250 



DIGESTION. 



are disposed of in the stomach. While it is fully understood that most of the substances 

 experimented upon by him are ( not completely digested by the gastric juice, and although 

 he was often wrong in assuming that articles of food were digested when they had not 

 become completely liquefied and consequently endosmotic, the table which he prepared 

 with so much care was the result of such conscientious and extended research, that it 

 must always be recognized as of great value. Nearly all of the results given in the table 

 are derived from experiments frequently repeated and " performed under the naturally 

 healthy condition of the stomach and ordinary exercise." They show the mean time 

 employed in the digestion, in the stomach, of most of the ordinary articles of food, in the 

 person of a healthy young man of good digestive powers. Of course it must be under- 

 stood that there are important peculiarities in different individuals, which could not be 

 considered. As many of the alimentary substances experimented upon are but slightly 

 acted on by the gastric juice, it has been thought proper, in making the selections from 

 the table, to discard all articles which are mainly digested in the small intestine. 

 With these modifications, therefore, the following table may be taken as representing 

 the comparative rapidity with which most of the ordinary nitrogenized articles are acted 

 upon in the stomach ; they being either completely dissolved, and probably directly ab- 

 sorbed by its mucous membrane, or prepared for the action of the intestinal fluids, passing 

 gradually out at the pylorus. It must be remembered, however, that slow digestion does 

 not always indicate that the process is difficult, and the action of the gastric fluids upon 

 many articles which apparently give no trouble in digestion is by no means rapid. 



Table showing the Digestibility of various Alimentary Substances in the 



Stomach. (Beaumont.) 



