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

  • Beaumont, William, 1785-1853.
Date:
1833
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.

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    the effect of vascular distention, place a ligature around the finger or arm, sufficiently tight to retard the returning blood, and the truth will be sufficiently obvious. It is, therefore, inferred from the pain, (and no one, it is believed, will deny that hunger is a painful sen- sation, whatever may be his opinion of appetite) that vessels of some kind are distended; and it is demon- strated, I think, in some of the following experiments, that these are the gastric vessels. On applying ali- ment to the internal coat of the stomach, which, in health, is merely lubricated with mucus, imumerable minute papille, the orifices, undoubtedly, of the gas- tric vessels, immediately throw out a quantity of the fluid, which mixes with the food. This effect is too sudden, and the secretion too copious, to be account- ed for on the ordinary principles and laws of secre- ting mucous surfaces. The quiescence and relief from the unpleasant sensation, which are experienced as soon as the vessels are emptied, are, I think, ad- ditional proofs of my opinion. I[t is certain, that at the introduction of every meal, or on the application of alimentary stimulus to the internal coat of the sto- mach, a very large secretion of a fluid, which has repeatedly been ascertained to be an alimentary sol- vent, immediately takes place; and that when the. stomach is destitute of food or some other irritating substance, no such secretion can be found in it. And © it is more than probable—it, in fact, almost amounts to demonstration, that a large quantity of this fluid must be contained in appropriate vessels, durmg a_ fast, ready to obey the call of aliment. f would not 4 oh, a ww