4S2 



On Vomiting, 



x\s Bayle, Chirac, and Duverney had announced, M, Ma- 

 gendie made us perceive by the touch that during the act of 

 vomiting the stoiiiach remains in a state of inactivity, and that 

 it is the diaphragm and abdominal muscles which produce the 

 evacuation of that organ. During this first experiment, repeated 

 several times upon large dogs, in the abdomen of which an 

 incision had been made large enough to admit two fingers, we 

 perceived that at each strain of the animal our fingers were 

 pressed upon from above by the liver pushed down by the 

 diaphragm, and from below by the intestines which the abdomi- 

 nal muscles pressed, while the stomach, emptying itself without 

 any sensible motion, did not appear to diminish in volume. This 

 last singulariiy, already observed and announced to the Class by 

 M. Magendie, is occasioned by the presence of air, which takes 

 the place of the food as it is thrown out of tlie the stomach, and 

 which, being introduced through the oesophagus during the long 

 inspirations which precede vomiting, keeps the stomach always 

 sufficiently distended not to escape the compressing action of the 

 surrounding parts. 



We know that it is easy to swallow air. Some people amuse 

 themselves by swallowing it, and thus swell out their stomach 

 till it resounds like a drum when struck. There can be no doubt 

 that a great deal of air is swallowed during vomiting, without 

 which vomiting would be exceedingly painful, as happens in 

 cases of poison by corrosive substances, when the stomach is 

 contracted, and no longer capable of admitting that fluid. M. 

 Magendie intends soon to read a menioir on this subject to the 

 Class, and we ought not to anticipate what has become his 

 legitimate property. We shall observe the same silence with 

 respect to the conspicuous part which the oesophagus takes in the 

 act of vomiting, because M. Magendie is drawing up a memoir 

 on the subject. 



Jn a second experiment, made upon the same dogs which had 

 served for the preceding, the incision of the belly being in- 

 creased, and the stomach drawn out of the body, it was still 

 easier for us to be convinced of its want of eiotion, and to per- 

 ceive the inaccuracy of what Haller had advanced respecting its 

 peristaltic movement. In this state the stomach, filled with air 

 which had been drawn in some moments before the act of vomit- 

 ing, was distended like a balloon ; but no farther vomiting took 

 place, nothing but ineffectual nauseas, because the stomach 

 being out of its place could no longer be acted upon by the 

 surrounding organs. 



M. Magendie announced in his memoir that by pressing upon 

 the stomach thus removed out of the body with the two hands, 

 so as to imitate in some measure the action of the diaphragm 

 and abdominal muscles, vomiting was always produced. And 



