THU STOMACH. 53 



3 to 3|- gallons the food becomes mixed with the gastric 

 juice, whose flow at first is slow. This secretion is liable 

 to be checked by violent exercise, or by the stomach 

 becoming unduly distended. If it be largely diluted 

 with water, its action will be arrested, until the excess 

 of that fluid be absorbed. Cold also stops the perform- 

 ance of its functions, for it will not act at a tempera- 

 ture much below blood heat. A moderate supply of hot 

 spices stimulates its secretion. When the supply or 

 action of the gastric juice which is a natural antiseptic 

 is checked, the food, that is in the stomach at the time, 

 is most apt to become decomposed, with the probable 

 result of indigestion, flatulent colic, and even rupture 

 of the stomach, caused by the evolution of gas. Hence 

 we may conclude that horses ought not to be watered 

 soon after being fed, and that they should not be given 

 large supplies of boiled food, which is very bulky in com- 

 parison to the amount of nutriment it contains, while 

 it can be rapidly swallowed. Besides, exciting but a 

 small secretion of saliva, it arrives in the stomach in an 

 unprepared state, and is consequently liable to become 

 decomposed, before the gastric juice can properly act on it. 



The antiseptic properties of gastric juice is well shewn 

 by the immunity with which many races of men eat 

 putrid flesh and fish. 



The active principle of gastric juice pepsine converts 

 the nitrogenous matters of the food into a soluable form 

 peptone and also serve to split up the fat into a state 

 of fine division, by dissolving the nitrogenous envelopes, 



which enclose the o-lobules. When the food now called 



& 



chyme leaves the stomach and enters into the small 



