DIGESTION. 
will make it yellow and red, &c. But, a to Fourcroy, 
(Syft. de Conr. Chem. tom. 10 66.) Hallé never 
found gas matters affeét the chyle i in numerous experi- 
ments; and Dumas (Principes de Phyfiol. tom. 4, p. 40 
confirms this aeons by the refult of his ow experiments 
with various coloured and edovous fubftznces . 
- Converfion of the Refidue of the Food into Excrement. 
The refidve of the alimentary matter, confifting of the ex- 
of the chyme with the oily, refiaous, an 
arge int: fine, then, isthe organ of this 
_Jaft change in 1 the food, and it is further to be confidered as 
a refervoir defigned to hold the excrement until it has accu- 
mulated to a certain quantity, aa thereby to relieve us from 
the difgufting neceflity of its conftant efflux. ere 
e chyme e is not more confiftent than 
; the greater firmnefs of the foecal 
Rhu- 
liquors and o have 
conftitution. Nutritive clyfters, confifting of milk, broth, 
c. have, in various ir ft inc ee fupported life for fecal days, 
and even € e been retained in the rectum, 
and feeces have been Ace at certain intervals.- In the 
cafe of ftriQure of the cefophagus, related in Dr. Currie’s 
Medical Reports, life was fupported in this way from Oétober 
18th,to December 6. The patient began with three clyfters 
a- day, each of which confifted of eight re “ las rane 
two yolks of egg, and forty drops of landanum. 
retentive powers of the reétum improve he ao ge 
‘increafed to ten ounces of broth, three yolks of 88, fsty 
drops of ete aes and eight ounces of wine. He had three 
or four folid, ara apaty ftools of the samen ae 
d be 
nourifhed for fix or feven wee e abforbents of the 
large inteftine ; and that this organ could make natural foeces 
from aliment pa had never undergone the aon of the 
‘ftomach and {mall inteftine ? Or ought we rather to oo 
that the cl; fters had entered the {mall inteftine ? On the for- 
mer fuppolit! on, we can -eafily explain why the body could 
ently account for the fa&. At 
we can only look to nie employment of nutritive clyfters as 
ns of temporary fupport ; yer aaa) an efficacious 
afd highly ufeful one for a fhort 
{t has been generally ee! = phyfiologitts, that the 
foeces are the mere remains o 
he chief c 
to fu opin 
ate, however, filly contineed. os an eannear 18 orecul. 
alfo, 
abforption of any nutritive eines that may have efcaped the 
and that the tetany of the refidual part of the chyme into: 
foeces is no lef{s a vital procefs than the changes which the 
ood experiences in ifs itomach or {mall inteftine ; 3 and that 
omo a -us and foli 
texture which we ome in healthy atte ifen 
m f ammonia, and the formation o 
produdts, would be the moft friking features of its decompo- 
ian neither of which take place inthe body. Why fhould 
ceces appear onlyin the large inteftine, and never inthe {mall ? 
And why fhould the valve of the colon form fo accurate a 
oundary between the refidue of the chyme, a mild inodor- 
ous fluid, and the foetid excrement, unlefs the properties of the 
1 for ea excrement 
neous degene 
es of coftivenefs, the foeces remain 
chemical changes are 
obferved in the digeftive procefs, they indicate an a unhealthy 
flate of that fun ae and they p 
appearances in the evacuated matters, and f 
es of the whole oes itution. Natural excrement, me 
7 
of the large inteftine ; and w com- 
plithed without any chemical change or Ronancoi: fete. 
ration. 
To the aia how thefe changes are produced, we fhall 
not perhap able to give a very sues peath reply. We 
have already a the abforptien carried on from the large 
int ere is alfo no do saa a puri particularly a 
micous aids from.the furfac ich may have fome further 
than that of aie fucitatng the manly ae the in~ 
teftinal contents, We are ignorant of the exaét nature of 
thofe in a fate of h ere but we often find very copious 
morbid fecretions evacuated per anum in difeafe. The appe 
dix vermiformis has appeared to fome perfons a chief acai 
in the proceis of foccification, not upon nye fufficient aan: 
nia, human fu ubje edt, ied t injury. 
difengaged in niall i aye in the {mall inteftine, 
copioully ir arge, whi ch 
found diftended from this cafe, i in the ‘be 
e food; but it confifts in a greater portion of other 
as, as fulphurated Gyinges 
Aétion of the - Lnteflines. 
The contents of the large,.as thofe of the {mall, are carried: 
forwards by a fpecies.of periftaltic motion. And this procefs. 
is partly owing to the alternate preffure of the diaphragm. 
