Examination of the tables shows that the bitter tonics acting either in the stomach or in the mouth are without influence on the quantity of the appetite psychic secretion. There is a suggestion of an increased secretion with the bitters in the mouth for the noonday series, but this is counterbalanced by a slightly lower figure for the evening meal. The average physiologic condition of the gastric glands is practically the same in all the series.

As Mr. V. is a young man in good health, the question naturally arises whether the sensory nerves for the appetite sense (in mouth and stomach) are not normally in a state of maximum excitability, so that no further increase in excitability by bitter tonics is possible. This objection seems to be met by the lower secretion at the evening meal. Here is a condition in which less palatable food should have been rendered more palatable by contrast with the bitter tonic, or by actual increase in the excitability of the gustatory nerves. The results indicate no improvement by contrast. If the bitters in the mouth augmented the excitability of the taste nerves at the evening meal, this evidently caused an already unpalatable food to taste still more unpalatable, and hence the diminished appetite secretion.

These bitters in mouth or stomach produced no change in the acidity and in the pepsin concentration of the appetite gastric juice.

A similar series of tests was made on eight dogs provided with an accessory stomach pouch, according to the Heidenhain-Pavlov method. Care was taken to interfere as little as possible with the distribution of the vagi to the stomach pouch.

The tonics were introduced into the main stomach by means of a stomach tube, so as not to come in contact with the nerve-endings in the mouth or esophagus. They were introduced into the stomach pouch directly with a pipette. When introduced into the mouth the bitters were soaked up in a small wad of cotton and the dog was compelled to chew on this for 1 minute. The tests were made 24 hours after the previous meal, and each dog was fed a fixed quantity of boiled lean meat. The gastric juice was collected for 2 hours after the beginning of the feeding.

The tonics were put into the main and accessory stomachs from 20 to 30 minutes before feeding, and into the mouth 10 minutes before feeding. The size of the dogs varied from 5 to 8 kg. The quantity of tonics put into the stomach varied from 1.5 to 2 c.c.

Our results on the five dogs are summarized in Table VI. The data in this table permit only one conclusion, namely, that these bitters acting in the mouth or in the stomach have no effect on the secretion of gastric juice or on the quantity of food consumed by the normal dog. The slight increase that appears in the case of Dog 5 would probably have been counterbalanced if a larger series of tests had been made. The tonics did not produce any changes in the acidity and pepsin concentration.

Table VI

Dog

Dog 1..

Dog 2

Dog 3.

Dog 4.

Dog 5.

Tonics

(No tonics.............Tonics in mouth.......Tonics in main stomach

No tonics............

Tonics in mouth.......

Tonics in main stomach

No tonics............

Tonics in mouth......

Tonics in main stomach fNo tonics.............

(Tonics in main stomach.

(No tonics.............Tonics in main stomach. Tonics in small stomach

Gastric Juice in c.c

* Dogs with accessory stomachs prepared according to the Heidenhain-Pavlov method. Record of the secretion of gastric juice for the first two hours following a standard meal of lean meat. The variation in the average quantity of gastric juice secreted by the different dogs is due mainly to difference in size of the accessory stomachs.

The possible value of these and other stomachics, especially in digestive disorders, should be investigated by other methods, such as the determination of the actual quantity of food consumed, the time required for completion of gastric digestion, etc., with and without the tonics. And the final verdict cannot be given until all possible tests have been applied. But as regards any favorable action of these stomachics on the gastric secretory mechanism in normal men and dogs our results go to show that it is nil, at least when all purely psychic factors are eliminated.