52 EXPERIMENTS ON DIGESTION. 



the gastric juice should produce the same effects as in 

 the stomach. The most that could have been expected 

 is only an approximation to the process of digestion, and 

 so far late experimenters have fully succeeded. Vari- 

 ous kinds of meat, bread, milk, &c. which have been 

 exposed to the action of the gastric juice of the dog, 

 duck, and other animals, have been uniformly, observed 

 to be broken down, and the outer portions at least chan- 

 ged into a pulpy greyish substance, resembling in ap- 

 pearance true chyme. Some very interesting experi- 

 ments on the digestive powers of the gastric juice in 

 man, were published a short time since in an Edinburg 

 Medical Journal, which were performed by a surgeon in 

 the American army. The subject of the experiments 

 was a young Canadian, who, in consequence of a wound 

 in the stomach occasioned by a musket shot, had an 

 external communication with that organ, though at this 

 time his health was excellent and his appetite good. By 

 taking off the pad which he wore over the opening, he 

 could easily remove the aliment and his medical atten- 

 dant frequently introduced into his stomach various sorts 

 of meat tied to a string, for the purpose of observing the 

 changes produced by digestion. In one of these experi- 

 ments, an ounce of clear gastric juice was drawn off by 

 means of a gum-elastic syphon into a phial capable of 

 holding three ounces. This was about 1 1 o'clock A. M. 

 and the mercury in the tube of a thermometer introduc- 

 ed into the stomach, stood at 100 of Fah. A small 

 piece of boiled 'beef was immediately immersed in the 

 fluid. The bottle was well corked and placed in a tem- 

 perature of 100 . In about 40 minutes the digestioti 

 had evidently commenced on the surface of the meat* 

 At 50 minutes, the fluid in the phial became opaque and 

 cloudy. The fibres of the meat began to be disengag- 

 ed, and in one hour chyme seemed to be forming. At 

 P. M. the muscular fibres had diminished one half. At 

 5 o'clock, very few remained and at 7, there was 

 scarcely any visible trace of muscle. At 9, the whole 



