iQii LECTURE IV. 



tending to demonstrate the fact, which is 

 thus announced in the conckision of Mr. 

 Hunter's observations ; " that digestion 

 neither depends on mechanical powers, nor 

 contractions of the stomach, nor on heat*; 

 but on something secreted in the coats of 

 the stomach, and thrown into its cavity, 

 which there assimilates the food to the na- 

 ture of the blood." 



As, however, Mr. Hunter, in a second 

 paper on digestion, has published his own 

 commentary on the proceedings of those, 

 who may be said to be his coadjutors in 

 the proof of the fact, but who might ap- 

 pear to himself and the public as compe- 

 titors in the discovery, I need not say any 

 thing respecting this subject. Yet there is 

 one point which I feel it a duty to advert 

 to. Mr. Hunter, whom I should not have 

 believed to be very scrupulous about in- 

 flicting sufferings upon animals, neverthe- 

 less censures Spalanzani for the unmeaning 



* He might have substituted the word fermentation, 

 for heat, for it would more plainly have conveyed his 

 meaning. 



