350 DIGESTION. 



seemed opposed to the observations of Bernard. 1 To many 

 of these experiments, reference has already been made. In 

 endeavoring to ascertain the truth of an important physio- 

 logical statement supported by experimental facts, it is indis 

 pensable first to put one's self in the position of the experi 

 menter, and carefully to repeat his observations in precisely 

 the way in which they were originally made. Having done 

 this, we have been able on many occasions to confirm the 

 most important of the experiments of Bernard ; 2 and we can 

 find nothing in the contradictory observations of others 

 which invalidate their accuracy. So long us physiologists 

 operate with the watery secretion which flows from a per- 

 manent pancreatic fistula, they will fail to observe the prop- 

 erties of the normal fluid ; and if they will carefully follow 

 the experimental procedure so minutely detailed by Bernard, 

 their observations will be in accordance with the results 

 at which he has arrived. 



Action upon Starchy and Saccharine Principles. All 

 physiologists are agreed with regard to the action of the pan- 

 creatic juice in transforming starch into sugar. This was 

 first observed, in 1844, by Yalentin, who experimented with 

 an artificial fluid made by infusing pieces of the pancreas 

 in water. 3 Bouchardat and Sandras first noted this property 

 in the normal pancreatic secretion. They obtained the se- 

 cretion in small quantity from the goose, by killing it while 



1 FRERICHS, Die Verdauung, in WAGNER'S Handworterbuch der Physiologic, 

 Braunschweig, Bd. iii. LENZ, De Adipis Concoctione et Absorptions, Dorpati, 

 1850. BIDDER UNO SCHMIDT, Die Verdaungssafie, Leipsig, 1852. LEHMANN, 

 Physiological Chemistry, Philadelphia, 1855, vol. i. 



2 We have repeatedly confirmed most of the experiments of Bernard show- 

 ing the action of the pancreatic juice upon fats ; but have not succeeded in 

 destroying the pancreas in a living animal and noting the effects upon digestion 

 of the absence of the secretion. "We attempted this a number of times, in 1860, 

 by injecting the pancreatic duct with fat, but in all of the experiments the ani- 

 mals died, of peritonitis. 



3 VALENTIN, Lehrbuch der Physiologic des Menschen, Braunschweig, 1844, and 

 second edition, 1847, Bd. i., S. 356. 



