Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1903-08-13

for hundreds OF years inQuiSitiVe hui.
mainly. with a curiosity that probably
long antedated Galen's End Cen.
fury theory of the -four functions" of
that necessary organ, has been trying
to find out how this omnipreSent pos.
session actually carries on business.
There was no man SO poor as not to
have a stomach and no man wise
enough tc devise method OF looking
into its private laboratory during
normal business hours. A few scat.
tered experiments on animals during
the early 18th century has added very
little to what had been known in the
second. for To study the stomach sue.
cesshlly it was necessary that the
owner OF it should be comfortable and
under completely normal conditions,
! During more recent years, however,
the discovery OF the N.ray has given
science new and wonderful method
of examining the interior OF living
bodies and the use OF X.ray apparatus
in the particular study of digestive
j processes to which DR., w. b. Cannon,
OF the Harvard medical school, has
been for some years devoting his at.
tention is an interesting chapter in
modern scientific investigation.
| The operations of a cats digestive
/ organs, SO far as they are yet known,
are very much like a man's--at least
very much as mans would he IL he
ate leisurely and didn't rush back to
business five minutes afterward. But
a cats stomach is not impewious to
/ the X.ray and an ordinary Xray pic
! turc taken through the middle Of cat
would give no tangible result what.
ever. II the cat had swallowed a
small metal button, however, the X
ray would produce a shadowgraph Of
that button and it follows naturally
! IL the cats stomach We're filled with
any substance more or less impervious
to the %-ray, that practical shadow
iof the stomach itself would become
X-ray apparatus. This is the basis
OF DR.. Cannon's remarkable series OF
experiments, more recently duplicated
by the French scientists. Roux and
Balthazard. The cat, after a fast OF
some IL hours, or about as long as u
/ conscientious housekeeper would con.
slider necessary to prepare the appe'
tite for a mouse catching expedition
was given a substantial meal of bread
softened with milk and mixed with
Lon "a ~ hiCtfnt horYN,1nGc
non-irritating powder which presents
the necessary condition OF be
ing impervious to the Xray
Then the cat was placed in a position
to be observed, arranged especially
with a view to the animals philo
sophie content during the ensuing
process OF digestion. The average
domestic Pussy, it was found, would
lie for hours without attempting tc
disarrange the few straps necessary
to keep her in the proper position, al
though the average Thomas cal
seemed to consider the whole matter
as something OF an indignity. The
difference, although this is not a mat
ter Of scientific opinion, is perhaps
simply one OF sex distinctions.
Within five minutes after havins
eaten her meal of bread, milk and
bismuth the outline OF the cats
stomach, as represented by its con
tents, became visible on the screen
of the X-ray apparatus, the screen be
ing above the cat and the mechanism
for generating the X-ray being be
meath the support upon which she re
clined. The shadow Is thus an out
line of the stomach that practically
ireproduCes the pear-shaped organ with
which every schoolboy becomes
familiar in his text book Of physiology
For a few minutes this pear-shaped
shadow remains quiescent, but from
this time on, until bread and subni
trate Of bismuth have left the stomach
the inner mechanism works, under
ordinary conditions, with clocklike
regularity and the outline OF the
shadow is in constant motion, visibly
undulating in monotonous response
to a series of waves passing over its
surface and showing plainly not only
the method by which the stomach
churns and digests its contents but the
way in which it passes on the digested
bread and milk to the cats intestines
These waves. starting near the center
OF the stomach and moving toward
what might be called the threshold Of
the intestines, that is TO say, the
smaller end Of the stomach that cor.
responds in the familiar description
to the stem end Of the pear. recur at
l0-second intervals; when one wave is
just beginning several others may be
seen running on ahead Of IT, Durin-
a single period OF digestion their mum.
Der reached the amazing total Of
$500 succeeding waves.
That such waves existed and played
an important part in the daily routine
Of digestion was known to science
long before the use Of the X.ray Re.
yealed them actually in motion. What
had not been either known or
theor!sei. however, was that they ex,
tended over only about half Of the