214 PHYSIOLOGY OF ALIMENTATION. 



need much comment. The experiments indicate very clearly 

 that lack of appetite means lack of gastric juice, which, in 

 turn, is synonymous with faulty gastric digestion. We see 

 also the usefulness of predigested foods in certain pathologi- 

 cal conditions of the 'stomach and the rational basis for the 

 , use of soups, meat extracts, etc., which, though they have 

 no food value in themselves, are useful remedial agents, since 

 they cause a secretion of gastric juice which may be utilized 

 in digesting otherwise indigestible constituents of a mixed 

 meal. 



