III. On the secretion of saliva, chiefly on the secretion of salts in it

Abstract

Heidenhain has shown that when saliva is obtained by stimulating the chorda tympani, the percentage of salts in the saliva depends upon the rate of secretion, so that the faster the secretion the higher the percentage of salts is up to a limit of about 0·6 per cent. Werther has come to the same conclusion, but finds that the percentage of salts may be as much as 0·77. Both in Heidenhain’s and in Werther’s experiments there are many exceptions to this rule, attributed by them to variations in the rate of secretion of saliva during the time of collecting any one sample.