

oe a re 
SECT, XIX. PHYSIOLOGY. 163 
posing power of the gastric juice. Dr. Fordyce 
states, that “ digestion is performed on substances 
containing all the elements of chyle. The sub- 
stances in the stomach, and other organs of diges- 
tion, have the elements separated from one 
another by the effects of the stomach, and other 
organs of digestion upon them, occasioning in 
them a decomposition, and a recombination of 
their elements into a new substance.” Nor is the 
stomach the only part of body in which decom- 
position occurs. Helvetius states, that flesh and 
fish have been found half decomposed in the 
gullets of birds; and the late Dr. Curry, of this 
place, kept a gentleman alive from the 17th of 
October to the 6th of December, by nutritive in- 
jection. In this last instance, digestion must 
undoubtedly have been effected in the colon and 
rectum. 
cece. Assimilation, secretion, suppuration, and 
the decay of organs, also evidently evince that 
the vital force is possessed both of dissolving and 
recomposing properties ; and supposing it to be 
a modification of Galvanism, arising from the 
contact of the nerves and blood-vessels, it appears 
not unfeasible that a decomposing power might 
be shown to exist in every part of the animal 
economy. With these reasonings in view, Dr. 
Sillar and I undertook the following experiments, 
which were published in the London Medical and 
Physical Journal of last March. 
