196 DIGESTION OF CARBOHYDRATES 



stages in the intestine. Whether this is the proper time 

 to replace the old, much-discussed schema 



Starch ^Erythro-dextrine > Achroodextrine 



^Maltose > Glucose 



with a more modern one need not be further considered here. 



Role of the Pancreas in the Production of Carbohydrate- 

 splitting Ferments. As the lion's share of the normal cleav- 

 age of carbohydrates in the intestines is referable, as above 

 said, to the pancreatic diastase, it is inconceivable without 

 further knowledge how it happens that in the dog, even after 

 exclusion of the pancreatic secretion 4 by ligation of the pan- 

 creatic ducts, as in the experiments of Eosenberg, nine-tenths 

 of the starchy materials may be resorbed. It is fundament- 

 ally all the more remarkable because in the dog we are prac- 

 tically unable to recognize any diastasic influence in the 

 saliva, the bile and the intestinal juice, at least in normal con- 

 ditions. If the pancreas be extirpated the resorption of 

 carbohydrate is apparently very much disturbed (although 

 Minkowski and Abelmann even in this state found their dogs 

 capable of res orbing more than a half of the amylaceous ma- 

 terial fed). Whether we are in fact constrained to ascribe to 

 the pancreas, in addition to its known function of internal 

 secretion, another specialized puzzling role in resorption, as 

 Lombroso belives, 5 is to the author's way of thinking rather 

 doubtful. It should be kept in mind that total excision of the 

 pancreas is a very severe interference, which " mixes up," 

 so to say, the whole economy. Why should it be expected to 

 leave the carbohydrate resorption completely without dis- 

 turbance? 



Pawlow has insisted, it may be remembered, upon his 

 doctrine of the adaptation of the digestive fluids to the par- 

 ticular quality of food ingested according to the require- 

 ments. Weinland 6 and others 7 have concluded, in special 



4 Cf . inclusive Literature : J. Munk, Ergebn. d. Physiol., 1, 308, 1902. 

 6 W. Lombroso (Turin), Hofmeister's Beitr., 8, 51, 1906. 



