Some practical results from the chemical examination of the contents of the healthy stomach / by A. Lockhart Gillespie.

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some practical results from the chemical examination of the contents of the healthy stomach / by A. Lockhart Gillespie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    5 v>i O m: IV — C. ^Lv> 4> o < K) C>^ o — =3 LsJ ^ — <T) ^ ^-S s? “ o r- Table IT. Hour 0 1 2 3 24 Acidity per cent, inside, . Acidity per cent, outside, Free HCl, •018 •198 •252 •198 + •288 •199 + •27 •199 + •234 •21 + repeated with an acidity outside of *198 per cent, hydrochloric acid. The acidity rose in the first hour to *252 per cent., in two hours to *28 per cent., and then fell. It will be noted that with very similar contents, but with very different acidities outside, the acidity inside rose to almost the same height. The next experiment, which is shown in Chart I., illustrates this point more clearly. Experiment II.—Using a dialyser as before, I placed 100 ccs. of a mixture of milk and water—one-third milk and two-thirds distilled water—in the tube, and poured round it 3000 ccs. of a T26 per cent, solution of hydrochloric acid of a temperature of 100° F. The whole was kept at this temperature, a small quantity of pepsine being added to the fluid inside. I repeated this experiment in exactly the same manner with half milk and half water, and again with pure milk inside the tube. The acidity in each case was estimated every quarter of an hour during the first hour, then every half-hour to the second hour, and at the fourth, fifth, and twenty-fourth hours. It is obvious from the chart that the course of the acidity inside, in each of the experiments, varies with the contents,—not solely, however, because of the law of osmosis, that the fluid of greater density attracts more of the lighter fluid ; for if that only occurred here, the percentage of acid present inside would not rise above that outside. Another point seen is the rapidity with which hydrochloric acid dialyses through, and that it begins to do so at once, a point in which, I believe, it resembles Nature, and which I hope to prove below. The period at which the hydrochloric acid makes its appearance is, therefore, very instructive, being proportionately later the stronger the milk solution. In Nos. I. and III. there was a small quantity of free acid, not hydrochloric acid, driven off at first. The chlorine was esti- mated in each, but as the chlorine curves followed the acidity curves very closely, I have not added them to the chart. Another point which we may notice is that in the more dilute specimens the free acid at the end of the experiment is considerably greater in quantity than in the more concentrated. The fall in the free acid curve in No. III. of the series is unusual, and is either due to an error in observation at the fourth hour, or to a loss in specific gravity of the fluid inside from dialysis of peptones, leading to a diminished inflow of hydrochloric acid.