Unfortunately Dr Beaumont made few experiments on the action of gastric juice upon vegetables; and, in the few recorded, he generally contents himself with noting the length of time required for their solution, which generally proved considerably longer than for animal substances. In one experiment, however, he states, that an hour after giving St Martin nine ounces of _raw, ripe, sour, apples_, the stomach was full of fluid and pulp, “quite acrid, and irritating the edges of the aperture, _as is always the case when he eats acescent fruits or vegetables_.” In an hour and a half the contents were still more sharp and acrid, and the pulp of the apple visible. At the end of two hours the stomach was empty, but the mucous membrane exhibited an irritated appearance. With farinaceous vegetables, however, the results were different. Thus, when a pint of thick, rich, boiled sago, sweetened with sugar, was given, the whole was digested in less than two hours, and there was neither acrimony of the gastric contents nor smarting of the edges of the wound; on the contrary, it seemed peculiarly grateful to the stomach, and rendered the mucous membrane soft, uniform, and healthy. The same results followed a repetition of the experiment, and also when a pint of soft custard was taken. In some states of the stomach, it is true, even farinaceous food excites acrimony and irritation, but rarely in the same degree as the other forms of vegetable aliment. * * * * * Such being the influence of gastric juice on different aliments at the natural heat of the body, we have now to ascertain, in the SECOND place, what share the _high temperature_ has in the result. To determine this point, Dr Beaumont took out two ounces of gastric juice, and divided it into two equal portions, in separate vials. He added to each an equal weight of masticated fresh beef; and placed the one in a bath at the temperature of 99°, and the other in the open air at 34°. As a contrast to these, he placed beside the latter a third vial, containing the same weight of masticated meat in an ounce of clear water. In two hours the meat in the warm vial was partially digested; that in the cold gastric juice was scarcely changed; and the third portion, in the cold water, seemed only a little macerated. In six hours the meat in the warm vial was half digested, while that in the two others had undergone no farther alteration. The gastric juice in the first vial having by this time dissolved as much as it could of the beef, four drachms more were added from the stomach, and the vial was replaced in the bath. _Digestion, which had previously ceased, was now resumed, and went on as steadily as if it had not been interrupted_; thus shewing, in a striking manner, the impropriety of exceeding in our meals the quantity for which alone a sufficiency of gastric juice can be provided.