A ready and convenient method of ascertaining the condition of the gastric secretions in disorders of the stomach has not hitherto been satisfactorily afforded by the appliances at our command. The inconveniences of the stomach-tube have caused resort to other devices, all of which have been more or less unsatisfactory, and have failed to receive general approval and adoption; the sponge tester of Spallanzani and Edinger,1 Einhorn's2 silver bucket, Spaeth's3 pith pellets, etc., are all of them in their way imperfect in their performance, and otherwise objectionable. The tube itself is a disagreeable appliance, and in certain hysteric and nervous patients almost an impracticable one, at least without such compulsory measures as are used with the insane, so that its employment is often given up, to the doctor's discomfiture and the patient's disadvantage. It has, moreover, its actual dangers, and a very formidable list of conditions in