Experiments and observations on the gastric juice, and the physiology of digestion / by William Beaumont.

  • William Beaumont
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments and observations on the gastric juice, and the physiology of digestion / by William Beaumont. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    not well understood, are allowed, even when the stomach is in a healthy state, sometimes to pass the pyloric orifice, while other food is retained there to receive the solvent action of the gastric juice. This may depend upon their comparative indigestibility ; for it is well known that ca- thartic medicines, various fruits, seeds, &c. which operate as laxatives, are not digested ; are incapable of being re- tained in the stomach; and pass rapidly through the in- testinal tube. When such articles are in excess, they produce considerable derangement, and sometimes fatal consequences. Vegetable, like animal substances, are more capable of digestion in proportion to the minuteness of their di- vision, as I have before remarked, provided they are of a soft solid ; and I cannot, therefore, concur in the opinion expressed by Paris, '^ that potatoes are better when only boiled so as to be rendered tender, and have their shape preserved, than when boiled to a dry, insipid pow- der. They may be more palatable, and contain more nutriment; but they are not so easily affected by the gastric solvent. The difference is quite obvious on sub- mitting parcels of this vegetable, in different] states of preparation, to the operation of the gastric juice, either in the stomach or out of it. Boiled, or otherwise cooked to dryness, so as to be easily mashed, potatoes very rea- dily become reduced to a chymous state, when submitted to the action of the gastric juice. When differently pre- pared, and only boiled so as to be rendered barely soft, moist and tenacious, with the shape preserved, entire pieces