164 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 



submitted to its action. Milk and the white of an egg were invaria- 

 bly found to become first curdled by the fluid, and then dissolved. 



The periods required for the solution of various substances in 

 the gastric juice out of the body, varied as follows : Sago and 

 tapioca, boiled, were completely dissolved in about three hours and 

 a quarter; fresh bread, in about four hours and a half ; milk, in 

 about the same time as bread ; calf Vfoot jelly, in about four hours 

 and three quarters ; soft boiled eggs, in six hours and a half hard 

 boiled, two hours longer ; oysters, raw and entire, seven hours and 

 a half, stewed, eight hours and a half ; beefsteak, in eight hours ; 

 boiled beef, in nine hours and a half; boiled mutton, and raw 

 pork, in eight hours and a half; beef suet, boiled, in twelve hours; 

 mutton suet, boiled, in ten hours ; cream, in twenty-five hours and 

 a half; olive oil, in sixty hours. In these experiments the gastric 

 juice employed was about eight times the quantity of the substance 

 to be dissolved. It will be seen from these experiments, that fat 

 and oily food were among the articles which presented the greatest 

 resistance to the solvent powers of the gastric fluid ; and this Dr. 

 Beaumont found to be the case in the stomach as well as out of it. 

 Some of his experiments indicate that the digestibility of this sort 

 of food is facilitated by a slight admixture of bile with the gastric 

 juice, and that very generally, when aliment containing fat. is eaten, 

 bile is found in the cavity of the stomach. 



I will now transcribe the conclusions which Dr. Beaumont has 

 deduced from his experiments on his patient. 



" The ordinary time required for the complete digestion of the 

 food received into the stomach, in a healthy state of that organ, is 

 generally three hours and a half. The facility of digestion is modi- 

 fied, however, by many circumstances, as the peculiar nature of 

 individuals, habit, the nature of the food, and the manner in which 

 it is prepared : minuteness of division, and tenderness of fibre, 

 wo\ild appear to be the two great essentials for the speedy and easy 

 digestion of the aliment. 



" Albumen (white of eggs), if swallowed either raw or very 

 slightly coagulated, is perhaps as rapidly digested as any article of 

 diet we possess. If perfectly hardened by heat, and swallowed in 

 large solid pieces, it experiences a very protracted digestion. Fi- 

 brin (red muscular flesh) and jelly are affected in the same way ; if 

 tender and finely divided, they are disposed of readily ; if in large 

 solid masses, digestion is proportionably retarded." 



Animal fat is invariably, and very quickly rendered fluid by the 



