WATER AS A DIETARY CONSTITUENT 



283 



Fig. 2. Curve showing moderate stimu- 

 lation by water (Bergeim, Reh- 

 fuss and Hawk ; Jour. Biol. Chem., 

 1914, XIX, 345.) 



tion of moderate intensity, whereas Figure 3 shows but slight stimula- 

 tion. These tests were made on three men who gave normal gastric his- 

 tories, and serve to illustrate the fact that all normal stomachs do not 

 yield the same response to chemical 

 stimulation. This point has been 

 emphasized throughout our work on 

 "Gastric Response" (Miller, Fowler, 

 Bergeim, Rehfuss, and Hawk). In 

 other words, water is an important 

 gastric stimulant, but it does not ex- 

 ert a pronounced stimulatory effect 

 in every normal stomach neither 

 does any other dietary article. This 

 same fact has also been brought out 

 by Ivy (6). Other interesting water 

 experiments have also been made by 

 Sutherland, and by King and Han- 

 ford. The latter investigators say: 

 " Water given with meals or dur- 

 ing digestion results in the following 

 hour in an increase in the amount 



of juice secreted over that which would be secreted on the administration 

 of either water or meat alone." 



Niles, as the result of experiments on eight men, each of whom 

 received one liter of water at each meal for one week, also approves of 

 water drinking with meals. He says, "Not one of the eight suffered a 



single qualm of indigestion, 

 either gastric or intestinal." 

 That the water some- 

 times begins its stimulation 

 as soon as it comes in con- 

 tact with the human gastric 

 mucosa is illustrated by 

 Fig. 4. In this experi- 

 ment, after removing the 

 gastric residuum (Rehfuss, 

 Bergeim and Ilawk(a) ; 

 Fowler, Rehfuss. and 

 Hawk) of a normal man, 



100 c.c. of water was introduced into the empty stomach through the 

 Rehfuss tube. That there was no latent period is shown by the fact that 

 an acidity of 15 was registered at the end of one minute, and this value 

 had risen to 80 at the end of a five-minute interval. Pavlov claims that 

 the stomach of the dog shows a latent period of five minutes, whereas 



/oo 



Fig. 3. Curve showing slight stimulation by 

 water in the human stomach. (Fowler, Rehfuss 

 and Hawk; unpublished data.) 



