ORIGIN OF FREE HC1 9 



the particular process by which the gastric mucosa is enabled 

 to separate a free mineral acid as a secretory product. There 

 is no occasion to weary the reader with a statement of the 

 older attempts to explain the phenomenon. Neither the 

 idea of mass-action of carbonic acid, nor that of alkali-binding 

 by lecithin-albumen, nor that of a supposed impermeability 

 of the gas tricmucous membrane to chlorine ions has withstood 

 criticism 20 ; and it has been impossible to find in the mucous 

 membrane of the stomach any organic compounds of chlorine 

 from the dissociation of which hydrochloric acid could by 

 any possibility be produced. 21 It is entirely reasonable to 

 regard the sodium chloride of the ingested food as the source 

 of the gastric hydrochloric acid. Eosemann has established 

 by careful investigation the fact that it is impossible to pro- 

 duce any important reduction of the chlorine stored in the 

 economy by starvation and the use of food poor in chlorine, 

 because the system is able to protect itself against chlorine 

 impoverishment by lowering the excretion of chlorine in the 

 urine to a minimum. It is possible, of course, to withdraw 

 considerable amounts of chlorine from the body by "mock 

 feeding " because of the hydrochloric acid secretion thus in- 

 duced. In the end secretion of fluid ceases, and that, too, at 

 a time when the general body still contains a notable amount 

 of chlorine. Apparently only about one-fifth of the total 

 chlorine content of the body can be discharged in the gastric 

 secretion. 22 From studies conducted upon a professional 

 female starvationist it has been determined that even after 

 a twenty-four day fast the stomach will respond to the 

 stimulus of a test-breakfast by production of a fluid which 



" Cf. L. v. Rhorer, Pfliiger's Arch., 150, 416, 1905. 



*H. Dauwe, Arch. f. Verdauungskr., 11, 137, 1905. 



28 H. Rosemann (Miinster), Pfliiger's Arch., 142, 208, 1911; cf. also refer- 

 ences of J. Wohlgemuth, Exp. Untersuchungen tiber den Einfluss des Kochsalzes 

 auf den Chlorgehalt des Magensaftes, Berlin, Hirschwald, 1906; and also the 

 older investigations of Nencki, Kiilz, A. Kahn and others. 



