284 ON GASTRIC JUICE. 
ART. LXXI.— UPON THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF THE 
GASTRIC JUICE. 
By M. Payen. 
Mr. Blondlot has been willing to offer me the occasion of 
repeating his fine experiments, and place at my disposition 
the gastric juice obtained by his ingenious mode,* for the 
chemical experiments I would undertake. 
I hastened to accept this twofold proposition, and the re- 
actions described in Mr. Blondlot's treatise were reproduced 
with signal success. Operating in a comparative manner, I 
proved without difficulty the following phenomena, under 
the influence of the gastric juice and a sustained temperature, 
during eight hours between 36° and 39° Cent. 
1st. Cooked meats, boiled beef and ham, were disaggre- 
gated to such a degree as to be reduced, by slight agitation, 
to a pulpy substance containing small fibrils. 
2d. Ichthyocolla was disaggregated and partially dissol- 
ved, the solution having lost its gelatinous form. 
3d. Slices of dry cowhide cut perpendicularly with the 
surface of the epidermis, suffered disaggregation, a large 
portion of the cellular tissue dissolving, showing the hair 
disengaged and crossing the epidermis. 
* To obtain the gastric juice in abundance and in a state of purity, Mr. B. 
established a permanent communication by means of an artificial opening in 
the stomach of a dog, which enabled him to penetrate and withdraw at 
pleasure either the gastric juice or alimentary matters, in the different stages 
of digestion. His efforts were crowned with success, and the animal upon 
which he made his first trials, more than two years ago, still lives. Though 
of inferior size, he could furnish on a single occasion more than 100 gram- 
mes of gastric jujce. — Recherches sur les phenomenes de la digestion, ei 
specialement sur la composition de sue gastrique. 
