LECTURE IV. 189 



Mr. Cooper showed lis how firm a sub- 

 stance the digested aUment liad become, 

 and how tenaciously it adhered to the 

 villous surface or lining of the intestines, so 

 that it might be mistaken for a part of that 

 surface ; and how turgid the vessels of the 

 intestines appeared when the chyle was 

 separated from their villous coat, the whole 

 surface appearing as if highly inflamed or 

 subtilely injected. This he attributed to the 

 digested aliment having acquired, in con- 

 sequence of undergoing the process of di- 

 gestion, the property which is characteristic 

 of the blood; that of spontaneous coagula- 

 tion, so as to become solid and tough, in 

 which state the coagulum of either may 

 firmly adhere to the surface with which it 

 happens to be in contact. 



The gastric fluids are detained in the sto- 

 mach, and therefore not wasted, and the 

 last mentioned circumstance interested 

 me, because it showed how the succus 

 intestinalis is prevented from being wasted, 

 and its action confined to that substance 

 which it is designed to convert into chyle, 



