318 
Gr. ARCHIE STOCKWELL. 
agulated, and the curd containing the fat globules floats in a 
clear fluid (the whey), which holds in solution the salts, sugar 
and albumen. As digestion progresses, the casein is turned 
into peptone, the fat is set free, and, being partially emulsified, 
gives a milky or turbid color to the whey. The stomach of the 
nursling contributes more to digestion proportionately than 
that of the adult, since, when the food is of proper quality, 
peptones are rarely discovered in the intestines, or the rem¬ 
nants thereof in the pylorus; presumably, also, nursling 
stomachs may also absorbs nourishment directly, in some 
degree, since the cardiac and pyloric portions, for a brief 
periodafter birth, can contribute but very little to digestion, 
the peptic glands loosely resembling muciparous follicles. 
Here an important consideration in connection with scour¬ 
ing presents itself, viz., the quantity of water contained in the 
food, which quantity in herbivorous creatures, as before noted, 
should average between eighty and ninety per cent, of the 
total milk ingested. Water is in especial demand for the for¬ 
mation of hydrochloric and lactic acid, and also pepsin, and 
is essential to the action of the latter in forming peptones; 
the effect of the gastric fluids upon the casein also requires a 
large quantity of water, consequently any circumstance that 
tends to concentrate the food by reduction of fluids, tends to 
interupt digestion—the caseous matter, instead of parting with 
its oily constituents, passes on into the duodenum where this 
process is impossible, provoking irritation, abnormal stimula¬ 
tion, determination of circulation, ending in flux.* Fat 
(butter), to be sure, is not digested in the stomach, but it is 
separated and prepared for the changes that take place when 
it encounters the bile and pancreatic products. Again, as 
♦Apropos of this, permit me to call attention to an experience of Dr. David 
Little, published in The Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of New 
York in 1884. 
In an orphan asylum in Rochester where every previous summer had wit¬ 
nessed a number of deaths from diarrhoeal disease, he directed that infants should 
be fed at three-hour intervals during the day and have nothing at night. Water 
was allowed freely at all times. 
This season passed without a fatal case of diarrhoeal disease! The moral is 
plain. 
