56 DIGESTION OP THE STOMACH. 



trie juice, among its wonderful qualities, cannot certainly 

 have the power of converting pure water, which we 

 sometimes drink by tumblers-full, into real chyme. In 

 short, I do not see but that it must pass through the 

 stomach entirely unchanged by that organ. 



Dr. B. Such was the common opinion, till lately, it 

 has been proved beyond all doubt that, generally, liquids 

 find their way into the system by some other route. A 

 ligature has been placed around the part of the stomach 

 just above the pyloric orifice, and still liquids have dis- 

 appeared as rapidly as ever. Substances have been 

 found in the blood, too soon after being swallowed, to 

 have reached this fluid by the same passage as that 

 taken by the food. When fluids, containing nutritive 

 matter, are introduced into the stomach, they are either 

 coagulated, as in the case of milk, or the liquid parts are 

 absorbed, and the solids converted into chyme, as in the 

 case of broths, gruel, &LC. 



Emily. A difficulty has just occurred to me in regard 

 to the solvent powers of the gastric juice, which to me 

 seems wholly inexplicable. If what you have stated be 

 true, I cannot possibly conceive how the stomach itself 

 should escape its power, for its dissolution appears to be 

 inevitable. 



Dr. B. Your objection is specious, and has given 

 rise to considerable unbelief in regard to our theory of 

 digestion. But the physiologists answer it by saying, 

 that the stomach is beyond the influence of the gastric 

 juice in consequence of its own vitality when this is lost 

 by the death of the individual, it is acted upon like our 

 ordinary aliment. Several cases have been observed of 

 persons who died suddenly while digestion was going on 

 and the gastric juice of course secreted abundantly, 

 where the coats of the stomach, having thus lost their 

 vitality, were found dissolved or corroded in a number 

 of places. It has also been ascertained by experiments 

 that when rabbits were killed soon after eating a quantity 



