180 OF FOOD, AND THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS. 



ually being withdrawn by absorbent action ; so that, by the time it reaches 

 the crccum, the undigested residue contains little else than the innutritions 

 or insoluble components of the food, together with the excremeutitious por- 

 tion of the bile and of other secretions. Up to this time the contents of the 

 canal appear generally to possess an acid reaction ; for in the two patients, 

 each with an artificial anus opening into the lower part of the ileum, ex- 

 amined by Dr. Braune 1 and Lossuitzer, 2 the chyme was still acid, though 

 the mucous membrane was alkaline to test-paper. In the crecurn, the acid- 

 ity seems to become still more marked, at least in the Herbivora, owing to 

 the formation of lactic acid from the starchy materials of the food ; 3 but in 

 Caruivora, according to Bernard, 4 the contents of the crecum are alkaline, 

 owing to nitrogenous fermentation. That digestion will still take place, 

 though imperfectly, in the large intestine, is shown by the observations of 

 Steiuhauser 5 upon a woman who had an artificial anus communicating with 

 the large intestine. When food was introduced into the lower part of the 

 bowel, it was for the most part discharged unaltered ; but albumen was to 

 some extent dissolved. Czeruy and Latscheuberger 6 have more recently 

 had a similar opportunity in a patient who, after Hernia, had a fistulous 

 orifice in the sigmoid flexure. Their experiments led them to the conclu- 

 sion that although the lower part of the sigmoid flexure and the rectum in 

 Man have no digestive power on albumen or fibrin, and no power of emul- 

 sifying fats, yet that soluble albumen and fat in the state of emulsion may 

 there undergo absorption in an unaltered condition. Starch paste was also 

 absorbed, but they were unable to satisfy themselves whether it was first 

 converted into sugar. The addition of common salt or of magnesium sul- 

 phate checked or altogether prevented absorption. 7 In Eichhorst's 8 experi- 

 ments on Dogs, it was shown by the augmentation of urea in the urine that 

 the casein of milk, the white of egg, gelatin, and the nitrogenous compounds 

 contained in Liebig's extract of meat, underwent absorption when intro- 

 duced into the large intestine. On the other hand, blood-fibrin, the pep- 

 tones, syntonin, and myosin were not absorbed to a sensible extent. Leube 9 

 found in a patient with Cancer of the Intestine, that whilst albumen under- 

 went no digestive action, when introduced per se in the raw starch, a mix- 

 ture of finely-minced meat and pancreas acquired the smell, consistence, and 

 appearance of ordinary fteces after it had been retained in the bowel for 

 about twenty-four hours, and in a later communication, 10 he recommends the 

 employment of the glycerin extract of the pancreas, especially during the 

 summer months, when the juice of the gland soon loses its digestive proper- 

 ties by putrefaction. The fact that absorption will take place is of impor- 



1 Arcliiv. G6n. do Me'decine, 1801, p. G10. 



2 In Lossnitzer's case (Henle's Bericht, 1864, p. 250), the opening was twelve 

 inches above the ileo-caecal valve. After a meal of milk, bread, meal-broth, and a 

 little meat, the chyme was troubled, flocculent, bright-yellow, more or less strongly 

 acid, foaming, smelt of volatile fatty acids, and on standing quickly developed gas- 

 bubbles. The fluid contained biliary acids and peptone, but no parupeptono or sugar. 



Blondlot, Traite" de la Digestion, p. 103. 



1 Liquids of the Organism, p. 39, 1859. 

 See Milne-Edwards, vol. vii, p. 13(5, 18fi2. 



| Virehow's Archiv, Bd. lix, 1874, p. 102. 



1 In Voit and Bauer's Experiments on a dog (Zcitschrift f. Biologic, Band v, 

 1809, p. . r >:50), white of egg underwent little or no absorption inilrss a little common 

 salt were added; blood-serum, syntonin, and peptone were taken up in larger but 

 still small quantities. The amount of oil absorbed was also small, and life, they ob- 

 serve, could not be persistently maintained by injections. 



< Pfliiger's Arcbiv, 1871, p. 570. 



9 Sitzungsbericht d. Phys.-Mcd. Soc. zu Erlangen, 5th Dec. 1871. 



10 Centra Ibltttt, 1872, p. 405. 



