1904-5.] ON THE ABSORPTION OF FAT IN THE INTESTINE. 241 
ON THE ABSORPTION OF FAT IN THE INTESTINE. 
By G. E. Wiison, M.B., Tor., 
GEORGE BROWN MEMORIAL SCHOLAR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. 
(Read 6th May, 1905). 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
ParT I.—INTRODUCTION : : : : : : 3 f : oy. 
ParT II.—METHODS OF STUDY : ‘ , 4 j , y ‘ : 243 
ParT III.—STRUCTURE OF A VILLUS 3 é s : : : , ye ern 
Part IV.—FatT IN THE EPITHELIUM : : d : : } ‘ 246 
ParT V.—FAT IN THE PARENCHYMA . . : : : : : 3 . 248 
Part VI.—TRANSFER OF FAT THROUGH THE PARENCHYMA ‘ : : : 249 
Part VII.—PASSAGE OF FAT INTO THE LACTEAL , ‘ : 5 ; e252 
Part VIII.—FatT IN THE STRIATED BORDER . : ; t ; ; 3 253 
I.— INTRODUCTION. 
ONE of the most keenly discussed questions in physiology for the 
last forty years has been the manner in which the absorption of fat takes 
place in the intestine and the question is still, after so long a period of 
debate, as far from settlement as it was a generation ago. The basis of 
the discussion has been shifted somewhat recently, but the point of con- 
tention still is whether the fat passes into the epithelial cells in part as 
very fine particles in the form of a so-called emulsion and in part also in 
a dissolved condition, or only in a dissolved form as the products of hydro- 
lysis, glycerine, fatty acids and soaps.* The former view had the support 
of Briicke, K6lliker, Donders, Eimer, von Basch, von Thanhofer, Grtin- 
hagen, Heidenhain and others while it was opposed by Pfliiger, Cash, 
Ludwig, and Rindfleisch, and the number of its critics have increased 
in recent years with the result that the balance of opinion is inclined in 
favour of the other view. 
What has told in favour of the alternative view is the advance in 
our knowledge of the action of digestive juices on the fats, which goes 
to show that fats are broken up into simpler compounds by the steapsin 
* A complete account of the literature of this subject may be found in Oppel, Lehrbuch der Ver- 
gleichenden mikroskopischen Anatomie der Wirbelthiere, Zweiter Theil, Schlund und Darm, 1897; 
Kischensky, zur Frage iiber die Fettresorption im Darmrohr, Ziegler’s Beitrage, Vol. 32, p. 197, 
1902; Croner, Die neueren Ergebnisse der Frage von der Fettresorption, Biochemisches Centralbl | 
Vol. 3, p. 93, 1904. 
