On the chemical mechanism of gastric secretion

Abstract

It has long been known that the introduction of certain substances into the stomach provoke a secretion of gastric juice. This is regarded as in no sense depending upon mere mechanical stimulation of the mucous membrane, and it has been thought that the nervous mechanism of the gastric glands may be susceptible to certain local chemical stimuli. On the analogy of what has been held to be the mechanism at work in the secretion of pancreatic juice by Bayliss and Starling, it is probable that, in the process of absorption of digested food in the stomach, a substance may be separated from the cells of the mucous membrane which, passing into the blood or lymph, later stimulates the secretory cells of the stomach to functional activity. The following observations support this view:—