GASES FOUND IN THE ALIMENTAEY CANAL. 



271 



years of age, and the conditions as regards digestion were the same. The 

 third was twenty-eight years of age, and four hours before death, he ate 

 bread, beef and lentils, and drank red wine and water. The following was 

 the result of the analyses : 



GASES CONTAINED IN THE SMALL INTESTINE. 



No oxygen was found in either of the examinations, and the quantities of 

 the other gases were so variable as to lead to the supposition that their pro- 

 parti on is not at all definite. Reference has already been made to the 

 mechanical office of these gases in intestinal digestion. 



In the large intestine, the constitution. of the gases presented the same 

 variability as in the small intestine. Carburetted hydrogen was found in all 

 of the analyses. In the large intestine of the first criminal and in the rec- 

 tum of the third, were found traces of hydrogen monosulphide. The follow- 

 ing is the result of the analyses in the cases just cited. In the third, the 

 gaseous contents of the caecum and the rectum were analyzed separately : 



GASES CONTAINED IN THE LARGE INTESTINE. 



Origin of the Intestinal Gases. The most reasonable view to take of the 

 origin of the gases normally found in the intestines is that they are given off 

 from the articles of food in their various stages of digestion and decomposi- 

 tion. That this is the principal source of the intestinal gases, there can be 

 no doubt ; and it is well known that certain articles of food, particularly vege- 

 tables, generate much more gas than others. The principal gases found in 

 the intestinal canal may all be obtained from the food. Some of them, as 

 hydrogen and Carburetted hydrogen, do not exist in the blood; and it is 

 difficult to conceive how they can be generated in the intestine except by 

 decomposition of certain of the articles of food. Gases do not exist in the 

 alimentary canal of the foetus. 



