eS eee 
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SECT. XIX. PHYSIOLOGY. 169 
natural; the solvent power of the gastrie juice 
cannot therefore be owing to acidity. 
ceccxiv. When the autopsies of the intestinal 
canal are performed with care, nothing is more 
common than to find parts of its inner coat 
destroyed by ulcerative inflammation; but that 
sort of decomposition of the stomach mentioned 
by J. Hunter, as occurring in cases of sudden 
death, is extremely rare. His opinion, that this 
morbid appearance is caused by the gastric juice, 
cannot be accurate; for except in a temperature 
approximating that of the blood, it possesses no 
solvent power superior to water ; and even accord- 
ing toMr. Hunter’s own authority, the gastric juice 
cannot act on a substance endowed with vitality, 
of which the stomach continues to be possessed 
for several hours after death. In this country, 
consequently, the vitality of the stomach must 
resist the operation of the gastric juice till the 
temperature sinks low enough to render it inactive. 
Spallanzani has recorded several experiments which 
corroborate this conclusion. The only explanation 
of the morbid symptoms described by Mr. Hunter 
which I shall offer, is the following quotation from 
his own work on Inflammation: “ Such deaths as 
prevent the contraction of the muscles, or the 
coagulation of the blood, are, I believe, always 
sudden. Death from sudden gusts of passion is 
Y 
