DIGESTION. 597 



place equally throughout the mass, but seemed to be confined 

 principally to the superficies, or where it was in contact with the 

 stomach.* The smell of the mass was peculiar, and difficult to 

 describe. It might be called weak but disagreeable. On being 

 wrapped up in a piece of linen, and subjected to moderate pres- 

 sure, it yielded upwards of half a fluid ounce of an opaque, red- 

 dish-brown fluid, which instantly reddened litmus-paper very 

 strongly, though not permanently, as, upon being dried or even 

 oxposed to the air for a short time, the blue colour was restored. 

 It instantly coagulated milk and redissolved the curd, convert- 

 ing it into a fluid similar to itself. It was not coagulated by heat 

 or acids, and therefore contained no albumen. On being evapo- 

 rated to dryness, and incinerated, it left an alkaline chloride 

 with traces of an alkaline phosphate and sulphate, together with 

 sulphate, phosphate, and carbonate of lime. 



2. Digestion in the Pigeon. The bird was young, but fully 

 fledged, and had been fed about two hours before it was killed 

 upon a mixture of barley and peas. It was opened and examin- 

 ed immediately after death. In the crop was a portion of food which 

 was swollen and soft, but appeared to have undergone no farther 

 sensible change than might have been expected from mere heat 

 and moisture. This organ did not exhibit any evidence of the 

 presence of an acid. The gizzard or stomach contained corn 

 in various states of decomposition, the internal parts of some 

 of the seeds being reduced to a milky pulp, which flowed out on 

 their being subjected to pressure ; others were reduced to a mere 

 husk, while others were in various states between these two ex- 

 tremes. The whole contents of the stomach exhibited decidedly 

 acid properties. But the litmus-paper recovered its blue colour 

 again almost instantly after exposure to the atmosphere. They 

 coagulated milk, but yielded no trace of albumen. 



3. Digestion in the Tench and Mackerel. The contents of 

 the stomach and upper intestines of the tench were examined im- 

 mediately after death ; but, as the fish had been kept for some 

 time in an unnatural state, the phenomena were not quite satis- 

 factory. The contents of the stomach and upper portion of the 

 intestines consisted of little more than a yellowish glairy fluid, 

 which seemed to be bile ; and the small quantity of alimentary 



* This corroborates Dr Wilson Philip's statement noticed above. 



