When Does The Contents Of The Stomach Pass Out?

"Under normal conditions, some of it passes out, or rather is ejected, as soon as it becomes sufficiently liquefied. Just what governs the expulsion of the food from the stomach is rather difficult to determine; it is not merely the fact of its becoming a liquid, as water, no matter what its temperature, remains in the stomach several minutes and is then discharged into the intestines, where absorption takes place. It also frequently happens that solid food is not dissolved at all in the stomach, and if the irritation is not great enough to cause vomiting, it passes into the intestines, but just at what time or condition, his not been determined. It appears that under some conditions, solids readily pass out of the stomach, while in others liquids remain a long time, so that the discharge of food from the stomach is not entirely a question of liquefaction, (i, e., becoming a watery liquid.) The ordinary length of time which water remains in the stomach when there is little or no food in it, is about 15 minutes, but it may remain hours, when the activity of the stomach walls is impaired."

Does The Stomach Always Empty Itself?

"It should, but sometimes it must be vomited to do so. Food has been known to remain in the stomach several days and then be vomited."

Of What Use Is This Knowledge, Doctor?

"Well, I only wanted to explain that part of one meal may remain in the stomach undigested until it is time to eat another.'

What Will Then Happen?

"After several hours, if the food is not digested, decay will set in, and when one meal disagrees it may not be noticeable, but the decaying portion remaining in the stomach will almost certainly destroy the digestion of the next one; whereas, had the stomach been empty, digestion would readily have taken place. This is the reason why it is more or less difficult to tell what agrees and what disagrees with us, because the undigested meal may not be noticeable until another meal is added, or not at all until symptoms of sickness occur."

Doctor, You Stated That The Stomach Did Sometimes Permit Undissolved Food To Pass Out Into The Intestines, Does Any Harm Come From It?

"Yes, great harm, and such ailments as cramps, colic, diarrhoea and catarrh of the gall bladder, causing gall stones, are common results from coarse substances passing through the stomach into the bowels."

Has There Been Any Extensive Investigation Made About Digestion Since That Of Dr. Beaumont?

"Yes, investigations have been going on almost constantly ever since, and have been much aided by what we might properly term Modern Chemistry. A German physiologist in 1831, discovered that saliva digests starch, i. e., turns it into grape sugar, sometimes termed maltose. Since then, repeated experiments have been made upon man and animals. Thousands of tests have been made by siphoning the gastric juice and partly digested food from the stomach, and also almost every conceivable test has been made on dogs and other animals,"

Doctor, You Say Saliva Is Alkaline While The Gastric Juice Is Acid. A While Ago You Stated That These Were Antagonistic And That The Alkali Neutralized The Acid. Now. How Can Digestion Be Carried On By Two Elements Directly Opposite To Each Other, One Neutralizing Or Destroying The Effect Of The Other?

"That is a good question, and a right understanding of the answer would clear up many of the doubts and difficulties concerning food, or rather our diet. In the first place, it would be well to remember that the saliva makes its appearance in the mouth; that it has great effect on the digestion of starch, or starchy food; that it should be mixed with the starchy foods as thoroughly as possible. Then, when the food reaches the stomach, the gastric juice only begins to flow. It will thus be seen that there is considerable time for the digestion of the starch before any quantity of gastric juice has been secreted in the stomach, or to put it another way, the starch-digestion begins in the mouth and continues after reaching the stomach until the stomach has secreted a sufficient quantity of the acid gastric juice to counteract the effect of the alkaline saliva which the food received in the mouth. Ordinarily, it would require from 15 minutes to a half hour for the stomach to become sufficiently acid to neutralize the amount of saliva that ought to be mixed with the food during its mastication before it reaches the stomach. As the stomach gradually becomes more and more acid, the starch digestion gradually lessens until it entirely ceases.

Then the action of the stomach walls becomes quite intense, and gastric digestion properly begins."

What Do You Mean By Gastric Digestion?

"Ii have tried to make it plain that the saliva has no solvent action upon proteid or tissue forming foods. It is this class of foods that are dissolved or at least should be, in the stomach, by the secretions therein."

What Class Of Food Do You Call Starches?

"Generally speaking, all the vegetables with the possible exception of peas and beans, are essentially starch, and even peas and beans contain a per cent of that substance. The foods acted upon in the stomach are lean meats of every kind, eggs, milk, cheese, fish, and the vegetable casein in peas and beans and the gluten found in wheat and in other cereals."

Is Digestion Completed In The Stomach?

"Not by any means. By far the most important part takes place below the stomach - in the small intes tines."

"Then, according to the statement you make, the stomach is not of much use, and knowing something of the trouble and pain it gives it looks as though we were constructed on immature plans."

"Not at all. The stomach has its use and a most important one, although Czerney in 1876, at Heidelburg, Germany, removed the entire stomach of two dogs. No mention is made as to the effect on one of the dogs, but the other lived from 1876 to 1882, when he was killed for the purpose of making an examination as to his condition. At the time his stomach was removed, the dog weighed 5,850 grams (22 lbs.), a month after he weighed considerably less, but during the year his weight increased to 7,000 grams (29 lbs.)"