[ 453 ] 



£lie digefling part of the ftbmach can contain (the 

 fhape of the fifh fwallowed being very favourable 

 for this enquiry,), we find in many inftances that 

 the part of the fwallowed fifh which is lodged in 

 the digefting. part of the ftomach is more or lefs 

 dhTolved,, while that part which, remains in the 

 cefophagus is perfectly found. 



And in many of thefe I found, that this digef- 

 ting part of the ftomach was itfelf reduced to the 

 lame diflblved ftate as the digefted. part of the 

 food. . 



Being employed upon this fubjecl:, and there- 

 fore enabled to account more readily for appear- 

 ances which had any connection with it, and ob- 

 ferving that the half-difiblved parts of the flo- 

 mach, &c. were fimilar to the half-digefted food, 

 it immediately ftruck me that it was from the pro- 

 cefs of digeftion going on after death, that the 

 flomach,. being dead, was no longer capable of re- 

 filling the. powers of that menftruum, which it- 

 felf had formed for the. digeftion of its contents ; 

 with this idea,. I fetabout making experiments to 

 produce thefe appearances at pleafure, which 

 would have taught us how long the animal ought 

 to live after feeding, and how long it mould re- 

 main after death before it is opened ; and above 

 all, to find out the method of producing the 

 greatefl digeflive power in the living flomach : butc 

 this purfuit led me into an unbounded field. 



Thefe appearances throw confiderable light on the 

 principles of digeftion ; they mew that it is not me- 

 chanical power, nor contractions of the ftomach, nor: 

 heat,, but fomething fecreted in the coats of the 



fromachg . 



