22 DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 



Digestion of a Meat Diet in the Stomach. 



After taking a full meal of meat cut in small pieces the digestion 

 in the stomach is veiy active and free; it increases until the third hour 

 antl slowly decreases until the ninth, and is nearly over at the twelfth 

 hour. After eating a very large meal the digestion is somewhat slower 

 and lasts considerably longer, the different kinds of meat also vary in the 

 t ime of their digestion. Pork is the easiest to digest and others are classified 

 in the following order: mutton, veal, beef, and lastly the flesh of other 

 animals (Astley Cooper) ; skin, tendon, sinew, cartilage, and bones are 

 very hard to digest; the latter are digested from their surface and are 

 reduced as the gelatinous parts are acted upon and dissolved and the 

 lime salts remain unchanged. Fat meat is harder to digest than lean; 

 fat undergoes no change in the stomach, but passes on and is digested 

 in the intestines. The gastric juice acts on and reduces roasted meats 

 and if raw meat is chopped up in small pieces the gastric juice acts on it 

 much more quickly. It has never been satisfactorily settled whether raw 

 or cooked meat is easier to digest. 



The Digestion of Milk in the Stomach. 



Milk is comparatively slow in digestion. After an animal had taken 

 249 grammes of milk he was destroj^ed four hours later and 13 grammes 

 of cheese and 1 gramme of fluid was found in his stomach. 



Action of Digestion on Hydrocarbonaceous Food. 



Five hours after a meal consisting of rice and potatoes the mass was 

 liquefied and softened; the mashed portion of the potatoes had disappeared 

 but the lumps remained. After a meal of rice, the following observations 

 were made: After one hour 10 per cent, was digested, after two hours 

 25 per cent., after three hours 50 per cent., after four hours 82 per cent., 

 after six hours 90 per cent., after eight hours 99 per cent., and at the end 

 of ten hours it had entirely disappeared (V. Hofmeister). 



Both Ellcnberger and Hofmeister have come to the conclusion that 

 rice is chiefly digested in the intestines, as there is so much muriatic 

 (hydrochloric) acid in the stomach immediately after eating that sac- 

 charation cannot take place; and also that the dog swallows his food with 

 so little mastication that the saliva has no time to make any change in 

 the starch. 



The effect of the disturbance of gastric secretion on digestion is 

 as follows: When, from any cause, the secretion of gastric juice is les- 

 sened or altered the following changes are observed: The digestion 

 of albumin, and the antiseptic and antizymotic action of the gastric 



