VOMITED FLUIDS. 137 



a solution of potash ; hence they appeared, at all events, in part to 

 contain a protein-like constituent. But, on the other hand, 

 Schlossberger could not obtain a blue colour with hydrochloric 

 acid ; indeed, he expresses great doubts whether there is any 

 difference between the capsule and the contents, although Hasse 

 and Kolliker believe that they had proved, both by hydro- 

 chloric acid and by potash, that a difference existed. Caustic 

 potash causes the sarcina, or at all events its larger interstices, 

 to swell. The sarcina is unaffected by alcoholic and acid fer- 

 mentation. 



Far more amenable to chemical investigation, and of more 

 physiological interest, are the (generally) fluid materials which are 

 sometimes vomited in the fasting state; as, for instance, in chronic 

 catarrh of the stomach, in the round (perforating) ulcer, and in 

 cancer of the stomach. Although the investigation of such 

 secretions is indispensable to a right comprehension of the nature 

 of the substances which, mixed with food, are usually vomited, we 

 have as yet only few analyses of these gastric and intestinal secre- 

 tions discharged by the mouth, and still fewer in which the 

 diagnosis of the disease has been established. Thus, for instance, 

 waterbrash (pyrosis) has excited the attention of physicians, and the 

 vomited matter has been analysed, and, on one occasion, the fluid 

 has been found alkaline, and on another strongly acid, without any 

 regard to the pathologico-chemical process. Frerichs* has here 

 also opened the path for further inquiry ; he has ascertained that, 

 in many forms of gastric disease, as, for instance, in the chronic 

 gastric catarrh of drunkards, and sometimes in cancer and round 

 (perforating) ulcer of the stomach, the salivary glands are con- 

 sensually irritated, and secrete an abundance of saliva, which accu- 

 mulates in the stomach, and finally induces vomiting. In such cases 

 the vomited fluids present all the characters of saliva ; they 

 are in most cases alkaline, often however neutral, rarely acid, 

 contained a large quantity of the sulphocyanides, and, under the 

 requisite conditions, converted starch very rapidly into sugar. 



These fluids were found by Frerichs to be slightly turbid in 

 consequence of the presence of epithelium and fat-globules ; their 

 density varied from 1-004 to 1*007, arid they contained from 0'472 

 to O'688-o of solid constituents ; the application of heat did not 

 much increase their turbidity; the addition of alcohol caused a 

 separation of white flocculi, which possessed the metamorphic 

 power on starch in a high degree; the watery solution of their 



* Op.cit. 



