FATS. 265 



I was long since led, from theoretical grounds, to regard the fat 

 as one of the most active agents in the metamorphosis of animal 

 matter ; and this subjective conviction has since been converted 

 into objective proof by numerous experiments and observations. 

 After having found by experiments regarding the fermentation of 

 milk,* that this process cannot be excited by albuminous bodies in 

 saccharine or amylaceous fluids, excepting with the cooperation of 

 fat, I next ascertained that a certain, although small quantity of 

 fat, was indispensable to the metamorphosis and solution of nitro- 

 genous articles of food during the process of gastric digestion. 

 Elsasserf has confirmed the fact by the observation that, in expe- 

 riments on artificial digestion, the solution of articles used as food 

 is considerably accelerated by means of fat. It is easy to ascer- 

 tain by means of artificial openings in the stomachs of dogs, that 

 flesh containing only little fat, and especially albuminous sub- 

 stances which have been designedly deprived of their fat, remain 

 longer in the stomach, and therefore require a longer period for 

 their metamorphosis, than the same substances when mixed or 

 impregnated with a little fat. An excess of fat appears, on the 

 other hand, at least in persons of weak digestion, to exert an in- 

 jurious action. The pancreatic juice most probably owes a portion 

 of its utility in promoting digestion to the quantity of fat which 

 it contains. 



The pancreatic juice, like pus, deposits, according to Cl. Ber- 

 nard,J fine crystalline bundles of margarin and margaric acid during 

 its spontaneous decomposition at a high temperature. 



Although we are unable fully to demonstrate the special agency 

 of fat in the further metamorphosis of the digested food, namely, in 

 the formation of chyle and blood, yet we need only observe the 

 intestinal villi during the process of digestion, and see their indi- 

 vidual cells filled either with clear fat or dilated by a grumous 

 matter we need only institute a microscopic and chemical compa- 

 rison of the fat in the chyle found in the finest lacteals with the con- 

 tents of the thoracic duct, in relation to the different quantity and 

 character of the fat in both fluids in order to perceive that fat is 

 not only resorbed, but that it also influences the metamorphosis of 

 the albuminous constituents of the nutrient fluid. Is it probable that 

 fat would so tenaciously adhere, even under different modifications, 

 to some of the constituents of the blood, unless it exercised some 



* Simon's Beitrage. Bd. 1,8. 63-77- 



t Magenerweichung dcr Kinder. S. 112. 



J Arch. gen. do Me'd. 4 Ser. T. 10, p. 71. 



