. That the calcined ash of gastric juice is not deli- 

 quescent, dissolves without effervescence in hydrochloric acid, 

 forming chloride of calcium; it therefore contains neutral 

 phosphate of lime, the excess of acid being driven off in the 

 calcination. 



M. Blondlot believes that the digestive property of gastric 

 juice depends, not on its obvious chemical constitution, but 

 upon a peculiar organic principle. If exposed to a temperature 

 of 104 to 122 F., or higher, it loses entirely and irrevocably 

 its digestive powers, although to all appearance, and even as to 

 its composition, as made known by analysis, it remains un- 

 changed. With the exclusion of the air, gastric juice may be 

 kept for two years without loss of its activity ; but with the 

 free access of air, it putrefies in five or six days, although the 

 chyme which it forms from nitrogenous organic substances may 

 be preserved for two or three months without change. The 

 precipitation of all the lime it contains does not affect its ac- 

 tivity, nor are its chlorides indispensable, but whatever acts 

 upon its organic constituents, (heat, strong alcohol, or strong 

 acids,) or which removes them, (such as animal charcoal, chlorine, 

 tannic acid, or acetate of lead,) destroys all its digestive properties. 



M. Blondlot also shows a. That coagulated albumen resists 

 the action of the gastric juice only from its compact form. 

 When coagulated in very small particles, as the white of an egg 

 beaten into a froth and poured into boiling water, it is digested 

 as quickly as soft fibrin, b. That the action of the stomach 

 in coagulating milk is not due to its digestive principle solely, 

 but to its acid, which acts like lactic acid. c. That the effect of the 

 gastric fluid upon bones, whether entire or not, is to disintegrate 

 them slowly, beginning at the surface, and to reduce the 

 earthy matter into a fine chalky powder, but without dissolving 

 or decomposing it. The earthy matter not being dissolved, 

 proves that no hydrochloric acid has acted upon it ; it is all 

 discharged with the faeces. 



Since the work of M. Blondlot was published, two other 

 French chemists, MM. C. Bernard and C. Barreswil, 1 have made 

 1 Journal de Pharmacie, Jan. 1845. 



