STRUCTURE AXD OFFICE OF THE STOMACH. ^y 



That the chyle is not formed there, and also that it is com- but the chyle 

 pleiely formed before the food passes through the pylorus, ig ^"""^nied if^ the 

 proved by the result of some experiments of Mr. Hunter's, 

 made upon dogs in the year I76O ; and as they were instituted 

 for a very ditferenl purpose, — that of determining whether the 

 gastric juice is acid or alkaline, — the results were detailed 

 without any possible bias. 



The stomach of seven dogs were examined immediately Dogs examin- 



after death, which took place while digestion was going on ; ^^^V ^'■• 



r , ^ ,, . o s » Humer. 



and among other observations the following appear among JNIr. 



Hunter's notes made at the time : 



" In all the dogs the food was least dissolved, or even 

 *' mixed, towards the great end of the stomach, but became 

 " more and more so towards the pylorus ; and just within the 

 " pylorus it was mixed with a whitish fluid like cream, which 

 " wa» also found in the duodenum." 



He afterward adds; *' It is plain, that digestion is com- 

 " pleted in the stomach, as none of the crude food is found 

 " beyond that cavity; and even within the pylorus there is the 

 " same white fluid, that is met with in the duodenum." 



From the result of these experiments, as well as from the Glands that se* 



analogy of other animals, it is reasonable to believe, that the "ete the sol- 



*" . , . vent huuor. 



glands situate at the termination of the cuticular lining of the 



oesophagus, which have been described, secrete the solvent 



liquor, which is occasionally poured on the food, so as to be 



intimately mixed with it before it is removed from the cardiac 



portion: and the muscular contraction retains it there, till 



this takes place. 



Such contraction being occasionally required in the sto- Curvature of 



mach, accounts for its being more or less bent upon itself, the stomach 



... , . ,.,,..,,. ■ . , accounted for. 



■which renders it more readily divided into two portions by the 



action of the muscular fibres at that part where the angle is 



formed. 



It accounts for men occasionally ruminating, a process, Men occasion*- 

 which, without such a contraction, could hardly take piace. ^^^^ ruminate. 

 That some men ruminate, the accounts of authors are si^ffi- 

 ciently explicit to put beyond all doubt; particularly the in- 

 stances collected by Peycr from Fabricius alt Aquapendente and 

 others, as well as from his contemporaries, in all six or seven 



Vol. XX.— May, 1808. G instances. 



