Gastric Juice
a colorless liquid secreted by the stomach containing about 98.5 percent. of water; when evaporated to dryness and burnt, the ashes consist chiefly of sodium chloride. The gastric juice also contains a free acid, probably hydrochloric acid, and a peculiar substance called PEPSINE (q. v.), to which, and the presence of the free acid, the power of digesting food possessed by the gastric juice appears to be due.
GASTRITIS (-tritis), inflammation of the stomach, either acute or chronic, usually most severe at the pyloric orifice, generally caused by corrosive or irri- GATACRE tant poisons, but chiefly from the use of raw spirits, accompanied by nausea , sick ness, etc., and in severe cases followed by congestion. It seldom occurs in persons of temperate habit.