Origin of Gastric Hydrochloric Acid. 21 



14 (946) 



The origin of gastric hydrochloric acid. 



By Olaf Bergeim. 



[From the Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry of Jefferson Medi- 

 cal College.] 



Of the many suggestions brought forward with regard to the 

 chemistry of the process by which the hydrochloric acid of the 

 gastric juice is produced, one by Maley 1 has certain things in 

 its favor which cannot be said of the others. This relates to the 

 interaction of disodium phosphate and calcium chloride with the 

 production of hydrochloric acid and tricalcium phosphate. Prob- 

 ably what really takes place when solutions of these are mixed, is 

 the formation of acid Ca phosphate which hydrolyzes rapidly at 

 room temperature to form a basic calcium phosphate and an acid 

 phosphate containing more phosphoric acid than the mono- 

 phosphate. The latter may be considered to act upon the calcium 

 chloride with production of free hydrochloric acid. Maley showed 

 that free HC1 could be dialyzed from such a mixture, which we 

 have confirmed also by distillation with or without the addition 

 of manganese dioxide. In the former case abundant chlorine is 

 liberated. Fatal objections to the theory in its original form are 

 that there is no adequate supply of calcium chloride in the organism 

 for this purpose and that no provision was made for removal of 

 the insoluble triple phosphate which must be formed. The 

 source of chlorine ions can not be other than the NaCl of the 

 blood. It can be shown that NaCl is decomposed by acid calcium 

 phosphate but not by acid sodium phosphate. That acid calcium 

 phosphate can be produced in the body is indicated by facts given 

 in another place. 2 Nuclei contain much Ca and as this is 

 not present in the inorganic form and as nucleins are with diffi- 

 culty if at all separated from it, apparently it exists in combina- 

 tion with nucleic acids. This being the case and as phospho- 

 nuclease has been shown to be present in nearly all tissues the 

 splitting off of acid Ca phosphate presents no great theoretical 



1 Maley, Zeit. f. physiol. Chem., Vol. I, p. 174, 1877. 

 1 This Journal, 1914, Vol. 12, p. 22. 



