276 Dr. Prout on the Phenomena of Sanguification, [APRIL 
be confessed our knowledge is lamentably deficient. The chief 
Object of the digestive process appears to be to produce an 
aqueous solution of the alimentary matters ; and the chief agents 
which operate in producing this solution appear to be the fluids 
of the stomach; but how these agents operate, very little is 
known.* ‘Their operation, however, appears to consist, in part 
at least, in combining with the food, and thus forming a fertium 
quid different from either, though partaking of the nature of 
both ; for all the phenomena seem to warrant the conclusion, that 
the gastric fluids form a necessary part of the chyme, and thus 
ultimately, perhaps, of the blood itself. The nature of the opera- 
_ tion of the bile and pancreatic fluid has formed a fertile source 
of conjecture to physiologists from the earliest times. To mention 
all the opinions that have been held on this subject would be 
worse than useless. Boerhaave maintained, that its chief use is 
to correct the acidity of the digested mass as it passes from the 
stomach into the duodenum; and in all the instances which I 
have witnessed, the acid digested aliments have been rendered 
neutral on mixture with the bile. Whether this be a constant 
effect, I cannot say. The biliary principle does not appear to 
enter into the chyle, as has been long observed by physiologists, 
but other principles of the biledo ; among these, perhaps, ts the 
alkali which it contains, and which is very probably the source 
of that alkali which exists in some slight state of combination in 
the blood. The presence of bile, however, does not appear to 
be a sine qua non in sanguification, as this process goes on to a 
certain extent, when the ductus communis choledochus seems to 
be completely obstructed by biliary concretions, or even when 
secured by a ligature if we can believe Fordyce. The nature of 
the operation of the pancreatic fluid is entirely unknown, as is 
that of the lacteal vessels and glands connected with them. 
Some have supposed that the glands secrete a fluid, which 
mixes with the chyle in its passage through them—that they 
ordinarily produce some change in the chyle appears to be 
evident from the fact which has been long observed, that this 
fluid passes from them less white and opaque than when it 
entered them. The chyle in its passage towards the thoracic 
duct becomes mixed with the fluids brought by the lymphatics 
from all parts of the body, which fluids, if they exert no other 
action upon it, must at least have the effect of rendering it much 
more animalized, if I may use the expression, and thus of coun- 
teracting the ill effects which a crude fluid like the chyle would 
prabapl produce on the system by passing undiluted into the 
blood. | 
* When the par vagum is divided, the digestive process is said to be suspended. 
Admitting this, some will be inclined to explain it on the general principle, that 
secretion is the effect of nervous action, and that in the present instance, the secre- 
tion of the fluids requisite to digestion is suspended. Dr, Wilson Philip has lately 
ie aan to show, that galyanism may be substituted for nervous action in this 
instance. ' 
