144 CHEMICAL PHENOMENA OF DIGESTION. 
the experiments of Mr. Blondlot and those of our own, that 
if an acid re-action is indispensable to the manifestations of 
the dissolving property of gastric juice, the nature of the 
acid producing this re-action is indifferent. 
It is thus we have been able to saturate gastric juice 
with neutral phosphate of lime, or add to it acetic or 
phosphoric acid in large excess, and even hydrochloric acid 
in sufficient quantity to make it really in a free state, in 
the liquid, and the gastric juice always preserved its diges- 
tive properties. This equivalence of the acids for the activi- 
ty of the gastric juice appears even necessary : for at each 
instant, from the fact of alimentation, the most different salts 
are introduced into the stomach at the moment of the forma- 
tion of gastric juice. 
We are all made to"understand, then, that if among these 
salts any be found of which the acid may be displaced by 
lactic acid, the digestive functions will be infallibly disturb- 
ed, if the new acid set at liberty could not replace the nor- 
mal acid. — Journal de Pharmacie. 
A. D. 
