C96I 



XlL Experiments to ascertain the coagulating Power of the 

 Secretion of the gastric Glands. By Sir Everard Home, J^art, 

 F, R. S. Communicated by the Society for promoting the Knoxv- 

 ledge of Animal Chemistry, 



Read January »i, 1813. 



In attempts to investigate the pi*o(Jess of digestion in quadru* 

 peds, the difficulties are almost insurmountable ; the gastric 

 glands are scarcely perceptible, and occupy a small portion of 

 the stomach, every other part of the inner membrane is throw- 

 ing out secretions of a different kind, and these are all mixed 

 together with the food in the general cavity. Under such 

 circumstances, the properties of the secretion of the gastric 

 glands can never be ascertained, since it cannot be procured 

 in a pure state. It is generally allowed, that the first process 

 the food undergoes in the stomachs of animals is being con- 

 verted into a jelly ; but whether this is produced by the gas- 

 tric liquor as the previous change to dissolution, or whether 

 it takes place before that liquor is applied, has not been ascer- 

 tained. 



Mr. Hunter made many experiments upon the coagulating 

 power of the secretions of the stomach, which establish the 

 fact of coagulation taking place in the stomachs of animals of 

 different classes. 



An infusion of the dried inner membrane of the fourth 

 cavity of the stomach of the calf, being in common use for 



