.METHODS: PANCREATIC FJSTUL.K. 7 



an insidious peritonitis, hail also to be given up, since neither the con- 

 dition of the animals before death nor the appearances post nwrteiu 

 afforded ground for such belief. Finally, the possibility of any auto- 

 intoxication from incomplete and abnormal products of digestion due to 

 the loss of so much pancreatic juice, such as Dr. Agrikoljanski in his 

 Dissertation has suggested, was also excluded. Tn the first place, 

 with many dogs before death, absolutely no symptoms of digestive 

 disturbances were observed ; neither vomiting, nor diarrhnea, nor 

 constipation. Secondly, we have convinced ourselves by means of 

 special experiments, in which the pancreatic duct was ligatured and 

 divided, that this operation is absolutely harmless. There remained 

 only one supposition, viz., that the animals, in the escape of the pan- 

 creatic juice, lost something essential to the normal processes of life. 

 Starting with this idea, we adopted two measures to guard against the 

 ill effects. We had previously known that the nature of the food 

 exerted a powerful influence on the composition and quantity of the 

 pancreatic juice. We (Dr. Wassiliew) therefore omitted flesh altogether 

 from the dietary of these dogs, and fed them exclusively on bread and 

 milk. Bearing also in mind the fact that a large quantity of alkali is 

 lost in the pancreatic juice from the body, we regularly added a certain 

 quantity of sodium bicarbonate to the dietary (Dr. Jablonski). 



By paying attention to these two rules it is tolerably easy to main- 

 tain an animal for many months, or even years, in a fit condition 

 for experiment without the necessity of adopting any other special 

 precautions. The difficulties encountered in the management of 

 different animals naturally vary, but in every four or five dogs one 

 will generally be found which tolerates the operation without any 

 nursing. In what way the sodium bicarbonate helps is not yet clear. 

 Possibly its administration makes good an injurious deficit of alkali 

 in the blood, or possibly it acts, as Dr. Becker pointed out, by 

 diminishing the secretion of the juice. In the latter case the nature 

 of the substance whose loss is so harmful to the organism would still 

 remain obscure. You see, then, of what great importance this question 

 is, for have we not here a new pathological condition, capable of being 

 called forth by experimental procedure ? Dr. Jablonski has undertaken 

 in the laboratory the investigation of this matter, but as yet it has not 

 been completed. 



To return to the subject ; the juice is collected by means of a glass or, 

 better, a metallic funnel, so fastened to the abdomen with an elastic band 

 or thin elastic tube brought round the body that its wide end receives 

 the orifice of the pancreatic duct. Hooks are fastened to the neck of 

 the funnel, from which a graduated cylinder hangs, the animal being 

 fastened in its frame. These arrangements are very convenient for 



