Ill 



THE GASTRIC JUICE 



ROM many causes, the experimental study of 



the digestive processes came later than the 

 study of the circulation. As an object of specula- 

 tive thought, digestion was a lower phase of life, the 

 work of crass spirits, less noble than the blood ; from 

 the point of view of science, it could not be studied 

 ahead of organic chemistry, and got no help from 

 any other sort of knowledge ; and, from the medical 

 point of view, it was the final result of many 

 unknown internal forces that could not be observed 

 or estimated either in life or after death. It did 

 not, like the circulation, centre itself round one 

 problem ; it could not be focussed by the work of 

 one man. For these reasons, and especially because 

 of its absolute dependence on chemistry for the 

 interpretation of its facts, it had to bide its time ; 

 and Reaumur's experiments are separated from the 

 publication of Harvey's De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis 

 by a hundred and thirty years. 



The following account of the first experiments 

 on digestion is taken from Claude Bernard's 

 Physiologie Opdratoire, 1879 : — - 



28 



