THE CHEMISTRY OF THE DIGESTIVE JUICES 357 



were unaffected. But if the gastric juice was neutralized by an 

 alkali before the administration of the bacilli the guinea-pigs died. 

 Charrin found, too, that digestion with pepsin and hydrochloric acid 

 causes an appreciable destruction or attenuation of diphtheria toxin. 

 Bacteria, like the lactic acid bacillus, which form acid products, may 

 be less profoundly affected by the acid gastric juice than the putre- 

 factive bacteria, which, on the whole, form alkalies, and are there- 

 fore accustomed to an alkaline medium. Yet we have seen that the 

 growth of even the lactic acid bacillus is very strictly controlled when 

 the gastric juice contains the normal amount of hydrochloric acid. 

 It has been supposed by some that this bactericidal action is the 

 chief function of the stomach, and the question has been asked why 

 we should attribute any digestive importance to the secretion of that 

 viscus, since the pancreatic juice can do all that the gastric juice 

 does, and some things which it cannot do. Further, it has been 

 shown that a dog may live five years after complete excision of the 

 stomach, comport himself in all respects like a normal dog, and when 

 killed for necropsy show every organ in perfect health (Czerny). In 

 man, too, the stomach has been excised with a successful result. 

 But if this is to be admitted as evidence against the digestive function 

 of the stomach, it is just as good evidence against the bactericidal 

 function, particularly as it has in addition been shown that even 

 putrid flesh has no harmful effect on a dog after excision of the 

 stomach, any more than on a normal dog. And, indeed, the reason- 

 ing is fallacious which assumes that what may happen under ab- 

 normal conditions must happen when the conditions are normal. 

 For nothing is impressed more often on the physiological observer 

 than the extraordinary power of adaptation, of making the best of 

 everything, which the animal organism possesses. Doubtless a dog 

 without a stomach will use to the best advantage the digestive fluids 

 that remain to him ; and the pancreatic juice, with the aid of the bile 

 and the succus entericus, may be adequate to the complete task of 

 digestion. So, too, a man from whom the surgeon has removed a 

 kidney, or a testicle, or a lobe of the thyroid gland, may be in no 

 respect worse off than the man who possesses a pair of these organs. 

 But what do we deduce from this ? Not, surely, that the excised 

 thyroid, or testicle, or kidney was useless, or the gastric juice in- 

 active, but that the organism has been able to compensate itself for 

 their loss. Further, it would seem that the fate of the protein or of 

 part of the protein digested and absorbed by the stomach is different 

 from that digested and absorbed by the intestine. For after the 

 operation of gastro-enterostomy (the establishment of an artificial 

 opening between the stomach and the small intestine through which 

 the food passes rapidly without having to submit to the challenge 

 of the pyloric sphincter), the ingested nitrogen is more quickly 

 eliminated than when the protein is first subjected to full gastric 



