At the end of twenty-four hours, the three portions were examined. That contained in the warm juice was completely dissolved, and presented the usual appearances. The portions contained in the cold juice and in the cold water very much resembled each other, and exhibited no appearance whatever of chyme. They were macerated or softened, but not digested. These experiments, and others of a similar nature, shew clearly that a temperature equal to ordinary blood-heat is requisite for chymification. To make sure that it was the low temperature alone which prevented the occurrence of digestion in the experiment detailed, Dr Beaumont now placed the vial containing the meat which had been exposed without effect for twenty hours to the action of the cold gastric juice on a water-bath at the ordinary blood-heat. In a very short time “digestion commenced, and advanced regularly as in the other parcels.” The same results were always obtained from a repetition of these experiments, so that they may be held as perfectly conclusive in establishing the essentiality of heat to the digestive process. Common observation, indeed, establishes this truth. Dr Kitchener, for example, after stating that “a certain degree of heat is absolutely necessary to excite and support a regular process of digestion,” remarks, that, “when the circulation is languid and the food difficult of solution in aged persons and invalids, even _external_ heat will considerably assist concoction, and the application of the calefacient concave (stomach warmer) will enable the digestive organs to overcome refractory materials, and convert them into laudable chyle.”[30] * * * * *