Copy 2
Experiments and observations on the gastric juice, and the physiology of digestion / By William Beaumont. Reprinted from the Plattsburgh edition, with notes by Andrew Combe.
- William Beaumont
- Date:
- 1838
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Experiments and observations on the gastric juice, and the physiology of digestion / By William Beaumont. Reprinted from the Plattsburgh edition, with notes by Andrew Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.
131/356 page 103
![hibit a/heterogeneous mass of solids and fluids ; hard and soft; coarse and fine ; crude and chymified; al] inti- mately mixed, and circulating promiscuously through the gastric cavity, like the mixed contents of a closed vessel, gently agitated or turned in the hand. If a mouthful of some tenacious food be swallowed, after digestion is considerably advanced, it will be seen passing the opening, to the great curvature ; and in the course of about one and a half or two minutes, it will re- appear, with the general circulating contents, more or less broken to pieces, or divided into smaller pieces; and very soon loses its identity. This agitating motion has the effect, and is undoubtedly designed, to break up the bolus, as well as to separate the external and chymified portion of. the particles of food, and allow the undigested portions to come in contact with the gastric juice, their proper solvent. If the motions were simply revolution- ary, the central portions would retain their situation, until the outer, or chymified part, had passed into the | duodenum, in successive parcels ; which, it is evident, would very much retard the process of digestion. As the food becomes more and more changed from its crude to its chymified state, the acidity of the gastric fluids is considerably increased—more so in vegetable than animal diet,—and the general contractile force of the muscles of the stomach is augmented in every direction ; giving the contained fluids an impulse towards the pylorus. It is probable, that from the very commencement of chymification—from the time that food is received into the stomach—until that organ becomes empty, portions](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33095619_0002_0131.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
