Thus those who are troubled with this symptom expect, with good reason, that they will also be unable to digest adequately; proper digestion5 cannot take place in a weak stomach. In such people also, the mass of food may be plainly seen to remain an abnormally long time in the stomach, as would be natural if their digestion were slow. Indeed, the chief way in which these people will surprise one is in the length of time that not food alone but even fluids will remain in their stomachs. Now, the actual cause of this is not, as one would imagine, that the lower outlet6 of the stomach, being fairly narrow, will allow nothing to pass before being reduced to a fine state of division. There are a great many people who frequently swallow large quantities of big fruit-stones; one person who was holding a gold ring in his mouth, inadvertently swallowed it; another swallowed a coin, and various people have swallowed various hard and indigestible objects; yet all these people easily passed by the bowel7 what they had swallowed, without there being any subsequent symptoms. Now surely if narrowness of the gastric8 outlet were the cause of untriturated food remaining for an abnormally long time, none of these articles I have mentioned would ever have escaped. Furthermore, the fact that it is liquids which remain longest in these people’s stomachs is sufficient to put the idea of narrowness of the outlet out of court. For, supposing a rapid descent were dependent upon emulsification9, then soups, milk, and barley-emulsion would at once pass along in every case. But as a matter of fact this is not so. For in people who are extremely asthenic it is just these fluids which remain undigested, which accumulate and produce gurglings, and which oppress and overload10 the stomach, whereas in strong persons not merely do none of these things happen, but even a large quantity of bread or meat passes rapidly down.
And it is not only because the stomach is distended11 and loaded and because the fluid runs from one part of it to another accompanied by gurglings — it is not only for these reasons that one would judge that there was an unduly12 long continuance of the food in it, in those people who are so disposed, but also from the vomiting14. Thus, there are some who vomit13 up every particle of what they have eaten, not after three or four hours, but actually in the middle of the night, a lengthy15 period having elapsed since their meal.
Suppose you fill any animal whatsoever16 with liquid food — an experiment I have often carried out in pigs, to whom I give a sort of mess of wheaten flour and water, there after cutting them open after three or four hours; if you will do this yourself, you will find the food still in the stomach. For it is not chylification which determines the length of its stay here — since this can also be effected outside the stomach; the determining factor is digestion which is a different thing from chylification, as are blood-production and nutrition. For, just as it has been shown that these two processes depend upon a change of qualities, similarly also the digestion of food in the stomach involves a transmutation of it into the quality proper to that which is receiving nourishment17. Then, when it is completely digested, the lower outlet opens and the food is quickly ejected through it, even if there should be amongst it abundance of stones, bones, grape-pips, or other things which cannot be reduced to chyle. And you may observe this yourself in an animal, if you will try to hit upon the time at which the descent of food from the stomach takes place. But even if you should fail to discover the time, and nothing was yet passing down, and the food was still undergoing digestion in the stomach, still even then you would find dissection18 not without its uses. You will observe, as we have just said, that the pylorus is accurately closed, and that the whole stomach is in a state of contraction19 upon the food very much as the womb contracts upon the foetus. For it is never possible to find a vacant space in the uterus, the stomach, or in either of the two bladders — that is, either in that called bile-receiving or in the other; whether their contents be abundant or scanty20, their cavities are seen to be replete21 and full, owing to the fact that their coats contract constantly upon the contents — so long, as least, as the animal is in a natural condition.
Now Erasistratus for some reason declares that it is the contractions22 of the stomach which are the cause of everything — that is to say, of the softening23 of the food, the removal of waste matter, and the absorption of the food when chylified [emulsified].
Now I have personally, on countless24 occasions, divided the peritoneum of a still living animal and have always found all the intestines25 contracting peristaltically upon their contents. The condition of the stomach, however, is found less simple; as regards the substances freshly swallowed, it had grasped these accurately both above and below, in fact at every point, and was as devoid26 of movement as though it had grown round and become united with the food. At the same time I found the pylorus persistently27 closed and accurately shut, like the os uteri on the foetus.
In the cases, however, where digestion had been completed the pylorus had opened, and the stomach was undergoing peristaltic movements, similar to those of the intestines.
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1 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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2 accurately | |
adv.准确地,精确地 | |
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3 constricting | |
压缩,压紧,使收缩( constrict的现在分词 ) | |
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4 faculty | |
n.才能;学院,系;(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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5 digestion | |
n.消化,吸收 | |
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6 outlet | |
n.出口/路;销路;批发商店;通风口;发泄 | |
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7 bowel | |
n.肠(尤指人肠);内部,深处 | |
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8 gastric | |
adj.胃的 | |
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9 emulsification | |
n.乳化,乳化作用 | |
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10 overload | |
vt.使超载;n.超载 | |
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11 distended | |
v.(使)膨胀,肿胀( distend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12 unduly | |
adv.过度地,不适当地 | |
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13 vomit | |
v.呕吐,作呕;n.呕吐物,吐出物 | |
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14 vomiting | |
吐 | |
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15 lengthy | |
adj.漫长的,冗长的 | |
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16 whatsoever | |
adv.(用于否定句中以加强语气)任何;pron.无论什么 | |
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17 nourishment | |
n.食物,营养品;营养情况 | |
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18 dissection | |
n.分析;解剖 | |
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19 contraction | |
n.缩略词,缩写式,害病 | |
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20 scanty | |
adj.缺乏的,仅有的,节省的,狭小的,不够的 | |
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21 replete | |
adj.饱满的,塞满的;n.贮蜜蚁 | |
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22 contractions | |
n.收缩( contraction的名词复数 );缩减;缩略词;(分娩时)子宫收缩 | |
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23 softening | |
变软,软化 | |
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24 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
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25 intestines | |
n.肠( intestine的名词复数 ) | |
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26 devoid | |
adj.全无的,缺乏的 | |
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27 persistently | |
ad.坚持地;固执地 | |
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