THE STOMACH'S PROBLEM.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 448, 16 March 1912, Page 7

THE STOMACH'S PROBLEM.

One of the greatest questions disturbing the minds of physiologists both past and present is that of the stomach's digesting powers. It is asked why the stomach does not digest itself. It is well known that gastric juices have the power to digest the tissue of which the stomach is made. One of the things actually manufactured by the body, secreted in the glands near the stomach and poured into it, is hydrochloric acid, a powerful agent that will cat up almost anything. Why it does not eat the stomach up is problematical. It is known that a stomach from a. dead animal or man can be digested by a living man. It has been found also that whQn a man is killed accidentally and his stomach is in the process of digesting, if the body be kept warm, his whole stomach will be digested and possibly too adjacent organs, as liver, pancreas, etc. From this it was argued that the "principle of life" kept the process from going on in the living being. However, this has been proved by" Professor Laurence Hodges to be untrue.

A living frog was put in an unconscious condition and his leg inserted through a small hole in a dog's stomach, the dog being alive and well. It was found that the frog's leg was wholly digested in the process, although living. So the last reason conceivable was proved** incapable of explaining the phenomenon. About the only conclusion left is that the stomach does gradually actually eat itself up ; but that it is being constantly rebuilt. However, as this experiment is hard to perform and as no results have so fat been announced in this direction, we arc left in a state of absolute ignorance, and all we can do is to be devoutly thankful to Providence that our stomachs do not digest themselves except in the ordinary course of human events.