586 DIGESTION. 



mixed except with a portion of the mucus of the lining membrane of 

 the digestive tube, it was a transparent fluid, having a marked smell of 

 chlorohydric acid ; and of a slightly salt> and very perceptibly acid, 

 taste. It matters not, therefore, that M. Blondlot, 1 in his experiments 

 on the gastric secretions of dogs and other animals, obtained by arti- 

 ficial fistulous openings made into the stomach, did not find, when dis- 

 tilled, that they exhibited any acid reaction, whflst the residue in the 

 retort was always strongly acid. The results referred to by the author 

 as regards the gastric juice of man were positive and uniform ; and 

 established, that it always contains a large quantity of chlorohydric 

 acid. After this it seems unnecessary to examine into the statement of 

 M. Blondlot, that the true and almost only source of the acidity of 

 healthy gastric fluid is the presence of acid phosphate salts. If, at 

 least, we admit this to be the case in animals, it is assuredly not so in 

 man. The remark applies equally to the experiments of Dr. R. D. 

 Thompson on the gastric secretions of the sheep and pig. 2 By these 

 observers, the results obtained from the examination of the gastric 

 secretions in man, seem to have been passed over, and they have de- 

 duced their inferences from those of animals, which may, in part, 

 account for the great discrepancy in their statements. 3 



The source of the chlorine or chlorohydric acid, as Dr. Prout 4 sug- 

 gests, must be the common salt existing in the blood, which, he con- 

 ceives, is decomposed by galvanic action. The soda, set free, remain- 

 ing in the blood, a portion being "requisite to preserve the weak 

 alkaline condition essential to the fluidity of the blood ;" but the larger 

 part being directed to the liver to unite with the bile. This is plausi- 

 ble ; but, it need scarcely be added, not the less hypothetical. Drs. 

 Purkinje and Pappenheim 5 are of a similar opinion in regard to the 

 source of the chlorohydric acid. From their galvanic experiments they 

 think it follows, that the juices mixed with the food in the natural way, 

 saliva, mucus, the portions of chloride of sodium present therein, and 

 still more the gastric mucous membrane itself, develope as much as is 

 required; and that if the nervous action in the stomach be either iden- 

 tical with, or analogous to, galvanism, it would be sufficient to account 

 for the secretion of the quantity of chlorohydric acid requisite for 

 digestion, without the assumption of a special organ of secretion. 



M. Blondlot 6 denies and Liebig 7 formerly did likewise that in 

 health lactic acid exists in the stomach. In certain diseases, accord- 

 ing to the latter, both it -and mucilage are formed from the starch, 

 and sugar of the food; and he affirms, that the property possessed by 

 these substances of passing, by contact with animal substances, in a 



1 Traite Analytique de la Digestion, Paris, 1844. An abstract of his views is given by 

 Mr. Paget, Brit, and For. Med. Rev., Jan., 1845, p. 270. 



2 Ranlqng's Abstract, vol. i., Pt. 2, Amer. edit., p. 271, New York. 1846. 



3 Carpenter, Principles of Physiology, 4th Amer. edit., p. 494, Philad., 1850; and Kirkes 

 and Paget, Manual of Physiology, Amer. edit., p. 170, Philadelphia, 1849. 



4 Bridgewater Treatise, Amer. edit., p. 268, Philad., 1834. 



6 Miiller's Archiv. fur Anatomie, u. s. w. Heft 1, 1838, noticed in Brit, and For. Med. 

 Rev., Oct., 1838, p. 529. 



6 Op. cit. 



7 Animal Chemistry, Gregory's and Webster's edit., p. 107, Cambridge, 1842. 



