338 DIGESTION. 



General Properties and Composition of the Pancreatic 

 Juice. In all the inferior animals from which the pancreatic 

 secretion has been obtained in a normal condition, the fluid 

 has been found to present pretty uniform characters. It is 

 viscid, slightly opaline, and has a distinctly alkaline reaction. 

 Bernard found the specific gravity of the fluid from the 

 dog to be 1,04:(V The quantity of organic matter which the 

 normal secretion contains is very great, so that the fluid is 

 completely solidified on the application of heat. This great 

 coagulability is one of the properties by which the normal 

 fluid may be distinguished from that which has undergone 

 alteration. 



Composition of the Pancreatic Juice of the Dog? 



Water 900 to 920 



Organic matter precipitable by alcohol, and \ ^ 'TS-fiO 



containing always a little lime (pancreatine) ) 

 Carbonate of soda, 

 Chloride of sodium, I ! 10 to ^ 



Chloride of potassium, I 



Phosphate of lime, 1,000 1,000 



Most of the analyses which have been made of the pan- 

 creatic fluid are not to be relied upon, as the manner in which 



munication with the pancreatic duct. It is true that a fistula may be maintained 

 in this situation for several days, but the fluid which is collected from it is usu- 

 ally abnormal. It is for this reason that some observations on the properties of 

 the pancreatic juice, particularly those of the German physiologists, are opposed 

 to those of Bernard ; for the fluids with which they operated were not the same. 

 Colin (Traite de Physiolcgie Comparee, Paris, 1854, tome i., p. 633) has been 

 to a certain extent successful in establishing fistulas in animals of the bovine 

 species. In one instance he made observations on the flow of the pancreatic 

 juice in a young ox for six days. According to the observations of Colin, in all 

 cases where a tube is introduced into the pancreatic duct, ulceration takes place 

 at the site of the ligature and the tube falls out six or eight days after the op- 

 eration. 



1 Op. dL, p. 55. 



2 BERNARD, Memoire sur le Pancreas, Paris, 1856, p. 60. The arrangement 

 of this table has been altered from the original in order to make it correspond 

 with the tables of the composition of the other digestive fluids. 



