Brinton, is of the opinion, that the solvent action of the gastric fluids upon the walls of the stomach, is promoted by the presence of vegetable or starchy food:—(1) by offering little substance upon which the fluids can expend themselves; and (2) by producing by its decomposition, an amount of acid, favoring an energetic action of the gastric fluids; while on the other hand, the action of those fluids is retarded, (1) by the presence of alkaline saliva, or bile in any quantity; and (2) by the presence of animal food upon which the juices may act. CASE.—_Perforation of the Stomach in a child two years of age—death from Hydrocephalus._ A child of Mr. T——, in its second summer, had an attack of hydrocephalus, finally dying in convulsions. The autopsy, made twenty-four hours after death, disclosed great congestion of the membranes of the brain, with two ounces of serum in the ventricles. Upon opening the abdominal cavity, all the viscera appeared healthy. In lifting the stomach from its position, a gush of colored fluid appeared from behind it, which at once led to the suspicion of a rupture. The whole organ was then carefully removed, when a ragged rent, through which the thumb could readily be passed, was discovered at the posterior portion of the cardiac end. The walls of the stomach at this point were extremely thin, soft and jelly-like; this condition being plainly the result of the post-mortem action of the gastric juice, while the rupture was the immediate consequence of lifting the organ from its position. Pathological States of the Stomach. =Gastritis.= _Acute inflammation_ of the stomach rarely occurs, except as a result of some chemical or mechanical irritation. From the experiments of Dr. Beaumont, however, we learn that the stomach is extremely liable to various grades of inflammatory action, which passing rapidly through their several stages, end finally in recovery. By watching the effects of excesses in the use of alcoholic stimulants, food, condiments, and of exercise after meals, etc., he observed that the pale, pink color, natural to the mucous membrane of the healthy stomach, was exchanged for a somewhat livid erythematous redness, which was distributed throughout the organ in irregular patches of various sizes, and in its most intense form, amounted to a kind of ecchymosis. Again, he noticed an excessive growth of epithelium, forming patches of false membrane like, which at various points appeared distended by an accumulation of a puriform fluid beneath, giving the appearance of little pustules. The following forms of gastritis are generally recognized: