440 ABSORPTION OF WATER IN STOMACH AND INTESTINES. [BOOK II. 



deep sleep in the course of 10 minutes (when administered to a dog 

 with unligatured pylorus), was administered to one in which it had 

 been ligatured, scarcely any physiological action ensued. 



Again, when sulphate of strychnia was injected into the stomach 

 of cats with ligatured pylorus, death from strychnia poisoning ensued 

 in a period varying between one and a half and three hours after- 

 wards, whilst with unligatured pylorus death occurred from the same 

 dose in 8 minutes. If, however, strychnine were dissolved in dilute 

 alcohol (0*04 grm. of strychnine dissolved in 5 c.c. of 90 p.c. alcohol 

 and 15 c.c. of water) and were injected into the stomach of a cat 

 with ligatured pylorus, death occurred in ten minutes, i.e. in the 

 same time as when the same dose was administered to an animal in 

 the normal condition. The conclusion to which Tappeiner arrived 

 was that the absorptive power of the stomach is greatly inferior to 

 that of the intestine in so far as substances dissolved in water are 

 concerned, but that it possesses the power of absorbing dilute alcohol 

 as well as substances dissolved in it. 



The invest!- Anrep 1 in Lud wig's laboratory, repeated Tappeiner's 



gation of experiments on dogs with gastric fistulse but came to 



wTade Smith ^ e conc ^ us i n tna ^ ^* n su g ar an d proteids are absorbed 

 by the stomach in considerable quantities. Meade 

 Smith 2 introduced solutions of sugar as well as of proteids into the 

 stomach of frogs in which he had some time before ligatured the 

 pylorus. The quantity of sugar absorbed varied with the concentra- 

 tion of the solution. Meade Smith, however, found that the quantity 

 of liquid present in the stomach at the conclusion of the experiment 

 was greater than that which he had introduced. So far as one can 

 draw conclusions from experiments in which the normal mechanism 

 is so materially disturbed, the absorption of water from the stomach 

 appeared to be very doubtful 3 . 



The experi- The experiments which have been passed under 



ments of review, with the exception of those of Meade Smith, 



concerned directly only the absorption of substances 

 dissolved in water or in alcohol and gave no direct answer to the 

 question does the stomach absorb the water introduced into it, or 

 does the latter entirely pass into the duodenum ? In the year 1892 

 J. S. Edkins published the results of a research which led him to the 

 conclusion that, whether the stomach had been digesting or not, " the 

 absorption (of water) was practically nothing 4 ." 



1 B. v. Anrep, 'Die Aufsaugung im Magen des Hundes' (aus d. phys. Anstalt zu 

 Leipzig), Du Bois Raymond's Archiv, Phys. Abth., 1881, p. 504 et seq. 



3 R. Meade Smith, 'Die Resorption'des Zuckers und des Eiweisses im Magen ' (aus 

 d. phys. Anstalt zu Leipzig), Du Bois Reymond's Archiv, Phys. Abth., 1884, pp. 

 481496. 



3 See also M. Segall, 'Versuche iiber die Resorption des Zuckers im Magen,' Inaug. 

 Diss. Miinchen, 1888. Abstracted in Centralbl. f. d. med. Wissensch., 1889, p. 610, 

 and Maly's Jahresbericht, 1889, p. 281. 



4 J. T. Edkins, M.A., M.B., 'The Absorption of Water in the Alimentary Canal' 



