Experimental researches on the food of animals, and the fattening of cattle. With remarks on the food of man / By Robert Dundas Thomson.

  • Thomson, Robert Dundas, 1810-1864.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experimental researches on the food of animals, and the fattening of cattle. With remarks on the food of man / By Robert Dundas Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    9 INTRODUCTION. the nature of the process of digestion, would ascribe our ignorance of that important function to the.former of these causes; since they refer the preparation of the food in the stomach for the purpose of nourishing the body to the pre- sence in that organ of an acid, which, according to them, simply dissolves the food, and enables it to enter as a constituent of the circulating fluids of the animal system. The acid which effects this important object is the hydrochloric acid; which they consider to have been satisfactorily proved to be present during the period when food exists in the stomach, and they conceive that they can imitate the process of animai digestion in glass, or other vessels out of the body, simply by ex- posing animal and vegetable food to the influence of dilute acids. Another class of individuals, who have studied the interesting changes which the food undergoes in the stomach and intestines, conceive that we are still unacquainted with the true nature of this process, and are inclined to the opinion that the reason why we are not sufficiently conversant with the phenomena of digestion, depends more on their intricacy and obscurity than upon a deficiency of research and obser- vation; and that while we possess some facts which seem to indicate the direction in which we are to search for a solution of the difficulties of the subject, we are still at a great distance from