PANCREAS. 



105 



downwards, have remarked that the act of in- The following is a tabular view of the state- 



spiration.aml violent respiratory or struggling incuts of different observers of the principal 



efforts, always increase the rapidity of its characters of the pancreatic secretion : 

 flow. 



Function of the pancreatic fluid. The first 

 indication of the importance of the pancreatic 

 juice to the process of digestion has been as- 

 signed to Valentin. He showed that it con- 

 verted iuto sugar that portion of the amy- 

 laceous matter that had not been acted on by 

 the saliva and had passed unchanged into the 

 duodenum ; and he ascertained that both the 

 expressed secretion and an infusion of the 

 gland-substance exercised this transforming 

 property in a high degree. Bouchardat and 

 Sandras found that the pancreatic secretion 

 of fowls and geese possessed this property, 

 and immediately transformed starch into dex- 

 trine and grape sugar. On raising the fluid 

 to 100 (centigrade) it became inert ; but 

 the flocculi precipitated, either by heat or 

 alcohol, on being redissolved exerted an in- 

 fluence exactly the same as the original secre- 

 tion, and with the same power. In this albu- 

 minous substance they recognise the material 

 of which, under the name of diastase, they had 

 indicated the existence in the alimentary canal 

 of granivorous birds. They profess themselves 

 unable to define the action of this substance 

 compared with that of diastase. Like dias- 

 tase it is nitrogenous; and they regard it as 

 the principal agent in the digestion of feculent 

 aliments. They found, moreover, that a fluid 

 of similar properties might be obtained by 

 macerating for a short time portions of the 

 pancreas, finely minced, in an equal weight of 

 water. The fluid thus prepared converted 

 a thick starch jelly into a thin fluid, without 

 any viscosity, in the lapse of a few minutes. 

 By many alternate precipitations with alcohol 



and solutions in water, as in the operation for 

 the purification of diastase, a flocculent pre- 

 cipitate was obtained, which, rapidly dried, 

 possessed a very energetic solvent power. 

 The existence of a principle acting like dias- 

 tase on fecula was equally demonstrated in 

 the rabbit, the dog, and man.* 



Within the last few years an additional and 

 most important office has been claimed for 

 the pancreas by M. Bernard f that, namely, 

 of emulsifying or saponifying the neutral 

 fatty matters contained in the food, by de- 

 composing them iuto glycerine and their 

 respective fatty acids, and so rendering them 

 absorbable. M. Bernard bases his views on 

 two methods of proof on experiments on 

 the living animal, and on the secretion after 

 its removal ; and his whole paper is charac- 

 terised by an admirable completeness and 

 most orderly logic. The first series of ex- 

 periments consists in the admixture of various 

 fatty matters olive oil, butter, tallow, lard 

 with fresh pancreatic juice, alkaline, viscid, 

 and possessing all the characters of the noi - 

 mal secretion ; a temperature about that of 

 the body is applied, if necessary, and the 

 mixture agitated. In every case a smooth, 

 creamy emulsion is at once produced. In keep- 

 ing the products of these experiments at a 

 temperature above 100 Fahr. for fifteen or 

 eighteen hours, he says the emulsion was 

 perfectly maintained ; the appearance of the 

 white creamy liquid was quite unchanged, 

 nor was there, although kept in perfect re- 



* Compt. Rend. t. 20. p. 1085. 



f Archives Gen. de Medecine, iv. serie, 1. 19. 



