164 SURVIVAL AFTER REMOVAL OF STOMACH. [BOOK II. 



rently in no respect from a normal animal, when four years after 

 the operation, for the purpose of the investigation, it was killed. 



The dog referred to was operated upon on Dec. 22, 1876. After 

 the operation, the animal was only fed on small quantities of milk 

 and powdered meat, but after two months it ate the ordinary food 

 of other dogs. Before the operation the dog weighed 5850 grms. 

 On Jan. 22nd its weight had fallen to 4490 grms., but it increased 

 afterwards, so that on Sept. 16th it weighed 7000 grms. 



" In Leipzig, in the year 1882, Ludwig and his pupil Ogata were 

 engaged in investigating the functions of the stomach. It occurred 

 to them that it would be interesting to learn what had become of 

 Czerny's dogs. Ludwig wrote to Heidelberg, to Czerny, who an- 

 swered by sending the dog in a perfectly healthy state to Leipzig. 

 It was in excellent spirits, and ate all kinds of food with a keen 

 appetite. The faeces were normal. In consequence of the abundant 

 food, it had put on weight, and it did not appear to differ in any way 

 from an ordinary dog. With Czerny's consent, the dog was killed in 

 the spring of 1882. The post-mortem shewed that only a very small 

 portion of the cardiac end of the stomach remained, and this was 

 dilated into a small cavity filled with food. The dog had therefore 

 lived for more than five years without a stomach 1 ," or, to be more 

 precise, with only a small remnant of its original stomach. 



Ogata, working under Lud wig's direction, instead 

 f having recourse to the formidable operative pro- 

 cedure of Czerny, established a duodenal fistula, which 

 permitted the introduction, through the fistula, of an india-rubber 

 ball, connected with a tube, which allowed of the ball being dis- 

 tended with water, so that it shut off the stomach from the duo- 

 denum. It was then possible to introduce alimentary substances 

 into the duodenum. 



It was found that the introduction of pounded egg and minced 

 flesh into the duodenum, twice daily, sufficed to keep the animal 

 experimented upon, in health, and up to weight. Ogata found that, 

 in the main, digestion proceeded as usual, there being however some- 

 what less perfect digestion of connective tissue. 



These extraordinary results are in agreement with the knowledge 

 which we possess, that the stomach discharges digestive functions 

 which are shared by other organs, and prove that in animals pos- 

 sessed of great vitality, the failure of one organ may lead to such 

 compensatory over-activity of the cooperating organs as suffices, for a 

 time at least, to shield the organism from evil consequences. 



1 F. F. Kaiser in Czerny's Beltrage zur operativen Chirurgie, 1878, p. 141. 



This account of the experiments* of Czerny and his pupils is quoted from the 

 interestingly written account in Bunge's admirable ' Text-Book on Physiological and 

 Pathological Chemistry.' London, Kegan Paul and Co. 1890. See Lect. ix. p. 167. 



2 Ogata, ' Ueber die Verdanung nach der Ausschaltung des Magens,' Archiv f. 

 Anat. u. Phys. Phys. Abtheil. (1883), p. 89. 



