242 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VIII. 
of the pancreatic juice and to a certain extent also by the gastric juice, 
these simpler products, owing to their solubility in the chyle, diffusing 
as readily into the epithelium as do the peptones and the hydrolyzed 
carbohydrates. From this point of view the digestion and absorption 
of fat are not different fundamentally from the digestion and absorption 
of proteids or of carbohydrates, and therefore, the occurrence of a special 
process in the case of fat, such as does not obtain in the case of proteids 
and carbohydrates, was questioned and generally rejected. 
In spite of the preponderance of observation and opinion against 
the view that fat is in part absorbed as fine particles in the form of an 
emulsion, there have not been wanting in recent years supporters of that 
view and amongst them may be counted Rosenthal,* Connstein,t Beneke,t — 
Munk and Rosenberg.** Included also is Kischensky,f} who has brought 
forward evidence which, in the opinion of the writer of this paper, meets 
the objection that no one has demonstrated the passage of fat particles 
through the striated border of the epithelial cells. 
This observer employed in his technique a new micro-chemical 
reagent, scarlet red (Scharlach Rot), an azo colouring compound, intro- 
duced by Michaelis,t{ which is insoluble in water, acids, alkalies, slightly 
soluble in alcohol and readily soluble in chloroform and in fatty oils. 
Owing to its affinity for fats and fats alone, and in consequence to the 
intense red colour which it gives to the finest particles, this reagent is a 
very much more sensitive one than osmic acid which was previously re- 
garded as the final test for fat in tissues. 
Kischensky, by the use of this reagent, found very minute fat par- 
ticles in the striated border of the villi in kittens, and that these particles, 
after passing through the border and reaching the underlying protoplasm, 
fuse to form larger, readily demonstrable droplets. He does not, however, 
regard this as the only manner in which fat enters the epithelial cells for 
he expressly states that the greater part of the fat is absorbed in the 
soluble form and that only a small portion goes through the striated border 
in the form of very fine particles. He further holds that in full grown cats 
the fat particles are transferred to the parenchyma by the cytoplasm of the 
* Lehrbuch der allgemeine Physiologie, 1901. 
+ Ueber die Resorption und Assimilation du Fette, Die Med. Woche, No. 15, 1900. 
t Die Fettresorption bei nattirliche und kiinstliche Fettembolie und verwandten Zustanden, 
Beitrage zur Path. Anat. und zur allg. Path., Vol. 22, p. 343, 1897. 
{Zur Frage der Fettresorption, Centralbl. far Physiologie, Vol. 14, pp. 129 and 153. 
** Zur Physiologie der Fettverdauung, Pfliiger’s Arch., Vol. 85. p. 152. 
++ Zur Frage uber die Fettresorption im Darmrohr und den Transport des Fettes in andere Organe. 
Beitrage z. path Anat. und z. allg. Path., Vol. 32, p. 196, 1902. 
ttDie indifferenten Farbstoffe als Fettfarbstoffe.—Deutsche Med. Wochenschrifft, 1901, p. 183° 
Also: Ueber Fettsfarbstoffe, Virchow’s Arch., Vol. 164, p. 263, 1901. 
