Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy : inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc. / by John Hunter ... ; with notes by Richard Owen.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy : inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc. / by John Hunter ... ; with notes by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![animal and vegetable food, yet it does not appear that the putre- faction of animal substances, where nothing else is eaten, takes place so quickly in the stomach as the change which is produced in vegetables; the acetous disposition is therefore either stronger than the putrefactive, or it more readily takes place: and indeed the living body shows this sufficiently; for we very often find an acid thrown up, but seldom or never anything putrefactive. It may be admitted as an axiom that two processes cannot go on at the same time in the same part of any substance; therefore neither vegetable nor animal substances can undergo their spon- taneous changes while in the act of being digested, it being a pro- cess superior in power to that of fermentation. But if the digestive power is not perfect, then the vinous and acetous fermentation will take place in the vegetable, and the putrefactive in the food of those animals which live wholly on flesh; although in the last I imagine but very seldom. The gastric juice, therefore, preserves vegetables from running into fermentation, and animal substances from putre- faction ; not from any antiseptic quality in the juice, but, by making them go through another process, preventing the spontaneous change from taking place. In the greater number of stomachs there is an acid, even although the animal has lived upon meat for many weeks; but as this is not always the case, we must suppose it is only formed occasionally. Whether the stomach has a power of immediately secreting this acid, or first secretes a sugar which afterwards becomes acid, is not easily ascertained;* but I should, be inclined to suppose, from analogy, the last to be the case : animals in health seeming to have the power of secreting sugar; for we find it in the milk, and sometimes in the urine, in conse- quence of disease. Acid sometimes prevails in the stomach to so great a degree as to become a disease, attended with very disagree- able symptoms; the stomach converting all substances which have a tendency to become acid into that form. To ascertain whether there was an acid naturally in the stomach the most satisfactory mode was to examine the contents before the birth, when the diges- tive organs are perfect, and when no acid could have been pro- duced by disease, or anything that had been swallowed.- Ac- cordingly, in the slink-caff, near the full time, there was no acid found in the stomach, although the contents had the same coagulat- ing powers with those of animals who have sucked. As we find stomachs possessed of a power of dissolving the * [The singular case of the man with an external fistulous communication with the stomach, detailed by Mr. Beaumont, who has so ably availed himself of the circumstance to elucidate several obscure points in the process of digestion has afforded the means of determining this question. The stomach in its°empty and inactive state contains no gastric juice; but when mechanically stimulated, as by touching the inner surface with the bulb of a thermometer that secretion is immediately poured out, and manifests the usual acid properties. (Beaumont: '« Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and on the Physiology of Digestion.)]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21131545_0092.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
