CHAPTER XI. 

 THE REGULATION OF GASTRIC SECRETION. 



z. Gastric Fistula. For our earliest knowledge of the 

 secretion of gastric juice by the stomach, and its qualitative 

 and quantitative variations under different physiological 

 conditions, we are indebted to the American physician BEAU- 

 MONT. BEAUMONT made his observations upon the hunter 

 ALEXIS ST. MARTIN, who retained, in consequence of a gun- 

 shot wound, a permanent opening in the abdominal wall 

 which led directly into the stomach. 



An attempt to reproduce the same condition of affairs 

 in animals led to the experiments of more modern observers, 

 who created gastric fistulae artificially in animals of various 

 kinds. The results obtained, however, were by no means 

 harmonious or satisfactory. The animals sickened and died, 

 or at the best secreted a juice which was evidently subnor- 

 mal, both in quantity and quality. In order to obtain a 

 flow of gastric juice, BEAUMONT introduced into the stomach 

 of his patient various kinds of food. The students of gas- 

 tric physiology who immediately followed him used the same 

 methods, and we still use them today in the clinical exam- 

 ination of the gastric juice. A patient is fed a specified 

 diet and the^ gastric contents, which are subsequently re- 

 moved through introduction of a stomach-tube, are sub- 

 jected to chemical analysis. This procedure does not, how- 

 ever, yield a pure juice, but one mixed with food particles, 

 saliva, etc. 



The first to try to obtain pure gastric juice was KLEMEN- 



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