^42 Medicme, 



confirmation of this he observes, that intestinal 

 worms can remain a considerable time unhurt in 

 the stomach, while they retain the principle of life; 

 but as soon as they lose this, they are dissolved and 

 digested, like other substances. In like manner 

 he asserts, that while the stomach itself retains this 

 living principle, the gastric fluid cannot exert its 

 solvent powers on it; but when the person dies, 

 particularly in cases of violent and sudden death, 

 that fluid immediately begins to corrode it, and 

 sometimes is found to have made its way entirely 

 through the coats of the stomach into the cavit/ 

 of the abdomen/ 



It seems, therefore, to result from all the most 

 successful inquiries concerning digestion, made 

 during the eighteenth century, that this function 

 is variously performed by mechanical actioji, or 

 chemical solution, in different animals, according to 

 the structure of the stomach, and the nature of the 

 gastric secretion; and that in man, and many 

 other tribes of animals which possess similar orga- 

 nization of this viscus, it is effected by the solvent 

 operation of the gastric fluid independently of tri- 

 turation. 



Besides the points in physiology already noticed, 

 many others might be mentioned which have un- 

 doubtedly received much elucidation and improve- 

 ment in the course of the late century. The senses 

 of Vision and Hearing, w^hich had previously de- 

 rived a great deal of light from the endeavours used 

 to investigate them, have been examined with still 

 more minuteness and success within the last hun- 

 dred years, and many new facts and principles con- 

 cerning them have been satisfactorily ascertained. 

 But the doctrines of >SVcre^/o?2 and Nutrition, 'Caow^ 

 so fundamental in a thorough acquaintance with 



t Thil, Tranu vol. hii. p. 447* 



