Madame Young's Guide to Health / Her experience and practice for nearly forty years; a true family herbal, wherein is displayed the true properties and medical virtues of all the roots, herbs, &c., indigenous to the United States, and their combination in all the diseases the human body is heir to; also, an explanation of the human body, its liability to injuries through ignorance of its structure. Dedicated exclusively to her sex.

by Amelia Young

4. That the agent of chymification is the gastric juice.

5. That the pure gastric juice is fluid, clear, and transparent; without odor, a little salt, and perceptibly acid.

6. That it contains free muriatic acid, and some other active chymical properties.

7. That it is never found free in the gastric cavity; but it is always excited to discharge itself by the introduction of food or other irritants.

8. That it is secreted from vessels distinct from the mucous follicles.

9. That it is seldom obtained pure; but is generally mixed with mucous, and sometimes with saliva. When pure, it is capable of being kept for months, and perhaps for years.

10. That it coagulates albumen, and afterward dissolves the coagulæ.

11. That it checks the progress of putrefaction.

12. That it acts as a solvent of food, and alters its properties.

13. That, like other chymical agents, it commences its action on food as soon as it comes in contact with it.