1895 - 96 .] Dr Aitchison Eobertson on Digestion of Starch. 101 
carried on to a great extent in the stomach, as is shown in the case of 
pernicious anaemia, where probably amylolysis was carried on to its 
full limit, and the products either at once absorbed or passed on 
into the duodenum. 
In these experiments the starch was introduced directly into the 
stomach by means of the stomach -tube. In this way there was no 
admixture of saliva except what was swallowed subsequently. 
The table shows that, in cases where the normal acidity was not 
lessened, this swallowed saliva had little conversive action on the 
starch. It likewise shows that even a pure starch solution introduced 
into the stomach promotes the secretion of hydrochloric acid ; a fact 
which, on a priori grounds, we should not have expected as being 
inimical to the digestion of amylaceous matters. 
From the high degree of conversion which the starch has under- 
gone in the stomach of the patient with pernicious anaemia, I should 
be inclined to think that this was due either to swallowed saliva or 
to a conversive ferment secreted by the gastric mucous membrane, 
as has been described as occurring in the stomach of the pig. 
The above, however, is not the normal condition in which starchy 
food is received into the stomach. It is always mixed up with and 
accompanied by the products of salivary secretion. 
In order to see what changes occur in starch solutions received 
into the stomach under such conditions, I performed the following 
experiments 
Combined Effect of Salivary and Gastric Digestion on Starch. 
Having thoroughly washed out the stomach, I allowed the 
following patients to eat slowly a fluid mucilage of boiled starch. 
I. Healthy Digestion . — 250 c.c. of boiled starch solution eaten 
slowly. 
Fifteen minutes later I drew off 40 c.c. The total acidity was 
equal to 0'061 per cent, hydrochloric acid. Unchanged starch, 
soluble starch, and erythrodextrin w T ere present in large amount, 
and reducing sugar amounted to 0*16 per cent. 
I carefully neutralised this fluid, and kept it at a temperature of 
