DIGESTION. 191 



to have found that the alcohol first acts somewhat as a preventive, 

 but afterwards, as a rule, it is absorbed, producing an abundant 

 secretion of gastric juice, and thereby facilitating digestion (CL. 

 BERNARD, GLUZINSKI, CHITTENDEN). 



The digestion of sundry foods is not dependent on one organ 

 alone, but divided among several. For this reason it is to be ex- 

 pected that the various digestive organs can act for one another 

 to a certain point, and that therefore the work of the stomach 

 could be taken up more or less by the intestines. This in fact is 

 the case. Thus the stomach of a dog has been almost completely 

 extirpated (CZERNY), arid even that part necessary in the digestive 

 process has been eliminated by plugging the pyloric opening (LuD- 

 WIG and OGATA), and in both cases it was possible to keep the 

 animal alive, well fed, and strong. In these cases it is evident that 

 the digestive work of the stomach was taken up by the intestines. 

 That the stomach nevertheless, during normal conditions, bears an 

 essential part of the process of digestion may be inferred from the 

 fact that the products of the proteolyse can generally be detected 

 in the contents of the human stomach even shortly after a meal. By 

 tests on dogs that had been given meat-powder, CAHN" found large 

 quantities of peptone in the stomach, and this absorption, as shown 

 by SCHMIDT-MULHEIM, requires about the same steps as digestion. 

 It is meanwhile quite generally assumed that no peptonization 

 of the proteids worth mentioning occurs in the stomach, and that 

 the albuminous foods are only prepared in the stomach for the real 

 digestive processes in the intestines. That the stomach serves in 

 the first place as a storeroom follows from its shape, and this func- 

 tion is of special value in certain new-born animals, for instance in 

 dogs and cats. In these animals the secretion of the stomach con- 

 tains only hydrochloric acid but no pepsin, and the casein of the 

 milk is converted by the acid alone into solid lumps or a solid 

 coagulum which fills the stomach. Small portions of this coagulum 

 pass into the intestines only little by little and an overburdening of 

 the intestines is thus prevented. In other animals, such as the snake 

 and certain fishes, which swallow their food entire, it is certain that 

 the major part of the process of digestion takes place in the stomach. 

 The importance of the stomach in digestion cannot at once be de- 

 cided. It varies for different animals, and it may vary in the same 

 animal, depending upon the division of the food, the rapidity 



