150 VOMITING. 



dered powerless by a large incision through them, vomiting 

 cannot occur. Chirac, Schwartz, Hunter, and lastly, Majen- 

 die, confirmed the views entertained by Bayle. Majendie's 

 experiments consisted firstly in causing the stomach to be 

 exposed through the walls of the abdomen in a dog, when, 

 from the injection of tartar emetic in the veins, no contrac- 

 tion occurred in the organ, and the contents were not ex- 

 pelled. The second experiment consisted in tying a pig's 

 bladder, in the place of the stomach, filled with liquid, which 

 was expelled by the action of the abdominal walls. The 

 latter experiment simply proved, that emesis, or the desire 

 to vomit, occurred without the presence of a stomach in the 

 body, and it is not a fact that the organ is incapable of ac- 

 tion, or in no way affected by an emetic, because when the 

 intestinal opening or pylorus has been tied, the unaided 

 stomach proves sufficient to accomplish the rejection of its 

 contents. 



The action of the oesophagus has to a certain extent been 

 overlooked in the act of vomiting, though Legallois and 

 Beclard observed its active contractions. No one has denied 

 its antiperistaltic movement, but its contractions are seen to 

 be very violent in cases of impaction of some foreign sub- 

 stance close to the stomach. Liquids are then swallowed till 

 the lower end of the oesophagus is distended, and by a forcible 

 contraction of the latter they are soon expelled. I shall re- 

 fer to this subject again under the head Choking. 



The conditions favourable to vomiting are susceptibility 

 to the action of emetics, or any influence capable of producing 

 nausea, a moderately distended state of the stomach, and fa- 

 vourable form of the oesophagus, especially at its cardiac end, 

 That the distended state of the stomach, independently of 

 any decided sickness, is sufficient to produce regurgitation, is 

 proved by the remarkable cases of so-called rumination in 



