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file digefting part of the ftomach can contain (the 
ftiape of the fifti fwallowed being very favourable 
for this enquiry,) we find in many inftances that 
the part of the fwallowed fifh which is lodged in 
fhe digefting part of the ftomach is more or lefs 
diftolved, while that part which remains in the 
cefophagus is perfectly found. 
And in many of thefe 1 found, that this digef- 
ting part of the ftomach was itfelf reduced to the 
fame diftolved ftate as the digefted part of the 
food. 
Being employed upon this fubjeCt, and there- 
fore enabled to account more readily for appear- 
ances which had any connection with it, and ob- 
ferving that the half-diflolved parts of the fto- 
mach, &c. were fimilar to the half-digefted food, 
it immediately ftruck me that it was from the pro- 
cefs of digeftion going on after death, that the 
ftomach, being dead, was no longer capable of re- 
filling the powers of that menftruum, which it- 
felf had formed for the digeftion of its contents ; 
with this idea, I fet about making experiments to 
produce thefe appearances at pleafure, which 
would have taught us how long the animal ought 
to live after feeding, and how long it fhould re- 
main after death before it is opened ; and above 
all, to find out the method of producing the 
greateft digeftive power in the living ftomach : but 
this purfuit led me into an unbounded field. 
Thefe appearances throw confiderable light on the 
principles of digeftion ; they fhew that it is not me- 
chanical power, nor contractions of the ftomach, nor 
heat, but fomething fecreted in the coats of the 
ftomach p 
