The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-09
WATCHING DIGESTION
WITH ROENTGEN RAYS

This involuntary muscular action slow
~ and surely forces the food onward
through the pyloruS-the keeper of the
gate, as the ancients long ago chris
tened the little Valvular doorway thar
opens or closes the lower end of what
they might also have called the house
of digestion. Naturally the actual pro-
cess OF digestion slowly empties the
cardiac, or reservoir part of the stonn-
ach' the size of the pyloric part in
creaslng slightly as the other grows
smaller. The food, as watched in the
x-ray shadowgraph. moved into tbe
lntestines. one might say, by occa-
slonal jumps past the keeper of the
gate. ''ie
One of the interesting facts vtsib,,,
Illustrated by this curious shadow nan
! tomlne is the close relation between
the condition of the mind and that ~
the stomach. As has been noted al
READY male cats objected to the expert
ment much more vigorously than the
females, In many cases getting so an
CRY that digestion stopped entirely and
announcer animal had to be substituted.
When the cat became angry the waves
that had been following each otber
regularly over the pyloric region ceased
moving and digestion was evidently
suspended. On another occasion when
the fluctuations were coursing regu-
larly over the stomach of a female car
she suddenly changed from a condi
tlon OF peaceful sleepiness and began
10 breathe quickly and endeavor to
| get loose from her fastenings. As soon
as this change took place the undu1a
! tons of the stomach stopped and its
outline presented a smooth, rounded
appearance. The operator continued
MS observations, stroking the cat re-
| assurlngly and in a few moments Pus-
sy was again purring contentedly and
the stomach had resumed it's monoto-
nously regular motion. In short any
experience of strong feeling on the part
OF the animal was Immediately reflect
ed by the action of the stomach
scientific observation that should lead
thoughtful humans to get mad or wor-
ry, IL they must get mad or worry be-
lore meals, but never Immediately aft
erwards.
How individual particles of food are
| handled by the stomach appeared also
IN the X-ray shadowgraphs. In this
case pellets of food were prepared In
Which large amount of subnitrate Of
i blsmuth had been mixed, the result be-
ing that these individual pellets cast a
darker shadow On the screen and could
thus be seen moving to and fro in the
ShadoWgraph picture. These harder
morsels were moved forward and back
ward by the regular motion of the
stomach, thus gradually approaching
the keeper of the gate and usually
being sent back to repeat the process
several times over before they were al
I lowed to enter upon the next step of
digestion. In short these harder par
tlcles of food-and here again the ex-
pertinent has its moral for average hu-
mainly, the pellets being equivalent to
food not thoroughly masticated-were
mechanically kept under the influence
Oh the gastric juices and constant
movement of the stomach until they
had been thoroughly softened and were
usually the last particles of food to
leave the stomach. The stomach it.
| self, or rather the shadow of it's con-
tents as thrown on the screen of the
A-ray apparatus, naturally becomes
less and less visible as digestion pro-
crosses, and at o'clock the process
which began at II is practically finish
ed and the shadow is hardly more than
spot of gray on a white background.