86 PHYSIOLOGY. 



and the system behaves toward them as foreign bodies, striving to get 

 rid of them as speedily as possible. From this it is evident that 

 there must be some transformation in the very act of diffusion through 

 the capillary walls, else the nutritious proteid matters are not used in 

 constructive metamorphosis,, but expelled as foreign matters. The 

 agencies which act upon these proteoses and peptones, in some manner 

 destroy their toxic tendencies and, probably, convert them into the 

 serum-albumin, or globulin, of the blood. The fact that peptones are 

 not found in the blood and lymph during or directly after digestion 

 confirms this idea, since peptones are absorbed as soon as manu- 

 factured. An excess of peptone in the stomach-contents would have 

 the power to arrest proteolysis by its mere presence. A preparation 

 on the market is somatose, a mixture of albumoses produced by the 

 action of a ferment on meat. It is a predigested beef, and readily 

 absorbed. It dispenses with the large amount of fluid which is neces- 

 sary in peptonized milk. 



Weinland has shown that the epithelium of the stomach and of 

 the intestines forms antipepsin and antitrypsin, which prevent diges- 

 tion of the stomach itself or of the intestine, by the ferments, pep- 

 sin and trypsin. 



Antiseptic Action of the Hydrochloric Acid in Gastric Juice. 



Besides the function which hydrochloric acid exercises as a com- 

 ponent of the gastric secretion, namely: of rendering the pepsin 

 in "it active, it possesses another very powerful property as a dis- 

 infectant and germicide in that it can kill many bacteria that are 

 taken in with the food. By means of it the bacteria producing 

 putrefaction are killed, and thus disorders in the entire constitution 

 as a result of abnormal digestion are prevented. Even when putre- 

 faction has occurred in the food previous to its entrance into the 

 stomach, upon reaching this receptacle it is stopped. 



Many pathological bacteria are likewise destroyed by the acid in 

 the juice, although some, as the bacillus of tuberculosis and that of 

 splenic fever, are unaffected. It is interesting to note that experi- 

 ment has shown that just about the amount and strength of hydro- 

 chloric acid as that in the stomach is needed outside the body to ac- 

 complish the death of putrefactive and many pathological germs. 

 Acetic and lactic fermentations are arrested by mere traces of hydro- 

 chloric acid. 



To epitomize: The general action of gastric juice is to convert 



