Lectures on the diseases of the stomach : with an introduction on its anatomy and physiology / by William Brinton.

  • Brinton, William, 1823-1867.
Date:
MDCCCLXIV [1864]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the diseases of the stomach : with an introduction on its anatomy and physiology / by William Brinton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    me to the opinion, that, in these latter cases, the lactic acid is always a secondary1 and accidental product; and that the balance of evidence inclines decisively towards a single acid of the gastric juice, which, as normally secreted, owes its acidity exclusively to hydrochloric acid.2 Salts.—As regards the salts of the gastric juice, the details of an analysis of this secretion may be best comprehended (if not explained) by comparing them with a similar quanti- tative examination of the liquor sanguinis. The following table3 exhibits such a comparison, for a thousand parts of both fluids. Liquor Gastric Sanguinis. Juice. Water 903-0 973-2 Animal matters 88-5 17'0 Mineral substances 8-6 9’8 Chlorine 3-6 5-6 Sodium 3-3 1-2 Potassium (in dog, 2 ?) -3 -6 Phosphoric acid -2 -6 Phosphate of lime -3 1-2 Phosphate of magnesia -2 -2 (l.ime corresponding to -624 Ca. Cl.). . . -3 1000-0 1000-0 Hence, while most of the salts of the blood are present in increased quantity in the gastric juice, the chloride of sodium is so greatly diminished, as to lower the total saline contents of this secretion below those of the blood-liquor. While the 1 [This opinion, which is also held hy Professor Dunglison, of Philadelphia, lias since been carried into conclusive details hy him, as regards the earlier and later analyses of the gastric juice of Alexis St. Martin. Iu a private communication. Professor Dunglison has specially called my attention to the great dissimilarity of the two modes adopted for procuring the gastric juice, hy himself in 1833, and hy Dr. Smith in 1856. In the former case, it was obtained pure in the fasting state, hy exciting the gastric mucous membrane with an elastic gum tube. In the latter, it could only he obtained after food had been taken; and hence it is not surprising that lactic acid was found. The- secretion occupying the fasting stomach was not gastric juice, hut a putrescent mucus.] 2 Compare author’s Essay “ Stomach,” p. 330. 3 Here the composition of the gastric juice is calculated from an analysis by Schmidt; and that of the blood-liquor is quoted from Lehmann (Physiologische Chemie, Bd. ii., pp. 153, 179). To facilitate comparison, both analyses are reduced to one place of decimals ; and the phosphate of lime of the former is divided into acid and neutral phosphate.