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On the other hand, substances may be medically inconsistent, which are chemically compatible, as I shall have frequent opportunities of exemplifying. The stomach has a chemical code of its own, by which the usual affinities of bodies are frequently modified, often suspended, and sometimes entirely subverted; this truth is illustrated in a very striking manner by the interesting experiments of M. Drouard, who found that Copper, swallowed in its metallic state, was not rendered poisonous by meeting with oils, or fatty bodies; nor even with Vinegar, in the digestive organs. Other bodies, on the contrary, seem to possess the same habitudes in the stomach as in the laboratory, and are alike influenced in both situations by the chemical action of various bodies, many examples of which are to be found under the consideration of the influence which solubility exerts upon the medicinal activity of substances; so again, acidity in the stomach is neutralized by Alkalies, and if a Carbonate be employed for that purpose, we have a copious disengagement of Carbonic acid gas, which has been frequently very distressing to the patient; lastly, many bodies taken into the stomach undergo decompositions and changes in transitu, independent of any play of chemical affinities from the hidden powers of digestion, some of which we are enabled to appreciate, and they will accordingly form a subject of investigation in the course of the present work.