SECT. XIX. PHYSIOLOGY. 165 
beef, weighing five grains. The mouth of the 
phial was closed with a ground stopper, firmly 
‘secured by a silver top screwed upon it; and to 
apply a proper degree of heat to the contents of 
the phial, it was placed in the rectum of another 
dog, where it remained eleven hours. About three- 
quarters of the beef were dissolved ; the remainder 
was black and viscous. Before putting it into the 
phial, it had a thread wrapt round it, for the pur- 
pose of facilitating its extraction when the experi- 
ment should be finished, the parts of the beef in 
contact with the thread not being so much dis- 
solved as the remaining surface, which was freely 
exposed to the gastric juice; the remainder of 
the beef had an angular appearance. Although 
we were not prepared to expect this result from 
our experiment, yet it left no doubt on our minds, 
that the gastric juice, when obtained pure, is 
slightly solvent, even out of the body, if the 
artificial digestion be conducted with the necessary 
precautions. 
ccccv. We repeated the last experiment, but 
in place of gastric juice, the phial was half filled 
with saliva. The piece of beef which was put 
into it, had undergone no perceptible change, but 
its smell was become very offensive. 
ccccvi. We tried to digest boiled beef in gas- 
tric juice, in a temperature varying from 50° to 
60° of Fahrenheit, but no decomposition was 
