PHYSIOLOGY. 



C41 



of the stomach in the human subject has now been 

 successfully performed by Dr. Carl Schlatter, of 

 Zurich, and followed by the union of the oesopha- 

 gus with the jejunum and an apparently complete 

 restoration of health. The patient was a woman 

 fifty-six years of age afflicted with a malignant 

 tumor in the stomach, while the conditions were 

 such as not to permit of the successful application 

 of the ordinary processes. Although the operation 

 was a long one, occupying considerably more than 

 two hours, the patient did not suffer seriously from 

 shock and made an excellent recovery. She quick- 

 ly regained the power of taking even solid food, and 

 gained eleven pounds in weight during the course 

 of the next six weeks. It having been found after 

 the operation impossible to approximate the duo- 

 denum and the oesophagus, the duodenum was 

 closed by careful suture, and the oesophagus was 

 united to the jejunum about a foot below its origin. 

 This direct union of the oesophagus and jejunum 

 proved quite satisfactory, although a few instances 

 of vomiting occurred, which were, however, ascribed 

 to mistakes in the administration of food. As a 

 rule there was no regurgitation into the mouth of 

 the contents of the intestine, and the intestinal se- 

 cretions were able to deal so satisfactorily with the 

 various elements of an ordinary mixed diet that 

 the excretions showed no marked deviation from 

 the normal beyond the diminution of chlorides in 

 the urine. The albumins of the food proved to be 

 digestible without the aid of the gastric juice, and 

 the bowel after a short time adjusted itself to the 

 reception of a moderate meal direct from the 

 mouth. Even the vomiting showed that that symp- 

 tom may occur independently of the stomach, of 

 which some authors have regarded it as a function. 

 " The scientifically and practically important ques- 

 tion," Dr. Schlatter concludes in his paper, " wheth- 

 er the total removal of the stomach in the human 

 subject is compatible with a continuance of life has, 

 with great probability, been answered in the affirm- 

 ative by the case which has now been briefly nar- 

 rated. " The stomach is essentially an organ for the 

 protection of the intestine, mitigating or removing 

 such properties of the food as might have an injuri- 

 ous influence on the intestine. Provided that the 

 food is of suitable quality, the intestine is quite 

 competent to perform the chemical work of the 

 stomach." 



Both bile and pancreatic juice are found, in the 

 general result of experiments, greatly to aid the ab- 

 sorption of fat in the intestine. Investigations by 

 R. H. Cunningham as to the effect of the absence 

 of these secretions show that some absorption of 

 fat other than the natural emulsified fat of milk 

 still occurs under that condition. The rate of ab- 

 sorption is much slower and the quantity absorbed 

 is very much less than in the normal state, when 

 both the bile and the pancreatic juice are present to 

 act upon the vegetable cells. Their absence from 

 the intestine does not, however, prevent the intes- 

 tinal epithelial cells from ultimately absorbing fat, 

 apparently by a process that is indistinguishable 

 from that occurring in the normal state. 



While preparing an aqueous extract of the pan- 

 creas of a pig, M. Eugene Choay made comparative 

 experiments with it and commercial pancreatin. 

 He found the proteolytic power of the extract far 

 superior to that of the commercial article of a 

 brand very well known in pharmacy. The same 

 was observed with regard to the power of liquefy- 

 ing starch paste. Other experiments were made in 

 its action on fibrin, starch, and fat, and the con- 

 clusions drawn are that it is of great importance to 

 assay all pancreatins ; that the aqueous extract of 

 pancreas concentrated in a vacuum at a low tem- 

 perature is an excellent preparation ; and that pan- 



YOL. XXXVIII. 41 A 



creatin prepared according to the Codex has the 

 same activity as the aqueous extract on proteic and 

 amylaceous materials. They differ from that pr<- 

 pared in a vacuum only in that their power of sa- 

 ponification is greater. 



From an investigation as to how far a glucoside 

 constitution can be held to cover the whole range 

 of proteids, A. Eichholz finds that three substanci--. 

 can be separated from white of egg, each of which 

 is capable of yielding an osazone corresponding 

 to glucosazone. These substances are, in the order 

 of their solubility, ovomucoid, egg albumin, and 

 ovomucin. Ovomucin has not been heretofore 

 definitely described. Egg albumin has been re- 

 garded as a glucoproteid by Pavy and Krankow, 

 while Morner failed to obtain any osazone from it. 

 Ovomucoid has been shown by MSrner and Krankow 

 to yield on hydrolysis a powerfully reducing sub- 

 stance, but neither obtained from it an osazorie- 

 yielding product, b'erum proteid as a whole is 

 capable of yielding an osazone after hydrolysis. 

 Purified serum albumin does not yield any osazone 

 on hydrolysis, and the glycoproteid reaction of se- 

 rum proteid as a whole appears to the author to de- 

 pend on a portion of the globulin precipitated from 

 the diluted serum by acetic acid, whicnon hydrol- 

 ysis gives a very definite reducing and osazone re- 

 action. Pure casein resembles serum albumin in 

 its absolutely negative reaction to carbohydrate tec-Is 

 after hydrolysis. The author regards as the fact of 

 primary importance appearing from the experi- 

 ments and results the wide distribution, both 

 qualitative and quantitative, of the class of bodies 

 known as glycoproteids. ' It is probable that every 

 tissue containing proteids will be found to contain 

 some admixture of glycoproteids. While agreeing 

 with Dr. Pavy as to the importance of this class of 

 compounds, I am unable to agree with him in con- 

 sidering that all proteids are glycoproteids, since 

 pure serum albumin and pure casein resist all at- 

 tempts to produce from them a definite osazone- 

 yielding sugar. I should be inclined, as the result 

 of the experiments given above, to classify proteids 

 primarily as pure proteids and glycoproteids. 



Some conclusions published by Prof. F. R. Frascr 

 in 1897 concerning the antidotal properties of the 

 bile of some animals against the toxins of such dis- 

 eases as diphtheria and tetanus, and especially of 

 the bile of nocuous serpents against snake bites, 

 have been fortified by further experiments. From 

 these the author finds that the bile of nocuous or 

 venomous serpents is the most powerful antidote to 

 venom, and is followed in efficiency by the bile of 

 innocuous serpents, while the bile of animals having 

 no venom-producing glands, although it is defi- 

 nitely antidotal, is less so than the bile of in- 

 nocuous serpents, and much less so than the bile of 

 nocuous or venomous serpents. The bile of the 

 venomous serpents examined was also found to have 

 more antidotal power against the toxins of disease 

 than the bile of the majority of non-venomous ani- 

 mals. Among non-venomous animals, the rabbit 

 produced a bile definitely superior to the others 

 against both toxins and venoms. 



A proteohydrolic ferment has been found by 

 Mile. Em. Bonrquelot and H. Herissey in the fungi 

 Amanitamuscaria&nd CUtm-yliv nebulari*. the ac- 

 tion of which is analogous to, if not identical with, 

 that of trypsin. 



Secretion. Among the results of further studies 

 by R. Hutchinson on the chemistry and action of 

 the thyroid gland.it appears that t!u> percentage of 

 iodine' in the colloid matter varies considerably, but 

 amounts on the average to 0.309 per cent, of tin' 

 dried substance. Of the products of the digestion 

 of the colloid matter, only those which contain 

 iodine are active, and the degree of activity of each 





