198  Neutral  Salts  in  the  Stomach.  {Am'Apriir'i884arm' 
afterwards.  From  these  results  certain  practical  suggestions  of  clinical 
importance  may  be  derived. 
In  the  first  place  the  administration  of  salts  in  the  form  of  acid  car- 
bonates, as  with  an  excess  of  carbonic  acid,  is  advantageous,  for  absorp- 
tion takes  place  more  quickly,  and  with  a  more  rapid  emptying  of  the 
stomach  there  is  less  irritation  of  its  mucous  membrane.  The  author 
observed  the  action  of  C02  and  of  the  acid  carbonates,  as  also  of 
CaH2C03  in  a  series  of  experiments  with  acidulous  mineral  waters. 
Alkaline  fluids,  on  the  other  hand,  delay  absorption  and  the  evacua- 
tion of  the  stomach,  and  the  gastric  walls  are  stimulated  to  secretion 
more  strongly  than  by  other  solutions.  Acids  favor  absorption  and 
rapid  evacuation  of  the  gastric  contents. 
The  presence  of  common  salt  in  the  stomach  does  not  appear  to 
offer  the  advantages  in  regard  to  digestion  which  have  heretofore  been 
ascribed  to  it,  neither  stimulating  to  greater  excretion  of  the  gastric- 
acid  (this  remark  may  perhaps  not  apply  to  pepsin)  nor  to  evacuation 
of  its  contents.  In  the  moderation  of  the  activity  of  the  gastric  walls 
by  alkaline  agents  may  probably  be  found  an  explanation  of  the 
therapeutic  results  of  certain  remedies,  such  as  magnesium  carbonate, 
sodium  carbonate,  and  certain  metallic  oxides,  in  relieving  the  pain  of 
cardialgia. 
The  introduction  of  salts  in  the  form  of  chlorides  in  neutral  solution 
is,  as  regards  gastric  absorption,  not  advantageous,  and  still  less  so  in 
the  case  of  neutral  carbonates,  which  are  absorbed  only  in  proportion 
as  their  transformation  into  chlorides  takes  place. 
The  difficult  absorptivity  of  ferrous  chlorides  is  especially  to  be 
noted  from  a  medical  point  of  view,  and  considering  the  facility  of 
absorption  of  acid  carbonates,  it  may  be  assumed  that  an  acid  ferrous 
carbonate  would  prove  the  most  absorbable  of  all  iron  preparations. — 
Jour.  Chem.  Soc,  Feb.,  1884;  Zeitschr.  Biol.,  xix,  397-445. 
Combination  of  Morphine  with  Acids  in  Opium.— I).  B.  Dott 
states  that  an  aqueous  extract  of  opium  contains  sulphuric  acid  sufficient,, 
and  meconic  acid  insufficient  to  combine  with  the  whole  of  the  morphine 
present ;  but  it  contains  also  inorganic  and  organic  bases  with  which  the 
sulphuric  acid  will  unite  in  preference  to  the  morphine',  the  remainder  of 
this  acid  being  not  sufficient  to  combine  with  all  the  morphine.  This  alka- 
loid, therefore,  exists  in  opium  both  as  sulphate  and  meconate,  possibly  as 
acid  meconate. — Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  November  17,  1883,  pp.  389,  390- 
