A lecture on the physiology of digestion : introductory to a course of lectures on the Institutes of Medicine and Materia Medica : delivered before the medical class of the University of the City of New York, at the session of 1844-5 / by Martyn Paine.

  • Paine, Martyn, 1794-1877.
Date:
1844-5
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the physiology of digestion : introductory to a course of lectures on the Institutes of Medicine and Materia Medica : delivered before the medical class of the University of the City of New York, at the session of 1844-5 / by Martyn Paine. 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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    its digestive power, the digestive principle, therefore, is clearly in solu- tion, and the theory of digestion by contact fills to the ground. Here, a most important physiological induction is wholly founded upon a pro- cess which has not the most remote connection with organized matter; and as to the paradox which involves the combined agencies of muri- atic acid, alkalies, acetate of lead, hydro-sulphuric acid, and mucous membranes, it is certainly a burlesque upon the science of chemistry. I have said that the experimenters took the hint of manufacturing gastric juice from the occasional discovery of an acid in the stomach. But, this is undoubtedly a rare phenomenon in a healthy stomach, and where the food has been at all appropriate in quality and quantity.— The chemical hypothesis, as I have said, was long ago in vogue, and was put at rest by demonstrative proof. Distinguished observers, Hun- ter, Haller, Willis, Spallanzani, Fordyce, and more recently Dumas, Schultz, and others, insist that the reputed acid is the result of a true chemical decomposition of vegetable matter. Spallanzani, whose ex- periments were almost endless, Scopoli, Chevreuil, and others, rarely succeeded in finding it at all, and in some animals never. Spallanzani, indeed, affirms that the gastric juice is neither acid nor alkaline in its natural state. As far back as Haller's day, when this subject was agitated, it is said by this illustrious and accurate observer, that, although there may be some rare signs of an acid in the stomach, it does not, there- fore, become us to suppose that food is animalized by a chemical pro- cess ; much less to compare this process with the action of an acid. And, anticipating the modern experiments with the digestive mix- ture, he declares of analogous proceedings at his own era, frustra etiam quisquam, imitatus liquores acres chemicos, liquorem corroden- tem invenerit, qui carnem in pultem resolvat. And there can be no doubt that Hunter's prophecy holds good to this day, that— If ever any matter is formed in any of the juices secreted in any part of a vegetable or animal body similar to what arises from fermen- tation, we may depend on it, it arose from that process ; but we may also depend on it, that there is a defect of the living principle in these cases. These are not the mere speculations of genius, but the facts and the conclusions of genius after a long, and wide, and experimental survey of nature.* And are these observations, nay, our own experience, our own senses, to be set aside to accommodate a hypothesis of life which identifies dead, even inorganic, with living beings ? I might thus go on to multiply proofs of the foregoing nature, not a lit- tle of which is supplied by distinguished observers of the present day ; and a variety of other facts might be brought in opposition to the che- mical hypothesis of digestion. But time presses, and I must come to a conclusion ; but not without expressing the conviction that it is here, especially, that the physiologist must raise his principal defence against the invasions of chemistry. Defeated upon this ground, the adversary may be easily expelled from the whole domain of organic life. * See mottos, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 16th paragraphs. Yet is it said that the chemical speculations must command the respect of their opponents. ..*** Pa™e's Medical and Physiological Commentaries, in 3 volumes, may be had only at the Au :ho°umres:ids.mi: smstjsl ??:£«* °ctav° ^ ^- *™ °f ** *« ■- * volumes, $0.00. The 3d volume without charge