( 288 ) 
means of its blood vessels !). I have thought it necessary still further 
to pursue these preliminary experiments, as they touch on a question 
which, both from a theoretical and a practical point of view, seems 
to be of the greatest importance. From a theoretical point of view, 
because some light may, at the same time, be thrown on our present, 
in many respects, very inadequate knowledge of the resorption of 
fat in the more complicated small intestine; from a practical point 
of view, because the problem of rectal nutrition with fat has not 
yet been satisfactorily solved. 
In this domain, indeed, there has hitherto been but little investi- 
gation. In 1874 CzerNy and LATSCHENBERGER *) tried two experi- 
ments on a man to whom an anus praeternaturalis had been applied. 
They brought into the fistula a known quantity of some fat emulsion, 
then by rinsing out the contents after some time and ascertaining 
how much fat they contained, they determined how much emulsion 
had been absorbed. 
In 1891 Munk and Rosenstern *) administered some rectal 
injections of oil emulsion to a girl who had chyle fistula on her 
leg, and by quantitative determination of the fat in the issuing 
chyle ascertained how much fat had been absorbed. They found, as 
CzERNY and LATSCHENBERGER had also done, that the resorption 
was insignificant. 
Drvucuer *) and PLANTENGA ®) injected into persons with a normal 
intestine a clysma consisting of the yolk of an egg and milk; here 
too fat appeared to be resorbed, but the resorption was insignificant. 
Though these experiments of Munk and RoOsENsTErN have un- 
questionably shown that from a clysma fat may be resorbed, it has 
not yet been proved that this resorption takes place in the large 
intestine. What proof has there been afforded that, in the above 
mentioned experiments, a part of the clysma has not passed the 
valvula Bauhini? . 
And as for the experiments of CZERNY and LATSCHENBERGER, 
1) Verhand. d. Koninkl. Akad. v. Wetensch. Dl. IIL NO 10. 1894. p. 31. 
2) CzerNY und LATSCHENBERGER, Physiologische Untersuchungen über die Verdauung 
und Resorption im Dickdarm. Vircnow’s Archiv B. 59. 1874. S. 179. 
3) Munk und RoseNsrriN, Zur Lehre von der Resorption im Darm, nach Untersu- 
ehungen an einer Chylusfistel beim Menschen. Vircuow’s Archiv B. 129. 1891. 
S. 230 en 284. 
4) Deucuer, Ueber die Resorption des Fettes aus Klystieren. Deutsches Archiv f. 
Klin. Medizin. B. 58. 1896. S. 260. 
5) PrLANTENGA, Der Werth der Nährklystiere. Diss. Freiburg i/B. 1898. 
