PHYSIOLOGY. 435 



has originated from the antagonism of the saliva and 

 gastric juice and from the acid nature of the morsel. 



b. Intestinal Digestion. 



2615. The intestinal digestion is the perfect chemical 

 process taken up along with all its moments into the 



animal. 



Gastric Digestion. 



2G16. The stomach exercises by means of the spleen 

 the oxydizing process of the intestine, the solvent func- 

 tion, and thus the action of the water. The gastric juice 

 is related to the food, like water is to earth. The gastric 

 digestion is liquefaction, unto which oxydation makes 

 the preliminary step. 



:2617. Through the process of liquefaction, the poles 

 are only potentially augmented, but are not dissevered, 

 nor new substances formed. The gastric digestion 

 creates no new bodies, but only mixes the old in the 

 most homogeneous and intimate manner with each 

 other. 



2618. The gastric digestion is an animal process of 

 fermentation. In deranged states of the stomach there 

 is therefore a propensity to acid eructation, development 

 of carbonic acid, and even formation of sugar. 



2619. This digestion consequently reduces the (animal) 

 food to the signification of the plant. Gastric digestion 

 is a process of vegetable germination. The salivary pro- 

 cess is a reduction to the animal death, digestion a 

 reduction of this dead something itself to a lower king- 

 dom. 



2620. The gastric juice alone, like an acid, effects the 

 solution of the aliment ; with this, the movement of the 

 gastric walls, which only tends to produce an easier mix- 

 ture of the alimentary particles, having nothing to do. 



Hunger. 



2621. Through the digestive process the gastric juice 

 is consumed by the food, and the stomach deoxydized. 



