Royal Societv^ 169 
prove fo prejudicial in chylification, what would tKe cafe be, 
immediately on the dilcharge of all its contents ? The irritation, 
the llomach undergoes in hunger, leems only to arile from an 
accumulation of the fpittle in "the ftomach, m conjunction with 
the liquor of the glands of that part, hence it is we rather dil- 
charge the Ipittle at that time by the mouth, than lufFer it to 
delcend into the ftomach 9 hence alfo proceeds, what is called 
the watering of the mouth j hence likewife, when the Saliva is 
vitiated, the appetite is depraved. The ftomach, by means of 
its mulcular fibres, contracting it ^^\^y does griiduuliy difcharge 
its contents by the pylorus into the iJuodenum^ in which gut, 
•after a Imall lemi-circular delcent, it meets with the pancreatic 
juice and bile, both which joining with it, renders lome parts 
of the aliment more fluid, by ftill difuniting the grofler parts 
from the more pure ^ and here chylification is made perfeff. 
The bile, which abounds in lixivial lalts, and is apt ro mix 
with the groffer parts of the concafted aliment, ftimulates the 
guts, and deterges, and cleanfes their cavities of the mucous mat- 
ter, leparared from the blood by the glands of the guts, and 
lodged in their cavities, which not only moiftens the infides of 
the guts, but defends the mouths of the Jafleals from being in- 
jured by foreign bodies, which often pals that way. The con- 
tents of the inteftines do ftiU move on by means of the periftaltic 
or worm-like motion of the guts, whilit thofe thinner parts fitted 
for the pores of the lafleals, called chyle, is ablorbed by them 5 
the thicker parts move ftill more (lowly on, and being often re- 
tarded in their progrefs by the Vahulce conniventes, all the 
chyle or thinner parts are at length entirely abforbed, and what 
remains is merely excrementitious, and fit only to be excluded 
by ftool. 
The analagous white appearance of the chyle, whether in the 
ftomach, or inteftines, and always in the la£leals, and thoracic 
dua, may be leen in the comniixtures of divers liquors, which 
apart, exhibit no fuch appearance; nor is this phenomenon any 
other than a tranfpofition of particles ; whether by a Menft nam's 
infinuating into them, and dividing them into grols globules, as 
an acid into a lulphur, or vinegarlnto oil, ^c. or elle by preci- 
pitation, as when a guramous or refinous body is diiTolved in a 
fpirituous /Jenftnium, and mixed with a phlegm 5 lb tincture of 
myrrh and benjamin, ^c. make a milky appearance in common 
water. 
The longitudinal and tranfverfe orders or"" fibres of the guts, 
are the inftruments by which their periftaltic motion is performed. 
Vol. 111. y wl^'-'^ 
