THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



This physiologist operated on dogs. 

 The animal is fed largely and five to six 

 hours later the duodenum is drawn out 

 of the abdomen through an incision pre- 

 viously made to the lower duct carefully 

 isolated. A slender silver comula is then 

 tied into the duct with a fine ligature 

 and a bladder is fastened on its thistal 

 end to catch the juice as it is secreted. 



The success of this operation is in- 

 fluenced by a large number of conditions 

 that I need not enter into here. It is 

 sufficient to say that we succeeded in ob- 

 taining a specimen of pure pancreatic 

 juice during the last month in the 

 Physiology L,ot at Bellevue and verified 

 some of Bernard's observations. 



Pure pancreatic juice is a pale, whitish, 

 viscid fluid readily coagulated by heat, 

 of a distinctly alkaline reaction. Bernard 

 places the specific gravity at 1.040. Ob- 

 servations made by Austin Flint showed 

 specimens with specific gravity of 1.019. 

 It is probably that it varies very greatly. 

 It is secreted only during digestion. 



The organic constituents of pancreatic 

 juice are three in number : 



Amylopsine which like the ptyaline of 



the saliva converts starch into glucose. 



Trypsine, which like pepsin changes the 



albumenoids or organic nitro substances 



into peptones. 



The difference here is that peptones in 

 the stomach are acid peptones, whilst 

 peptones digested by pancreatic juice are 

 alkaline peptones or tryptones. 



The third ferment is steapsine which 

 acidifies fats. Fats are emulsified by the 

 mechanical acid of pancreatic juice and 

 is the result of its viscidity. There is no 

 such thing as pancreatin in physiology. 



The bile, the fifth and last digestive 

 fluid, is not alone a digestive fluid. It 

 contains also elements of disassimilation 

 or waste, and these are thrown off from 

 the body in the forces. 



It aids in the digestion of the food and 

 prevents decomposition. It also promotes 

 the contractibility of the intestine and like 

 all fluids that contain waste products it 

 is being constantly secreted. 



If we go back for a moment we can 

 see that although the detail of the diges- 

 tive phenomena somewhat intricate the 

 ultimate conditions of foods when they 

 get into the blood is simple enough. 



All the organic nitro. substances are 

 converted into peptones. 



All the carbo-hydrates or starches and 

 sugars are ultimately converted into 

 glucose and these two classes are taken 

 up directly by the blood and distributed 

 to the tissues. 



The fats, all of them are emulsified, 

 and are taken up by intricate network of 

 special vesselscalled lacteals,'and they.too, 

 are emptied into the blood and are con- 

 sumed in the production of animal heat 

 and force. 



After these changes have taken place, 

 a residue is left over, and this residue 

 together with some other excrementitions 

 substances are thrown off with the 

 dejecta. 



The albumenoids are represented in this 

 class of substances by leucine and tyro- 

 cine in the small intestine, but these are 

 converted intoskatol, iodol and phenol in 

 the large intestine. 



Leucine and tyrocine do not exist in 

 the large intestine as such. 



A fact that is responsible for the con- 

 viction for murder of Ben Ali, in the 

 celebrated "Frenchy Trial" in this city. 



These substances were found in the 

 blood taken from the defendant's finger 

 nails, and it was thus reasoned that he 

 must have had his fingers in the small 

 intestine of the murdered woman. 



The starches, sugars and fats leaves no 

 residue in health. 



An aid to digestion is any agent that 



