PKOPULSION OF FOOD ALONG THE CANAL. 1GB 



by Schiff, then more exactly investigated by Herzen, and still more 

 recently confirmed by Pachon has any significance, I am unable to 

 say. I wish only to remark that the importance which is ascribed to 

 it by Herzen, especially in his latest contributions, is without doubt ex- 

 aggerated, and does not correspond with the facts of the case ; for, as has 

 already been shown by Dr. Popielsky with the aid of proteid in tubes, 

 and by myself in the digestion of fibrin, the freshly collected pancreatic 

 juice from animals previously deprived of their spleens (dogs and cats) 

 contains large quantities of proteolytic ferment in the form of trypsin. 

 My esteemed colleague, Herzen, who firmly believes the contrary, 

 must, I think, be convinced of this when I say that the pancreatic 

 juice of a splenectomised animal digested a quantity of fibrin in 

 thirty to forty minutes at thermostat temperature, which filled a 

 test-tube fifteen centimetres high and 1'5 centimetres in diameter. 

 Naturally these new results concerning the interaction of the diges- 

 tive juices compel us to repeat all our earlier experiments upon the 

 quantitative production of the pancreatic ferments under different 

 conditions. 



Hence the chemical agencies of digestion form an alliance of a 

 complicated nature in which the individual members are linked together 

 mutually to relieve and support each other. The discovery of this 

 relationship, and the possibility which it affords of a real synthetic 

 construction of digestive processes, I would like to designate as the 

 most important general result of the work of our laboratory. Might 

 I at the same time venture to indicate that a method of procedure 

 similar to that which underlies our own work, if employed in other 

 departments of physiology, would probably be very applicable, and 

 lead to fruitful results. It is only when we are able to bring into view 

 the whole train of normal occurrences in this or that portion of the 

 organism, that we can at once distinguish the accidental from the 

 essential, the artificial from the natural; find out new facts, and quickly 

 detect bygone errors. To constantly remember that all parts of the 

 organisms work together sheds a bright light over the special field 

 under review. 



In our analysis of the curves of secretion of the different digestive 

 juices, the question of the PROPULSION OF THE FOOD ALONG THE ALIMEN- 

 TARY CANAL became more and more pressing. In order fully to under- 

 stand the variations in the curves it i:5 necessary to know where, in what 

 amount, and in what condition, the food is to be found at any given 

 moment. But what was the known physiology of the motor functions of 

 the digestive canal able to do for us in this connection ? How extensive 

 is this section of physiology ? How many methods have been employed 

 in its investigation ? How many nerves have been stimulated and how 



