406 Miscellanies. 



sufficient to enable him to effect a satisfactory analysis of this mys- 

 terious fluid. I trust, that this eminent philosopher will consider the 

 publication of this part of his letter to be proper, since it reveals, 

 so forcibly, the intrinsic difficulties of the subject, and indicates, 

 decidedly, that it Avill be impossible to give a satisfactory result, 

 without daily access to the extraordinary source 'from which alone, 

 as we suppose, the gastric fluid, can be derived in tolerable purity, 

 and that the research must be prolonged and diversified, before sat- 

 isfactory conclusions can be obtained. It seems now very difficult 

 for any one except Dr. Beaumont to make this necessary examina- 

 tion.— B. S. ' Dec. 11, 1834. 



Extract from a letter from Prof. Berzilius to Prof Silliman, dated Stockholm, 

 July 19, 1834. Translated by O. P. H. 



My Dear Sir — I had the honor of receiving, some time since, 

 the present which you had the goodness to make me, of three 

 bottles (vials,) filled with gastric juice, drawn from a man — into 

 whose stomach there was an aperture through the abdominal in- 

 teguments. I am very grateful for the confidence you have had 

 in me, in wishing to engage me in making an analysis of it, and I 

 regret deeply that for the following reasons, I am not able to answer 

 your expectations. 



First, the gastric juice sent in April, did not arrive at Stockholm, 

 till towards the close of the month of August. It had not become 

 at all putrescent — but how was it possible to be assured that the ani- 

 mal matters dissolved in it, after a separation of almost five months 

 from the living body, and after an exposure to the elevated temper- 

 atue of the months of July and August, were still identical with 

 those of fresh gastric juice. 



But this circumstance apart, I could not make this analysis with 

 any hope of success. 



I assure you that I commenced, but the difficulties immediately 

 arrested me. On testing the gastric juice with litmus paper, I 

 found it strongly acid. The acids are for the most part volatile. 



To obtain them, recourse must be had to distillation — but the op- 

 eration of boiling would change the animal substances in the resi- 

 duum. The quantity of gastric juice being only 266.76 grammes, 

 I felt that I ought to sacrifice none of it, and therefore in removing 

 the volatile acids, I evaporated the whole in a vacuum at the temper- 

 ature of the room. 



I had a residum of 3.385 grammes, filled with crystals of chloride 

 of sodium. 



