602 DIGESTION. 



mass filling the splenic half; but that it commonly preserves its pro- 

 perties in this part of the organ. 



The precise steps of the change into chyme cannot be indicated. 

 Some of the results, at different stages of the process, have been ob- 

 served on animals; and pathological cases have occasionally occurred, 

 which enabled the physiologist to witness what was going on in the 

 interior of the stomach ; but, with perhaps one exception, those oppor- 

 tunities have not been much improved. Dr. Burrows 1 relates a case of 

 fistulous opening into the organ. The subject of the case was not seen 

 by him until twenty-seven years after the injury, at which time the man 

 was, to all appearance, healthy ; but he was drunken, and dissipated, 

 and the following year died. A case is related by Schenk; 2 and Louis 3 

 refers to similar cases that occurred to Foubert and Covillard. Helm, 

 of Vienna, 4 published a case, to which reference has already been made ; 

 and one of an interesting character occurred at the Hospital La Charit 

 of Paris, which sheds some little light on the subject. 5 The aperture, 

 which was more than an inch and a half long, and an inch broad, ex- 

 posed the interior of the organ. At the admission of the female into 

 the hospital, she ate three times as much as ordinary persons. Three 

 or four hours after a meal, an irresistible feeling compelled her to re- 

 move the dressings from the fistulous opening, so as to allow the escape 

 of food which the stomach could no longer contain, when the contents 

 came out quickly, accompanied by more or less air. They possessed a 

 faint smell, but had neither acid nor alkaline properties; and the gray- 

 ish paste, of which they consisted when diluted with distilled water, 

 did not affect vegetable blues. Digestion was far from complete ; yet, 

 frequently the odour of wine was destroyed; and bread was reduced to 

 a soft, viscid, thick substance, resembling fibrin recently precipitated 

 by acetous acid, and swimming in a stringy fluid of the colour of com- 

 mon soup. Experiments, made on this half-digested food, at the Ecole 

 de Medecine, showed that the changes, which it had undergone, were 

 an increase of gelatin; the formation of a substance like fibrin; and a 

 considerable portion of chloride of sodium, phosphate of soda and 

 phosphate of lime. The patient could never sleep until she had emptied 

 her stomach, and washed it out by drinking infusion of chamomile. 

 In the morning, it contained a small quantity of thick, frothy liquid, 

 analogous to saliva, which did not affect vegetable blues; with matters 

 of greater consistence, and some opaque, albuminous flocculi mingled 

 with the liquid portion. The results of chemical experiments on this 

 liquid were similar to those obtained on the analysis of saliva. 



But the most interesting case in its observed phenomena is one that 

 occurred to Dr. Beaumont, 6 of the United States Army, now of Saint 

 Louis, which the author had an opportunity of examining. To this 

 case, reference has already been made repeatedly. A Canadian lad, 



1 Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. iv. 



2 Observ. Medic. Rar. Nov., &c., lib. iii.,Francof., 1609. 



3 Memoir, de 1' Academic Royale de Chirurgie, vol. iv. p. 213, Paris, 1819. 



4 Rudolpbi, Grundriss der Physiologic, 2ter Band, 2te Abtheil., s. 114, Berlin, 1828. 

 6 Richerand's Elemens de Physiologic, edit, cit., p. 72. 



6 Op. citat., Introduction, p. 10; and the Author's Elements of Hygiene, p. 216, Philad., 

 1835. 



