days. [page 98]
the experiment was successful. For in a vessel containing two cubes,
both were reduced in size in 3 hrs.; and after 24 hrs. mere streaks of
undissolved albumen were left. In a second vessel, containing two
minute ragged bits of albumen, both were likewise reduced in size in 3
hrs., and after 24 hrs. completely disappeared. I then added a little
weak hydrochloric acid to both vessels, and placed fresh cubes of
albumen in them; but these were not acted on. This latter fact is
intelligible according to the high authority of Schiff,* who has
demonstrated, as he believes, in opposition to the view held by some
physiologists, that a certain small amount of pepsin is destroyed
during the act of digestion. So that if my solution contained, as is
probable, an extremely small amount of the ferment, this would have
been consumed by the dissolution of the cubes of albumen first given;
none being left when the hydrochloric acid was added. The destruction
of the ferment during the process of digestion, or its absorption after
the albumen had been converted into a peptone, will also account for
only one out of the three latter sets of experiments having been
successful.
Digestion of Roast Meat. Cubes of about 1/20 of an inch (1.27 mm.) of
moderately roasted meat were placed on five leaves which became in 12
hrs. closely inflected. After 48 hrs. I gently opened one leaf, and the
meat now consisted of a minute central sphere, partially digested and
surrounded by a thick envelope of transparent viscid fluid. The whole,
without being much disturbed, was removed and placed under the
microscope. In the central part the transverse striae on the muscular
fibres were quite distinct; and it was
* Lecons phys. de la Digestion, 1867, tom. ii. pp. 114-126. [page 99]
interesting to observe how gradually they disappeared, when the same
fibre was traced into the surrounding fluid. They disappeared by the
striae being replaced by transverse lines formed of excessively minute
dark points, which towards the exterior could be seen only under a very
high power; and ultimately these points were lost. When I made these
observations, I had not read Schiff s account* of the digestion of meat
87