1892-93.] Dr Robertson on the Digestion of Sugars. 
83 
Having done this, I inverted the unchanged cane sugar in a 
definite amount of the gastric fluid by heating it for two hours wuth 
dilute sulphuric acid, by which the whole sugar was inverted. 
My experiments show — 
{a) That inversion of cane sugar really takes place in the healthy 
stomach. 
(b) That as digestion proceeds, the proportion of invert sugar 
increases. 
(c) That the amount of invert sugar formed is proportional to the 
acidity of the gastric j nice. 
I therefore conclude that the inversion of cane sugar which occurs 
in the stomach is relatively small in amount, and is due to the acid 
of the gastric juice, and not to ' a special inverting ferment. The 
great inversion of cane sugar takes place in the small intestine, and 
is there induced by a sugar-inverting ferment in the intestinal juice, 
as shown by previous observers, whose results can be easily con- 
firmed. 
I thought it would be interesting to ascertain what happens to 
invert sugar in the stomach. I accordingly inverted a 20 p.c. solution 
of cane sugar by heating it for several hours with a small amount of 
dilute sulphuric acid. I injected 250 c.c. of this solution into the 
man’s stomach, after washing it out in the manner already described. 
At suitable intervals afterwards I removed some of the gastric con- 
tents and estimated the amount of sugar. I found that invert sugar 
leaves the stomach much more rapidly than cane sugar. 
To try the practical importance of these results, I conducted a 
series of experiments on the digestion of cane and invert sugar in 
diseased conditions of the body. Amongst the patients whom I 
experimented on were those sulfering from chronic gastric catarrh, 
pernicious anaemia, alcoholic gastritis, &c. In almost every case 
these individuals made complaint of weight, pain, heartburn, 
flatulence, &c., after the solution of cane sugar had been injected, 
while there was an entire absence of disagreeable sensations after the 
same amount of invert sugar had been injected into the stomach. 
In cases of chronic gastric catarrh, cane sugar is retained in the 
stomach for a lengthened period, but does not undergo any marked 
degree of inversion. This is contrary to Schiffs statement that in 
cases where there is a great secretion of mucus, cane sugar is readily 
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