Copy 1, Volume 1

The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good].

  • Good, John Mason, 1764-1827
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    70/784 (page 16)
    the chymous mass is invariably acid ; and Tiedemann and. Gmelin» further maintain, as the result of their experiments, that its acidity is greatest when the food is most difficult of digestion. In dogs and cats, the greatest acidity was remarked when they were fed with coagulated albumen, fibrin, bones, or gristle ; 1t was less when — they took starch, gelatin, potatoes, or rice; and when they were fed with liquid albumen, the alkaline quality of the food was nearly sufficient to neutralise the acidity of the gastric juice. ] ; This singular secretion has the peculiar property of coagulating milk, as well as all albuminous substances, which it also as com-— pletely dissolves ; and hence the milk thrown up from the stomach — of an infant, shortly after it has been swallowed, is always found in ~ a curdled state. [By infusing six or seven grains of the inner coat of the stomach in water, a liquor is produced, which, ac- cording to Dr. Fordyce, will coagulate 100 ounces of milk; or, according to Dr. Young, of Edinburgh, 6857 times its weight of - milk.] But, the two grand and characteristic properties of the ~ gastric juice, are its astonishing power of counteracting and cor-_ recting putrefaction, arid of dissolving the toughest and most rigid substances in nature. | Antiseptic ~ Of its antiseptic power, abundant proofs may be adduced from power of every class of animals. Among mankind, and especially in civilised the gastric Jife, the food is usually eaten in a state of sweetness and freshness ; aati but fashion and the luxurious desire of having it subacted and — mellowed to our hands, tempt us to keep several kinds, as game and venison for example, as long as we can endure the smell. | The wandering hordes of gipsies, however, and the inhabitants of various savage countries, and especially those about the mouth of © the Orange River in Africa, carry this sort of luxury to a much — higher pitch; for they seem to regard a fetor as a perfume, and value their food in proportion as it approaches putrefaction. Now, all these feods, whatever be the degree of their putridity, — are equally restored to a state of sweetness by the action of the gastric juice, a short time after they have been introduced into the stomach. Dr. Fordyce made a variety of experiments in reference _ to this subject upon the dog, and found in every instance, that the most putrid meat it could be made to swallow was in a very short — _ period deprived of its putrescency. We cannot, therefore, be surprised that crows, vultures, and hyenas, which find a pleasure in tainted flesh, should fatten upon so impure a diet; nor that the dunghill should have its courtiers, among insects, as well as the — flower-garden. | The gastric juice has hence been employed as an antiseptic in a variety of cases out of the body. Spallanzani ascertained, that the gastric juice of the crow and the dog will preserve veal and mutton perfectly sweet, and without loss of weight, thirty-seven days in winter; whilst the same meats, immersed in water, emit a fetid smell as early as the seventh day, and by the thirtieth are re-— _ solved into a state of most offensive putridity. | Gastric Physicians and surgeons have, in like manner, availed them- juiceem- selves of this corrective quality; and occasionally employed the— Sa me- gastric juice of various animals, internally, in cases of indigestion icinally. oe 5 from a debilitated stomach ; and externally, as a check to gangrene, and a stimulus to indolent ulcers. : re - F