34 Proceedings of Royal Boeiety of Edinhurgh. [sess. 
converted into glucose and laevulose. When invert sugar is given, 
however, to such a patient, it very rapidly disappears from the 
stomach, though not so quickly as in the case of normal digestion. 
In a case of pernicious ansemia the gastric juice had practically no 
acidity, and consequently cane sugar introduced into the stomach 
underwent no inversion, even after an interval of two hours. Cane 
sugar also caused great pain and discomfort when introduced into 
the patient’s stomach. A solution of invert sugar of the same 
strength injected into his empty stomach gave rise to no symptoms 
whatever, hut was very rapidly passed out of the stomach. 
Erom these experiments I am convinced that cane sugar lingers in 
the stomach for a much longer period than invert sugar, and is con- 
sequently much more liable to undergo fermentative changes. In 
nearly all cases of indigestion cane sugar is badly borne, while invert 
sugar is much more easily tolerated. This appears to me to be a 
point of considerable practical importance, for it is easy to give 
invert sugar in place of cane sugar in persons whose digestion pro- 
ceeds slowly. 
