A treatise on the digestion of food / by G. Fordyce, M. D. F. R. S. fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and reader on the practice of physic, in London.

  • George Fordyce
Date:
1791
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the digestion of food / by G. Fordyce, M. D. F. R. S. fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and reader on the practice of physic, in London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

    209/228 (page 191)
    [ '9i ] thofe operations which depend on the action of the living folids upon the fluids, which appears clearly from various circum- ftances which I have already fet forth. Firft, the interior furface of the digefting ftomach is quite different, as I have already £hown, from the furfaces both of the cefophagus, previous cavities, duodenum, and jejunum, being formed as it were of cells, including fmaller cells in gradation, fo as to give an immenfe living furface to act upon the food, and fo give it the circumftances of the ope- ration peculiar to the ftomach, and overcome the natural difpofition of the food to run into fermentations, that would out of the fto- mach convert it into wine and vinegar, or into putrid matter. Moreover, if we take a folid piece of meat, put it into a bag fimilar to the ftomach, moiften it with water, keep it in the fame degree of heat, and other chemical circumftances, fuch as we find in the ftomach, it will remain ftron and firm in its confidence for more than twenty-four hours; whereas in the ftomach when fufficientfy powerful it is broken down, and