70 METHODS OF OBTAINING GASTRIC JUICE. [BOOK II. 



The re- With Spallanzani closes the earlier history of the 



searches which researches on the gastric juice. After him came Tiede- 

 foiiowed those ma nn and Gmelin 1 , and Leuret and Lassaigne 2 , who 

 r Spallanzani. studied the ac idity of the gastric juice. 



Then fallowed the classical observations (1825 1833) of Beau- 

 mont 3 , a surgeon in the United States' Army, made in connection 

 with the case of Alexis St Martin, a patient in whom as a result of a 

 gun-shot wound a gastric fistula had become established, which 

 allowed both of the collection of gastric juice and of the observation 

 of the processes which go on within the stomach. 



Eberle 4 in 1834, announced the interesting fact that by acting upon 

 the mucous membrane of the stomach by means of dilute hydrochloric 

 acid, an artificial gastric juice can be obtained, with which food may 

 be digested as by the natural gastric juice experimented upon by 

 Spallanzani and Beaumont. Soon afterwards, Schwann 5 came to the 

 conclusion that the gastric juice owed its peculiar activity to a 

 principle which he denominated Pepsin, although he was unable to 

 separate it. 



These and all subsequent researches will be referred to again 

 in detail in the sections which follow. 



SECT. 3. METHODS OF OBTAINING GASTRIC JUICE. 



We have seen that Reaumur and Spallanzani obtained small 

 quantities of gastric juice by causing animals to swallow hollow 

 perforated balls which contained pieces of sponge. The sponge 

 absorbed gastric juice which was secreted under the stimulus of the 

 foreign body thus introduced into the stomach, and by squeezing the 

 sponge the juice was afterwards obtained. 



Other experimenters, as Tiedemann and Gmelin, obtained small 

 quantities of gastric juice by causing fasting animals to swallow 

 insoluble bodies such as pebbles, and killing the animal shortly after- 

 wards. 



By these methods, observations of very great importance were 

 unquestionably made ; yet they were not sufficiently striking to con- 

 vince all doubters, as may be proved by quoting a passage from a 

 memoir of Schultz 6 , a Professor in the University of Berlin, who in 



1 Tiedemann u. Gmelin, Die Verdauung nach Versuclien. Heidelberg u. Leipzig, 

 1826. 



2 Leuret et Lassaigne, Recherches sur la Digestion. 



3 W. Beaumont, Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physio- 

 l9H f Digestion. Reprinted from the Plattsburgh edition, with notes, by Andrew 

 Combe, M.D., Edin., 1838. 



4 Eberle, Physiologic der Verdauung nach Versuchen. Wiirzburg, 1834. 



5 Schwann, 'Ueber das Wesen der Verdauungsprocesse.' Miiller's Archiv, 1836, 

 pp. 90138. 



6 Schultz, De Alimentorum concoctione experimenta nova. The author has not been 

 able to verify this reference. 



