104 DIGESTION COMPARED 



sequently, albumen ; all nitrogenized articles of food 

 whether derived from the animal or from the vegetabL 

 kingdom, are converted into albumen before they cai 

 take part in the process of nutrition. 



All the food consumed by an animal becomes in thi 

 stomach soluble, and capable of entering into the circu 

 lation. In the process by which this solution is effected 

 only one fluid, besides the oxygen of the air, takes j 

 part ; it is that which is secreted by the lining membran< 

 of the stomach. 



The most decisive experiments of physiologists have 

 shown, that the process of chymification is independen 

 of the vital force ; that it takes place in virtue of a pure 

 Jy chemical action, exactly similar to those processes of 

 decomposition or transformation which are known a: 

 putrefaction, fermentation, or decay (eremacausis). 



7. When expressed in the simplest form, fermenta- 

 tion, or putrefaction, may be described as a process of 

 transformation, that is, a new arrangement of the ele- 

 mentary particles, or atoms, of a compound, yielding 

 two or more new groups or compounds, and caused bj 

 contact with other substances, the elementary particles 

 of which are themselves in a state of transformation 01 

 decomposition. It is a communication, or an imparting 

 of a state of motion, which the atoms of a body in a 

 state of motion are capable of producing in other bodies, 

 whose elementary particles are held together only by a 

 feeble attraction. 



8. Thus the clear gastric juice contains a substance 

 in a state of transformation, by the contact of which 



