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It is well known that partial digestion of the stomach takes place after death, and similar changes have been observed in the lower animals. Frenzel would explain the rapid dissolution of amœbæ and infusoria on the theory that they are dissolved by a digest formed within themselves during life. But the question has often been asked, why does not the living human stomach digest itself? The usual answer is that the alkaline blood circulating in the walls of the stomach prevents the action of the acid stomach juices. Claude Bernard and Pavy found that the limb of a living frog or ear of a rabbit introduced into the stomach through a fistulous opening will be partly digested. In order to test the matter further Frenzel, (Centralblatt für Physiologie, No. 1, Biologisches Centralblatt, vi, No. 22) has immersed a frog's leg in a solution of pepsin and a 2:1000 solution of