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fo rated with small holes, in order to admit the flu- 

 ids of the stomach ; in these they put nutritious sub- 

 stances, and they fount], that this food, after a-while, 

 was equally changed into chyme with that in the 

 other part of the stomach. A mechanical effect 

 of the coats, could not therefore be the cause of 

 digestion. "Fermentation was next resorted to but 

 when it was found, that, meat, in close balls of 

 metal, was not changed in the stomach, and that 

 small bones, which had been swallowed, were 

 dissolved and had lost their cohesion, the theory 

 of fermentation was relinquished ; and that opinion 

 was adopted, which is still considered as most 

 probable, that a peculiar fluid, the y a sir ic juice, is 

 secreted in the stomach, which possesses the pro- 

 perty of dissolving the nutritious substances that 

 enter that organ, and by this dissolution pre- 

 paring them for the further changes, which are 

 to take place in the duodenum. In consequence 

 of these ideas, SPAIAANZ ANI instituted numerous 

 experiments to ascertain the nature and property 

 of the gastric juice, the repetition of which would, 

 at present, be productive of far greater advan- 

 tages than could have been expected in his time. 

 EAGLESFIELB SMITH has endeavoured to prove, 

 by experiments on frogs, that the bile, and not 

 the gastric juice, was the means of solution, 



