254 OP THE FUNCTION 



whole intestinal tube beset with them in infinite num- 

 bers, both solitary and aggregated.* 



410. As the gastric juice is poured into the stomach, 

 so an enteric or intestinal fluid is poured into the small 

 intestines, demonstrated, among other ways, by the 

 common experiment, first, I believe, instituted by 

 Pechlin.f It is probably of a nature similar to the 

 gastric liquor, but an accurate investigation of it is 

 a physiological desideratum. I can say nothing re- 

 specting its quantity, but the estimation of Haller is 

 certainly exaggerated, at eight pounds in the twenty- 

 four hours. (A) 



411. The intestines agree with the stomach in this 

 particular, that they have a similar, and, indeed, a more 

 unquestionable, or, at least, a more lively, peristaltic 

 action, J which occurs principally when the chymous 

 pulp enters them. This it agitates by an undulatory 

 constriction of different parts of the canal, and propels 

 from the duodenum towards the large intestines. Al- 

 though the existence of an antiperistaltic motion, caus- 

 ing a retrograde course to their contents, cannot be 

 disproved, it is in health much weaker, and less com- 

 mon and important, than the former. 



412. By these moving powers and by these solvents 

 which are afforded by means of secretion, the chyme 

 undergoes remarkable changes. In the jejunum it 



* These intestinal aphtha exactly resemble those tubercles which Sheldon, 

 whom we shall presently quote, exhibits (Tab. 1 .) as small ampnllae full of chyle. 



f* De purgantimn mcdicamentor. facultat. p. 509. tab. iv. 



J Benj. Schwartz, De vomitu et motu intestinorum. LB. 1745. 4to. 



J. Foelix, De motu peristaltico intestinorum. Trevir. 1750. 4to. 



Consult the excellent observations and experiments of A. E. Ferd. Einmert, 

 Archiv fiir die Physiologic. T. viii. p. 145. 



