It is more than probable that the rate of absorption of diffusible products from the stomach has been overestimated. Lea,[144] for example, assumes that, “normally the products of digestion, whether proteid or carbohydrate, are never met with in either the stomach or intestine in other than the smallest amounts, frequently to be described as merely traces.” This certainly implies a far more rapid absorption of proteoses and peptones from the stomach than results seem to justify. Indeed, recent facts obtained by Brandl,[145] working under Tappeiner’s direction, tend to show that absorption from the stomach is, under some circumstances at least, comparatively slow. Brandl’s experiments were conducted on large and vigorous dogs with gastric fistulæ, the stomach being shut off from the intestine by the simple introduction of a small rubber balloon into the pylorus, which when dilated completely closed the orifice. By carefully conducted experiments, it was shown that pure peptone, entirely free from proteose, is absorbed from the empty stomach in proportion to the concentration of the peptone solution. Thus, 7.5 grammes of peptone dissolved in water in such proportion as to make a five per cent. solution, and allowed to remain in the stomach for two hours, lost by absorption only 0.28 gramme, equal to 2.68 per cent. of the peptone introduced. Under similar conditions, a ten per cent. aqueous solution of peptone lost only 4.5 per cent. by absorption. On the other hand, when peptone was introduced in larger quantity, viz., in a twenty per cent. solution, absorption amounted to thirteen per cent. in two hours. [144] Journal of Physiol., vol. xi, p. 240. [145] Ueber Resorption und Secretion im Magen, und deren Beeinflussung durch Arzneimittel. Zeitschr. f. Biol., Band 29, p. 277.