From the described experiment it is clear that the mere act of eating, the food even not reaching the stomach, determines the stimulation of the gastric glands.
Our success was mainly due to the fact that we stimulated the nerves of animals that easily stood on their own feet and were not subjected to any painful stimulus either during or immediately before stimulation of their nerves.
It goes without saying that the desire to accomplish the task with more confidence, to avoid wasting time and labour, and to spare our experimental animals as much as possible, made us strictly observe all the precautions taken by surgeons in respect to their patients.
Don't become a mere recorder of facts, but try to penetrate the mystery of their origin.
But man has still another powerful resource: natural science with its strictly objective methods.
Physiology has, at last, gained control over the nerves which stimulate the gastric glands and the pancreas.