DIGESTION OF ALBUMEN AND FLESH. 



95 



In the stomachs of serpents we have found smaller serpents, lizards, and mice in 

 all stages of digestion, whilst the small intestines contained not a particle of flesh. 



These observations were also verified by an examination of the contents of the 

 stomachs of fishes, carnivorous birds — as buzzards, hawks, cranes, herons, &c. ; and 

 also of carnivorous mammals — as raccoons and dogs. 



If one-half of all the flesh received into the stomach passes into the small intes- 

 tines, and if the process of digestion is, according to the statement of Bidder and 

 Schmidt, as slow as that in the stomach, why is it that its presence always eluded 

 observation when the intestinal canal was laid open ? Especially in the case of 

 animals which swallow their prey whole, without any mastication, it is difficult to 

 see how portions of flesh could pass out of the capacious stomach into the con- 

 tracted intestine, without being evident to the observer? All the observations I 

 have thus far made, convince me that flesh is entirely digested in the stomach. 



Another fact worthy of note is, that in the stomach of all animals, whether cold 

 or warm-blooded, which I have examined whilst the process of digestion was going 

 on, the amount of fluid containing the digested matter in solution, was exceedingly 

 small, oftentimes amounting to only a few drops, and in many cases, especially 

 amongst cold-blooded animals, it appeared to be almost entirely absent. This proves 

 that, in the normal process of digestion, the matter dissolved by the gastric juice 

 is almost immediately absorbed or passes into the duodenum. 



As far as my observations have extended, a solution of the albuminous matters 

 (chyme) does not often accumulate in the stomach. This accords with the results 

 of the experiments of Dr. Samuel Jackson, Professor of the Institutes of Medicine 

 in the University of Pennsylvania. 



This fact shows the fallacy of the inference founded on the amount of flesh which 

 can be digested by a given quantity of gastric juice out of the body. The natural 

 process is far different from the artificial. A portion of gastric juice dissolves a 

 definite amount of flesh, and the solution is then absorbed, or passes out into the 

 small intestines. Another portion of gastric juice is secreted, and acts upon the 

 fresh exposed surface of the flesh, and the products are in turn absorbed. It is 

 evident that this process is far more energetic than that of artificial digestion, and 

 consequently the one cannot be the measure of the other. 



Even granting that artificial and normal digestion are precisely similar as far as 

 the rapidity of their actions is concerned, how is it possible to determine the 

 amount of gastric juice secreted by the stomach in a given time, when absorption 

 is almost as rapid as secretion. In the consideration of the digestion of protein 

 bodies, this fact has been left entirely out of view. 



The absorption and passage of the digested matters, out of the stomach, immedi- 

 ately after their solution, is true also of graminivorous and frugivorous animals. I 

 have examined the stomachs of numerous squirrels, rats, and birds fed upon grain, 

 acorns, nuts, and berries, and in almost every instance there was no fluid that 

 corresponded to the chyme. Even in those animals which subsist upon grasses and 

 green buds and leaves, which contain a larger amount of fluid, the contents of the 

 stomach are comparatively dry. Almost every one has it in his power to verify 



